Category Archives: Healthy Living

Fennel seed helps digestive complaints

home remedies, nutrition

Last night at dinner, my oldest son started complaining of sharp stomach pain.  He’s not one to complain, and I saw that he was bent over at the table as he told me that because of the pain.  I asked him when they started, and he said his stomach was hurting a little before dinner, but he thought they were hunger pains.  Once he ate something, they got worse very fast. 

When I made that herb order yesterday, I had read a bit about fennel on their site, and remembered it was good for digestive complaints.  I ordered some for my husband, but of course the order won’t arrive for a week, so that didn’t help me.  However, I happened to have grown fennel this year in my garden, though I honestly didn’t know what to do with it.  I harvested some of the seeds about three weeks ago and put them in a container in my spice cabinet, and that’s what I pulled out last night.  They have a pleasant, licorice-like flavor.  I quickly made him a cup of fennel tea – a teaspoon of the seeds, 1 teaspoon of honey, and hot water, and told him to drink it. 

Because he’s fifteen, he didn’t mind the seeds swimming around at the top of his cup – a younger child would have needed them to be strained out.  Literally two minutes later, he told me he was starting to feel much better.  He said, “When you gave this to me, you didn’t think it would really help, did you?”  I told him of course I thought it would help, that’s why I gave it to him!  Anyway, within five minutes of that, he was feeling totally better – he kept saying how amazing it was – “It’s a miracle, I can’t believe it!” 

Today my dd13 went to a still photography workshop with my dd12, and they both really, really enjoyed it and learned a lot.  But she came home feeling very carsick.  I remembered reading a couple of weeks ago that fennel was good for nausea, so I told her to make herself a cup like what I made for ds last night.  She did, and that was the last I heard about her feeling nauseous!  (I would have otherwise told her to have some fresh ginger and honey, but this was quicker and easier.)

It’s so nice to be able to quickly and easily help alleviate unpleasant physical symptoms for my family!  Today I called the company back and asked them to tack onto my order a half gallon of vegetable glycerine, since that way I can make tinctures with the herbs and can easily get it into my baby and toddler – I just can’t see them drinking a whole cup of tea when they’re feeling under the weather.  And the tinctures last a lot longer than herbs maintain their pungency, so that will be another benefit.

Avivah

Buying herbs and making Supertonic

home remedies, recipes

Today I was planning to make a batch of Supertonic for the oncoming winter season.  It’s a powerful germ fighting mix that I made for the first time last year (I think the recipe comes from Dr. Schultze) and was glad to have on hand.  Several of my littler kids have runny noses and it’s a reminder to me to get some Supertonic in the works fast!  I bought almost all the ingredients I needed at the vegetable store last week, but still needed to get some echinacea leaves for it so today I popped into the health food store to buy some.

The price for the echinacea wasn’t marked, and to my good fortune, I had to wait a long time for the person who knew what the price was to become available.  Finally I decided to put it back  and order it online instead (though I did buy three homeopathic remedies once I was there – arnica – I keep one of these in my purse all the time; spongia tosta – for my dd who tends to get a croupy cough in the winter; thuja- for my 2 year old who has warts).  The good fortune part of the clerk not being available is that by buying from www.bulkherbstore.com I can spend much less and get much more! 

I haven’t ordered bulk herbs since I got a huge amount of pregnancy herbs, I think when I was pregnant with my 2.5 year old.  I had enough to last me through the pregnancy after that, too, and in fact, I bought so much that I still have a large bag of red raspberry leaves.  I was very happy with their prices and quality.  Most of the herbs I bought today I’ve never gotten before, though I’m familiar with a number of them from reading – here’s what I got: alfalfa, bentonite clay, comfrey, echinacea, fennel, lobelia, mullein, olive leaf, Pau d’Arco bark, spearmint, stevia leaves, spirulina, and some salve (one small container to keep in the car, and a larger one for the house) – they were out of peppermint and chamomile, which I really like, but I did get some Jasmine green tea.  I also got some arrowroot powder, which I need to start using more of since my ds15 has announced last week that he doesn’t want to eat gluten.

Some people like to load up on over the counter medication in preparation for the winter, but I’m not a fan of allopathic medicine and I don’t touch any of them.  I’d rather learn more about how to take care of my family safely and in ways that build up and strengthen their bodies.  Each of the herbs some in a half pound bag (though a couple of them I bought more than one bag full), so this order that should last for quite a while.  I spent a little over $100 for all of it, and would have spent several times that if I bought it all at the health food store. 

Here’s the recipe for Supertonic:

  • 1 part fresh chopped white onions
  • 1 part fresh chopped garlic cloves
  • 1 part fresh chopped grated ginger root
  • 1 part fresh grated horseradish root
  • 1 part cayenne pepper
  • 1 part dried echinacea

 Put it all in a glass jar, and fill with raw apple cider vinegar (I use Bragg’s) to cover.  Close the jar and shake vigorously.  Let sit 14 days or longer.  Strain and keep in glass jar.  Take 4 – 5 droppersfull (can use a teaspoon, too) in juice several times daily when first feeling sick. 

I don’t usually give my kids juice, and we alternate between going through it very quickly when using it as a base for vitamin c powder or Supertonic, and not having any at all.  So what I’ve decided to do this year is buy the juice concentrate, so I can keep several in the freezer and use it as I need it.  I have about ten concentrates of different flavors waiting in the freezer for just this reason right now.  🙂

Avivah

Being open to new information

home remedies, Parenting

My 13 year old daughter spent the weekend with a friend, and when she came back, she told me how healthy the family was.  It’s nice to see other families practicing good nutrition.  The two girls ended up trading back and forth their familial nutritional practices.

About a year ago, my daughter noticed this friend had a wart on her hand and gave her a suggestion for how to take care of it.  When they spent the weekend together, her friend was pumping her for more natural remedies – why?  Because after she tried what my daughter recommended, the wart disappeared.  So she was eager to get more tips because she saw my dd knows what she’s talking about.  (If you’re wondering, she told her to split open the stem of a milkweed plant and rub the juice on the wart – she’s full of useful information like this. :))

She told me how surprised she was that her friend actually tried her suggestions.  She said she’s used to her peers not being open to even thinking about things differently, let alone doing something different about them.  When she spent the past summer at overnight camp for four weeks, she had several opportunities to help her bunk mates with simple things like nauseau, stomach pains, etc, but most of them said they’d rather take medicine.  So she quickly learned what the typical response is.  Not very different from adults, is it?  When we’re faced with something different than what we’ve experienced, the tendency is to reject it without further exploration or consideration. 

But my daughter doesn’t relate to that way of thinking, of being unwilling to learn something new that might be useful just because she never heard of it.   She’s educated herself about natural remedies with her independent reading, and definitely knows more than I do in this area. 

I think our children pick up the nonverbal messages that we send, by virtue of who we are, and internalize that.  I’m constantly learning about new things and sharing that with my kids.  It seems that every couple of weeks I find another new issue to research and learn more about.  I don’t care if someone is a lay person or a trained professional; if they have knowledge that I could find helpful, I’m open to it.  

Seeing her confidence in learning and independently applying new information is rewarding to me as a parent.  Actually, it’s been rewarding for everyone in the family, from dealing with car sickness, diaper rashes, dandruff, and lots more!

Avivah

Replacing white sugar

Healthy Living, nutrition, Parenting

Okay, so the last three weeks I’ve been in super healthy mode.  Every once in a while I decide to upgrade the nutritional status of my family, when I’ve gotten used to past upgrades.

The first major, major change is I’ve finally decided to totally get rid of white sugar in the house.  I don’t really buy processed food, so the sugar that we were using was just in the foods we made, mostly baked goods.  But since white sugar has absolutely no nutritional value and contributes to most diseases, it seemed like there wasn’t any reason to keep it in.  I’ve resisted this for a while because the sugar substitutes are so much more expensive.

But I’ve finally done it!

I bought honey, stevia, and sucanat, and have settled on using sucanat as our main sweetener.  Well, for the family, anyway, because I’m back to my sweetener free food plan, which I went off during pregnancy after a long time on it.  I haven’t really found a way to use the stevia yet, the honey I’m using for hot drinks for the most part, and the sucanat is easy to use when replacing sugar because it’s such a similar consistency.

In case you’re wondering what sucanat is, it’s dehydrated natural cane juice.  It’s the color of brown sugar but grainier.  You can get in health food stores, but after buying one bag there to try it out, I went to my bulk food supplier and got it for much cheaper.  Just because it’s a healthy sweetener doesn’t mean that I’m using lots of it – I’m not.  I try to remember the idea that sweet baked goods are treats, not everyday foods.  I’ve been making less muffins as a result.

If you’re wondering how the kids are taking to this, it really hasn’t been a big deal.  Part of it is that I don’t spring these kind of things on my family and leave them feeling like I forced it on them.  I really believe in getting them on board by sharing the info that changed my thinking on – I don’t actively try to convince them.  And because there are easy replacements for the sugar, they don’t miss anything.  In fact, they really like knowing that the sweeteners we’re using are good for them!

Avivah

Homemade cough syrup

home remedies

Everyone around here still has that pesky cough – it seems that lots of people have gotten this now.  Dh went to the health food store a couple of days ago for the remedy that I wanted, but they didn’t carry it.  So he went to another store that sells homeopathics that we’ve never been to before – and they didn’t have it either! 

Dh told the doctor (I don’t know what kind of doc, but not a homeopath) what we wanted, and he looked it up in his homeopathic reference book. He had never heard of it but when he saw what it was indicated for, he agreed it was the right thing for this kind of cough, and said he’s going to order it for the store since it seems it would be helpful for many people. 

Then he recommended a homeopathic cough syrup (that we already have but dh didn’t know that), and told dh that to really help the baby, we should hold him upside down when he coughs – he said it would help him expel the phlegm.  Um – that might make sense but I’m really not going to try that.  I can just imagine how a little baby would feel to be held upside down when he’s already not feeling good. 

Yesterday one of the major newspapers had an article in their online version (can’t remember which paper it was) and they said that recent studies have shown that honey is more effective in helping coughs than over the counter cough syrups (like Robutussin).  No surprise, is it?  It’s so interesting to see how so many things that past generations instinctively knew are being corroborated by science nowadays. 

You can quickly make a cough syrup replacement using equal amounts of honey and lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar (I like the taste of lemon juice better but the ACV is better for you).  Just stir it up and give your kids a spoonful.  Tastes lots better than cough syrups, too! However, raw honey isn’t safe for infants under the age of one.  Not that most people are using raw honey anyway since most of the honey sold is pasteurized, but it’s something to be aware of. 

This is quicker than the natural cough syrup I made last winter – I sliced up a couple of onions and let them sit in honey for a week or so.  That released the antioxidants in the onions into the honey.  Once it was finished, I threw the onions away and used the remaining syrup by the teaspoonful for coughs. 

Avivah

Poison ivy remedies

home remedies

Yesterday morning ds (almost 5) woke up with a nice amount of poison ivy rashes on his face, legs, arms, and neck. Since ds (almost 14) also recently got some poison ivy after pulling it up from the garden, I needed to look up some quick and easy home remedies. Since it’s that season for everyone, I’m sharing some of what I found here in case it will be helpful for one of you.

– fels napa soap is supposed to be good to use
– paste of baking soda and water or activated charcoal and water- it draws out the itch
– make a paste, put it on a piece of gauze, put some plastic wrap on the outside of the gauze (to hold the moisture in), apply it to the rash and wrap it so it stays on several hours
– oatmeal baths relieve itching
– milk bath or milk paste – mix up 1 c. corn starch, 2 c. milk powder, 1/2 c. baking soda, 1/2 c. finely ground oatmeal – mix a small amount of mix with water to make paste, dab it on the rash and leave it on until it’s partially dry, then rinse it off. Don’t wait for it to totally dry because it will be hard to get off. For a bath, use 3 T. of the mix in the bath water.

Have a great day!

Avivah