Stuff For Kids
This site is primarily aimed at providing SELF HELP for a knowledgeable adult treating their own issues. However, I am a parent and have used home remedies to help my kids.
Be EXTRA cautious when using this info on a CHILD, especially a young child who may not communicate well. BUT here are some things I've written on this site and elsewhere that may interest you:
The ENTIRE post about Sweets is kid-friendly.
Excerpt from a post about heat treatments:
So for a small child, you might start with only 2 to 4 tea bags and see what works best. An overdose generally makes one feel nauseous. So if the child complains of feeling nauseated, you are using too much and/or for too long at a time.
My sons and I found that the poultice is most effective when it is placed on the skin while still quite warm but not scalding hot and if the contact with the skin is broken and the heat is lost, the effectiveness drops so dramatically that my kids would simply throw it away at that point and make new.
If you are trying to figure out how hot it should be for a child who is sleeping, you have to press your hands flat and very firmly across the tea bags to test. Lightly touching them will not tell you whether or not they are the right temperature.
What feels tolerable with a light touch can still be scalding hot when pressed firmly to the skin and covered with a towel. When you can firmly press your hand down across them and not be burned, you can safely put the poultice on a sleeping child (which I did for the convenience of my children at their behest).
If the child's skin is more sensitive than yours, you will have to learn exactly what is comfortable for them. Doing this a few times while awake until you get a feel for what works for them is probably the safest means to learn how to judge the temperature.
Since cold tea bags are not nearly as effective (I think it interferes with the transfer rate -- probably hot poultice opens up the pores), learning to judge the temperature is the hardest part: too hot and you scald them, too cold and you aren't doing much for them.
A few other miscellaneous tidbits:
You CAN potentially reduce a fever without drugs by wiping down an infant with a cool, damp cloth or having a child take a TEPID bath (NOT cold). Hydration can also potentially bring fever down by a full degree without drugs.
It's POSSIBLE to avoid an IV by spoon-feeding water to a seriously dehydrated child. This takes up to TWO HOURS. It is a method used in third world countries where IVs are sometimes NOT available for treating dehydration following severe diarrhea, etc.
I have successfully done this when one of my children was four years old and dehydrated from severe diarrhea because I didn't want them to be traumatized with being stuck with needles for an IV.
There is also a post on another site I write titled Sleep and Respiratory Issues in Infants.
Additionally:
A child with respiratory issues, gut issues, etc: If possible, take them to the beach regularly. It will help them SAFELY get the minerals they need for their lungs, gut and hormone-producing organs (which ALL play a role in immune function). It's unlikely they will get too much salt or other minerals this way.
Be EXTRA cautious when using this info on a CHILD, especially a young child who may not communicate well. BUT here are some things I've written on this site and elsewhere that may interest you:
The ENTIRE post about Sweets is kid-friendly.
Excerpt from a post about heat treatments:
You should consider also covering your face -- but this may not be a good idea if the person doing this is a child due to the danger of possible suffocation. When I have used hot baths to treat my children, I was more conservative about the temperatures used and I encouraged them to wrap up to their neck in a blanket and watch TV for up to 30 minutes. In my experience, this wrap up period should be at least 15 minutes long in order to be effective but anything more than 40 minutes does not appear to have any additional benefit.A section from the post titled Poultice:
So for a small child, you might start with only 2 to 4 tea bags and see what works best. An overdose generally makes one feel nauseous. So if the child complains of feeling nauseated, you are using too much and/or for too long at a time.
My sons and I found that the poultice is most effective when it is placed on the skin while still quite warm but not scalding hot and if the contact with the skin is broken and the heat is lost, the effectiveness drops so dramatically that my kids would simply throw it away at that point and make new.
If you are trying to figure out how hot it should be for a child who is sleeping, you have to press your hands flat and very firmly across the tea bags to test. Lightly touching them will not tell you whether or not they are the right temperature.
What feels tolerable with a light touch can still be scalding hot when pressed firmly to the skin and covered with a towel. When you can firmly press your hand down across them and not be burned, you can safely put the poultice on a sleeping child (which I did for the convenience of my children at their behest).
If the child's skin is more sensitive than yours, you will have to learn exactly what is comfortable for them. Doing this a few times while awake until you get a feel for what works for them is probably the safest means to learn how to judge the temperature.
Since cold tea bags are not nearly as effective (I think it interferes with the transfer rate -- probably hot poultice opens up the pores), learning to judge the temperature is the hardest part: too hot and you scald them, too cold and you aren't doing much for them.
A few other miscellaneous tidbits:
You CAN potentially reduce a fever without drugs by wiping down an infant with a cool, damp cloth or having a child take a TEPID bath (NOT cold). Hydration can also potentially bring fever down by a full degree without drugs.
It's POSSIBLE to avoid an IV by spoon-feeding water to a seriously dehydrated child. This takes up to TWO HOURS. It is a method used in third world countries where IVs are sometimes NOT available for treating dehydration following severe diarrhea, etc.
I have successfully done this when one of my children was four years old and dehydrated from severe diarrhea because I didn't want them to be traumatized with being stuck with needles for an IV.
There is also a post on another site I write titled Sleep and Respiratory Issues in Infants.
Additionally:
A child with respiratory issues, gut issues, etc: If possible, take them to the beach regularly. It will help them SAFELY get the minerals they need for their lungs, gut and hormone-producing organs (which ALL play a role in immune function). It's unlikely they will get too much salt or other minerals this way.
