Being sick isn’t fun, and there are lots of ideas to help get through it. But what works?

"Any fluid, whether it's a chicken noodle soup or whether it's ginger ale or any fluid, is great. But frankly, plain old water is fine," said Dr. Chris Kjolhede, emeritus pediatrician and former director of the school-based health program at Bassett Healthcare Network. "Why chicken noodle soup? I'm not sure why, other than you might get a few electrolytes in there. That's more important if, in fact, you're having diarrhea.”

What about the saying "starve a cold, feed a fever"?

“If you don't want to eat, OK, you don't have to," Kjolhede said. "Most of us have a little bit of extra adipose tissue, a little bit of extra body fat that we can survive for a few days without eating our normal amount. But fluids are really important for any illness, respiratory illness.”

Can you really catch a cold if you go outside without proper clothing?

“There is actually a shred of evidence that in fact, if your body temperature drops, then your immune system is not quite as efficient," Kjolhede said. "But the real issue is, are you exposed to a virus that you've never seen before? That's where you're going to get a cold."

Some people recommend cutting an onion and putting it in your room while you sleep to absorb toxins in the air. This, Kjolhede said, is not proven.

"Now, I will hasten to add, you could do almost anything for a kid with a cold who's miserable with a cold, and sometimes the kid's going to get better the next day," Kjolhede said. "But does that mean that whatever you did caused the kid to get better, or did the kid just get better because their immune system kicked in?"

He said to contact your provider if you have any questions.