Humidifiers

Who doesn’t look forward to pleasant spring days after winter’s chill? You might not if you’re allergic to the tree pollen that peppers your part of the country each spring. Summer months can be tough to enjoy if grass pollen triggers your seasonal allergies. And what about fall? One word: ragweed.

Millions of Americans suffer from seasonal allergies (seasonal allergic rhinitis) and deserve relief. So we’ve rounded up facts to shed light on what’s happening inside your body when the sneezing starts and what you can do to ease symptoms. Your comfort matters.

What are seasonal allergy symptoms?

Seasonal allergy symptoms can resemble common cold symptoms and include:

• Sneezing, coughing
• Runny nose, congestion
• Mucus, postnasal drip
• Itchy eyes, nose, mouth, throat
• Tiredness

(Seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis differ but are often lumped together as hay fever. Perennial allergies are activated year-round by common indoor substances like dust mites and pet dander.)

What causes seasonal allergy symptoms?

When you come into contact with allergens — tree or grass pollens, for example — some people’s immune system may react by cranking out chemical antibodies to defend against the allergen. This reaction results in the symptoms you feel. How threatened your immune system feels determines the severity of your symptoms.

What are the best ways to get relief from seasonal allergy symptoms?

Avoid your allergens

You’re probably familiar with which season’s allergens trouble you most. A simple tactic to spare yourself discomfort is to avoid what triggers you as much as possible.

When you’re indoors, keep windows closed to keep allergens out. After time outdoors, wash up and change your clothes to separate yourself from any allergens clinging to you.

Go online and bookmark a trustworthy site with daily pollen counts for your area. Get familiar with your tolerance level. Be judicious about when you garden or hike. Your goal is to minimize your exposure, not to stay indoors all season.

Ask about over-the-counter and prescription allergy medications

Over-the-counter medications work well for some individuals, while others require prescription medications to cope with seasonal allergy symptoms. A healthcare provider can recommend treatments to help relieve your symptoms.

Humidifiers, vaporizers, and sinus inhalers can help alleviate symptoms.

An indoor environment may increase an allergy sufferer’s discomfort. Air conditioning and heating your house can produce air that dries out nasal passages. Humidity, on the other hand, can provide a soothing effect.

Temporarily increasing your home humidity level to 40-60% will help alleviate nasal congestion by keeping nasal passages hydrated. Vicks humidifiers, vaporizers, and sinus inhalers help relieve allergy symptoms and make the air more comfortable to breathe (which can also lead to more restful, restorative sleep).

A Vicks humidifier or vaporizer used in tandem with Vicks VapoSteam acts as a cough suppressant, while Vicks VapoPads in menthol and lavender scents can add even more comfort and relaxation.

A Vicks Sinus Inhaler is a great way for an individual to target their allergy symptoms. A sinus inhaler is a personal humidifier that directs soothing steam to your nose and throat. The steam’s moisture helps break up congestion, quickly bringing relief that you can feel.

There’s a reason to enjoy every season.

Now you have the inside scoop about what’s happening inside your body during allergy season. And you know ways to soothe yourself and the people you care about. Enjoy the best of what each season offers and do it comfortably!

Your kid has a cold. A real one, not an "I-don’t-think-I-should-go-to-school-today-cough-cough" cold. Poor kid. You’ll do just about anything to help them feel better.

So you launch into full parent mode and do what your mom did for you when you needed TLC. To “feed a cold,” you serve up a warm bowl of chicken soup — the original hack for soothing loved ones with colds. What else would mom do? A kiss on the forehead? Check. Is that it? Oh yeah, she’d deploy her secret weapon: the humidifier.

What do humidifiers do?

Humidifiers turn the water you put into them into warm steam or cool mist.

• Warm steam from a Vicks warm mist humidifier provides restorative moisture that allows better breathing. Adding liquid inhalants like Vicks VapoSteam can offer next-level temporary relief from cough and congestion.
• Cool mist will help maintain a room’s overall room temperature.

For a child suffering from a cold, warm steam will ease any dry air discomfort and allow for more comfortable sleep.

What do I need to know when shopping for a humidifier?

To find the humidifier that best suits your needs, you need to know the following:

• How large is your child’s room? There are many varieties of humidifier models that suit small (up to 250 square feet), medium (up to 400 square feet), and large (up to 600 square feet) rooms.
• Do you anticipate running the humidifier all night? If so, consider a humidifier with a large water tank capacity and a run time long enough that you and your child can sleep comfortably through the night worry-free.
• Do you want a filtered or filter-free humidifier? Filtered (evaporative) humidifiers use a filter to remove minerals from the water and quietly deliver invisible moisture into the air. Filter-free (ultrasonic) models are ultra-quiet and deliver visible mist but should be used with demineralization cartridges to help prevent white dust. Compare each type’s advantages.

Get a modern humidifier

Forget the aging humidifier in the attic. When was that last cleaned? Today’s humidifiers create a comforting environment for your sick child in several ways.

For example, the Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier:

● Provides warm mist to help temporarily relieve cough and cold symptoms.
● Comes with a medicine cup for use with Vicks VapoSteam.
● Accepts up to two Vicks VapoPads.
● Offers dual mist settings for maximum comfort with auto-shutoff.

These videos provide a solid introduction to the Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier and how straightforward it is to clean.

Keep your child comfortable while on the road to recovery

The sooner your kid feels better, the sooner you’ll feel better. You can’t trade places with them, but you can do for them what your mom did for you. Spread the word among fellow parents. Humidifiers are a cold-soothing hack that shouldn’t be overlooked.

When one or more of your kids catch whatever bug is going around this week, you need to act quickly.

• You want your kids to feel better as soon as possible.
• You want to keep other members of your household from catching the bug.
• And you need a breather to take care of other responsibilities–including your own health.

Keep this in mind: Humidifiers help create a more comfortable environment for sick kids and are as close as your corner — or online — drugstore.

A humidifier is a smart addition to a sick kid’s room.

Kids get sick — a lot. While your kid is bouncing back, you want them to be comfortable. A cold can cause congestion and coughing. A humidifier will fill your child’s room with essential moisture to soothe troubled breathing and help make restorative sleep possible. A humidifier may help break up congestion and aids in the relief of some cough and cold symptoms.

The versatile Vicks Dual Comfort Cool + Warm Mist Humidifier provides two mist temperatures that can provide temporary relief by adding necessary moisture to the air. This means that your family can rely on this humidifier during cold season, when pollen season kicks in, or when the air is simply dry.

Humidifiers are easy to buy and easy to set up.

Vicks offers a wide range of humidifiers to suit your household’s needs. But shopping for one isn’t intimidating. You won’t need to hurriedly locate a store specializing in costly, complex medical devices the next time your kids get sick. You can easily find Vicks humidifiers at your local drugstore, your favorite superstore, and online.

To select a humidifier for your kid’s room, note the room’s square footage. Then choose a humidifier with the features you want for a space of that size — features like a large water tank capacity and long run-time capability for overnight use. For a child suffering from a cold, check out warm mist humidifiers.

Once you get home, setting up and maintaining a humidifier is straightforward. If you have a warm mist humidifier, consider using yours with VapoSteam to create steam that helps to relieve coughs from colds.

Humidifiers are good for parents, too.

Good news: Your kid is getting back on their feet. Breathe a sigh of relief, then consider this: Did you know that a humidifier can contribute to your overall wellness? You know, feeling and looking good. Your own humidifier can promote more restful sleep and help keep dry skin hydrated.

While taking care of your kids, take care of yourself too. Make a humidifier part of your self-care routine.

Relief is within your reach.

Think back to your childhood: Humidifiers have been part of our lives for a long time. As kids, they created comfortable environments when we weren’t feeling our best. Now, we can share the same soothing experience with our children.