Turmeric for Boils
★★★★★
One of the best things to have in your medicine cabinet is tea tree oil. In medical studies, tea tree oil has proven successful in wiping out staph bacteria quickly. Simply use a cotton ball or swab to apply tea tree oil to a skin infection, and cover with a clean bandage. Repeat two or three times per day until the infection is gone.
Another natural treatment is to make a paste of baking soda and apple cider vinegar, and apply to the infection with a cotton ball or swab. Cover with a clean bandage. Repeat several times a day
Mix 1 tbsp. Of honey with 1 tsp. Tea tree oil, and cover the infection with the sticky paste. Cover with a clean bandage, repeating several times per day.
Mix 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 3 tbsp. Honey and 1 cup hot water. Soak a clean cloth in the solution, and wring out. Use as a hot pack three times per day, using new solution and a clean cloth every time. Be sure and launder these cloths with bleach after use to keep the infection from spreading.
Read more: Natural Cures for a Staph Infection | eHow.com
Also because your baby has had antibiotics you need to buy some probiotics because the antibiotics will kill off the good bacteria in the baby's stomach and you need to repopulate the good bacteria. Doctors don't tell you this.
Cavities
Ted
Cavities
At my son's next appointment (6 months after I started feeding him eggs for breakfast instead of cereal) our dentist sent us back to the pediatric dentist to get another small cavity filled. The pediatric dentist decided not to fill the cavity because it was so small and my son's oral hygiene was so much better. (I do NOT believe that this was due to better brushing. His brushing habits have not changed).
Shortly after that I read Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, which is the cookbook based on Weston A. Price's research. I started feeding my children raw milk from grass-fed cows, farm eggs, homemade bread (with delayed-fermentation techniques), honey, etc. At my son's next 6-month dentist appointment I asked the dentist how the cavity was. The dentist said THERE WAS NO CAVITY. IT WAS GONE AND THE TOOTH WAS COMPLETELY HARD!!!!!! I have never heard of a cavity healing, but my son's did! The news made my whole year!
Keep following the Weston A. Price-type recommendations and you're sure to find improvement.
Also, relating to the recommendation above about keeping the body alkaline, Kombucha is very alkalinizing. I make it at home as it is way too expensive to buy. My children absolutely love it. They think it tastes like pop, but of course it's completely healthy.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Turmeric for Eczema
Turmeric for Eczema
Mineral oil or petrolatum in products acts like plastic wrap and prevents our largest organ- our skin- from breathing. It then traps the bacteria and then you see the eczema and other skin conditions.
Look at the Arbonne baby products or other natural products - and google the ingedients - you will be amazed at the level of carcinogenic ingredients in our skin care.
Turmeric for Eczema
Joyce's Remedies for Infants
★★★★★
08/13/2008: AKR from Jersey City, New Jersey writes: "I am an avid fan of EarthClinic! I have a suggestion for a new Infant/kids health page.
Here's my motivation. I recenlty became a dad. Son is almost six months now. I have made a pledge to myself to keep myself as healthy as possible using all the knowledge from EarthClinic (and other sources). So, hopefully, I will never have to fall prey to a doctor and the traditional medical system again. I would like to do the same for my son. But I don't have much idea as to what you can do, or what you can feed an infant/child (aside from the obvious of course)to keep them super healthy, and build inpenetrable immunity.
For eg, is it a good idea to give them a few drops of black strap molasses or bee pollen starting at a certain age? Omega 3 oils? My son has some allergies, which I suspect is due to HiB vaccination he got right at birth. I was not knowledgeable enough at that time to refuse that vaccine, but have postponed his schedule for the rest after much research. So, again, I am wondering, if I can give my son a few drops of ACV starting at say nine months of age to help clear his allergies?
Many thx!
AKR"
Welcome to the world of being on call for that fine son 24/7/52 from his birth onward. Aren't babies wonderful. Such perfect little ones, although you can get awful tired of not getting enough sleep.
My name is Joyce & I'll try to answer some of your questions. First off, if he is having allergy problems, the most likely offender is milk. If he is still on milk, do an on-line search for "excitotoxins" and print out that long list of names they hide monosodium glutamate (MSG) under and when you go looking for a good substitute formula make sure it doesn't contain any MSG or aspartame, especially any hydrolyzed plant (corn, soy or other)protein as Blaylock says this is the most deadly form of MSG because it also contains aspartame (Nutri-sweet). These are two excitotoxins found in most every processed foods and are ones you want to protect your son from. If you can't find baby foods without them, table foods will probably be better (just throw some of what gets cooked in a blender & puree it for him.
You are going to find it isn't easy to avoid these two excitotoxins unless you cook from scratch, and even then you have to read labels carefully. For instance, Tyson chicken (raw) that you have to take home and cook, ingredients list says: "chicken and may contain up to l5% chicken broth. They didn't mention MSG, but the chicken broth is loaded with MSG. If you read the ingredients list on Perdue beef or chicken (raw) which advertises no artificial ingredients, you find chicken or beef: followed by natural flavors or natural flavoring (which are names MSG is hidden under in our foods.
I think you will find small amounts of black strap molasses won't harm your little one, but don't give him any honey until after he is one year old. His little system isn't built to handle that just yet. I would also hold off on the apple cider vinegar until he is a little older. When you do start apple cider vinegar, remember the adult dosage is usually l tsp. to l Tbsp. and he is much smaller and would take much less of it. After he is one year old, you will probably find that a teaspoon of honey per day will also help with those allergies. When I first heard this, I tried to figure out the rationale behind this. I finally concluded that the honey is doing the same thing that expensive shots for allergies do. That is why you also are told to be sure the honey is produced within a fifty mile radius of where you live: the bees collect the pollen within a fifty mile radius from the hives, which means you are desensitizing your little one to all the pollens within a 50 mile radius, which is the same thing those shots are given for: desensitization to pollens. I would also hold off on other bee products until he is at least l year old since honey presents a problem. I've never heard or read that they do, but it's a chance I wouldn't want to take. Please do not do what I see a lot of parents doing - letting their children have carbonated beverages instead of drinking water. None of them have any nutrition in them - just colored water, sugar and chemicals. You may never see it in print but all carbonated beverages are harmful to the kidneys. If I had known this when my children were little, I would never have let them have the first sip of any soda pop or carbonated beverages. Believe me when I tell you they are harmful, because I saw 4 children 4 to l0 years old, who were spilling protein (proteinuria) in their urine.
Remembering something I had read several years earlier in a medical journal, I asked about their carbonated beverage intake. All 4 of them drank them instead of water. Changing nothig except not letting them have anything to drink except milk, water, and fruit juice and checking them one week later, 3 or them were negative for proteinuria and the l0 yr. old who had the maximum level (4+ proteinuria) on first examination was down to a trace of proteinuria. Her mother said she had done without them until she got one on the way to the clinic that morning.
Oh, in case your little fellow lucked up and is being breast fed by his mother, tell Mom to stop drinking milk and see if his allergy problems decrease. It may sound silly but I was being sure to drink at least a quart of sweet milk per day when breast feeding my third child, and he is the one who had the worst problems, especially to milk. When I got him onto a soy formula, it was like having a totally different baby. For the first time ever, I woke a sleeping baby up to make sure he was alright, because he cried an awful lot and seldom slept longer than l hour. After that first bottle of Sobee, he slept for 13 hours which caused me to wake him up to make sure he was alright. He was- I guess he was just exhausted from all the misery while on the milk formula. Also what Mom eats or drinks gets into her milk that the baby gets.
Another thing to try to avoid is food coloring in any vitamins or minerals that you give your little ones. These can also cause problems. Kids love the Flintstone vitamins/minerals but all that food coloring, sugar and flavoring are totally unnecessary and may trigger allergies. One of my nurse co-workers little granddaughter (at the age of 5 yrs) was having one urinary tract infection after another. I told her that they should watch everything the child ate or drank, because something was triggering those infections. A few months later she greeted me with "We found it, we found it". My reply was I didn't know it was lost - what did you find? She then told me that getting rid of the Flintstones also got rid of her urinary tract infections.
Hope these answers are helpful. If not, just post your reply back and if I don't have the answer, I'll see if I can find the answers for you. I think you are already giving this little fellow the most important thing which is love.
★★★★★
★★★★★
White Hair
Urination
Is your toddler urinating more frequently than before? How often is "frequent" to you?
I know that dairy can affect children who have trouble wetting the bed. So I guess it could cause frequent urination.
It seems that my toddlers that age do pass urine very often. It is one reason I potty train very late. But this has not been an issue once they are potty trained.
Are there any signs of bladder infection? Odor, pain upon urination, etc?
~Mama to Many~
Urination
My kid does not drink water that much. He's more into milk and fruit juice. He urinate at least 10x a day. It usually happens when he cries and he cries a lot: when he wants something; when we stop him from doing things he like, etc. He cannot talk yet so we thought that crying is his way of communicating.
We did not notice any odor on his urine so far and he does not complain of pain in urinating. In fact, we're trying to potty train him right now as well as coax him to drink milk from a sippy cup instead of milk bottle but we have not succeeded.
If you could give advice about the latter it would be appreciated.
Urination
10x a day for a 15 month old to urinate seems within the normal range - at least it has been for my toddlers.
I agree with you that crying is his way of communicating. I once had a child that age who screamed for everything. I got a DVD (video back then! ) of sign language for babies and taught him just a few signs. It helped him and us so much. He learned them so fast and he was able to communicate and it made our home more peaceful. You may be able to find this information online or at your library if you want to try and teach him some signs.
Most of my children were three before they were potty trained. Then it usually takes a day or two or less. :) I admire those who potty train early. It just never worked for me. I found the frequency that smaller toddlers needed to be taken potty, the frequency of accidents, etc to be frustrating to me and my little ones. When I realize that my child is dry through the night often, I figure they are about ready. I take them to the potty first thing in the morning and we go from there. (Though I had a child who was potty trained at 3 but not dry at night until 9 or so. Bed wetters need lots of patience and it just needs to be no big deal. I am grateful for pull ups for older children! )
Anyway, that is a bit of my philosophy and experience on potty training.
Potty training and weaning from the bottle at the same time may be too much at once. Both can be stressful and are changes. Toddlers love routines and it might be best to change one thing at a time. And toddlers often still need to suck, at least for comfort. If he does not suck his thumb or take a pacifier, he may need to hang on to the bottle a bit longer. You could try setting some limits on it. (Like, the bottle is for at home only. Or for daytime only. Etc.)
I hope these thoughts will help a little. Toddlers a are a lot of work. Try to find some fun every day and enjoy this stage. After 20 years of having at least one toddler, I have none in my house and I miss them! They are always saying and doing such funny and cute things.
~Mama to Many~
Urination
He does not pee that much anymore. He does not wear diaper during the day as he now go to the bathroom to pee. We still have him wear diaper when he goes to bed at night. But it's been more than a month already that his diaper stayed dry until morning. Like you did with your kids, we will no longer put him on diapers starting tonight. Hope he will not wet the bed until tomorrow morning.
However, he still not want to poo in the potty or the toilet. Thus, we still make him wear it until he was able to poo then, he stayed nappy-free until he went to bed.
The good thing is that he's already weaned off the bottle and drinks his milk from the cup, not the sippy cup. But we have to force-feed him because he refuse to drink milk on his own since we started weaning him from the bottle.
He still does not speak though but he understands us when we tell him to pick up his toys, etc. I wish he has the patience to utter words that we can understand because he keeps on talking to us in the language that he only knows - unintelligible words that sounds like Korean/Chinese/minions. It's funny I know but that's how he sounds when he talks very fast.
How do you deal with your kids when they were on this stage?
Jaundice
Jaundice
Jaundice
Vitamin K
Yes, frequent breastfeeding is great for preventing and helping jaundice.
Sunlight is also good for mild jaundice. Pediatrician Dr. Sears says to "put your skin-exposed baby next to a closed window and let the rays of sunlight shine on him for around fifteen minutes, four times a day. Sunlight dissolves the bilirubin in the skin so that it can be excreted in your baby's urine."
All of my babies have had the Vitamin K shot, though, I like you, prefer to avoid any "extras! " Only the first one (of nine) had any hint of jaundice. And he was a very poor nurser in the beginning. All of the rest of my babies nursed seemingly constantly in the first days after birth. So, if you have to get the Vitamin K shot, I would encourage you to nurse as much as baby is willing in those early days. My milk would come in in 36 hours when I did this; perhaps that is how they avoided jaundice. My milk did take 3 days to come in with my first baby.
I hope that all goes well with you and you can avoid the jaundice if not the Vitamin K shot. It can be pretty frustrating. I remember one time getting the "consent" form for the PKU test to sign in the hospital. So, I checked "decline." There was a box for it. The nurses came back and told me it was "mandatory." Well. So, I wasn't really giving permission, I guess, was I.
~Mama to Many~
Vitamin K
Vitamin K
That is great to know about the lemon juice. Thanks!
~Mama to Many~
Eating Fabric
Eating Fabric
Eating Fabric
Eating Fabric
Overweight Children
U are doing a very fabulous job for humanity! I often visit ur site, and learn a lot. Today I want to discuss about my 7yrs old daughter.
Actually mam, she born by c-section with weight 3.5kg and with a small problem of heart hole i.e. she had VSD of 3.5mm which had decreased to 1.76mm after 3 months of birth by itself.
We never needed any type of treatment for this untill now but doctor always advised to protect her from infection and always gave her fast treatment for cold, cough or fever, she had been given antibiotic injections for all these problems many times and she has a little weak immune system. But her over weight has always been an issue!
She is an active baby. Now at age of 7, her weight is 36kgs! Her food intake is also very good but often she has stomach ache and her motions are normal but frequency is 2-3 times a day.
Please suggest remedies for overweight. Can I give her ACV?
Follow up is free and done by volunteers. Lots of testimonials. Sai Ram Om
Overweight Children
Hi! I am wondering a couple of things about your daughter... Is she also tall? Or does she have excess fat for her age? Is her doctor concerned?
2-3 movements a day sounds within the normal range, as long as they are not watery. In some cultures, even 5 movements a day is normal because of a high vegetable diet. But you say that a stomach ache is common for her? Is it related to her bowel movements or after she eats?
If she has had many antibiotics and a weak immune system, she may do well to have some yogurt or even better, milk kefir daily. (Both should have active cultures in them to help the gut.)
We have found astragalus root to be an excellent herb for young children who need a boost to the immune system. I give a child that age 1/4 teaspoon of astragalus root powder once or twice a day. It can be mixed into some food (oatmeal or yogurt or rice. It is very mild.)
Some daily vitamin C may also be helpful to her immune system. I give children that age 1,000 mg when there are sicknesses going around. But vitamin C is safe for daily.
I give children of all ages apple cider vinegar and have never had any trouble with it. You could try it for her and see how she does. I would start with 1/2 or 1 teaspoon in some water or juice once a day.
Is she getting good exercise daily? A daily walk or bike ride is great because the sunshine is so good for health. But even on rainy days, a jump rope or indoor mini-trampoline would be a great way to keep active when she can get some exercise time outside.
Well, I will wait to hear more from you.
~Mama to Many~
Overweight Children
Toddler Whining
★★★★★
Re infant who has had lots of antibiotics;
The discomfort he's experiencing could be from a fungal infection/or candida. Antibiotics in quantity will nearly always guarantee fungi.
Consider nystatin. That is a prescription drug so your MD must prescribe. If me, I'd also try Colloidal Silver. Read up on it's benefits. CS can kill fungi; I have so experienced. CS is positively charged as is beneficial bacteria which is why (one pro explained to me) ... which is why CS does no damage to the beneficial bacteria. But CS is draws to fungi and bad bacteria (negatively charged).
How much for a child? Don't know. But a full dose for me would be two tablespoons three times daily. If my child responded well in a few days using a dropper to administer, then I'd keep it up to see if in a week he was better. CS would have to be administered for months to finally kill a system wide infection.
Also child might have developed a reaction to hard to digest carbs, such as wheat based; and remember, sugar based foods (fruit juices) definitely feed the fungus. So he needs to be off such sugars... so no "sippy cups" filled with juices.
Pillows for Children
Hi, my husband and I are a bit losted at what is the right thing to do. When our daughter was about 3 we asked a lady at the baby shop at what age and what type of pillow should we give to our daughter. She told us that her daughter is now 20 and still does not use a pillow. She advised against it. She did say that if we ever see our daughter using her stuffed toy as a pillow (putting it under her neck) then it would be time to buy her one. She is now 5 and we have never seen her using her stuffed toy. She did mention it maybe twice that she wanted a pillow, when we asked why she said because we have one. What do you think ... should she be using a pillow or not?
PS: She has never complained about stiff neck or any other muscle problems, is very healthy, only be sick twice and has sooo much energy. Opinions much appreciated. Thanks Shonni
If she is comfortable with out it, that seems fine. It also seems like sleeping on your back or stomach would make one less likely to need a pillow. I would tend to think that side sleepers would do well with a pillow so the spine is not so bent.
I do not let babies have pillows because of the suffocation risk. But somewhere around the toddler age, all of mine have taken up pillows, probably because everyone else in the house has one.
~Mama to Many~
Encopresis Remedies
Both my children, 12 and 8, have had severe bowel problems for several years. They cannot have bowel movements without Miralax. Even with the Miralax, they soil their underwear daily. We have tried several diets, probiotics, etc. Nothing has resolved these issues. My oldest has had problems 6 years. We feel so hopeless. Any suggestions?
Well, that would be disheartening, but I am hopeful that there will be things to help you children.
Dr. Christopher's Kid-E-Reg is great to help a child get regular and the herbs tone the bowel. This was so helpful for my toddler who had constipation problems that led to a rectal prolapse. I have had him on this for 9 months and he is now regular and has not had a repeat of the prolapse.
1 teaspoon of blackstrap molasses once or twice a a day would be good.
You have tried a lot of dietary things but I will mention a few anyway, in case they are ones you haven't tried. Lots of fresh fruit may be helpful. Avoiding cheese and milk for a while may help.
You might look into Natural Calm - a magnesium supplement which is easy to take. You can adjust the dosage for children. It is good for constipation.
Slippery Elm and Comfrey are both healing and soothing to the GI tract.
Keep us posted on how they are doing!
~Mama to Many~
~Mama to Many~
Encopresis Remedies
Encopresis Remedies
Food Allergies
Food Allergies
Would your nephew happen to still be breastfeeding? Toddlers can be completely sustained on breastmilk alone. My oldest child was unable to take any solids in until he was 16 months old. All of his nutrition came from human milk and he was and still is quite healthy. (He is 20 now.) The only concern for a one year old tends to be that breastmilk is low in iron. A half a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses twice a day would be some assurance there against low iron.
If not, goat milk might be an option for him. (It is much less likely to cause allergy issues than cows milk.) Raw would be ideal, but not accessible to most people, and you would want to know that it had been handled properly.
Even if there is no option for milk, he should be able to get plenty of nutrition other ways. Because of observed dairy sensitivities, I have been very slow to introduce milk and dairy to my toddlers. One of my children was weaned at a year and I did not give her dairy. But she did very well on grains, meats, fruits and vegetables.
There are lots of grains other than wheat that can be used for carbohydrates instead of wheat, as Mmsg mentions - quinoa, millet, and rice. My toddlers have all loved oatmeal.
Does he do well with fruits and vegetables? Meats and eggs? (Though sometimes children with allergies avoid or limit eggs, I believe?)
If he does not have molars yet, a baby food grinder or small food processor will make it easier to get food mashed up for him to consume.
Let us know what you find that works well for him!
~Mama to Many~