This simple trick can shorten kids' colds by 2 days

In the U.S., school-age children can suffer from several common colds each year, each lasting about a week. This week, researchers presented a study that reveals a trick for shortening them.

They found that using hypertonic saline nasal drops can reduce the length of the common cold in children by two days, according to a press release from the European Respiratory Society .

Hypertonic nasal spray is available for under $10 on Amazon , and drops can be made at home with sea salt. Children’s Minnesota offers instructions for making a saline sinus rinse, but caregivers should consult their pediatrician before giving these treatments to children.

Results of the ELVIS-Kids randomized controlled trial regarding the use of saline spray to reduce the duration of colds are expected to be presented at the upcoming European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Vienna, Austria. Professor Steve Cunningham from Child Life and Health, University of Edinburgh, U.K. and his team of researchers conducted the study.

“Children have up to 10 to 12 upper respiratory tract infections, what we refer to as colds, per year, which have a big impact on them and their families,” he said. “There are medicines to improve symptoms, such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, but no treatments that can make a cold get better quicker.”

According to the American Lung Association , young children in the U.S. suffer from an average of six to eight colds annually. As Cunningham said, illness is not only uncomfortable for children, it puts stress on their families and can result in lost class time. Adults get around four colds per year, per the ALA, so they may be trying to care for a sick child while they are sick themselves.

We should note that colds are highly contagious viral infections and school is actually where children often pick them up. Colds spread in schools because children are in close contact with one another and they often share objects, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While frequent cleaning and disinfection can help prevent illness, poor ventilation in schools can still allow airborne viral pathogens to spread.

Overall, 407 school-aged children up to 6 years old participated in the saline spray study. Dr. Sandeep Ramalingam, a consultant virologist at NHS Lothian in Edinburgh, U.K., said the team was interested in testing how nasal irrigation and gargling with salt-water solutions – common ways to treat cold symptoms in South Asia – worked to treat colds.

Participants were given either salt-water nasal drops with a 2.6% solution (this makes it more concentrated or “hypertonic” compared to a typical 0.9% “isotonic” solution) or usual care when they developed a cold. A total of 301 participants developed a cold – 151 had regular care and 150 were given a sea salt nose drops prepared by their caregivers. Caregivers were told to give children three drops per nostril a minimum of four times per day.

“We found that children using salt-water nose drops had cold symptoms for an average of six days where those with usual care had symptoms for eight days,” said Cunningham. “The children receiving salt water nose drops also needed fewer medicines during their illness.”

So, why does this method seem to work? Cunningham explained that salt is made up of sodium and chloride, and that chloride is the important component when it comes to colds. That’s because “chloride is used by the cells lining the nose and windpipes to produce hypochlorous acid within cells,” he said.

Human bodies then use hypochlorous acid to defend against viral infections. An extra boost of chloride means an extra boost of this natural viral defense, which Cunningham said helps suppress viral replication and thus reduces the length of colds.

In the households where study participants received saline drops, 46% of family members also reported catching a cold, compared to 61% of those in households with typical care. A vast majority of parents (82%) said the nose drops helped the child get better quickly and nearly as many (81%) said they would use nose drops in the future.

“Reducing the duration of colds in children means that fewer people in their house also get a cold, with clear implications for how quickly a household feels better and can return to their usual activities like school and work etc.,” said Cunningham.

Going forward, the team plans to look in to the effect of salt-water nose drops on wheezing , a high-pitched whistling sound that happens when breathing tubes in the lungs narrow, during colds. Already, their study has shown that 5% of children who received the drops had wheezing episodes compared to 19% of those who received usual care.