Here we are in December, the darkest, most Yin time of year.   Nature is asking us to slow down and reflect on the past so we can move gracefully into the future.  Preparing myself for the Solstice and the New Year, I felt compelled to share with you how I process this pivotal and transformative time of the year. 

Let's clear space, remember our ancestors, celebrate our victories, release our painful lessons, and step more fully into who we are becoming.

In this popular Apothecary Wisdom video, Maria will be sharing all about the benefits of Mullein leaves and flowers. Mullein is an excellent herbal remedy when experiencing painful, earaches, or upper respiratory congestion.

Mullein is a powerful decongestant and expectorant that makes coughs more productive. Since it effectively relieves lung congestion, we blended the soft Mullein leaves into our Lung Support Tea, helping you breathe more clearly and deeply.

Mullein's cheerful and bright flowers have pain-relieving analgesic properties that help soothe the discomfort of hot, inflamed earaches. Our Ear Ache Relief Oil is blended with mullein and other anti-microbic herbs that combat ear infections quickly and safely.

Thyme for their lungs, thyme for their sore throats, thyme for their colds.

I find myself incorporating lots of thyme–and time–into my herbal practice. After working with my own family and midwifery families, I began to realize the remarkable benefits thyme has to offer to our children.

RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) pronounced Sin-sish-ul is a common viral infection.  It can be mild with cold like symptoms lasting 1-2 weeks, or it may require hospitalization.  In fact, RSV is the number 1 reason babies are hospitalized each year. There are outbreaks every fall through spring. The vast majority of babies under 2 years old will get RSV.  Fortunately only 2% of babies with RSV will need a high level of care.

Learn about how to manage mild to moderate RSV symptoms at home with naturally with herbal remedies. Also learn about high risk infants that may require hospitalization.

The kids are going back to school just as the flu season kicks off. Now that all the kids are in close quarters, that slight cough or cold becomes harder for little bodies to defend against because they are so exhausted and stressed - illness is never preferable, and it always seems to hit at the worst times. Who wants to miss the big field trip or stay home sniffling when their friends are back at school playing with each other? As parents of more than one child, you know that means the sickness will make the rounds to the entire family.

Thankfully, we have lots of healthy herbs to build and strengthen our kids' immune systems as they go back to school so they can stay as healthy as possible even if they've been exposed to bacteria and viruses.

In many ways, the first days and weeks with your new baby are just the two of you—mama and baby, learning each other and figuring out your new normal. Sure, there are usually others around. Your partner, grandparents, maybe baby’s siblings. But it’s hardly “breastfeeding in public.”

There’s something of a bubble around mama and baby. No matter what’s going on around you, there’s always going to be a different sort of bond between the two of you. The rest of the world fades away. For awhile, as you’re resting and recovering from birth, it really can be just the two of you. But eventually, the baby moon will end and you’ll need to venture into the outside world, and that’s when the question of breastfeeding in public arises.

As soon as starts to get warm out, we are outside more and more every day. If your kids are like my son, they'll be coming in for dinner with a new scratch, bump, bruise, or bug bite every other night. What is a mama to do? Well, she needs to wash it off, kiss away the pain, and apply Healing Salve to each and every ouch.

Healing Salve can be applied to any place on your body from your elbows to your toes and everywhere in between The ingredients are so clean you could eat it! 

I'm not one to advocate a large stash of gadgets and products for babies. Instead, keep a few multi-purpose must-have items on hand. That way, you are not overly cluttered with duplicate items in your house. 

Having said that, these are the four herbal products for babies that I consider necessary items.