I am going to be buying a humidifier for my 2 year old's room. I would love to hear of humidifiers that you have that you love and that actually help. Should I get a cool mist or warm mist? Thanks!
Thanks so much for everyone's suggestions and experiences. I went out over the weekend and bought the Crane Frog cool mist humidifier. After using it just the first night I could see a big difference in my daughter's room. And, she actually slept through the night without the coughing that would usually wake her up. I will probably continue to use this even when she's not sick. Just wish I would have got one a long time ago! Thanks again everyone!
We started out using the Vick's Cool Mist Humidifier ($90) and went through about 7 of them thus far. We finally just bought a cheapy ($30) at Walgreens and it is great. We use it every night. No filter in the Walgreens one.
I don't have any brand recommendations, but I would suggest getting one that doesn't require a filter. My last one needed a filter and it got yucky quickly and it was expensive to replace.
I also got my daughter the Crane frog cold mist humidifier and we love it! It's super quiet and has helped improve my daughter's cold symptoms.
I have heard you should get a cool mist only so the child does not burn themselves. I got a great one at walgreens that I love, was like $30. I got an expensive one at Target, germ something or other was in the name and it sucked..stay away from that, and it was $70!!
Good luck. BTW, I use mine all the time in the winter, not just when she is sick..and be sure to use Distilled water for easier maintenance.
Cool Mist-a warm mist will make it more humid and not work. We bought a Carefree Humidifier Plus with night glow from Menards and so far this has been the best one we have bought. It is easy to clean and maintain. We have gone through a lot of them in the past years and are very pleased so far.
I've had several. The cold mist (although safer) make the room cold. The warm air seems to work better. They make his bedroom more like a jungle but better than a refrigerator. Don't buy one of the one's in the plastic bowl/place to put the water. They are cheaper and really not great for everyday use. Ours all broke after a month of use. I've heard good things about the animal ones. The other thing we learned is there is a difference between a humidifier/steamer. Steamer put out heavy droplets of water (reason for sauna affect) and humidifiers just add light water to the air. The heavy droplets are good for children with allergies because it ways down the air and keeps the allergens on the floor. As where the humidifier just helps anyone with keeping the room from getting that dry feeling. Our son has allergies and we've bought both. The humidifier although works well for us, didn't help him one bit when he was sick and wasn't a huge help with allergens. I believe there may be some humidifiers that have the ability to switch the size of droplet for such reasons as I mentioned. I would also suggest...2. One for S....cold mist. One for winter...warm mist. The warm mist one you have to keep out of childs reach but well worth it. My son sleeps soundly when we use it. No snoring weezing etc. Hope this helps.
We own a Vick's Warm Mist humidifier and I really like it. I recommend it.
I have crane humidifiers in each kids bedroom and they work great. My favorite part is that there are no filters to mess with and no cleaning!!
I love the Crane humidifier. They come in all different animal shapes. They are having a sale on btrendie. It is 30% off starting on Feb. 1st. Please let me know if you want me to invite you and I'll send an email and you can buy from there. They are a good price, cute for the kids, and very functional.
It's funny reading these responses since everyone has a different opinion about cool vs. warm mist. Our doctor told us warm was better! My understanding was that the cool mist was recommended just so children can't get burned. I've also heard that the cool mist makes the room feel cool and is better used in warm months or warm climates. I can only speak from my experience: we use the warm mist and it's been very helpful during colds, croup and pneumonia. We do clean it with some regularity which is kind of a pain, but really doesn't take long. You could Google whatever ailment you most need it for and see what's recommended, like "croup+warm vs. cool humidifier" and get some info that way. It seems like you can't go too wrong with either kind.
My allergist always said to use a cool mist - never a warm one as it promotes bacterial growth even if you can't see it! I have a cool mist one that I can put right in the dishwasher to sanitize (son sleeping so I can't check name) and it's a no filter one too which is nice. THe quieter the better unless you need the background noise for sleeping!
I use a cool mist in my daughter's room and it has worked wonderfully. The doctor had told us that was better than the warm mist. When she had croup, it was highly recommended, so whenever and in this weather because dry, we use it for her and it helps immensely. You can buy them filterless. I still use a filter, but area easily washable and the filters are easily replaceable.
We used both of them... the only problem that I had with the warm air humidifier is that the steam set off the smoke detector in my son's room!
I will agree with everyone else's response to the Crane humidifiers. Ours is SO QUIET, even compared to the original one we bought that said it was quiet. You don't even hear this one running at all. We got ours at our local Target.
I recommend Germ Guardian. It cost about $120, and we bought it on discount on Walgreens.com. It has a setting for warm and cold mist, and an adjustable setting for the percent of humidity that you want to achieve in the room. It does not require the purchase of filters. We started using it when my son was 2 months old -- we use the warm mist setting and run it on 15% humidity. Good luck!
