Safe Herbal Remedies for Infants

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Category: Remedies

An infant is not "just a very little adult".  An infant's little body can not be expected to be able to just take much less of an herb compared to what an adult would take.  The time it takes for an herb constituent (or a drug, for that matter) to travel through an infant's gastrointestinal system is much more delayed than it is through an adult or older child.  And an infant has lower levels of enzymes which impacts the metabolism.  So herbs need to be selected with care and dosages carefully monitored. If you are a mother who is nursing, be aware that any herbs you take are being passed to the infant!

There are tried and true (and safe) remedies for many of the conditions that infants experience.  Examples I provide here are for colic, cradle cap and diaper rash.

Many parents experience the heartbreak of consoling an infant who has colic. I was one of those parents and wish I had known then what I know now.  When my eldest daughter was about a month old, she began screaming in pain exactly at 6 PM every night and continued until 10 PM. This went on for several months. The only remedy I knew at that time (that usually, but not always, worked) was to put her in the car and drive her around the neighborhood.

There is an herbal remedy that is safe for infants with this condition.  Like I said, wish I had known this then....  Colic Tea.

This same daughter had a horrible case of cradle cap. The pediatrician told me to massage her head with baby oil!  Of course I found out years later that baby oil is a mineral oil (from petroleum!  Horrors!).  Now I know that I could have used vitamin E oil or almond oil.  I suspect her case was so severe that I would like to have known about this remedy... Cradle Cap Oil.

And finally the remedy every parent needs - a good Diaper Rash Ointment.