Guest Blog Post - Pamela Spence
/Bugs be off!
Winter wellness for the whole family
We all know that winter can be a challenging time for our immune systems and it really helps to have some home remedies at hand to be able to dish out to keep the bugs at bay.
These are some of the things that I always have to hand in my kitchen and are easily available for anyone to buy or make. Of course, I have the luxury of a full herbal dispensary at my clinic – but I really find that these are the medicines I rely on when it comes to simple coughs, colds and sore throats.
The Power of Elderberry
Elderberry syrup is widely available, my favourite brands are Sambucol and Pukka and I use both of them if my home-made one runs out! Elderberry is packed with vitamin C which we know can boost immunity but more importantly, it has an anti-viral component, meaning that it can actively start fighting the virus that causes all the horrible symptoms. If there are a lot of bugs going around, my little one has it every day, and if he actively has a cold, cough or sore throat then I give the maximum dose for his age (check the bottle for age and details). You can of course make your own – look out for your local elder and make a note to harvest next autumn and make a simple syrup.
Garlic, garlic, garlic
Garlic is well known for having an antibiotic component. This is formed when two chemicals in raw garlic come into contact with the air and bind together. So the garlic needs to be raw and crushed. Not such an easy taste to get into the kids! However, my top tip is to stir it into soups, stews, pasta sauces JUST as you are serving and often they won’t notice. For really little ones you can make garlic socks. Put a pair of socks on their feet, crush a clove of garlic and put it on the soles of the SOCKS (not the feet as it will irritate the skin). Lastly put another pair of socks on top. Within 30 minutes you should smell the garlic on their breath. It is very helpful at getting on top of snotty colds and coughs.
Calming Chamomile
Chamomile tea is not my favourite flavour – but it is definitely my desert island herb because it is SO versatile. Chamomile calms fussy children, it helps with tummy aches (especially lower abdominal crampy ones), it soothes itchy skin conditions (like eczema). I have given chamomile tea to my son since he was just a few months old (prepared like you would formula milk for little ones). It can really help with miserable kids who can’t sleep because they are unwell. Add a strong infusion to a bath for itchy skin to help a child get a better night’s rest without scratching.
Settled Tums
If you’ve ever been hit by a sickness bug you’ll know how much it takes out of the kids (and you – especially as you realise you have it all to come!). The two best remedies for nausea are peppermint and ginger and both can easily be made into teas to sip hot or cold. Peppermint tea bags (or a couple of sprigs from the garden) can really help to reduce that queasy feeling. A couple of slices of fresh ginger in a mug of hot water (with honey and lemon for older kids if they like) can do wonders to settle the stomach. Either can be taken hot or cold or even made into ice-cubes for them to suck if they are too hot. Once the vomiting has passed, chamomile tea will help their tummies to feel less raw.
Banish Chapped Lips
Some children are really prone to chapped, red skin around the mouth and on hands in the cold winter wind. If that’s the case, calendula (marigold) products can be really soothing. You can buy calendula balms over the counter or, if you like to make your own, simply add it as an infused oil or as a strong infusion to your usual balm or cream recipe. Calendula can help to reduce redness and roughness; it speeds up the healing time of the skin and it is anti-fungal so it can stop painful secondary infections setting in. It is also the bee’s knees for nappy rash so the littlest members of the family can benefit too.
Of course, if any of your family have underlying health conditions or if anything about your little people worries you, it’s straight to your GP. If you would like help to manage your family’s health in a more natural way, where appropriate, medical herbalists like myself often treat children. You can find your local herbalist here www.nimh.org.uk/find-a-herbalist Visit my FB page www.facebook.com/PamelaSpenceHerbalist where I share tips on all things herbal or see my website for clinic details www.pamelaspence.co.uk
BIO
Pamela is a medical herbalist, writer and educator based in Scotland, UK. She is often spotted as an industry expert in the media, most recently Hello! Magazine, the Financial Times and Woman & Home. She writes regularly for holistic health magazines, has written and presented her own BBC online series and has taught herbal medicine and ethnobotany internationally – from Russia to Germany, Italy to Uganda, the USA and across her native UK. She is the expert herbalist for Twinings Tea internationally creating their Superblends range and advises Deep Heat on product development. From her base in the beautiful West Coast of Scotland she sees patients at her busy holistic health centre. Pamela teaches and writes for the Herbal Academy and the Betonica professional herbal medicine training programme in the UK.
