It seems as if when the heater goes on in the winter, my throat gets very scratchy for extended periods. This has been going on for years and is really annoying this year. I use a cool air humidifier at night. It has happened in different houses that I have lived, so it is not necessarily the same air dust.

Does anyone have a certain spray or idea on how to prevent this from happening? I don't mean how to get rid of it, like with salty water, but how to not have it happen in the first place. I can't have little heaters around because of small children.

It is kind of avoidable really.

There are saline drops for the nose. Vick rub, and other natural ways.

Cool humidifier would be best. Is your place forced heat venting? In the winter, the inside tends to be a lot dryer.

Where do you live. Your environment also has a contributing factor. How high do you have the heating?

This has happened on the East & West Coast, in gas and electric, forced and not... that is why I can't figure it out. A doctor told me my nose and throat is fine. Nose drops may be a good idea. I should try that.

How often could I use Vicks safely though really?

I'll try nose and look into throat drops... maybe echinacea for the throat?

Thanks Jesushelper76.

Anytime, I would say vicks is fairly safe to use. Better at bed time. Saline drops in the nose will keep your nose moist at night time and will help you breath better so your not breathing through your mouth so much at night. Then maybe your throat will not get so dry.

Try it out and hope this works. Good luck and let us know how this works okay.

Update in case anyone else experiences the problem of a scratchy throat and cough. Even with a cool air humidifier and purifier, it did not get rid of it. The ducts of the heater are too expensive to get cleaned, so I almost completely turned off the heater except when very cold in the house and it went away overnight.

I also researched that there are heaters made for people with allergies to the air coming from them.

The kids coughs and runny noses cleared up too.

Halls, man, Halls...

That's only temporary for daytime... not when you have coughing and a sore throat all night. Even cough syrup wears off in a few hours and you can't keep taking it all the time for weeks.

Anytime the heater is on to hot for too long my throat starts getting scratchy too. It has to be freezing inside for me to turn the heater on. Even then, the highest I'll turn it up to is 68 (in SoCal, freezing outside is when it's about 50 degrees. Hehe not like where it snows) and I don't even leave it at that for long. No more scratchy throat for me this winter.