Mama Rika's Top 25 Natural Remedies Part 3

Here is the final installment of my Natural Remedies series. The post for part 1 can be found here. The same disclaimer applies to this post as applied to part 1. Part 2 post can be found here.

Cedarwood essential oil has a very pungent odor. I don’t care for the smell. However, it is great for fighting those dreaded pimples. As soon as a little acne spot decides to dare mar your face, apply drops of cedarwood oil. Do this heavily at night. It dries them out fairly quickly. If you catch them right as they begin, you can prevent them from forming all the way. Great to have on hand for teens and adults.

Peppermint oil is wonderful for coughs, fevers, and Christmas pretzels (but that is a treat and not a home remedy). Purchase peppermint essential oil and a drop or two on little baby footsies if they have a cough/cold or fever. Very gently rub the tiny foot with the oil. Do NOT massage the feet of little ones vigorously or in any manner other than gently for a short period of time so as not to overstimulate them. The light massage soothes baby. The vapors from the peppermint work to loosen up congestion. Peppermint has also been known to help reduce fevers. You can use the peppermint essential oil not only on babies, but older children and grown-ups as well.

Plaintain is for bites and stings. I use it in salve form as soon as someone is stung and it stops the spreading of the redness/puffiness and helps it clear up faster.

Prayer/Blessings are the best thing for any ailment. Sometimes inspiration can be found to guide you to something helpful. On occasion rapid recovery has been known to happen after the laying on of hands with a blessing. In emergencies, prayer helps to keep everyone involved calm and invites the healing powers of heaven.

Pregnancy is not a home remedy, obviously, but during pregnancy there are a lot of natural aids to be found to help mother and growing child. I’ll not elaborate too heavily on these. (You can read my Childbirth: Preparing for the Miracle book to get my complete thoughts on pregnancy, labor and delivery.) Some favorites for pregnancy include raspberry leaf for overall motherhood health, Floradix for iron, Vitamin C & E, relaxation and visualization.

Soup. Huh? Soup? You may have heard that chicken noodle soup cures things. Well, it isn’t an old wive’s tale. I even did a smidge of research for you so that you know I am not kidding you. You can find a little more info here, here and here. Chicken soup is wonderful when you have a cold to help ease congestion. It is soothing when you have a sore throat. It is calming when you are uptight. There’s so much good stuff that goes in to chicken soup that it can’t help but be healing. Chicken soup with homemade noodles of course is best. (I’ll post that recipe and video in the near future.)

Swedish Bitters from Nature’s Works often works best simply as a threat! On occasion if I threaten with pulling out the Swedish Bitters, a child has been known to recuperate much more quickly. It is horrid tasting, but it will kill just about any bug that ails you.

White Willow is a painkiller. It works like aspirin, but doesn’t have the side effects. It is suitable for headaches and pain from injuries.