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@butterbean: As long as its baby vicks I would go ahead and use it. Its the menthol in the adult version you don't want to use. The baby vicks though does have some petroleum products in it, so I chose to make my own version with a bit of coconut oil, beeswax, and essential oils.

I've done it. Not really sure if it helped but it didn't hurt. I used the baby Vicks.

Other than that, we use saline and nose frida and a humidifier at night.

Our pediatrician said no to the baby vicks, but to rub oregano oil on baby's feet and then put socks on. That helped. We called them C's "pizza feet" because he smelled delicious!

Steaming in the bathroom, humidifier running always (make sure you keep an eye on the filter / cleanliness of the parts to make sure you're not spraying mold with the steam) should help too.

We also loved nose frida, and the rock & play sleeper because it kept C on an incline.

She said their feet absorb a lot (true for all of us, actually), so it can be overwhelming for them. For infants she preferred the single oil rather than the blend of eucalyptus, lavender and rosemary oils, plus the fragrance. It's a lot.

She also said she's had parents forget to buy the baby vick's or assume that regular will be fine, and it definitely isn't good for babies, so she prefers not to recommend it the baby version to be safe.

C was almost 10 months (8.5 adjusted) when he got the flu, and was 1 year (10.5 mos adjusted) when he got pneumonia.

@ballerinabee: I think that's an important point-- it's not even designed to be cold treatment, just a soothing treatment. Thanks for finding that article.

Essential oils are used by a lot of integrative medicine practitioners and in our hospital we take them very seriously. I personally don't feel comfortable using them on infant skin because of the thin skin and their surface area is so small... so a little oil goes a long way.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Sorry you are dealing with this!

We have dealt with congestion on and off for months, here's what we do:
Put him in the bouncer in the bathroom while we take hot showers
Humidifier
Saline drops and then nosefrieda a few minutes later
Oogie Bear (it's a snot scooper of sorts) for dryer boogers
Boppy under the mattress to create an incline
We've used honest company breathe easy rub on his feet, not sure it helps but it doesn't seem to hurt.

When LO was that small, we got a warm mist humidifier with Vicks Vapopads. We also would put a bit of Johnson's Vapor Bath in his bath each night. The warm mist humidifier always calms his cough, even now that he's over 2.