Our family doesn’t often get super sick. Last week, we got hit very suddenly. Jerald and I only had a touch of it; it seems to settle in children quicker. I wanted to share our experiences and remedies in hopes of helping others! Especially with babies, croup is nothing to mess with and I highly recommend keeping your shelf stocked for sudden sicknesses, especially coughs and croup. I’m also posting some fever information that may be helpful for young mothers.

Christmas vacation was here at last! Monday morning, I roared off with spinning tires, for an appointment in Omaha. With Jerald off work, he was home with the children. I started laundry, and between him and the children, they had it mostly finished till I got back. We started packing, and prepping the Yukon for our planned travels. I felt scatter brained all day, and the back of my mind was weighed down with the fear of sick children.

By Tuesday, Josie kept up a steady volley of coughs. Reece did a ton of sneezing. Poor Macie’s voice sounded raspy. Jerald and I both felt a little something in our throats- surely just frogs…??  I mean, we were leaving early on Christmas eve, weren’t we?! We continued dosing out vitamin C, Respaid, Juice Plus, garlic and OnGuard softgels.

I ambled around the house doing more packing. That afternoon I loafed on my recliner feeling depressed. Packing for trips is one of my “worst ever jobs.” And how would I ever cope with this batch of half sick youngsters? Not to speak of the boat loads of herbals and immune boosters to drag along.

By bedtime it was evident this Croup Group wasn’t going anywhere. A relief, but disappointment at the same time. I relaxed about packing, but had to kick into high gear by Christmas eve nursing my sick children. We were already slathering them up with garlic salve besides having them drink red raspberry tea, grape juice, and onion juice. Even my sweet baby happily downed a mixture of all of the above. 

Still, nobody was getting better. Reece felt warm Tuesday evening and was up once that night but wasn’t anything to worry about otherwise. He never got very sick, besides hacking around and spitting out junk like we all did. He pretty much kept up his dancing and bouncing around the house, looking for availabilities to play games with him.

By Wednesday afternoon Josie lay conked out on the couch, getting warm with fever. I was mostly set on cruise, running to and fro, liberally greasing everyone with garlic salve and an essential oil blend for croup. Dishing out potions, whisking up warm lemon juice and honey for croaky throats, reminders to “drink your tea, drink your juice, here, drink some broth” “Have you been drinking water?!”

Let me tell ya, it keeps a Mama hopping to get this done. With it being Christmas vacation, my good man was at home helping me, but even then I was on the run more hours than not. And especially with a baby, I definitely needed extra hands.

I was loathe to pull out the onions, but I couldn’t go by the want to or not. I wasn’t waiting any longer. I chopped up a whole mess of those strong smelling things, fried them lightly with a drizzle of oil and salt and made cloth poultices for their chests. We spooned onions in plastic sandwich or ziploc sort of bags and slipped that over their feet, with a sock overtop to keep in place. It took two of us to get Macie’s onion poultices on and her prepped for bed. Sometimes even to get the herbs in her mouth. When she was grouchy or mad she’d pinch her lips shut.

Old t-shirts are perfect for poultices. I sewed crude little pouches, letting enough of an opening to spoon in onions, then folded it over and fastened it with a safety pin. For Macie’s chest, we cut a pamper in half and laid it on top of the poultice, against her onesie, and secured it all with safety pins. Change out the onions about twice a day and for sure put fresh ones on before bedtime.  It took a few days, but it does loosen croup!! We went through almost 3 bags of onions in about that many days. We also set onion halves around the house to help absorb germs/sickness. Please consider the humble onion as a best friend in sickness! Hoot all you want- I’ll take onions and garlic and all manner of herbs over a hospital stay any day!

I was worried about my girls that night.  Thankfully Macie had no fever but I’ve heard so many scary RSV stories, I doubted myself and my home remedy capabilities. Thankfully, Josie’s fever never exceeded about 103. I have a tincture called Temp Assure that I give, then soak a rag with apple cider vinegar and lay that on her forehead. Soaking socks in vinegar and putting on their feet is another option, but her feet were full of onions. Sometimes I’ll rub diluted peppermint oil or an oil blend along their spine too. We beseeched the Lord much on their  behalf. About midnight I checked her fever and it had come down, thank God! I always tell myself a fever is good for their body and it’s ok! Although I still get a little nervous and especially with a young baby, its important to seek medical attention. (More information on that further down) But I do not give Tylenol or anything like that to bring it down, unless it would be super high. I only use it as a last resort. It really is good for their bodies to fight a fever! It boost their immune system! Keep them lightly dressed, rub with oils, use vinegar soaked rags, give immune boosters, or try a lukewarm bath. Always, always push liquids! With fever, hydration is super important! Make them drink anything they will drink. Suck popsicles or crushed ice. If breastfeeding, feed as often as possible.

One more thing to try for reducing fever is whipping an egg white up with a bit sugar and vanilla (to make it palatable) and have them drink as much as they can. This is an old fashioned remedy that worked for me as a little girl. I keep this as a last resort since swigging down plain, raw eggs is rather gaggy.

The following information on fever is from a knowledgeable source and not original with me.

Notes on fever: Any fever in a baby under 3 months, should be seen by a doctor. Fever of 102 or more in a baby 3-6 months should be seen by a doctor. Any high fever that does not respond to treatment should be seen by a doctor. A fever over 107 degrees can cause brain damage. And here’s a couple more informative charts.

I wished so bad I had Nature Sunshine Seasonal Allergy (formerly ALJ) on hand! That is full of great herbs that are safe for infants even much younger than Macie at 10 months.  But I did have Resp-Aid, which has many of the same ingredients, as well as Horehound Blend, which is another kid safe tincture with similar herbs. The bottle says not younger than 1 year but Macie was close enough and I certainly wasn’t risking croup elevating to RSV or pneumonia! I gave it cautiously at first then increased it in the next couple days.

I also wished so much for straight Lobelia, to rub on her chest. I’ve heard that works amazing for croup. I ordered these items but of course, by the time they arrive, we won’t need them. I always try to keep tinctures and things on hand so we’re prepared for sickness. And I thought I was prepared, but I am going to be better prepared next time!  Or maybe some other croupy baby will need them, and I can help out with having it on hand. If you live near me, please holler if you need croup herbs immediately!

This is what I want to impress on your minds; if you want to treat colds, earache, croup or whatever, YOU MUST BE EARLY AND CONSISTENT!! And by consistent I mean giving some kind of immune booster every hour or more. You can switch out with whatever ones you have on hand or prefer.  Elderberry, Children’s cold and flu, Resp-Aid, Horehound Blend, Seasonal Allergy, Herbal cough syrup, Silver, Vitamin C etc. JUST BE CONSISTENT! Consistency wins the battle (usually). I’m not saying don’t go to the doctor. Use your own judgment and ask wisdom from the Lord. But you can’t expect natural herbal remedies to be compared to pharmaceutical meds to be taken once or twice a day and see results. 

Also, besides onion poultices, rub chests and feet with salve often! You can switch off between garlic and Pneumonia salve or Lungah Fevah Shmeah. I only had the garlic. I know some people like Unkers and I hate to admit it, we finally got some for added tactics, but I do not like it! It may work, but I am not keen on rubbing oil/gas on my little people!! Yes, Petroleum is oil so, like gas, in other words. 🤯 Some pneumonia salves are made with olive oil or lard,  and some with Vaseline. And since Vaseline is petroleum based, I’d recommend checking ingredients.

Give vitamin C often! Whole food vitamin C is best. You really won’t overdue it. (If they get diarrhea you will know) We simply gave lots of Juice Plus since we already have that on hand and take regularly. Pure Synergy is a trusted brand of whole food vitamin C that I’ve heard lots of good things about, although I’ve never used any. To get extra vitamin C into Macie, I poured a bit grape juice into a tiny bottle and opened up a capsule of Juice Plus berry blend. She guzzled this right down. I tried to do this two or three times a day.  Vitamin C helps thin mucous, making it easier to get out.

I’m going to include the RSV protocol for any one who would be interested. It’s only pictures out of a Keeper’s At Home magazine so it’s not great quality. But if it can save some worried Mama and her baby from a hospital visit, I am thrilled to share it!

I haven’t ever used the Oregon grape root this protocol suggests, but that is one of the herbs in the Horehound Blend that I use. 

Here is a list of recommendations to have on hand especially for croup or any colds:

Whole Food Vitamin C

Horehound Blend

Resp-Aid, or

Nature’s Sunshine Seasonal Allergy (ALJ)

Nature’s Sunshine VSC

Herbal Cough syrup

Garlic salve, Chest rub, or Pneumonia salve

Lobelia this is an herb to be used topically for croup. It is in some tinctures but what I’m talking about is for topical. You can put it in a roller bottle for easy application. 

Essential Oil Croup Blend – In a 10 ml roller bottle, put 10 drops each of these oils. Breathe, Eucalyptus, Frankincense, Lavender, Lemon. Dilute with carrier oil. 

As far as the essential oils I use, I currently have some from Doterra but have mostly switched over to Revive. Revive is reputable company with great quality and much much more affordable prices. Revive also has a wide selection of organic oils.

Most of these items can be purchased through catalogs such as Sun Lite Herbs 937- 464-9099, Ann’s Naturals 270-524-4680 (These two places are my favorites!! Ann’s especially has very reasonable prices!) Nature’s Warehouse would carry most of these too, as well as some health food stores.  And of course, good old Amazon has some of these also.

Sun Lite Herbs carries both of the Nature’s Sunshine products I mentioned, plus the Horehound Blend, cough syrups, salves and so much more. The girls at Sun Lite who take orders are always super helpful and so pleasant to speak with.

We were grateful for God’s healing on all of us and that there was enough improvement that we were able to leave for Indiana to visit Jerald’s parents on Saturday. It was a short visit, returning home late Monday night. We weren’t there for Christmas, but we were happy to overlap with more of the family just a wee bit before they left.

Do yourself a favor and stock your medicine cabinet with natural remedies before you need them this winter!