Healing a cold naturally

As we enter cold and flu season, I begin pulling from my mental list of remedies and getting my natural medicine cabinet stocked.  We try to take a natural approach to healing as much as possible in our home, so I thought I'd share a little about the things I'm stocking up on now.

Vitamin C:
Whenever I feel a cold coming on, the first thing I start putting into my body is Vitamin C.  If you start taking a lot of it right away it can really reduce the length and severity of cold symptoms.  My favorite form of Vitamin C is currently Emergen-C.  They make little packets of powder that you mix with a little water and drink right down.  Citrus fruit is also full of Vitamin C, so we eat a lot of that in the Fall and Winter as well.

Echinacea:
Echinacea Tea is a really great immune system booster.  We like to use it even when we aren't battling colds just to help strengthen our immune defenses so we hopefully won't get sick as much.  Also, when the girls get sick I like to give them the Echinacea/Eyebright herbal formula from Herbs for Kids.

Raw Honey & Apple Cider Vinegar:
One of our favorite sore throat and cough remedies is made from mixing equal parts of Raw Honey and Apple Cider Vinegar.  We just mix up a little mug full, store it in the fridge, and take 1 tablespoon every 4 hours.  It really helps to soothe the throat and heals the body at the same time.

Elderberry Syrup:
Another great immune system booster, Elderberry Syrup is good to take even if you don't have a cold.  But if you do have a cold, you can take it more often to kick start fighting off the cold right away.  So far I have just bought this ready made, but I'm really interested in making my own this season, especially since it will be way more frugal than buying it.  We currently use Sambucol and Herbs for Kids brands.  If you want to make your own, you can check out this Elderberry Syrup how-to by Lindsey at Passionate Homemaking.

Onion & Honey Syrup:
Onions have some amazing healing power.  I think it's sort of nice to know that we can use common, inexpensive things for healing (such as onions) that are easy to find and to use.  I like this recipe for Homemade Cough & Cold Syrup from Stephanie at Keeper of the Home.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of natural cold remedies, but it's a good place to start.  I hope you find something useful here!  :-)

*In the way of a disclaimer let me just say that I'm not a doctor or anything like that.  I'm just sharing what works for us.