This winter as always, I was determined not to succumb to the bot. Sadly it sneaked in the back door when I wasn’t looking. I dosed myself up with all my usual remedies, Vit C, echinacea, cayenne pepper, lemon and honey drinks, kumarahou and kawakawa tonics, and consequently I wasn’t actually ever sick enough to warrant any time in bed or any days off work. What got me in the end was “The Cough” It came on every evening at 8pm and continued until 2am. It didn’t matter whether I was in bed or out of bed, inside or outside, in the bath or by the fire. It was a horribly persistent and at times quite violent cough, which after 10 days was still going strong. By now I was really exhausted. A friend suggested using an onion in my room at night. I did and was quite blown away by the result. She has been doing this for her family for years and it has always worked for night coughs apart from when her boy had whooping cough.
So what you do is you chop an onion into chunks (don’t worry about the skin) and put it inside a muslin bag or you can use a tea towel and a rubber band.
Place the bagged onion by your pillow so that it is quite near your face.
I hung it over my headboard. The first night I did this I started coughing at my usual time of 8pm. I took myself off to bed at around 10pm ( still coughing ) accompanied by an onion. I closed my bedroom door and got into bed ( still coughing ) After a few more coughs I quickly fell asleep and as they say the rest is history. I needed to have an onion in my bedroom for three more nights and you need to use a fresh onion each time. I really wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t experienced it myself. The cough was so persistent and so violent and a single onion stopped it dead in it’s tracks. No sugar needed to help this medicine down.
For nasal congestion try our gorgeous chest rub and for sore throats use our kawakawa throat spray
Going to try this tonight!
Absolutely amazing!!! Works wonders on my husbands nagging night cough!!!
Brilliant Vickie, and so simple!
Reading all your comments gave so much hope to ease my child’s relentless dry cough day and night. He has been prescribed antibiotic which is needed to cure his bacterial infection which can take some time. Just chopped some onion and placed it next to his bed on the ground. Fingers crossed that this helps in giving him peaceful goodnight sleep. Thank you to all you moms.
My little boy aged 3 has been coughing non stop.. Dr gave me the usual nasel spray etc etc but it wasn’t working… Chopped an onion and put it by his night stand..hrs gone from hacking and coughing a violent phlegmy cough to sound asleep…IT WORKS and he’s not full of pointless drugs too.
Yay Rosie, such a simple and accessible remedy for our little ones. Spread the word!
I thought it sounded like an old wive´s tale….but
this does work – I tried it last night and had a full night´s sleep without coughing and didn´t wake up coughing as I had been doing, and not much catarrh.
I cut the onion into 4, put it in a bowl at the end of my bed, wasn´t at the side of my face and it still did the trick.
Previously I´d tried medicine, humidifier, Vicks vapour rub, Olbas oil etc…. but to no avail.
I have used an onion by my bed and it does work on alot of things , I have a bad cough with a lot of mucus I will try it tonight . Wish me good luck…
Woll this work even if I’m coughing up mucus?
It works best for a dry irritating cough. I couldn’t say for a mucus cough but always worth a try.
I just want to confirm that this definitely works. I’ve used it for years for my children and myself. I think it is the vapor that comes out of the freshly cut onion (the stuff that makes your eyes tear up) that keeps your airways moistened, which curbs the cough. I have always simply put the onion in a plate on the night stand, besides the person’s head while they are sleeping. In the morning, the room does stink of onion, but it doesn’t last. As Trisha wrote, you need to use a fresh onion every night that you need to do this.
Im gonna try this tonite
Let us know how you get on Lei
My dd currently have a very hard cough, going to try this. Hope this works for my beloved. Thank you very much.
I will try this for my present horrible midnight dry cough..I hope it works for me too.
I have been coughing dry for days and my throat was already aching. I need to try this tonight. Hope this will work!!! I wish that my roommates will not complain by the odor of the onion tho
I swear by this method it even works on pain anywhere you have the pain strap the onion on it good for joint pain
Thanks for your input Doreen. Onions are amazing!
This works! My three year old son has a worsening cough. Sounds like it is going deeper and deeper, but only coughs at night. The last two nights we have placed a bowl of sliced onion on his bed side table and almost immediately the coughing stopped. I am amazed!
I suddenly remembered I had read an cutting a brown onion open and leaving it in the room stops a cough. For my toddler, who has been plagued by the same horrible coughs and colds my older children and I have had, it was a miracle cure. Literally the only thing I could do for her, because the vapor rub does nothing, I could use a whole jar and still nothing. Hours of steaming showers and falling asleep in the bathroom, 24 hours a day running the humidifiers- nothing kept it gone. Eucalyptus shower steamers and a sliced onion and poof! Immediately stopped coughing. She was coughing so much she would throw up, and I walked in with the onion sliced into 3 pieces on a small cutting board and no kidding, not another single cough. Immediately stopped. I don’t care if they say science hasn’t ever proven this to be true. It is absolutely a miracle cure, for anyone who cannot take, or doesn’t want to add more, cough medicine. Coughing all night has been our nemesis for weeks jow, woth such a lack of quality sleep we are practically walking zombies. Doctors really need to push this option as a first, and a last needed, option for more people. Luckily my daughter’s doctor is who suggested I try it, when all else had failed and I reached out a third time, desperate for any relief for her, and in turn, for me. The only thing worse than no sleep is disrupted sleep.
I was surprised to see an article saying that it’s an old wives tale and science shows it doesn’t work. I have 3 young children and without fail, the freshly cut up onion stops their cough every.single.time. Immediately and all night long. There’s no remedy like the onion for night coughing!
just tried it this early morning with my son who has been coughing for 3 days and did not sleep last night coz he has been coughing too much now i see him sleeping soundly without coughing for hours now i am so amazed!! really true
Trying it on my husband who hasn’t slept for 3 days. He is skeptical and refuses to go to bed now (13:20) But I have put the onions on both sides of his sofa. The room may be too large for it to be effective but I am hopeful as I hear no sound of him coughing now. Thank you so much guys and I will keep you updated. Litricia