Homeopathic and Natural Kiddo Remedies

Since J was born, it's been very hard to watch him suffer when he's sick without taking more than a painkiller. Due to the "ban" on cold medicine for young children, I've had to get creative with relief for him.

Once he turned one, I could use honey to calm his cough. I have been using Tea Tree Therapy Eucalyptus Chest Rub that I got at a local market instead of Vick's. I've actually been using it on us too, and it works very well without containing turpentine. Yep, Vick's has turpentine in it. Anyway, I know that the website linked above says not to use on children under 2, but the jar says nothing of the sort and J isn't allergic to any of the ingredients, so I'm not exactly concerned.
Today I got a pack of new Boiron's Children's Homeopathic cold products in the mail. (I believe I saw this opportunity on Money Saving Mom's blog.) C is a skeptic, but I say if we can't give J "real" medicine we may as well try the homeopathic stuff. The "sample" pack actually included the new kid's versions of the following: a 6-dose pack of Oscillo for flu-like symptoms, Coldcalm pellets for multi-system cold relief like a runny nose, and finally Chestal honey cough syrup. When I signed up to recieve this I was thinking I'd get small samples, not full-sized products. They sent me over $45 in medicine for free! (By the way, I know they say that these products are not for children under 2. However, J is almost 2, and having looked at the ingredients and knowing what I do about homeopathic medicine, I am confident that I am not putting J in any danger whatsoever by giving him the cough syrup now.)

I have only had J try the cough syrup so far, because he's still fighting a cough from the last cold he had from about a week and a half ago (poor boy!) and when he goes to bed at night he coughs for a long while and it keeps him up. I will reserve a full review of the cough syrup for this weekend, but I have to say that my initial impression was that it's about equal with plain honey. The second dose I gave him this evening was just about 20 minutes ago, and he's stopped coughing and now is sleeping. Considering that he went down at about 7:15 and with no medicine coughed off and on for about an hour, I'm pleased so far. I'm thinking I will try just honey tomorrow night to compare. We'll just have to see.