Natural Medicine at Home:
For coughs: I have serious anxiety when my children start coughing, I know it sounds ridiculous but it’s true. My neurosis is partially due to my third child who would go from a cough to not breathing in less than an hour, due to his asthma, but I do still recognize that I have a problem. However, because of this anxiety I have loads of suggestions on how to naturally stop a cough or at least subdue it. Here they are:
- Have a vaporizer in your their room. Best money spent!
- Rub Vic’s vapor rub on their feet and then put socks on them. I have no idea why this works but it does, trust me! While you are at it, rub it on their chest as well.
- Give them hot tea. There are so many kinds of tea, many of which are specific to coughs and sore throats. I usually add a bit of ginger and honey to black or green tea. The tea has to be hot. Sip it from a spoon in tiny sips.
- A spoonful of honey and cinnamon. My kids love this one! The recipe calls for a tablespoon of honey and a teaspoon of cinnamon mixed, I usually cut that in half.
- For a croupy cough: hot shower, go outside in the cold, hot tea, nebulizer with saline.
- Cup your hand and whack your child’s back, hard! It’s not a nice little pat. It’s pretty intentionally whacking. Move around the back to loosen any phlegm stuck in the airways. I try to do this every few minutes to hour if they are continually coughing.
- Essential oils: I am just getting starting figuring out how to use the various oils to aid in healing so I can’t give much insight yet, but I will update as I gain more experience. For now all I can say is that eucalyptus and peppermint have helped with most of the respiratory system issues we have had. You put a drop in your palm and rub your hands together and then cup your hands over your mouth and nose and breathe in deeply. Also apply the oils to the bottoms of your feet and on your chest (use a carrier oil as peppermint is considered a hot oil and may be too intense for your kids with out it). Also peppermint, lavender and lemon are used to prevent and treat allergy symptoms. Either apply them to the bottoms of your feet or mix one drop in a mouthful of warm water and swish and swallow or add one drop of each to a teaspoon of locally grown honey is even better.
- If all else fails: Delsum!
For ear aches: Once again my third child is the one who made me find ways to relieve ear pain. After the second trip to the ER in the middle of the night, I researched ways to at least reduce the pain enough to get us through the night. Here are my tips:
- A few drops of olive oil in the ear. Even better than plain olive oil, place a clove of garlic in the oil and simmer it briefly, or microwave for 20 seconds. Then strain out the garlic and use that oil to put in the ear. Use a small dropper to get the oil in the ear. Soaking the oil in a cotton ball works well too. Squeeze the oil out of the cotton ball and then stick the cotton in the ear. Just make sure that the oil is not hot! Keep the garlic oil in a jar for this instead of trying to do it when the ear ache starts.
- An abundance of vitamin C. My one son had 4 ear infections on top of another. For 3 months he was on antibiotics. Finally a friend told me this and his ear infections went away.
- Warm wash cloth, rice sock or hot water bottle on the ear. A cup of hot water held just under the ear so that the steam goes into the ear helps too (add garlic to the water).
- Advil!
For skin issues:
- I use Aquaphor on any facial chapping including chapped lips and nose. Apply it generously overnight especially.
- For diaper rashes that won’t go away after trying Balmex or A&D ointment, I use triple paste antibiotic ointment.
- For poison ivy: Baking soda paste, oatmeal bathes and apple-cider vinegar are all useful to draw out the poison and relieve the itch. The best thing to do is rub the skin with the vinegar or CalaGel (Oak-N-Ivy brand as soon as you think you may have been exposed to it and wash the area with soap and water afterwards. I also lather the area in Calamine lotion. Just be aware that poison ivy can get infected. My daughter needed an antibiotic after hers turned grayish and she got a fever.
- For bug bites and bee stings: Rub one drop of lavender essential oil on the bite reduces irritability.
- For warts: dip a cotton ball or even the end of a Q-tip in vinegar. Place it on the wart with a Band-Aid. We had these weird viral warts run through some of our kids one summer and this worked great.
- For lice: Apply olive oil to the entire head and put a shower cap over the hair. Keep the oil on over night or for at least 8 hours, then comb out the hair with a lice comb. Do this every day for the first week and every other day for the next. To get the oil out of the hair mix equal parts shampoo and dish soap. This process is free from harsh chemicals and it gives your hair a nice shine:)