Best Humidifier or Vaporizer?

I have a Vicks brand humidifier and you can put vicks vapo stuff right in the water. I love it! It is very quiet and works great for us. Good luck!

crane frog mist humidifier
http://www.target.com/Crane-Frog-Cool-Mist-Humidifier/dp/...
its quiet and requires no filter. You can get it at target.

We had a flow through furnace mounted humidifier in the house we used to live in. It was great! There was a dial on the wall to adjust the amount of humidity desired. No other maintenance.

Be careful with VICKS in light of recent press-

http://www.parentdish.com/2009/01/13/vicks-vaporub-harmfu...

I also wouldnt recommend a hot mist vaporizer, I know someone who was burned and scarred when it fell on her as a small child. The cool mist ones are fine, but keep them meticulously clean and change the filters often , they can grow mold and bacteria that your little one could breathe..Yuck!

we got a humidifier when me and our son were sick, and lucky for us it worked just long enough for us to get better, than it started making all sorts of noises like something was knocking on something else in the mechanics... we returned it and happily took our 40$ back.

what i would recommend is leaving the bathroom door open while taking hot showers (if possible) and dont use the fan, at least during winter. boil a pot of water during a part of the day when you are working in the kitchen. just let it boil. even just running hot water into the bath and letting it just evaporate little by little...

as far as which one to get - check online at a site like parents magazine, or www.askdrsears.com or even shop smart magazine - places like that usually would have articles or something about the differences between the 2 and give the positives and negatives....
sorry i couldnt help more :P

If I understand correctly a vaporizer blows out steam, and a humidifier puts moisture in the air. A vaporizer is really great if you have a congested baby.

We have a Kenmore brand humidifier. It is great, takes care of our whole upstairs, and we have had very little sore throats and crusty noses in the morning. However, if you let it run dry too long, and don't keep up with filling it up, it tends to go through the filters pretty fast. When we stay on top of it, we usually only have to replace them once a month. You can find them at either Kmart or Sears.

I suggest you dscuss this with your Pediatrician before purchasing one. We have been told by multiple doctors not to use either because they harbor bacteria.

I recently bought a Vicks Ultrasonic humidifier at Target. I really like it. It's very quiet and it doesn't use the round filters that get so gross. It uses something called a demineralization cartridge that you replace every so often.

I am not sure what you are using this for but I can honestly say DO NOT PUT A VAPORIZER IN A CHILD'S ROOM> My son was 3 and I had one on top of the bookshelf that I thought was out of his reach. Well he evidently was taller than I thought because he woke me up one morning and said mommy look. I looked at his finger in my half sleep daze thinking he had something on it. I grabbed it and he screamed. He had burned his finger on the hot steam. he told me he was checking to see if it was hot like you do for a fire. He said the steam looked like smoke. he put the back of his hand up to it to check. I had actually popped the rather LARGE blister that had formed on his hand. He did not scream because it did not hurt until the blister popped. THen he screamed. We took him to the doctor and got him all fixed up and it took about 3 weeks to heal. He still has a scar to this day that covers most of his finger. He had 2nd or 3rd degree burns not sure which as the doctor never put a degree on it. Just said it was pretty severe and if he had held his hand there any longer than he did it would have burned to the muscle tissue and caused all kinds of problems. They even told me that a cool mist vaporizer will burn. We no longer have a vaporizer in my home. We do have a humidifier that is supposed to cover the whole house but doesn't and it runs out of water too quick. I would not recommend it to anyone. Well I hope this helps some in your decision. If you do have a vaporizer please keep it out of children's reach.

We have had a SlantFin Warm Mist Humidifier for over 4 years. It works great and uses no filters. It does use a U/V bulb and mineral pads that attract the minerals in the water if you have hard water. It is a bit pricey but I would say it was well worth the money. We use it every winter all winter. The warm mist does not leave white dust on the furniture and it does not get hot enough to burn your hand if you put it in the steam.

Happy hunting!
R.

The one I use is Honeywell QuietCare Ultrasonic Cool Moisture Humidifier. My parents gave me one and I love it! It is more of a bedroom-size tho so if you neeed bigger you might want to get two. I hate changing filters and there is no filter in this one. Plus, if you use distilled water there is no build-up from tap water. I broke my first one by dropping it so I just went on amazon.com and bought another - for cheaper than what my parents paid in the store. Hope this helps -
J.

My ped. told us that a humidifier is safer because it has "cool" mist rather than the "warm/hot" mist. When my kids were in their crib(s) I didn't worry about this so much, and we had the vaporizer and they couldn't reach it, and when they were up it was not on and they didn't have access to it. Now that they are both in full size beds, we decided to invest in the humidifier and we love it. We picked it up at Walgreens and I believe it was their store brand one. It does not have a filter, and you simply fill up the tank and let it run. We don't use filtered water (which is recommended to use) so we get a lot of lime build up on it, so it is necessary to clean on a regular basis. Good luck in your search! :)

i just bought both of my babies Vicks Warm Steam Vaporizer ($13 at Wal-Mart) for thier rooms. I put a little salt in it when I fill it every night. There is no noise to it and its nice it has a little slot in the front to put in put in a liquid Vick's Inhalant ($2-3). It says on the box it relieves cold and flu systems. It made such a difference in both my little's who have RSV. Its a up to 96% bacteria free system. There is no filters to change. I just make sure its out of their reach and no cords sticking out anywhere... as it should be with either one you use.

We use the Vicks Warm-Mist Vaporizer. No filter to change, but you do have to change the water every single night. It's not a hassle though. You just dump the water out and fill it up again. The directions say that if it doesn't start to steam you should add a dash of salt but I've learned that I need to add an 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt right off the bat. You'll know if you add to much salt - the water will actually boil. It should steam visibly, but quietly.

It works fabulously. It makes the room noticibly humid (not too humid though), and makes sleeping wonderful.

It also has a resevoir where you can put a teaspoon of the actual Vick's Vap-O-Rub into it. The steam makes the Vick's melt and creates the menthol vapors throughout the room when you are sick.

We got a Vicks humidifier from Target that was filter-less...but it's got mold in so many places right now (places I can't clean--we have cleaned all the parts we possibly can; it's the mechanical parts that need it but we are afraid to get those wet, for obvious reason) that we don't even use it because it stinks and although I want moister air, I don't want moist air with mold spores! So I do NOT recommend this one!

I, too, love the Vicks vaporizer. If you change the water and clean it regularly, you shouldn't have any problems. The one I use right now is the one my mom used for years and years and it still works wonderfully. Just be sure yo keep it out of reach of your children, as the steam is VERY hot.

If you get a cool mist humidifier, it's worth it to spend a little more. The cheap ones are very noisy!

Warm-mist humidifiers don't have filters...but you have to clean the scale from them every one to two weeks, but that's easy--vinegar works well. The one we have is from HomeMedics, and we just bought it at Menard's--we like it alot.

L.,
We have the Vicks cool mist humidifier and really like it... it does make some noise on the higher of the two settings, but kind of like it for white noise. It's large enough to fill and run overnight... just follow directions as to cleaning and storing so you don't get mold. It's the cool mist which puts out a vapor- nothing you can see. I had the Red Cross one but returned it as it didn't work (later saw horrible reviews on line) and there was a huge difference last night in my twins' nursery, and my daughter had considerably less issues with her nighttime coughing fits...

Regarding Kathy D's response, I spoke with my Pediatrician and this issue regarding Vicks VapoRub on infants was covered on the new show "The Doctors". They do have a baby/infant version (vs. adult) and both confirmed it's fine on the chest of bottom of the feet, but not under the nose, as the article she link advised. My mom used it on us as kids and made all the difference.

Good luck