My four month old daughter recently had a bad cold and during the day and night we relied on some calpol to help ease her discomfort. However it was my sister who recommended we buy some Karvol to place near my daughter in her cot during the night to help her to breathe better. My sister having had her own children swore by it when hers had colds.

So whilst doing my weekly supermarket shop I picked up a box of these Karvol decongestant drops which cost just over £2 for a 12 ml bottle. There is a range of Karvol products on the market, and I assumed this was the one that my sister had recommended since it was drops rather than capsules etc which are also available in the same range. It states on the outside of the box that this product is suitable from 3 months old, making my daughter a suitable age for it. It also claims on the box that this product contains natural vapours which relieve nasal congestion, which was what I wanted for my daughter at night, when she was lying on her back in her cot and was probably the worst time for her in terms of being congested.

This product contains natural aromatic oils including pine, menthol and cinammon. The natural vapours are meant to help your child breathe more easily or so it claims

There are instructions for using this product with the bottle and for young children it is advised that you put 6 drops on a handkerchief and place it near but out of reach of the child. Older children and adults can use this product with a handkerchief or tissue as well, but also have the option of putting it in hot water and inhaling the vapours from the product.

Rather than a handkerchief I applied these drops to one of my daughter;s muslin squares and folded it up and placed it near her head in the cot, but out of her reach as instructed. When you open the bottle and apply it the menthol in the Karvol is very strong, and in fact when my husband used it one night he said it reminded him of his childhood when he was have a tissue with it on underneath his pillowcase. Anytime we walked in and out of the room where my baby sleeps we could smell the Karvol and knew therefore that our daughter would certainly be able to smell it herself, and hopefully therefore this would help her breathe better and ultimately sleep better.

All well and good...but did it work? Well, as far as I can tell it worked very well, the couple of days that my daughter was at her worst with the cold she slept well, and it wasn't until she woke in the morning that we could hear any signs of congestion and by that stage she was awake anyhow, so we can only conclude that it must have helped her sleep throughout the night as she slept very well during her cold. I certainly think that without this product, we would have had some very unsettled nights as she was cranky during the day at times. Thus, a great product, and one that my sister was absolutely right about.