By Ashley Allgood
As I’ve grown up, I have learned many natural home remedies from my grandparents, friends, books, or online. Some are strange, but others actually work! Without further ado, here are six natural home remedies that work for our family.
Steam An Ear Ache
One day my daughter was crying over an earache, and we couldn’t get to the doctor for a few hours. I felt helpless because Tylenol was not working so I got online to see what I could do. One suggestion said to boil some water and lean the child over the pot so the steam could ease the pain. That didn’t sound safe to me; I didn’t want to risk hot water burning my child.
Instead, I decided to create a steam room in the bathroom. The warm steam enters the ear and eases the pain. I was desperate, so we tried it. I took my daughter, some water to drink, books, and a phone into the bathroom. I put a towel under the crack in the door, turned the shower on full blast to create the steam and tried to distract her with books.
I was surprised that after five minutes, she was happily quiet and looking at books with me. This eased her pain until we could see the doctor. Bonus: It also opened up my sinuses in the process!
Honey for Allergies
Local honey is a wonderful natural home remedy and can relieve allergy symptoms. If you are like me, the spring and summer can make you miserable, but taking a spoonful of honey can ease your symptoms.
Buy some local honey at your grocery store or farmers’ market. Each morning, take a spoonful. The local honey works because you consume pollen, dander, and grass in each spoonful.
Hot Feet Can Reduce a Headache
I have always been prone to headaches. One day I had such a bad migraine that I was in tears. Nothing was helping, and I was desperate for relief, so I looked online for natural home remedies for headaches. I came across the suggestion of putting your feet in the hottest water you could stand, so the blood from your head rushes to your feet. The theory is that this relieves the pressure in your head and should ease a migraine.
So I tried it.
I filled the tub up a bit with the hot water on full blast. I put my feet in the water, and within seconds, the pressure eased. I was stunned! I kept my feet in the water for as long as I could and removed them. I noticed as my feet cooled, my head hurt a little more, so back in the water they went. I continued this for a while, and slowly my headache started to go away completely. I couldn’t believe something as simple as water could ease my headaches.
Sniff Alcohol for Nausea
My stomach turns just thinking about someone vomiting, but as a mom, there is no way I can avoid this. So when one of my kids has the stomach flu, I often keep an alcohol pad nearby. I learned this trick from one of my sisters-in-law who works with patients on dialysis. She told me that smelling alcohol would ease nausea.
So one night when the dreaded stomach flu hit my son, I felt my own stomach turn and quickly grabbed the bottle of alcohol. I took the cap off and took a few deep sniffs. My stomach actually calmed down. I couldn’t believe it. We had a few alcohol pads in our first aid kit, so I took one to my son, and he would smell it to ease his stomach too.
Milk for Burns
I heard once on a talk show that if you ever got burned, you can put milk on it. Milk’s low pH helps ease the pain, and vitamin D helps heal the burn. This stuck in my mind, and one day after I got a bad burn I decided to try it. I burned my hand in the kitchen, and after I ran cool water over it, I poured some milk into a bowl and put my hand into it.
I noticed right away that the stinging eased. I can’t say if the burn healed more quickly or not, but this is one of the best natural home remedies for pain.
Garlic Keeps Away the Bugs
My immune system has always been weak, so I started taking garlic tablets a few years ago as a way to boost it. I take tablets which dissolve in the gut so my breath doesn’t smell bad and I don’t burp garlic all day. Yuck. But, one thing I have noticed is I don’t get eaten up by mosquitos anymore! It used to be that if I stood outside for even less than ten minutes I’d be eaten alive.
These natural home remedies work for me; try them out and see if they can work for your family too!
Ashley Allgood is a Christian wife married twenty-one years to Michael. They have three children aged 19, 16,and 14. They live in Georgia where they homeschool their children. Ashley is a distributor for Young Living Oils. Ashley has always loved writing and storytelling. Read her blog, Thoughts Of Faith at mythoughtsoffaith.blogspot.com