Home Remedy- Chamomile

I'm always very fascinated with home remedies (not the old wives' tales....I care about the ones that WORK). Medical care is a lost art in homes these days. I often think of my ancestors....they didn't have accessible doctor clinics. What did they use? I love asking my grandparents for treatment recommendations they remember from their childhood. I am passionate about learning how to use natural remedies and recording the ones that are effective.

Last year three of my children all had pink-eye at the same time. If I took them all into the doctor, that would be $90 of just co-pays, let alone the prescription fees. I wanted to at least attempt to treat it myself.

I had read in pioneer journal accounts (dating around 1850) that chamomile fixed eye infections.

I steeped chamomile tea bags in just 4 tablespoons of water. I used such little water (instead of an entire teacup) so the chamomile would be more concentrated. I soaked cottonballs in the chamomile tea, then placed them over my own eyes to see if it stung or irritated my eyes in any way. I didn't want to try it on my children until I knew what it felt like so I didn't harm them. It didn't feel like anything other than soothing hot water on my eye.

I had the children all lie down in a row and close their eyes. I placed cotton balls saturated with the chamomile tea on each of their eyes. We left them in place for 5 minutes before removing the cotton balls and rinsing their faces. I did this once in the morning and again at night. Every sign of infection was gone in 2 or 3 days! In the past when I had gotten prescription eye drops for pink eye, it took 3 days to heal. I was impressed that this natural remedy worked just as well as the prescription.

I loved that I only had to pay $1.99 for a big box of chamomile tea bags, instead of $100 for the doctor. Now we always keep chamomile tea on hand for any eye infections.

This came in handy again this month when Daniel's cornea was scratched. I was worried about infection in this wound, but the chamomile treatment kept his eye free from complications and it healed completely in 2 days.

I feel so strongly that the Lord created many plants with useful properties that we can use for our health and healing. I'm so interested in learning about more of these plants and applying them in my family.

It was pretty difficult to know where to begin learning about healing plants. So many online sources were tainted with ridiculous claims and it was difficult to sift through the outrageous stories to try and find the credible treatments. Honestly- how could anyone think that tying a dead fish to your feet will make your cough go away? Or that wearing a bead necklace will cure tooth pain?

I found a book that I absolutely love on this topic. It's written by a BYU professor. It's called "From the Shepherd's Purse". It lists the helpful plants and has directions for extracting the beneficial oils from each of them in various ways. There are directions for various ways to apply the plant extracts (oral syrups, teas, lotions for skin ailments, poultices, etc.) It also has a chart for calculating dosages based on the patient's weight.  I love it!

I thought I should start sharing the home remedies that we have used so others can benefit from this information.