Recent Articles
-
5 Powerful Herbs For Heart Health: Cardiovascular Wellness Naturally October 17, 2024
-
5 Facts About Gingerol And Its Powerful Health Benefits October 15, 2024
-
Joint Pain And Menopause: What Can You Do To Help? October 09, 2024
Helpful Tips
6 Great Herbs For Kids - And How To Actually Get Your Children To Eat Them
Some things to consider when choosing herbs for kids
- Children are not just small adults. You have to consider safety first. They are growing and developing, which means you need to consider that they have a very small liver (for processing and detoxification) and that doses and choosing the right herbs is very important.
- Compliance is important - it is not just a one-dose situation. So often, considering taste is essential.
- Children seem to have quite specific conditions (immune, skin etc.), so considering this is important as well.
Where to start
🌿Related: What You Need To Know If You Are New To Herbal Medicine
How to get kids to take herbs
- add them to Barkers blackcurrant syrup
- add them to smoothies
- add them to juice
- make them into jellies or gummies
- make them into ‘chocolates’
Working out doses for children
In herbal medicine, when you are trying to work out the appropriate dose of medicine for children (paediatric dose), you can use Young’s Formula. This is a great way of working out what to give your small people if you have an adult formula that would be appropriate for a child.
For example, working out the dosage for a six-year-old child would look like this:
1. Chamomile
- Helping with insomnia/struggling with getting to sleep
- Relaxing and restlessness
- Mood support
- Anxiety, worries, irritated, nervous
- Skin irritation or stress-related eczema
- Stressed or inflamed gastrointestinal tract, mucous membranes, gums
- Diarrhea in children (you can add the chamomile infusion to chia seeds or flax seeds to help with ‘binding’ an upset stomach)
- Using essential oil inhalation helps with imparting a sedative and mood-enhancing effect
- Infusion or tea helps with supporting deep sleep
- Chamomile infusion 1-3 cups daily
- Glycetract for symptomatic use up to three times a day
- Essential oil in steamer at night
- A handful of fresh chamomile can be added to a smoothie for children
- Chamomile can be infused into oil and made into a balm or cream to help calm irritated skin due to its azulene components that can work mildly better than a 0.5% hydrocortisone cream
2. Lemon balm
- Insomnia and trouble falling asleep
- Restlessness and hyperactivity
- Anxiety, worry, nervousness, agitation
- Helps to improve focus
- Antiviral - topical application especially for cold sores
- Antispasmodic and analgesic (reduces spasms and pain) for stomach discomfort, colic, and constipation
- Goes nicely combined with fennel seed and chamomile
- Lemon balm can be taken as an infusion up to 3 times a day (1 tsp per 150ml boiling water)
- As a syrup (simmer fresh or dried lemon balm and leave the water to cool. Strain and then add sugar or sweetener to make a simple syrup). Children can take ½ tsp up to 3 times a day with water or straight.
- Can add tincture or lemon balm oil to cream for topical use
3. Elderberry
Elderberry uses:
- Helpful at the onset of an acute illness, works really well as a first line of defence.
- Elderberry actions help to support nonspecific innate immunity
- Frequent dosing application
- Long-established tonic for immune support
- Anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immuno-tonic
- High in flavonoids and anthocyanins, which have significant protective effects against oxidative stress
- Also high in quercetin and rutin, which can help with inflammation
- Elderberry tonic with hot or cold water
- Elderberry tonic frozen into ice cubes/ice blocks
- Elderberry gummies
- Elderberry tincture
- Elderberry infusion
4. Propolis
- Acute otitis media
- Acute bronchitis
- Acute asthma reaction
- Strep throat, tonsillitis
- Acute runny noses
- Upper respiratory infection — acute and prevention
- Lozenges
- Vira Defence Elixir in juice, tonic or in a lemon and honey drink
- Mixed with honey
5. Ginger
It seems an odd choice of plant or herb for children as ginger can be quite ‘hot or spicy’, but it can really help with upset stomachs and travel sickness. It is the root or the rhizome that is used, and it contains around 1-4% volatile oils, which gives ginger its strong smell and taste as well as holding the active constituents. Ginger is considered a safe herbal treatment for kids with minimal side effects.
Ginger for children can be used in the following ways:
- Lemon, honey ginger drinks or homemade ice blocks
- Ginger candies that can be purchased from your local health store and taken on long trips
- Pickled ginger, gingerbread, ginger ale
- Ginger syrup
- Fresh ginger tea (up to 3 times a day)
Ginger can help kids with:
- Motion sickness
- Seasickness
- Nausea and vomiting
- As a warming agent
- Pain and discomfort for joints, muscles, digestive pains
6. Fennel seeds
Fennel seeds can be helpful for colic for small breastfeeding babies who struggle with abdominal cramps and excess wind. Fennel seeds contain the following active constituents: volatile oil, flavonoids, calcium and potassium. They are often used to help with excess wind and reflux in children and work as a carminative (calming the stomach and bowel).
Uses for babies:
- Mums can take a fennel seed infusion (tea) throughout the day to pass on the active constituents through breast milk
- A cooled infusion can be given to the baby after feeding as well. Start with 5 drops for small babies
- Fennel seed has a high safety profile, especially when it is used as a water infusion (tea)