Lori Borgman: 'Tis the season to hack, sniff and cough

Lori Borgman, Tribune News Service on Dec 22, 2025

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If you’ve had a cold recently, you know the drill: You drag yourself to the store and prepare to spend the next four days scanning row after row of cold meds. By the time you find the meds that fit your symptoms, your cold will be gone.

All the fine-print ingredients and warnings on the boxes, bottles and origami folded sheets of paper inside the boxes make reading the 70-page IRS booklet on filing a 1040 seem like a party.

To find the right med, you must first identify the problem: cough and mucus, cough only, cough and runny nose, chest congestion, nasal congestion, sore throat or dry throat.

Then there is the matter of how long you want relief and how sleepy you’re willing to be: fast acting, 8-hour, 12-hour, drowsy, non-drowsy, Nyquil, Dayquil and Tranquil.

We have a plastic tub full of cough meds in the linen closet, but they’re all for infants, toddlers and children up to age 12. I’ve aged out. Our cold and cough meds have aged out, too. Most of them are expired and need to be thrown out.

When I was a kid, it was not uncommon to receive homemade cough medicine. A parent would mix little bit of bourbon and a little bit of honey in a teaspoon, and there it was – homemade cough syrup. Technically, an entire generation of kids did shots in elementary school. Of course, times have changed and today’s pediatricians strongly advise against such homemade remedies. (For the record, I stand with today’s pediatricians.)

Another home remedy — and this one is still approved of — was to gargle with warm saltwater. To my knowledge, a saltwater gargle has never stopped a sore throat, but the mere mention of the prospect will stop anyone from complaining.

The best home remedy was, and still is, chicken noodle soup. To this day, I firmly believe homemade chicken noodle soup can cure almost anything.

The best cough drops ever made were Luden’s throat drops. They were cherry flavored and came in a box. I loved them. All kids loved them because they were candy.

The box said they were “medicated.” And they were. With sugar.

Alas, I’m with the times now. My go-to cold and cough meds are over-the-counter products because many come with a “do not use heavy machinery” warning.

I take that to mean the washer, the dryer, the stove, the refrigerator, the microwave and the vacuum.

I’m feeling better already.