A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally (57 page)

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Authors: Sue Frederick

Tags: #Health & Fitness, #Women's Health, #test

BOOK: A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally
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Page 157
Dill
Dill is the oil of choice for infant colic and often relieves an older child's stomachache, too. For colic, dilute 1 drop of dill in 1 tablespoon sweet almond oil, and use to massage the baby's tummy with gentle, clockwise circles; then turn the baby over and use the same gentle circular pattern on the middle of the back. For older children, add 9 drops dill and 2 drops geranium to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, and massage tummy and back in a clockwise direction.
Eucalyptus
A truly essential oil for colds, coughs, flu, or seasonal allergyanytime your child is congestedeucalyptus is anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antibiotic, and analgesic. Its cooling properties can soothe a sunburn, while the chemicals that give eucalyptus its cleansing aroma make it an effective insect repellent. The best eucalyptus oil, if you can find it, is
Eucalyptus radiata.
Use any of the methods of application listed above. For sunburn, cool compresses or a lukewarm bath are the best choices. For congestion, a shower rub with a eucaplytus-treated washcloth provides immediate relief. Rubbing some massage oil on your child's chest and back or adding eucalyptus to your humidifier's water reservoir soothes and heals. To use eucalyptus as an insect repellent, dab some eucalyptus massage oil behind ears and on elbows, back, chest, and knees.
Geranium
Its delightful floral fragrance, combined with its sedative, astringent, and antiseptic properties, makes geranium excellent for fretfulness or insomnia, stomachaches, constipation, or diarrhea.
Add geranium to a warm bath, or use in massage oil for a foot rub to soothe your child to sleep. A gentle clockwise tummy massage can provide relief for digestive and eliminative complaints.
Lavender
A truly indispensable oil, lavender is a powerful antiseptic, antibiotic, antidepressant, and sedative. Its use on cuts, scrapes, and burns speeds healing and prevents scarring. Its calming properties allay the shock of injuryone deep breath of its miraculous scent and tension flows away.
 
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Apply neat (undiluted) lavender to burns. Or place 2 drops on a clean washcloth, wring it out in a bowl of ice water, and apply as a cold compress. For bites from bees, wasps, gnats, and mosquitoes, apply several drops of neat undiluted lavender directly to the area three times a day. For ticks, a drop of thyme linalol placed directly on the tick's body will make it drop off; then apply a drop of lavender neat undiluted; wait five minutes and apply another drop to avoid infection and reduce pain and swelling. Use lavender in baths or massage oil for insomnia and in massage oil for tummyaches. For fevers, soak a cloth in a bowl of lukewarm water to make a compress, and apply to forehead, armpits, and lower back. For swollen glands that often accompany a sore throat or earache, combine 1 drop each of lavender, eucalyptus, and tea tree oil, mix these combined oils into 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and rub gently into the swollen areas; or use this combination of oils on a warm compress and apply over the throat area.
Lemon
Lemon is another good antiseptic for cuts, scrapes, and sore throats and is also an effective antiviral agent against warts.
For cuts and scrapes, add 10 drops to a pint of warm water and use as a cleansing solution. Dry and cover with a bandage on which you've put 1 drop of lavender. Mix the following gargle for a child older than one year with a sore throat: combine 3 tablespoons cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon honey, 3 drops ginger, and 5 drops lemon, and blend well. Put 1 teaspoon in a glass of warm water and gargle twice daily. (The child must be older than one year due to the presence of honey in this formula; honey can cause infant botulism in children less than one year old. For children less than one year old, substitute just enough rice syrup or maple syrup to render the gargle palatable.) Warts are caused by viruses and can be effectively treated using a combination of 10 drops lemon oil plus 5 drops lavender oil diluted in 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar. Mix well and apply directly to the wart twice daily using a cotton swab or cotton ball. Be careful to get the oil only on the wart and not on the surrounding skin.
Peppermint
An excellent carminative or digestive aid, peppermint can help heal your child's indigestion, flatulence, bad breath, and headaches due to excessive food consumption or eating a food that doesn't agree with him.
 
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For tummyaches and flatulence, add 15 drops peppermint oil to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and gently massage the tummy and back in a clockwise motion. For bad breath, dilute 4 drops peppermint in 1 teaspoon glycerin, add to a glass of warm water, and use as a mouthwash. For headaches whose cause is unknown, combine 1 drop peppermint and 3 drops lavender; blend with 1 drop vegetable oil and massage around temples, base of skull, and hairline. Diarrhea and gastric-related headaches in children older than one year can be eased by sipping a mixture of 1 drop peppermint oil with 1 teaspoon of honey dissolved in warm water. (For children younger than one year, substitute maple syrup.)
Rosemary
A physical and mental stimulant, rosemary is the oil to use for a morning shower or bath on the day of an important school test. Rosemary's invigorating properties make it an excellent oil for cleansing away the aches and pains of muscular-related complaintssore, fatigued muscles, and sprains and strains. Constipation and tummyaches also respond well to rosemary. Head lice hate the aromatic chemicals in rosemary, so this essential oil is an excellent preventive against lice infestation or eliminative agent should lice become established.
When your child's muscles are sore from too much exercise, the following massage oil formula will work wonders. Combine 5 drops rosemary, 5 drops lavender, and 5 drops peppermint in 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. For tummyaches and constipation, mix 15 drops rosemary with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and use to massage tummy and back in a clockwise motion. To protect against lice, combine 5 drops each rosemary, lavender, and lemon, mix well, and add 2 drops of this mix to the final rinse after shampooing. If your child already has head lice, remember that infection is not due to poor hygiene; lice can jump from one child's cap or jacket to another's or from one head to another on a crowded school bus. To help get rid of a lice infestation, rub the following remedy into the scalp and leave it on overnight. Combine 27 drops each of rosemary, geranium, and lavender. Combine 1 ounce beeswax (melted in a double boiler) and 2 ounces castor oil, and stir to a creamy consistency. Let cool, then mix in the essential oils, stirring well.
 
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Tea Tree
The most powerful antiseptic of all essential oils, tea tree is an impressive antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal effective in treating all sorts of infections, including athlete's foot, coughs and colds, earaches, fever, flu, mumps, measles, and ringworm.
For athlete's foot, give your child a foot bath composed of 5 drops tea tree and 1 cup rock salt in a large bowl of water. Soak feet for at least five minutes daily. Dry feet thoroughly, then dust with a foot powder made by adding 10 drops tea tree to 1 cup green clay or aluminum-free talc. Wear only cotton or wool socks. Avoid nylon socks, which will hold in perspiration. Before bed, dip a cotton swab in a therapeutic oil made from 5 drops tea tree, 1 drop lemon, and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, and apply between toes and around nails. Treat coughs and colds using the following synergistic blend: 10 drops each tea tree, eucalyptus, and lavender. For an ear infection, warm 1 teaspoon olive oil and add 3 drops tea tree and 1 drop lavender; blend well. Use this mixture as a massage oil, or soak a piece of cotton in it and use as an ear plug. For flu, add 5 drops tea tree, 2 drops lavender, and 2 drops thyme linalol to a warm bath; after the bath, massage your child's whole body with an oil made from 2 drops tea tree and 3 drops eucalyptus diluted in 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. For swollen glands, use this blend of 2 drops tea tree and 3 drops eucalyptus diluted in 1 teaspoon vegetable oil on a lukewarm compress applied to the swollen area. To cool a fever, add 10 drops of this same blend to a bowl of lukewarm water; immerse a compress, wring it out, and apply to forehead, armpits, tummy, and back. As soon as the compress warms up, exchange it for a cooler one. For mumps and measles, add 4 drops tea tree to 1 pint of water and use this solution to sponge down your child once a day. You can also use this mixture of 4 drops tea tree to 1 pint of water in a humidifier or air spray bottle. Diffused in the air, this essential oil will help not only to heal your child but also to protect others from contracting these infections.
Tea tree oil is especially effective against ringworm. Apply 1 neat undiluted drop directly to the infected area three times a day; the infection should clear completely within ten days. After the infection has cleared, follow up with an oil composed of 30 drops tea tree in 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. One caution: For those with sensitive skin, undiluted tea tree may be irritating if applied neat undiluted. Use a foot soak or medicinal oil application instead.
 
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Thyme Linalol
Thyme linalol, a species of thyme usually grown at high altitudes, is slightly more expensive but is the only species that should be used for children. Thyme is a powerful antiviral and should never be applied to the skin undiluted; however, used properly, it is safe and extremely effective for a wide range of conditions, including bronchitis, flu, warts, and whooping cough.
Use thyme linalol in a humidifier or spray bottle, add 2 to 5 drops to a warm bath, or dilute 2 drops in 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Spray thyme linalol around door and screen frames and in under counter cabinets, and you will also protect your home from parasites and insects.
Homeopathy
Developed by a German medical doctor, Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), homeopathy is a precise system of pharmaceutical treatment that uses minute doses of natural plant, mineral, and animal substances to stimulate the body's own healing defenses. Seeking to understand the reason why
Cinchona officinalis
(Peruvian bark) was an effective treatment against malaria, Hahnemann rejected the conventional wisdom that cinchona cured because of its bitter and astringent properties. Other plants and botanical medicines were more bitter and astringent than cinchona but did nothing to help sufferers recover from malaria. One of the premier physicians of his day, Hahnemann decided to run a controlled experiment. He took cinchona himself and promptly developed all the symptoms of malaria. This experience led him to test numerous plants, chemicals, and minerals, first on himself, then on healthy volunteers. In each instance, he noted the same interesting effect: certain extracts produced symptoms similar to those produced by certain diseases.
The Law of Similars
As his experimentation evolved, Hahnemann noted that instead of causing symptoms, very minute doses of extracts would cure a person of the same symptoms a large dose would produce. From this phenomenon, he developed homeopathy's most fundamental principle, the law of similars: Like cures like. He coined the name
homeopathy
for the new medical science, creating the term from two Greek derivatives,
homeo,
meaning like or similar, and
pathos,
meaning disease or suffering.
 
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Potentization
Hahnemann's research also uncovered an astounding fact that scientists are still trying to explain: The more diluted the remedy, the more powerfully it mobilizes the body's healing forces and the less doses are needed. Homeopathic medicines are made by diluting the plant, mineral, or animal substance in double distilled waterusually one part substance to nine parts water and then vigorously shaking the solution. If this process is completed twelve times, the medicine's strength is 12X (
X
stands for the Roman numeral for 10). More powerful remedies are produced when a substance is diluted 1 part substance to 99 parts water; a remedy diluted like this twelve times would have a 12C potency (
C
stands for the Roman numeral 100). The majority of homeopathic medicines sold for household use are in the lower end of the X potencies, but the process of dilution may be repeated 3, 6, 12, 30, 200, 1,000, 10,000, or 50,000 times. Homeopathic physicians often use single-dose remedies at the 200C potency.
According to present laws of physics, when a substance has been diluted to 24X or 12C, in all probability no molecules of the original substance remain. Consequently, this principlethe smaller the dose, the more potent and deeper acting the medicinehas been very controversial, to say the least. Skeptics base their attacks on homeopathy on this concept, claiming any positive benefit must be due to placebo effect. Yet research has repeatedly demonstrated that homeopathic medicines produce statistically significant beneficial results not only in adults and children but also in infants and animalstwo groups in which a placebo response is unlikely.
Individualization
A second important principle of homeopathic philosophy, individualization, can be summed up by this statement: It is more important to know what kind of person has a disease than to know what kind of disease a person has. Homeopathic medicines are based on the unique way the illness presents itself in the individual, rather than on the illness itself. Take the common cold, for example. One child may sneeze constantly; have lots of watery, burning, nasal discharge from both nostrils; watery eyes; have a red, irritated, tender nose; be restless and irritable; and want lots of cool water to drink.

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