LESSON 4- Herbal Remedies for Children's Cold and Flu

Sep 19, 2016

Written by Maria Chow

LESSON 4- Herbal Remedies for Children's Cold and Flu

Every year, American families miss countless days of work and school due to common childhood illnesses. The health-care and pharmaceutical industries profit billions of dollars from the cycle of doctors’ visits, prescriptions, and over-the-counter drugs.

We know the cold and flu season is coming. Let's prepare ourselves now!

By stocking our medicine cabinets with herbal remedies in advance, we can shorten an illness’ duration, avoid some illnesses altogether, and help our families return to work, school, and health. Buying or making your herbal remedies ahead of time will save you time, money, and suffering in the long run.

In the following lessons, we’ll cover the most common childhood illnesses and numerous herbal remedies you can make at home or purchase from the Birth Song Botanicals collection. You can feel good about giving your children natural, safe, and effective products that work with their bodies and help them heal.

When your child is ill and needs you most, you want to have your remedies on hand. You will be so proud of yourself for stocking your herbal apothecary ahead of time.

The recipes provided in this course are meant to be simple so you can create them in your kitchen without fancy equipment or expensive ingredients. When you are making your remedies, remember to do so in the same manner you would when making a special gift for someone you love. Bring the same energy that you do when you cook and prepare a healthy meal for an honored guest.

These remedies are fun for you and your children to create together. When we bring our children into the process, we are teaching them a lifelong skill and instilling a sense of self-reliance and connection to nature. These early experiences shape their love for health, healing, and nurturing others. If we don’t teach them this, what will they learn instead?

A Word about Dosages

When I am determining the dosages of herbs, I take into consideration the child I am working with, the illness, the stage of the illness, the severity of the illness, and what herbs I am working with. I rely on my intuition to guide me. Let me clarify: I do not simply “guess;” I work within a framework of experience, evidence, and knowledge, but sometimes the book recommends a small amount of tea when it feels appropriate and safe to give more. Now that I have been working with herbs for more than 10 years, I allow myself to follow my intuition more. Most definitely in the beginning, I did not. I only followed the book to the letter. But the more books you read, the more you realize there are many styles of herbalism and not merely one way. I encourage you to get at least 3-4 good herbal books. One solid reference book, one for children, and the other to match your personality. You will find similarities and differences in how they dose. With experience, you will find your comfort zone and eventually develop your own intuition.

How to Read the Recipes

One last thing before we get started. I’m providing you with recipes to make traditional herbal remedies. You will notice that in this course I use “parts” in all my recipes. A part can be any quantity. For example, if I am working with teaspoons then 1 part will be 1 teaspoon. If I’m working with cups, then 1 part will be 1 cup. In a clinical setting, you would use grams or ounces as your unit of measurement.

A SPLENDID CUP OF TEA

Teas are organoleptic, which is to say, they stimulate our senses of taste, smell, sight, and touch all at the same time. Brewing a good cup of tea is a simple art and an effective approach to dealing with acute and chronic health issues.

The daily ritual of brewing a medicinal tea is more than just steeping a cup of leaves. It becomes a promise to ourselves to take a moment to focus inward. To brew a cup of tea is to invite the four elements—fire, water, earth, and air—into our bodies.

It is much easier to make your therapeutic-quality teas by the quart jar than to brew multiple cups a day. You’ll find several recipes for medicinal teas in this chapter, but just to start, here’s my simple guide to making your own teas:

How To Make Tea