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Sniffles, sneezing, cough and fever, your child has a cold. Unfortunately, colds are par for the course with children. Schools are a breeding ground for germs and kids pass those germs around like candy. Fortunately, colds can easily be treated at home and often do not require a visit to the pediatrician.

The most important thing that you can do when your child is coming down with a cold or is dealing with a full blown cold is to provide supportive therapy. Supportive therapy is basic and often obvious, but essential to a speedy recovery. Make sure that your child is taking in plenty of fluids. Stick with water and sports drinks like Pedialyte and Gatorade. Keeping the body hydrated helps to support the immune system so that it can do its job and it enables your body to more effectively clear congestion. Ban drinks that have caffeine, because they can tend to dehydrate rather than hydrate.

Often when kids are sick, they don't rest. They have far more energy they we do and are able to play despite an illness. Whether they want to rest or not, it is essential that they do so. Create an environment that encourages rest. Make a bed for them on the couch and offer them plenty of sedentary activities, like coloring books, crafts and Legos. Even if they can get an extra hour or two a day of rest during the duration of their cold, it will help. The body heals and fights infection more effectively while you are resting.

Many other forms of supportive therapy exist and are valid. From food to folk lore, people have pretty much tried it all. Steam is helpful for excessive congestion and cough. Try using a cool mist humidifier. This can be particularly helpful while your child sleeps and may help them get a better night of rest. There is no proof that you should or should not feed a cold. Giving them a bowl of warm chicken soup can not only be comforting, but the steam from the soup can be marginally beneficial. You should encourage your child to eat, but don't push it.

Although there is no medicine that has been proven to cure a cold, there are many that can help provide comfort and promote better rest. Typically, cold medicines and fever reducers should be used as a last resort. Your body displays these symptoms as a reaction to the cold virus, but all of those symptoms are essentially your bodies way of fighting the virus. So, to a certain extent they are necessary for a speedy recovery. Naturally, any symptom can be harmful and should be closely monitored. However, with your physicians approval a cold should be allowed to run its course and your body allowed to do its thing.

Learn more about this author, Hillary Marshall.
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