First Colds of the Season and Natural Remedies

So the kids are in their 4th week of school and we have been fighting colds since last week in our house.  First there was the slight fever, then the croup cough, now we have runny noses and night time coughs.  I feel like a crazy woman at night getting Atakan ready for bed.  He is the worst off, probably since he is still young and his lungs might not be as strong as Ilkan's yet, so he gets most of my crazy.  First we start with something called "polat seker" which is a rock like sugar that I dissolved in warm milk for him to drink.  This is supposed to help with the cough.  Then we are off to the bathroom where after pj's I rub Atakan's chest with "kantaron yag" which is a red oil made from a flower and fresh olive oil, then comes the Vick's on the feet and socks over that.  Finally, I have the humidifier going in their room with the setting to 50% humidity.  I just learned last year that while a humidifier is important, you don't want it to get too humid so I found a model where you can set the humidity to what you want.  The doctor told me 50% is about right and their room right now is at about 38% so I set it up and it turns off and on through the night as necessary.  Now, I'm not saying he stops coughing, but I think it helps him get through the night with less coughing fits.  I feel like a crazy woman with all of these natural remedies, and I would have never believed them about 8 years ago when I was first in Turkey, but they really do help!  Now, to get over this dumb cold all together!