(HealthDay News) -- Parents want to do whatever they can to ease a child's cold symptoms, but cough and cold medicines aren't recommended for children under age 4.

The American Academy of Family Physicians suggests these alternatives to ease a young child's cough and cold symptoms:

• Encourage your child to get lots of rest.
• Offer the child plenty of fluids.
• Use saline nose drops to ease stuffiness.
• Run a cool-mist humidifier in your child's room at night.
• Steam up the bathroom with a hot shower, letting your child sit outside the stall while the shower runs.