no joke

Am I a terrible person to think, "I want my kid to stop coughing so I can finally fall asleep?"  Of course I would like him to stop coughing for his own benefit too, but seeing as how I am one crabby mother without sleep, I think we both benefit from a bit of silent shut-eye.

Last night in a last ditch effort to avoid two consecutive nights of coughing/seal barking, I scavenged the internet for ways to relieve Axel's hacking without the use of drugs.

After a brief Google search, it seemed that I uncovered something major when every hit had the word "Vicks" somewhere in the title.

I clicked on the one that included "toddler."

So maybe this is new to only me, but the research was claiming that if you apply Vicks Vapor Rub to the bottom of your kids feet and then put their socks back on, the coughing will cease within minutes.

One site promises this method to be a 100% cure, one site said it works for both kids and adults, and nearly all of them used the magic time-frame of 5 minutes to get results.  They sold me at 5 minutes.

I broke into his room, roused him from his coughy-sleep and lathered his feet.  He didn't seem to mind, in fact I think that part was a bit soothing.  One more kiss and I was off to my own bed...again.  I watched the clock for 5 minutes to pass and got caught up in my book.  Looking at the clock again, I realized it had been about 15 minutes and I couldn't remember the last time he coughed.  He had been coughing almost continuously, if not every few seconds before the Vicks.

Whether it's voodoo magic or simply science, we woke up this morning at 7am.  A full 10 hours with very occasional coughing.

Try it...buy it...you decide.  I'm sold, and will happily rate it's success, not at the 100% (claimed by internet), but at a very peaceful 85%.

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