Alert!
Two days ago, miss A. came back from school sounding stuffy. 3 hours later she had a fever and what looks like a full blown bronchitis. She is not one to take medications of any kind. Oh no. She'll fight to the death about it. Her brother entered kindergarten the year she was born. And they were both sick with something almost every month. But no matter how bad she feels, she won't take anything. And so she nursed. And nursed. And nursed. For 3 whole years, me breastfeeding her on the rocking chair was the only medication she took ( apart from the one time that she had an ear infection and she had to take antibiotics. I don't even want to remember the 2 times a day we had to get the medicine down her throat. It's the stuff of nightmares.).
It worked very well, and very quickly too. They should sell breast milk as a remedy for cure all in the stores.
But boy, I won't lie to you: I was very tired of it. So were my breasts.
Well, now she is 8 years old and even though it is a bit easier to coerce her in taking something it is still a lengthy, tortuous project involving stealth and usually a downright lie: " It doesn't taste bad I swear! ( while you try to suppress a gag reflex when looking down the cup holding a viscous purple liquid) ".
So I said enough. I've got reactions myself to cold medications and I'd rather suffer than take them most of the time.
( We'll carefully ignore the correlation between me not taking medications and her not taking it either. Thank you.)
I've always been very interested in plants and herbs in general and I started to get more interested in the subject when miss A. was born. I've tweaked an herbal tea recipe that we take when we are sick. It really works very well and quickly. My son had a sore throat and 2 hours after drinking this tea it was gone. It's also good for general antisepsis, coughs and fevers. Oh, and it tastes good too. Really good actually.
In 4 cups of water ( 1 L.) boil together for 10 mns:
2-3 thick slices of ginger
7 sprigs of thyme
a small handful of sage
a whole lemon cut in thick slices
if feverish add a 1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon or cayenne pepper
And eat a lot of garlic. I usually make a big pot of soup with a lot of different vegetables cooked in chicken bouillon. And lots of garlic. And alphabet pasta. Verry important the alphabet pasta :)
And you? What kind pf a patient are you? And what do you take when you are sick?
By the way, if you are pregnant, never take anything, certainly not herbs, without talking to your doctor first. Or in this case your herbalist.
3 comments:
3 years breatfeeding miss A.
Oh wawwwww, I'm very impressed, I found it so exhausting (like "energy sucking") when I started with Loup, after a couple of months I was done.
It must have been pretty hard to stop after 3 years no? It's wunnerful you could make it!
Loup hates any kind of medication, I'm always forced to play a trick (hide the antibio in a chocolate creme, etc), that's very boring! And there's really nothing to do, he will spit out all what I give him...
But I must say, I've got some stuff from the US via a friend whose mom is a doc, and there it seems you can find medication in a much more attractive "shape" ("tylenol's meltaways, melon flavour, etc) and that helps me a bit, with Loup!
I use homoeopathy sometimes, for the kids.
For me (shrugging), aspirins when it's necessary and hot toddies when necessary too, or not :P
I'm going to note down the recipe of your herbal tea! When one of my babes start to cough, it's getting crazy (irritation -> vomit)
and whenever you want to share your "herbal" knowledge like that, I'll be highly interested!
ermm is it me or some readers get too talkative with their comments? (ermmm yes I guess it's me :P)
Candy Froggie:
I like it when you leave lengthy comments :)
Mostly the difficult part with breastfeeding for 3 years was the breastfeeding at night which is tiring. But, in miss A's case she would have gotten up at night anyway since she is still to this day a "light" sleeper. With the breastfeeding it was easy and fast for everybody to go back to sleep. I also really dislike messing with bottles and mixing powdered milk, sterilizing...dear god, it took a lot more time for me when I was bottle feeding my son than just lifting my shirt and hum, have open bar ;).
It took 2 days for her to stop asking for the breast.
But she still came to sleep with us almost every night for 3 more years. Actually she still asks to fall asleep in our bed sometimes...she is getting really heavy to carry back to her bed though!
If you try the tea, put a big teaspoon of honey in the cup, it'll make it even better.
I'm planning an extensive herb garden for this summer and I'll share any good recipes that I have gladly.
Maybe a hot teddy would help me too...I'm going to try it now. In the name of science of course. Hehehe
Oh, and about the medication in the US: it's true that wether for adults or children they are a lot more appealing than in France. I find that they are not very helpful though, especially for coughs and stuffiness.
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