Surviving Cold and Flu Season : Natural Remedies

So, what's the first thing you reach for when cold or flu symptoms knock at your door. Actually I had been thinking about this post since the beg. of Nov. but lazy me or let's put it in this way one by one kiddos & me getting sick and all the festivities going on(Nov. to first week of Jan.), never got around to write this post. But I believe it's still not too late as we have cold weather going on and cold days means more cold & flu cases(as I'm writing this again got cold, hope it won't last long with all the stuff I'm going to share with U guys today, Yes! home remedies worked again). Below are some of the home remedies I have been relying over the past few month and  have been using these from few years now.. My older one did took 2 doses of regular pain reliever as she was crying but other than that these home remedies did took care of our sore throat, cough & cold symptoms(runny nose & headache etc.), possible ear infection & fever.

Disclaimer : I would like to tell my readers that these remedies are practised by me & my family for years and we rely on these as they have been quite effective for us. If you or your child is not well, please seek the assistance of a competent health care provider. I or this blog is not responsible in any way.

1) COUGH  : In case of first signs of cough I always start my family on this tried & tested home remedy of honey & turmeric which is not only anti-inflammatory but is also a natural antiseptic and anti-bacterial too. For ages Turmeric has been used in India as an instant antiseptic & anti bacterial to deal with wounds, cuts & cough, cold.. I believe it's better to take some sort of natural anti-biotic when ever cough & cold starts so that possibility of having infection can be reduced.

2) COLD : Same way cold in my family calls for raw garlic. It also comes under the category of natural anti-biotic, anti-fungal and anti-viral food. Some of U might find it difficult to eat, Yes! U gotta eat one small clove of garlic. You don't have to chew on it but cut it into small pieces & swallow them with some warm water, twice in a day, once in the morning & once before bedtime. If it's too big of a clove take only half of it at one time, also the big clove usually have inner part (sometime which is greenish kind), in that case take inner part & discard it as that can cause indigestion. If U have a sensitive stomach eat it with some food, don't eat it on empty stomach. In my family we all eat it empty stomach specially the morning dose.

When to start taking it, when U get that first sign of cold knocking on your body in terms of little tickle in your throat, runny/stuffy nose or U just know it with that sneeze that cold is coming. Keep taking it till the cold bug is gone as garlic helps in building the immune system in general also.

3) FEVER : Now coming to the another symptom which is kind of next stage of cold is fever. Last month as I mentioned above we all were sick one by one so here's the story how it started..... on a weekly grocery trip, while I was waiting in the check-out line, my little one playing hide & seek behind the big metal pillar(big enough for a 3 yr. old to hide behind), when she didn't show up after may be 30 sec. of hiding I looked back the pillar to check on her & she was licking the pillar. I know, I know it's gross, but that's what she did and  next day she fell sick. She do get little cold occasionally because she won't wear warm clothes and I normally take care of that with this home made decoction but this time it was fever & cold. I immediately started her on fennel/saunf tea & ajwain/carom water alternating them every couple of hours. I don't exactly remember from where I picked this fennel tea remedy but It's simple & no harm kind so I don't see why not to use it. It's simple take 1 cup of water & roughly 1/2 tsp. of fennel seeds, boil them till the water is half in quantity, strain, cool a bit. Same way make ajwain water. I gave her couple of tablespoon of this decoction alternating it with ajwain water, repeated thru out the day. Made these mixtures twice a day, continued her on these teas for couple of days and from third day kept her on only ajwain water. In case of adults half  a cup can be taken twice a day.

Do not make a big batch of these teas as these are more effective when used freshly made, if U are really busy may be make it for a day, keep it in the fridge, warm it a bit before using it  & discard any leftover by the end of the day.

Note: I've been using this fever reducing remedy since last 4 years or so for my kids. For my now 9 yr. old I do sometime use conventional medicine(minimum dose) along with this remedy, and I believe it does fasten up the recovery process.

4) EARACHE / EAR PAIN : Now, fever was under control, cold was also kind of gone passed to the next member of the family, that is big sister. She was already on these remedies so continued the same process. But now a new thing happened for the little one. She asked me I no want to nene(sleep), aise kyon hota hai(why it's happening like this) and she did the action of yawning & point to one ear. All right, when I had similar situation some 7-8 yrs. back I use to rush to the pediatrician & come back with 5 or 7 day course of anti-biotics. Yes! U guessed it right it was an earache or may be possibly an ear infection(as she did had a fever....which is normally a sign for infection).She was little cranky, keeping T.V on, did helped a lot. Next thing was google to the rescue and I landed up on one forum about natural remedies. It was simple nothing to put in the ears as I'm scared of doing that even in my ears so no way for little one. I tried it & it did worked, now I'm not sure how much exactly it helped(because it can be kinda a tricky to get an answer from a 3 yr. old about how much pain is gone) but it did helped for sure & in the forum about 80% were the positive response to this remedy. Big kids & adults had used them & some even assured that pain was gone totally, after 10-20 minutes,  of first time use. I'm not able to find that link but if I do find it I'll for sure add the link here. Now for the remedy....

What I used :

1 red onion

some glass jar/mug/bottle with wide mouth, size no bigger then mug

a thick cotton sock/towel

What I did :

• Take a red onion & bake it for around 45 min. to 1 hr. on 350-400 degree.  I used only half a onion as it was big & I needed it for child only. I used bake setting on my toaster oven for this purpose.
• Cover the jar(from bottom) with sock & fold it over so only mouth part is open, this is just to make handling of the jar/mug easy as once U put hot onion in it, it's gonna be difficult to handle it. Alternatively wrap a hand towel around the jar. But I felt sock method much better so my 3 yr. old could also hold it.
• Once the onion is baked, use tong to handle it as it's gonna be very hot. Put it into the jar using fork prick some holes in it to release the heat. I just used knife to make some cuts.
• Now, hold this jar/mug next to your ear that is in pain. It's better if U can cover your ear with the jar opening but first make sure that steam coming out of it is not too hot.
• Take that steam for around 10-15 minutes or till it's there.

There's one more thing I'm really a big fan of : Essential Oils, specially during this time of the year but that's for the another post. So stay tuned in.

How about you, do you have any natural remedy for cough, cold and flu season which you would like to share with us here.

Golden Spice : Home remedy for cough

Those who grew up in India like me, for them turmeric(haldi) is one essential thing for cooking and base for many home remedies. For others also now a days turmeric is no more alien word. People are recognizing it's health benefits other then for getting golden yellow color in foods. Turmeric is one of nature's most powerful healer, mainly known for it's anti-inflammatory properties, it is a natural antiseptic and anti-bacterial agent. Studies and research has revealed that it's proving beneficial in the treatment of many health conditions from cancer to Alzheimer's disease.

Disclaimer : I would like to tell my readers that this remedy is practiced by me & my family and we rely on this as it's been quite effective for us. If you or your child is not well, please seek the assistance of a competent health care provider. I or this blog is not responsible in any way.

Today's post is about Haldi-Shehed or in english we can call it Turmeric-Honey. Most of you must be familiar with milk with turmeric as a cough remedy but I personally really can't drink that, so arround 2 yrs. back when I came across this remedy it sounded much easier to take & beleive me it really is. I started using this remedy whenever any one in the family get those symptoms like itchy throat means onset of  cough and it really works. If you start taking it as soon the symptom starts, cough and itchy throat usually goes away in couple of days but we do continue to take it for 3-4 days. I have given it to my daughter also at the age of 6 yr. and she also takes it on regular basis during the cold weather as a precaution against cold & flu.

What U need : 

• half a tsp. of turmeric powder/haldi (for kids 1/4 tsp. is o.k)
  
• pinch of cinnamon powder(optional, it also have some healing properties plus makes the taste little better)
• around 1 spoon of honey(or more as per taste)

What to do :

• mix everything together and take it empty stomach first thing in the morning.

I'm sending this post as well as my earlier post on home remedies "Nuskhe Dadi Ma Ke" which is mainly for babies & kids all tried and tested in my family, to A to Z Vegetarian Cuisine for their first event : Home Remedies - Series 1

Just a News to share 

Turmeric beats gold, posts 300% returns in India

They have the same colour--yellow. And they have been the hottest commodities in India in 2009. Turmeric, the yellow spice extensively used in foods and medicines and gold, the yellow metal, that is the toast of investing public, have emerged as the hottest, competing commodities in India in 2009.

Is the low-profile agricultural commodity, turmeric, a competition to the globally most sought-after investment asset gold? Yes, in India, the simple, spicy, yellowish turmeric has beaten gold, the yellow metal, in investment returns.

While gold prices gained by nearly 35% in India, turmeric prices have risen by a whopping 300% in India in 2009.  Source: commodityonline.com
Now I understand, why last week my Mom was saying that turmeric is getting costlier day by day.

Home Remedies

"Nuskhe Dadi Ma Ke"

While growing up, for routine health problems, my parents always first looked into kitchen rather then medicine cabinet(in fact we didn't had one...only had pain killers at home, for emergency), same is the case with my in-laws and I'm very much sure many of you can relate to this. Now when I'm the in charge of my kids health, I also rely on these remedies a lot.

Disclaimer : I would like to tell my readers that these remedies are practised by me & my family for years and we rely on these as they have been quite effective for us. If you or your child is not well, please seek the assistance of a competent health care provider. I or this blog is not responsible in any way.

I want to send this to Radhika's & Sudeshna's Food For Stages Of Life - Cooking for Infants & Toddlers event. Though I know, this post doesn't have any recipe for the event but then at the same time it's so related to what & when of food, we give them to eat. I hope this post will be of some knowledge to parents like me, who always wish that oh....I wish My Mom or MIL was here to take care of the baby & then pick the phone call them to check what should we do...baby is sick. So, specially for infants & toddlers, here are few of my remedies, I always rely on, for my own kids :

1) Colic : u can call this home made gripe water, half a cup of water + pinch of fennel seeds or dill seeds, boil them till the water remains half in quantity, cool & strain the water then give it to babies 1 teaspoon at a time 2-3 times in a day(2 mths. onwards). In case of babies 5mths. older quantity can be increased to 2 teaspoon at a time. It's good for digestion so it can be given in normal situation also.But effectiveness of this water won't last longer, so I normally make fresh everyday whenever I need.

2) Constipation : this is one very common problem among the kids specially when they start on foods other then milk.

• Hing(asafoetida) : it helps in relieving the gas,make a paste using few grains(a pinch) of hing & very little water(room temp.), apply it around the naval area in circular motion. In case of an infant, if umbilical stump(cord) is not healed yet, make sure not to touch that with wet hands.Effective for infants & kids.
• Ajwain(carom seeds) : boil half cup of water and pinch of ajwain.Let it boil for 2-3 min. color of water will change, let it cool now, take the seeds out by draining the water & reserve it for use. For babies 3-5 mths. give 1 teaspoon at a time 2-3 times in a day.for age group 6 mths. & older 2-3 teaspoons 2-3 times in a day.This water can be added to formula also for easy intake. In case of breast fed babies, mothers can always eat a spoonful of ajwain seeds with water, daily. Note : this water won't stay for longer period, so I suggest throw away any water left, at the end of the day.
• Fruit Juice : prune, pear & apple are good, can be diluted with little, Usually 4-5 months onwards(check with babies doctor first).
• Prunes : if baby has started on pureed fruits & vegetables then while cooking food for them a prune can always be added to it so that it get cooked & then puree it along with the food(It's always a good idea to strain that puree to make sure there is no big chunk).
• Pears : pear sauce, steam pears till they are very soft then puree them with a very little water or juice.
• Papita(papaya) : Fully ripe & soft,always mash it for babies who don't chew.For babies who have started semi-solid food(probably 7 months onwards).
• Raisin(kishmish) Water : soak 4-5 raisins in warm water overnight & give that water 1 teaspoon at a time 2-3 times in a day(6 mths. onwards, 1 yr. old can even chew these raisins)
• Avoid BRAT diet, that is Banana, Rice cereal, Applesauce & Toast, these are very basic baby food but also known as binding foods.
• Fiber rich food : add oat cereal to babies diet(5 mths. onwards), cooked spinach(from 10-11 mths. onward).
• Gentle tummy massage in circular motion also help.
• Breast milk : if you are still nursing, it helps.

3)Diarrhea : this is another problem which can make your child feel so sick

• BRAT diet : Acc. to babies age group banana, rice cereal, applesauce or toast can be given.
• Fennel water mentioned above for colic can also be given here.
• Baby yogurt or home made curd if baby is already eating it.
• Avoid prunes for the time being.

4) Cold :

• Ajwain Water mentioned above in constipation section can also be used in case of common cold(runny/stuffy nose).
• Apply baby vicks or regular vicks mixed with little vaseline to baby's feet under toes & put the socks on.
• For babies 3-6 months old mix 2-3 drops of Eucalyptus oil(essential oil) with 2 tablespoon base oil(almond oil or extra virgin olive oil),keep it in glass jar/bottle.When needed massage 2-3 drops of mixed oil onto the chest & back.Same can be used in the babies bath also. NOTE : never use any essential oil without base oil, directly onto the skin.For babies 8 months & older 4 drops of essential oil can be mixed to base oil.
• For infants & toddlers who are eating food (6 mths. onwards) it's good to add little turmeric & garlic in there food, it not only make the food taste good but also help them fight cold & flu.

That's it for now. I hope the information provided will be helpful to others, in case if you know of any more remedies for infants & toddlers please leave a message so that I can update this post.