In 1890 pharmacist Lunsford Richardson took over the retail drug business of his brother-in-law Dr. Joshua Vick, of Selma, Greensboro, North Carolina.  After Dr Joshua Vick saw an ad for Vick's Seeds, Lunsford Richardson began marketing Vick’s Family Remedies. The basic ingredients included Castor oil, linament, 'dead shot' vermifuge.  The most popular remedy was Croup and Pneumonia Salve, which was first compounded in 1891, in Greensboro. It was introduced in 1905 with the name Vick's Magic Croup Salve. It gained great popularity during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.

Many parents slather Vicks VapoRub on their sniffling, coughing kids when they're sick -- because, by gosh, that's what their parents did to them. For children under the age of 2, the folksy remedy could be dangerous, researchers warned today.

The product's label cautions against using Vicks VapoRub on children under 2, but many parents do so anyway, putting their infants at risk, experts said.

"People don't read warnings on prescription medications, so to [read a warning for] a salve on the outside of the body that has been around for 100 years . . . I think it would be a rare parent who would do that," said lead author Dr. Bruce K. Rubin of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

But there is another product that can be used. Vicks BabyRub is a non-medicated formula that contains soothing aloe vera and fragrances of eucalyptus, rosemary, and lavender. Combined with your loving touch, it is perfect to calm, soothe, and relax your baby. Now, you and your baby can rest easy with the soothing comfort of Vicks BabyRub.

These ingredients include petrolatum, fragrance, aloe extract, eucalyptus oil, lavender oil, rosemary oil.

Now there is also an alternative medication which is also natural ?Product=32358&gcatalogLocale=CAN&ECredit=383221" " Watkins Medicated Ointment

For more than eighty years, this versatile product has been making people feel better. It helps relieve that stuffed-up,congested feeling of a chest cold, and suppress the accompanying cough. And as well as a rub, it provides relief from aching muscles,  windburn, sunburn, and minor burns and scalds.

Low-level anesthetic action:Depresses pain perception, suppresses coughs.

Economical:Costs less per ounce than Vicks®

Pleasant, penetrating aroma:Provides a feeling of comfort.

Active Ingredients
• Menthol: An alcohol extracted from cornmint
oil. When applied to the skin, menthol produces
an intense and lasting cooling sensation that
counteracts pain and is also used as an antipruritic.
It both stimulates the nerves for perception
of cold and depresses those which transmit pain.
• Camphor: Occurs in nature in the camphor tree,
an Asian evergreen related to cinnamon. When
applied to the skin, camphor produces a mild
local anesthetic action (depresses some nerve
endings and stimulates others). It also acts as an
antipruritic, which means it relieves itching.

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