In todays world it’s so hard to take care of your own children when they are sick because of all the recalls out there, you just don’t know what to use to help your child. Back in the days people always relied on the good old home remedies, they felt that they worked so much better than giving your child so much medicine. I know when I was younger and I got sick my mom would always have to put me in the bath tub when I ran a high fever, it cools your body down and brings the fever down gradually. But as I got older more and more medicine was coming out on the market to help children when they are sick with a cold or a fever, but who’s to say the medicine really worked as good as the old remedies did. The other thing is when a child gets sick, the first thing us parents do is run and take them to the doctors, well yes thats the first thing that always comes to my mind but, by the time you take them there, pay your co payment, then of course you always get a prescription to get filled, it makes you wonder does this stuff really help? Well from experience with three kids my answer to this is yes, the medicine the doctors gives you does work, but I feel only to a certain point, then you just have to let the cold run it’s course the rest of the way.
There can be so many problems though when your child has to take medications. They have such little bodies and have to consume so much medicine, that sometimes results in diarrhea,vomiting, tummy aches, headaches, etc. So i feel that when your child is sick try not to over medicate them and always read the medicines prescribed to them.
When a child runs a very high fever, I know that we all panic and start getting nervous, but really what we should do is just be calm for the child and concentrate on getting that fever down, giving your child love and comfort to get through this situation. If the fever is really high, you can put your child in a bath tub with tepid water, not too hot but not too cold. This will help the fever but it wont take it away quickly, it will gradually go down depending on how long you keep your child in that tub. I know when my child get sick sometimes I don’t have an hour or so to keep them in the tub because I have 2 other children to tend to. So far every time one of my babies have gotten sick, all three ended up getting sick too. It’s so hard when you have three little ones that all want Mommy’s comfort and attention, so I have to find ways to get the fever down as fast as I can, so it’s easier on me.
Some amazing tips that I find that really worked wonders on a fever which I know might sound a little crazy to do but they do cut the time down and make the fever go down faster. The first one place a Idaho potato in a kids sock, making sure that the potato stays by the child’s heal on their foot. Well it really can be any potato that you have, I for some reason just prefer the Idaho potatoes. If the potato doesn’t stay well you can place a piece of tape on the sock, to secure the potato onto the heal of the foot. I always have my child lay down after I have placed the potato in their sock for about 1 hour or so, this way you know the child is not running around and the potato is staying in place working. After about 1 hour the temperature should of went down at least a degree or so, if not more. When I first find out about this from my mother in law, I thought it was the craziest thing to do for a fever, but when you are at the point where you don’t know what to do anymore for your child, you are willing to take any advice from your family or friends to help out your situation, even if that means to put a potato in your sock. So after trying and testing this procedure out, it worked miracles and I will always do this when I know my child or even me has a high fever.
Another great tip I have done is to use a onion, almost the same technique as the potato but the only difference is you really have to make sure that the sock stays on the child at all times, never leave them unattended so they can’t pull off the sock and touch the onion. This procedure does work well but I would prefer to use the potato first, unless I didn’t have a potato then I would use the onion for back up. If you do use the onion make sure after you are done that you wash the foot a couple of times, because who wants to smell like a onion.
I really believe in home remedies and I feel they have more use to them then the medicine in todays world. At least with the home remedies you don’t have to worry too much about all the recalls. These home remedies work great for adults as well, children are not the only ones that get fevers.
