Hello!

We had this question submitted via Facebook Messenger from a mum who has asked for advice. If you’ve been through this with your children, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

We also asked certified Baby & Infant Sleep Consultant Aprilla Quayle from Bubba Bedtime for her advice. Aprilla who has worked with hundreds of babies and exhausted families, providing them with professional support and advice to get their babies’ sleep back on track.

Here’s some great advice from Aprilla to ease a child’s nasty chesty cough at night …

There are lots of great things we can do to help your congested baby sleep better at night. Having them lay flat on their back will help drain any fluid and unclog their airways and sinuses.

Overnight and when they sleep, we can look to use a warm steam vaporiser. This will help prevent dryness in the air and loosen the mucus that’s stuffing up your little one’s nose.  This will help them breathe more easily, feel better and sleep more soundly.

As we know being unwell can affect their sleep but once they are feeling better, we can be confident that their sleep will get back on track.

Aprilla Quayle from bubba bedtime with baby on her hip

Aprilla Quayle from Bubba Bedtime is a certified Baby & Infant Sleep Consultant who has worked with hundreds of babies and exhausted families, providing them with professional support and advice to get their babies’ sleep back on track. 

She is extremely passionate about sharing her sleep knowledge and getting baby’s sleep back on track.  Through her science-based, holistic approach she nurtures healthy sleep habits and encourages babies and toddlers to love the sleep they need. Her focus is on personalised solutions that cater to family’s needs and to help them achieve their parenting goals. Incorporating fundamentals, such as, emotional well-being, health, sleep environment, nutrition, sleep associations and parenting styles, which may contribute to sleep disruption before moving onto sleep learning. By changing a few things and having a consistent approach she has seen some great results of a better rested and happier families.


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  • I always used to use karvol to help clear the airways but I have heard you can no longer buy this


  • vaporisers have worked, maybe some advice from a pharmacy


  • Definitely check in with gp that’s it’s maybe not asthma. Asthma can be a mild & that would be enoygh to cough lots at night especially in a lying down position, being a severe asthmatic I’ve always slept propped right up. My mum used the pond method of patting firmly on my back whilst I wax over her knee to loosen any congestion & I would often cough a reasonable amount up into the bucket. Vicks on chest & feet ,then put socks on as of allows Vicks to enter the pores. Lemon tree leaves broken up into a bowl of steaming water, of your child is of an age that they then can keep their head over steam with a sheet coveting them to allow the child to breathe it in, I spelt soundly after the lemon tree leaves for 2 nights with para influenza. Sending positive vibes.


  • Get her tested for asthma. My 17 yr old coughs nearly every night at the moment because she gets bronchitis every winter. The only things that help are her asthma mess.


  • My daughter is currently in the same boat. We have been putting Vicks on the chest, back and feet and giving a dose of little coughs a hour before bed. We also shower her to clear any snot out of her nose to help with breathing and put her to bed ina sleep suit.


  • Decongestant and vicks is always a good start


  • I used a vaporiser and also put Vicks Vaporub on the bottom of their socks or onesie. It seemed to help them breath easier and get a better nights sleep


  • My son has asthma he coughs alot at night during the winter, we put a heater in the room to take the chill off and often elevate his bed a little bit.
    My daughter doesnt have asthma and coughs a great deal. For her we put vicks on her chest and feet, covered by socks and she is all good usually. Also a diffuser or humidifier may help.


  • Ooh and I forgot give a teaspoon of honey if your child is over one it costs the thrust before bed z stops the nasal drip from tickling as much and it’s antibacterial too but def helps the cough


  • Hi, I have a son who is the same, he is now 5. We found out he has hay fever and our house hold ducted heater definitely sets off a post nasal drip (fluid from sinus’s dripping into his throat which then gives him a wet sounding cough that only happens at night time) he also has a deviated septum (one side of his nose is slightly collapsed so if the heater drys his nose out it gets irritated easily and he freaks out thinking he can’t breathe. We prefer to now use our coonara to heat our home and his coughing is definitely better when we have wood (which has been hard due to quarantine) but when we did have to use our ducted heating we use a vicks humidifier at night to help stop his nose drying out. And sonn Mc stones we use a saline nasal spray if it’s still dry or if he’s irritated. It’s nothing to panic about if it’s at night but speak to your gp for peace of mind. Sometimes a clarantyne tablet helps a few hrs before bed for mine too if he’s had a snottier nose only at night (if it’s snotty during the day I know it’s a cold and not allergens) I hope some of these helped or that you can resonate with some of it. I’m not saying this is what your child has but I never knew mine had hay fever until we saw. ENT dr


  • I was taught to rub Vick’s Vapor rub on the child’s feet & pull the socks on over night. This also helps adult too. I do that for my husband & myself nightly when the cough kept us up.


  • I use a humidifier and prop my child’s mattress with a pillow underneath. Seems to ease the coughing


  • I used to rub his chest with Vicks vapour rub while I told him a quiet story/sung a lullaby. As he started to go back to sleep, my hand would slowly decrease speed as my voice quieted. I always continued for at least 60 secs after I thought he was asleep. Better to be sure, than to start again!????


  • I am giving lemon and honey.


  • My 4 yr old has had this since birth. We give him dimatap allergic rhinitis. Sometimes nasal drip is the cause of the coughing. Otherwise we give him cough medicine during the day and prop extra pillows under his head (not that he stays on them) or we prop up his mattress. All the best.


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