Our little boy must have only been about 2 months old when he got his first cold and because he was so young there was very little we could do for him. We were advised by the Health visitor to sit in the bathroom with the hot water tap running as the steam would help. After having tried this as soon as I got home (desperate to help my poor little boy and to get some peace). I soon realised that it may take some hours to get the steam she was talking about and also that as we have a water meter it may also be an expensive way of easing his discomfort. Nevertheless it was worth it for our little boy. So after sitting in the bathroom for what seemed like half a day I decided to have a look for a humidifier and found the Vicks warm mist humidifier in the Argos catalogue it certainly sounded like what we needed and priced at £42.99 we thought it was worth trying.
It was very easy to put together and start using and it didn't seem to take long for the room to be pretty steamy. We also noticed that it was making the room warm and this was a bonus as it was the end of November and rather cold. But this is something to bare in mind in the warmer months as it really does make a difference in temperature. To begin with (as advised by the Health visitor) we did not use any medicine oils since then however we have put drops in the medicine holder and found it to work very well. Although the holder is small it is large enough to do the job!. The system is easy to fill up and easy to clean, and the water tank is a really good size (4 litre) and therefore lasts a long time without having to re fill it. However it is not very quiet when in operation (even on the lower setting) and nowadays when we use it we tend to put it on for an hour or so before bed and then turn it off until he is fast asleep as we think the sound makes it harder for him to settle. I think it is a really good product for infants especially and hopefully as he grows we will be able to keep using it providing we can keep it out of his reach!