Humidifier Cool mist or Warm mist?

[priyavishy]

We live in the Boston area and my husband and I have dry, bleeding noses all the winter with sinusitis :( . Now I'm 8 month pregnant and dont want the baby to be dry.
I have checked for Cool mist vs Warm mist and am leaning towards a Holmes Warm mist humidifier(with no filter changes needed) Is this good?
If I keep it out of baby's reach is it better than the cold mist one for health reasons ( mold free and warmer in cold weather) or still the cool mist is better?
Also, please give me suggestions on which model should I use within the $50-60 range for both Warm mist or cold mist? Thanks.

[mommyof1sweetboy]

I asked the nurse that other day what was reccomended and she said it did not matter much which one. She said with little ones the warm was dangerous (because of possible scalding).
This is what we have and it works well. It helps my little boy's congestion (plus raising hte head of his baby bed)
We do use distilled water in it as suggested becasue of a white dust left by minerals in reg water.

http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100288&navAction=jump&navCount=0&id=prod395405

[EllasMum]

I have the Holmes Warm Mist Filter Free Humidifier. It is great! Easy to use and easy to clean etc. Works very well, too. I use it in DD's bedroom when she has a cold and it really moistens up the air nicely. I find if you turn it on high for an hour or so before bed and then turn it down to low for the night it really works well. Even when I forget, it only takes maybe an hour or two on low to humidify her smallish bedroom and will work for about 14 hours on one tank of water. I highly recommend it!!

[priyavishy]

Could you suggest where you got the Holmes Filter free Warm mist humidifier? I searched in Walmart, BabiesRUs and Bed, Bath& Beyond and could not find that one. Please suggest. Thanks.

[boys2enough]

Hi,

Just want to share that if you do get a warm mist humidifier, make sure your little one does not touch it when it is on.

(Maybe now some of the warm mist ones have improved much so that there is no risk of scalding?) Anyway, about 7 years ago, when DS1 was about 10 months old, we also had a warm mist humidifier. I always made sure that it was either off or on top of his changing table when he was awake and away from his crib. One night he threw up twice in a roll. In the chaos of cleaning him, his clothes, his crib, carpet, etc, I left him on the floor and totally forgot about the humidifier. Soon we heard a scream--DS1 had put his little hand over the opening where the steam was coming out. We took him to the emergency room and the poor guy got second degree burn on his hand. I still feel really guilty after all these years.

I re-tell this story every time there is a post asking about comparison between cold mist and warm mist. (So if you have read this, plesae bear with me!) I just want to make sure that nobody else goes through the same thing.


Cheers, Lin
Mom to 2 wild boys
D 3/98
G 11/02

http://smilies.vidahost.com/kao/otn/pcomputer.gif

[o_mom]

We chucked our Warm Mist one after DS1 got a burn on his hand. We had it on the floor in the middle of his room. If you put them up on a table or near a wall, they tend to get lots of condensation on the wall, so we would put it on the floor. We were getting him ready for bed and set him down for just a second and he reached for it. We had just turned it on so it was not up to full steam yet and he just had a small red mark. However, it was enough for us to get rid of it.

We now have a Honeywell cool mist and the Hunter Care Free. DH wanted the Honeywell because it had a humidistat, but we found that the humidistat really didn't work very well so we end up just keeping it on low or medium all night. The Hunter is great - $40 at Walmart and we haven't had any problems. We only use it during colds, though. We have a whole house humidifier that we run in the winter.

It will be hard to find a selection this time of year - Target, Home Depot, etc. only carry them in the winter. They will have the cheap ones in the pharmacy, but most of the better ones were clearanced last month.