Home Remedies: Croup and Cough

Thanks to Traditional Foods for use of the image.

Bonnie, one of our readers, is watching after her grandson, Benjamin.  The poor kiddo is having terrible croup issues and she was wondering if I knew anything that could give the poor boy some relief until he can see the doctor on Tuesday.

Well, first off, I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV (same with naturpath), but I do know from relatives whose children have suffered from croup that there are a couple of simple things you can try that seem to really work to give the kiddos some relief.

1)  Cold air.  My sister-in-law spent many a night out on her front porch with her son when he had croup.  The cold air helps to reduce swelling in the airway and helps to alleviate the symptoms.  This is also an approved medical method that pediatricians will tell you to do.

2)  A warm mist humidifier.  Wal-Mart sells the Vicks ones for cheap from what I understand a lot of people say they've had success using these.  I'd try adding in a couple of drops of Eucalyptus oil into the humidifier too as that'll help to alleviate congestion (Eucalyptus is what menthol everything is pretty much made with, so you know what the scent will be like :).

3)  Put some Vapor Rub on their feet and stick their feet in socks at night.  Believe it or not the vapor rub will evaporate upwards and seems to work better than slathering it on their chest.  I was skeptical about this one, but used it on the kids the last cold we had and it worked wonders. Here's the recipe I use.

Home Made Vapor Rub (source: Mothering.com forum)

I made this myself and loved it, but put some of the adaptations I made in the recipe instructions below :).

Directions:

Combine in a 1/2 pint wide mouth mason jar:

• 1/8 c Olive Oil (I had good quality beeswax so this ended up doubled for me)
• 1/8 Tbsp Mango Butter (or any semi-soft or hard butter)...I used Shea Butter
• 1 Tbsp Beeswax, chopped

Microwave 1 minute, stir, & repeat in 30 sec intervals until beeswax is completely melted.

Blend in:

• 1/2 Tbsp Vit E (you could also use vegetable glycerin)
• 20 drops Eucalyptus Oil (I used about 30 or so)
• 10 drops Peppermint Oil
• 10 drops Sweet Orange Oil
• 10 drops Lavender Oil
• 10 drops Tea Tree Oil

Pour into a  holding container and slather on as needed.  Even my husband was amazed how much this stuff smelled and acted like vapor rub.  With no petroleum bi-products or weird chemicals (and it doesn't break my son out...major bonus there!).

If you're looking for a bit of a simpler recipe to use I'd go with this one...

Cooking Traditional Foods has a recipe for home made vapor rub HERE that looks like a good one, doesn't require the semi-hard butter to be added and uses readily available essential oils (look to All About Herbs or Natural Pantry to find them locally I'd say).

4)  Other remedies that I'm not familiar with.  Homeopathic remedies are thus far out of my field of experience, so I'm going to link you to a couple of resources that goes over some of them...

• Native Remedies:  Remedies for Croup
• Frugal Granola:  Natural Remedies for Croup and Cough

5)  Good old modern medicine!  If you are worried about your kiddo doing something like stopping breathing or something, please get them to the ER!  Preventive remedies are great and all, but in emergency situations modern medicine is there for a reason.  Personally when my son's cough gets really bad, exposure to possible allergens or irritants to his skin or not, I reach for the good old albuterol vaporizer his doctor had me use on them when they had terrible coughs as babies and still use to this day (and no, neither of my children have asthma...it just helps to break up all the crud in the chest and open up air passages).  She always makes sure I have current supplies of albuterol to give them breathing treatments if needed (which is seldom).  It's a wonderful device that has kept both of my children out of the ER a couple of times.

Take it to the Streets Tuesday: Spiced Honey Recipe?

Our question, well request *laugh*, today comes from one of our readers, Jennifer.

"Hi,

Not really a question, but more a request.  I read your post on Facebook a while back that you'd come up with a honey recipe to can and was wondering if you'd share it.

Thank you!

Jennifer Z."

Sure thing, Jennifer.  Here you go!

******************

Spiced Honey With Lemon  (from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)

Makes about 3 pints.

• 1 lemon, end pieces removed and cut into 6 even slices
• 12 whole cloves 
• 3 cinnamon sticks 
• 2 2/3 cup liquid honey

1.  Prepare canner, jars and lids (see canning section for more information on canning)

2.  Stud each slice of lemon with 2 cloves (I just stuck it through the pulp of the lemon, but the directions actually said to do it through the peel...I just wasn't that worried about it).  In a non-reactive saucepan (I used stainless steel), combine lemon slices, honey and cinnamon sticks.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Boil gently for 2 minutes.

3.  Using tongs, remove lemon slices and place 2 in each canning jar.  Remove cinnamon sticks and place one in each jar.  Ladle hot honey into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to finger tight (remember the ring is JUST there to hold the lid in place until the adhesive has time to melt and mesh the lid to the jar...screwing it down super hard is NOT going to help the process, so go with finger tight and save yourself the hernia :).

4.  Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water (I usually go for about 2 inches above the jars).  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Turn off heat and let jars sit another 5 minutes and then remove, cool and store.

This stuff REALLY helps a sore throat big time and is great to help a cough since the honey coats your throat and helps sooth tissues.  I actually like the taste of this stuff so much I'll eat it with a teaspoon, but you can also put it in tea as well or anywhere else you could see needing some citrus and sweet applied (oatmeal or say iced tea come to mind too).

Health and Beauty: A Really Cheap (and all natural) Eczema and Psorasis Relief Tip!

Okay, first I have NO idea how well this works, but I've hit some forums where people swear that this works and works well, so when you get that "eyebrow up into the sky" look on your face, please keep an open mind *laugh*.

Next time you have a bad psorasis or eczema break out, try reaching, not for your steroid creams first, but for the head of cabbage in your fridge.  Here's what you do...

1.  Take outer leaves of cabbage and rinse well under running water. Gently pat dry with clean cotton cloth or even better air dry.

2.  Spread leaves on a board or table so that the inner side of leaves face upwards (inner side of leaves must face up as they contain the most valuable nutrients with less chemicals).

3.  Bruise the inner sides by rolling out with a rolling pin (if you don't have a rolling pin use a glass that has a decently smooth surface on it and use that...it works in a pinch). This ensures that cells and nutrients are broken and that the juice is flowing. 
 
4.  Then wrap the leaves around the affected part of the body ensuring comfort. Secure with gauze or cloth (I'd think that cloth would be more comfortable). If you have a break out in an odd area I'd definitely ask for help with this.   Leave on for at least an hour. Remove leaves.

From what I understand, be prepared for an awful smell. This smell confirms that the toxin drawing properties of the cabbage has done it's job.  People have reported really astounding, and fast, results using this method, so I wanted to pass it along to others suffering from skin ailments.  Especially considering how cheap we can get cabbage up here :).  Makes me wish my son would put up with having cabbage strapped to him for an hour.


Enjoy!

Health and Beauty Thursday: Herbal Remedies for a Sore Throat

Thanks to Methow Valley Herbs for use of the image!

I know that this article is going to be a bit beyond some of you out there as it mentions some herbs that you'd have to buy to make some of this stuff, but the article DOES have some good tips that you can just go and do yourself (compresses, use more sage, etc.) and also gives you some information on what things like Echinacea does for your body and stuff.  I found it awesomely informative and am going to be making the Sore Throat Pastilles today as I can feel myself coming down with a cold (stress + sleeping on cold floor to be able to get to son quicker = not good for health).

Go HERE where Methow Valley Herbs gives you tons of cool information and tips on how to handle a sore throat the natural way :).

Stay tuned too as I'm going to be sharing a recipe that is SUPER easy to can and is good for a sore throat here too soon!

Enjoy!

Health and Beauty Thursday: How to make Herb Infused/Medicinal Honey

Thanks to Frugal Granola for use of the photo!

This is a nice trick to get your kids to eat some added nutrients too.  I'm on a canning honey, maple syrup, etc kick the last couple of days (and still going *laugh*) so I HAD to look this up just to share in my mania ;).

Go HERE where Frugal Granola shows you how to make Herb Infused/Medicinal Honey for kiddos (one and older of course :) and adults alike.

Enjoy!

Health and Beauty Thursday: Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know a lot of you are like, "But where is the spa recipes?" and you will see more of those on Thursdays, but I also wanted to cover other health and beauty types of applications on Thursday too, so I changed it up a bit :).

Today I wanted to go over how to make your own hand sanitizer.  Why?  Well because cold season is upon us and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not relishing the idea of being sick all winter long.

So, here's a couple of neat recipes to try.

E-How shows you how to make your own hand sanitizer HERE with a vodka base (and no vodka doesn't have a scent and yes it is recommended you use the cheap stuff for this).

If you have the materials you can try a recipe that dates back to the good old Black Death.  The Vinegar of Four Thieves dates back to grave robbers who used the concoction while robbing the graves of plague victims to stop themselves from succumbing to the illness (yeah disturbing I know).

Bulk Herb Store has a great little history of the concoction and also a recipe for it if you want to try it.  They even sell the herb mixture pre-ground if you want to go that route.  It also makes an excellent insect repellent from what I understand, so double bonus.

Enjoy!