Got the sniffles or your head is hurting? No need to head to one of the mega drug stores and pay a fortune in over-the-counter medications. Many of the ailments that plague us and our kids on a regular basis can be treated with some frugal homemade remedies.
Disclaimer - I am not a health care professional, just a regular person sharing some old-fashioned tips. Use at your own risk. When in doubt, please see your doctor or other health care professional with any questions or concerns.
Headache
As soon as you start to feel a headache coming on, drink a big glass of cool water. Headaches are often a sign of dehydration in which case the liquid will help better than an aspirin.
If you don’t catch it in time, or the water didn’t help, try wetting a cloth and adding a few drops of mint oil to it. Lay the cool, wet cloth over your forehead, close your eyes and relax for a few minutes.
Cough
Heat some milk and stir a spoon full of honey in it and sip slowly. Right before bed, when coughing usually gets worse, you may want to take a spoon full of honey. It will coat the throat and stop the cough – Don’t give raw honey to children under the age of 2 though.
Get some Vicks (generic works fine) Rub, rub it on the bottom of your feet and put on a pair of socks. Then hop in the bed. The coughing should stop within about 15 minutes.
Get a cold, wet washcloth and put it on over your throat, then cover it with a dry towel.
Cold
Good old fashioned chicken soup is always my first choice. Be sure to breath in the steam from the hot soup… it’ll help open up your sinuses.
Another excellent remedy is to take the juice of a lemon and mix it with a cup of hot water and honey to taste. The honey will sooth a sore throat, the steam coming out of the cup will make your sinuses feel better and the vitamin C in the lemon helps your immune system.
Other than that plenty of fluids and rest should get you better in no time.
Sore Throat
Gargle with either garlic tea (press up to 6 cloves of garlic into some very warm water), or sage tea (steep sage leaves in boiling water for a few minutes… take the sage out and allow the tea to cool a bit.
Keep your throat covered with a cloth or scarf.
Drink some hot milk with honey to sooth the throat.
Ear Ache
Chop up a piece of onion, wrap it in some cheese cloth or a thin kitchen towel and place it on the ear. This works best if you’re laying on your side with the hurt ear up and then lay the onion on it.
Insect Bite
Get a solid deodorant stick and rub it on the insect bite.
Chew some parsley and put it on the bite. Takes the sting out within a few seconds.
Poison Ivy / Oak Rash
Take the rind of a watermelon and rub it on the rash.
Nausea
Drink some warm peppermint tea, eat some licorice or eat some ginger. Gingersnaps and candied ginger work well.
Fever
Get in a slightly cool bath. The cool water will help get your body temperature down. Alternatively you can make cool towel compresses. Dip a hand towel in cool water, wring it out and wrap it around your calves. Cover it with a larger dry towel. Repeat for the other leg. Rewet the towels with cool water as needed.
Make some linden flower tea and sip about 4 cups a day to get your fever down.
I’m sure there are plenty more homemade remedies out there that our mothers and grandmothers have relied on for years and years. Feel free to share the ones you know of as a comment below.
For cough and sore throat problem one can take a peace of ginger and roast it on fire for few minutes. Than add some black pepper powder and some honey to it and than keep it in your mouth and keep taking its taste like a toffee.
Okay, so I had an absolutely horrible sinus infection. Our money’s low, and I didn’t want to have to go to the doctor’s office to be told what I already know. None of the medicines I took were working, and I’ve always loved natural cures. Well, I found out about oil pulling. I’ll admit, I was apprehensive, but 30 seconds into the “pulling” I could start to breathe. A few minutes, and my nose was clear! Check out this site: http://www.oilpulling.com/
One thing that I have have seen heal earaches is just putting a clove of garlic in the ear. Take the skin off of the clove, you may want to cut it in 1/2, and place it in the ear. Don’t leave it for too long, it WILL burn your skin. (You may want to try it on the inside of your arm.) Just about 3-5 minutes should be good, it won’t burn until you take it out, so take it out BEFORE it starts burning.
My Greatgrandma always gives me a honey/lemon mixture when I have a cold/cough. Squeeze a 1/2 a lemon in a little bowl, and put 2-3 spoonfuls of honey in, then eat. It tastes weird, but you can adjust the amounts to taste. (The flavor grows on you)
For ‘stings’, mosquito to bee , use the inside-white part-of a banana peel. Rub over the bite or sting. Takes the itch and redness away.
For an upset stomach or colic, fennel seed tea works wonders. Boil a cup of water with a teaspoon of fennel seeds (from the spice dept of the grocery store). Boil for three minutes or four minutes, strain the seeds, and cool. When luke-warm, sweeten with a teaspoon of clear Karo and drink. Adults can drink this hot, too.
It’s always best to ask the doctor or nurse practitioner before giving to an infant.
You already know to apply cold water to burns, and even about ice when it’s necessary. Still, once you’re done with that, you often have the issue of scarring. For burns, once we’re done with cooling them down, especially small burns on the hand, my husband’s family has always dabbed on a bit of white toothpaste. You put it on and it does nothing for the pain, but the next day, the scarring you expect just doesn’t happen. I’ve always scarred from small burns when frying with oil, but since I married my husband and learned about the toothpaste, my hands have gotten prettier. (smile)
To get rid of hiccups, eat a small spoonful of peanut butter!
Abcess gums / sore tooth – This worked wonders for me – place dry tea bags in the area. Or mix white vinegar with sage (I used ground sage as that was all I had). Warm the vinegar and then mix in a couple teaspoons. I soaked a cotton ball in this and then placed the cotton ball on the affected area.
I have lots of sinus drainage that causes sore or scratchy throat. I have found that fresh not canned pinnapple helps me. It is for me like it disolves all the gunk in the back of my throat.
I agree with Betty on the pineapple disolving sinus drainage. I have also, found that Pineapple takes down swelling of any kind in the body. I drink the juice every 2 hours until swelling goes down.
for the pepper bug spray, it is fresh(or frozen) hot peppers that are run thru a blender then strained and the juice is added to water. about three peppers to a galon of water I think…
I use tiger balm for my recurring sinus infections. when i start to feel the infection, I rub a tiny amount on my sinuses at bed time and when I wake up, the pain is gone. I have decreased the number of infections i get yearly by using this stuff! I used to get them every month or so, and now it’s down to about every three months, sometimes four. It also works on migrain headaches. just rub on the back of the neck and the temples, then take a nap…
An easy and cheap cure for an ear ache is a few drops of warmed oil directly in to the sore ear and keep ur head turned. Also for a long time i didnt have health insurance and i was proned to ear infections, if the oil treatment didnt work i would put fill my ear with perioxide and keep changing it until i didnt hear it bubbling, for me it worked every time.
For sore throat, gargle with salt water (about a tsp or so of salt in the glass). For a cough you can suck on any hard candy, not just a cough drop, to help stop the coughing.
I am about to start the oil pulling method! I have horrible sinus infection going on 6 weeks now and I can’t take it anymore!!!! Thank you for the info on oil pulling it sounds promising!
Did it work ?
For allergic reaction to bee stings, use seasoned meat tenderizer and water. Mix it into a thick paste, and apply to the sting site. It works within minutes.
We have done this for more than 25 years and it works every time. We have always used schillings or adolphs, but it has to be the seasoned kind.
Without it, my son has to use an eppipen within 4 minutes.
I know that this is for home remedies, but I have a suggestion for a sore throat. Usually the culprit behind a sore throat is sinus drainage. I find that taking a claritin stops the drainage and my throat no longer hurts. You can get them in generic from walmart for under $3.00 for a box of 14 pills and that’s 2 weeks worth since they are the 24 hour dose. I just gave one the other morning to my daughter who was complaining of a sore throat and did not want to go to school. That afternoon she told me her throat felt much better! It definitly worth a try!
Or a natural remedy is a sinus rinse. You can either by a netti pot or a sinus rinse bottle. Works wonderful for allergies and colds and nips sinus infections in the bud.
When my kids have a sore throat, we use either a warm salt water gargle, or take some honey. It seems to work (although they usually choose the honey for some reason…) Honey also works to cure the hiccups, as does drinking from the wrong side of a glass (turn your head upside down to do it). I know, it looks stupid, but it works.
Before Imodium and Kaopectate (sp?) my mother would mix up a spoonful of cornstarch in some cold water (less than 1/2 cup) for us to drink. Hold your nose, it tastes bad, but it works. You can drink some after each bout of diarrhea. Soothes the tummy, too.
Everyone tip 15 is spot on. Our family also uses the meat tenderizer. It is amazing how quick it works.
Gargle salt water and put a warm wet rag on you throat for a sore throat my famialy has done it for years Wes hillbillys frum missoui and a Missouri hillbilly ain’t never wrong
To treat bee stings wipe affected area with a cool damp cloth and sprinkle Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer
directly on the red sting site until pain lessons and swelling subsides.
does anybody have a home remedy for heartburn/ indigestion? I have been having this every night for a few months now. It’s even keeping me up at night or I wake up with it. Ive tried baking soda it worked at first but now nothing. I have no problems during the day.
Be careful, Christine, with heartburn/indigestion that lasts this long. If you’re no longer getting any relief with baking soda AND it bothers you more often at night than during the day, you may want to talk to a health care professional about acid reflux. There are some over the counter medications to take for this but you should be diagnosed before you try anything else. I know the expense of a doctor’s visit may be of concern to many, but acid reflux is actually something that is important enough to at least call a nurse or doctor about. Any thoughts by readers who have a medical background would be much appreciated here. Thank you!
Thank you for your help I will call a doctor then.
Good for you, Christine. I hope it’s nothing more than spicy or rich foods… something you will be able to deal with quickly and simply. The important thing is to find out. Take care of yourself.