Since their immune systems are still developing and haven’t yet learned to recognise and respond to a wide variety of infectious organisms, children experience common colds and flu more frequently than adults do. In fact, it’s normal for kids to experience as many as 10 such mild upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) each year*.

Echinacea and elderflower

Echinacea supports children’s immune systems to help them fight illness, based on its traditional use in Western herbal medicine. During colds, it’s also traditionally used in Western herbal medicine to relieve a runny nose, clear nasal congestion and unblock the nasal passages.

Elderflower is also traditionally used to decrease children’s common cold symptoms in Western herbal medicine, including soothing sore throats and relieving mild fevers.

Honeysuckle and forsythia

In TCM, illnesses that involve the rapid onset of symptoms are often regarded as being associated with excess wind entering the body from outside (which is sometimes referred to as external wind). When a mild fever is present at the same time, they’re described as being associated with wind-heat.

Children’s common colds and flu usually start with the sudden onset of symptoms like a sore throat, runny nose, nasal congestion and a mild fever, so they’re typically considered wind-heat illnesses in TCM.

When wind-heat symptom-patterns are present, the herbs honeysuckle and forsythia are traditionally used in TCM to relieve common cold and flu symptoms such as sore throat and mild fever, and forsythia is also used to decrease chills associated with the common cold.

*Reference: HealthDirect. Colds and flu statistics. Published 2016 and accessed September 2019 from: https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/colds-and-flu-statistics