By: Vivian Gilbert Zabel
NOTE: Before trying any home remedy or across the counter medicine, everyone should first check with a physician, especially when a baby or young child is concerned.
Most parents pick up ideas to help with common ailments that their infants and toddlers may suffer such as diarrhea, constipation, croup, or colic. A few home remedies can increase the child’s comfort level, and at times even eliminate the problem temporarily.
An old Cherokee treatment for diarrhea uses the juice from blackberries. Children old enough to eat solid foods without any trouble and adults can eat the fruit or drink the juice from fresh, frozen, or canned blackberries . Toddlers can drink the juice from canned berries. For infants, a ounce of juice should be mixed with an ounce of water and given the baby in a bottle. Checking with a doctor is advisable if the child might have allergies.
A home remedy for constipation in babies involved using Karo Dark Syrup in water. A tablespoon full to two tablespoons in four ounces warm water, mixed well in a bottle, and fed to the infant usually helps the situation. Again, if the bowels don’t loosen within two days or if the baby has a condition that syrup shouldn’t be used, a doctor should be contacted
A baby or child with croup has a problem breathing, and who panics more, the one who can’t breathe or the parent, is rather close in degree. Breathing the warm, moist air from a steaming shower or vaporizer worked with my children, grandchildren, and even adults when the coughing and struggle to breathe arrived. We would rub medicated ointment on the chest and neck and under the nose before sitting with the baby or child in the bathroom, the shower spraying only hot water, causing steam to fill the room. The shower mist seemed to work better than the vaporizer.
Most infants have at least one attack of colic, crying for hours from the pain in their tummies. By filling a hot water bottle about one third full of warm water, placing a towel or receiving blanket over the top of the bottle, and then laying the baby, stomach down, across the bottle, the warmth and slight (but giving) pressure will help to ease the infant’s discomfort.
Other home remedies can be found in family history, on the Internet, and/or in books. Only try those which cannot harm the infant, and then if relief isn’t found within hours or at most two days, contact a physician.
