Last night I put my daughter to bed with a clove of garlic stuck in her ear..... oh yes I did. I guess the next obvious question is, why would I do that?
Well at some point in the middle of the night, Abby got up crying with a hand clamped over her ear and every Mom in the world knows what that means. Ear infection. Now as an interesting aside, I have never had an ear infection in my life.... I mean as far as I know. I don't remember ever having an ear infection, but from all angles they look as painful as hell.
Since I am nothing, but the greatest Mom in the world...... I was completely out of children's Advil and Tylenol. Awesome, huh? I've got my poor little chickie crying her face off in pain and nothing for her. Yay, me! Actually I may have exaggerated that a little bit. I had less than half a dose of liquid advil. So I gave that to her with side order of warm compress and turned to Dr. Google.
Now seems like the perfect time for a little back story. One of my very best girls works at a natural health clinic and in the past couple of years I have learned tons about how the body works and that taking things the natural route is not all just hocus pocus.
Some of you may remember that Abby was born with a heart defect, a VSD which is a hole between the bottom chambers of the heart. She is 100% in the clear now, but when she was younger infections were always our concern because of the strain they would put on her heart. So she needed antibiotics before any dental work and antibiotics at any sign of infection. We very much erred on the side of caution. Now I know too much antibiotic is not a good thing, so it should be no surprise that I was surfing natural remedies in the wee hours of the morning as poor Abby cried here beside me and I decided to put my faith in Dr. Oz. Heck if he's good enough for Oprah, he's good enough for me.
So on Dr Oz's advice I filled her ear with peroxide and let it soak in there for 10 minutes, before letting it drain out. She said the relief from the pain was almost instantaneous. Apparently garlic is something of a natural antibiotic.... who knew? I watched a clip from Dr Oz's show on home remedies in which he said that garlic for ear infections did in fact work. So I tucked a clove the best I could over the opening to Abby's ear canal, covered it with a couple of transformer band aids and she slept comfortably the rest of the night.
She's been without pain ever since. We tucked another clove in there before she went to bed tonight and we haven't heard a peep since.
Have you ever tried a natural remedy?
2 comments:
I have not. But I might have to try that one! We get earaches on occasion around her (says the mommy, her voice dripping with sarcasm)
we had a cooking course on our honeymoon in Bali and they also stressed a lot the medical use of their herbs.
So I learned they use garlic against headaches. They slice a little bit of a fresh clove and then stick it against their forehead temples. If it sticks your body needs it....if they drop down to the floor your body does no longer need it. As long as it sticks to your temples, your skin transmits juices into you. In all honesty I believe that garlic has a curing effect but sticking slices to my forehead...i've never tried it anymore.
Very important for them was turmeric. I had no idea but turmeric is the original ingredient of Isobethadine , the most common antiseptic used in Belgium/Europe? I got ill there in Bali and immediately the hotel staff brought me some fresh turmeric juice...which was totally gross but it did instanteously stopped me from throwing up further more.
Then I had to put some fresh shredded turmeric in my belly button to ease the cramps. That's a local habit to stuff herbs in your belly button ....good way to force the sick to rest down I guess, instead of taking a pill and continuing your ratrace. I felt too weak to run around so I gave that a try too while resting in my bed but don't think belly button herbs are very effective ;). It does leave you with a yellow/brownish belly button for the rest of the vacation :D
Interesting to hear about the ear infection. I did not get it entirely well: did you simply put a clove in the ear or did you prepare anything beforehand. What is peroxide?
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