Best of Parent Hacks: Colds, viruses, and general sickie malaise

With swine flu news swirling all around us, it seems a good time to remind you about the many keep-them-healthy hacks in the Health archives. These tips should help smooth the bumpy (snotty! itchy! whiny!) road a bit:

• Use a vegetable steamer or a crock pot as a stand-in for a humidifier
• Toolbox + padlock = safe, portable medicine storage
• Lip balm protects tissue-irritated skin
• Oral syringe helps kids "sip" water without completely waking up
  
• Baby wipes are good for parents' noses, too
  
• Yucky-tasting medicine goes down easier with a chaser of flavoring syrup
  
• Is the kid going to throw up? "Read" his lips.
  
• Entice your sickie with a medicine-dipped lollipops
  
• Tips for avoiding catching colds
  
• Bag clips keep freezer pops out of the plastic and lickable
  
• Empty formula cans make perfect bedside table wastebaskets
  
• Mix medicine into Jell-O Smoothie Snacks to get it down the hatch
  
• Turn temperature-taking with an ear thermometer into a game of telephone
  
• How to make baby nose-wiping...fun?
  
• Bedtime sore throat soother: Warm milk and honey
  
• How to administer eyedrops and take the temperature of a squirmy toddler? Talk amongst yourselves.
  
• Handkerchiefs are gentler on runny noses than tissue
  
• Soothe a fever with a damp washcloth kept bedside
  
• Calm coughing without medication
  
• Track medicine dosage right on the bottle
  
• Oversize long-sleeved shirt as parental snot guard
  
• Tricks for keeping toddlers hydrated
  
• Reuse infant incline pillow when your toddler has a stuffy nose
  
• CleanWell: All-natural hand sanitizer
  
• Nosefrida nasal aspirator: A Parenthacker tells all
  
• Airborne: Does it help your family avoid colds?
  
• Smaller dose of "children's" medication can stand in for the more expensive "infant" version
  
• Make your own oral rehydration solution
  
• Stomach bugs and popsicles
  
• Indian 'toddy' helps sickies get to sleep
  
• Hot lemonade soothes a tickly throat
  
• Hot salt water quiets coughing