Sniff, sniff, cough, cough. It's that season...at the first sniffle, 2nd cough, or hint of a tickle in the throat, I reach for the elderberries and make up some elderberry syrup. It's a great antiviral, antioxidant, and boosts and supports the immune system. Sometimes I don't wait for the sniffle, if we are headed somewhere public and a lot of sickness has been going around, I'll give my kids a spoonful or a sip before heading out.
I used to buy the syrup already made up, until I figured out I could order dried elderberries and make it myself, for pennies on the dollar. This year I ordered from Mountain Rose Herbs for $10./pound (on special). With one pound, I can make about 4 quarts of syrup. Retail, it's about $15. for a 4 fl. oz. bottle. That would be $120. for 1 quart of syrup or $480. for the 4 quarts I can make out of my $10/pound berries (plus the cost of a little cinnamon and honey). I don't have the time to make a lot of my own stuff but the cost savings makes this one worth it to me!
Elderberry Syrup:
1/2 C. Dried Elderberries
2 C. Water
1 Cinnamon Stick
Add a bit of ginger and gloves to increase the effectiveness, if desired
Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer until the liquid is reduced by 1/2 (about 30 minutes).
Strain with a fine mesh strainer.
Add honey (to desired sweetness) while warm and stir until dissolved.
Refrigerate.
Makes about 1 pint.
If we aren't currently fighting a bug and I have some made up, I'll let the boys have a tablespoon or sip everyday. If they are fighting something, I'll try to remember to give them some every hour or so.
With all the learning about toxins that has happened over the past
two years, I’ve become reluctant to give my boys cold medicines when
they become sick. I started taking the wait it out approach. However,
the last couple times they’ve gotten sick it has gotten kind of bad – mucousy
and congestion in their lungs. After a few days of it getting worse and
worse, rather than better, I start to question my wisdom of not giving
them medicine. And it only takes one or two nights of them being up most
of the night, completely miserable (and then cranky all the following
day ) for me to want to wave the white surrender flag and give in to
giving them medication. But, with all the other work I’m doing through
nutrition and everything else to keep toxins OUT of Jordan’s system, I
just can’t stand to intentionally put some into him. So, what to
do…Jordan was pretty sick, very congested – head AND chest.
We have a
D.O. for our family doctor who likes to use homeopathic things when she
can, so I thought I’d call and see what she would suggest in place of an
over-the-counter cough med. All I got was an earful (literal yelling –
not at me, but at her nurse in regards to me) about how she would have
to see him and evaluate him and what in the world was I thinking not
bringing him in, but calling instead, blah, blah, blah… Well, in my
mind, how was coming in going to help? I’m telling you, he’s congested,
but it’s not THAT serious. I’m just looking for a natural expectorant
(stuff that thins the mucous so it can be coughed out), something
instead of toxic pharmaceuticals. If I brought him in, she is just going
to say antibiotics won’t help and to go home, he’d be better in a few
days. In reality, it would take him about 2 weeks to get better, but
hey, who’s counting she’s not the one up rocking him every night, ALL
night (can you tell we’ve already been down this road a few
times). Which is fine, because even if she did think antibiotics would
help, I wouldn’t give them to him anyway. We are already fighting the
yeast war in his body and don’t need any antibiotics to make it worse
and weaken him further, or add more toxicity as I mentioned earlier.
So, getting no help from the doctor once again, I turned to herbs. I had had my eye on a herb book for kids, The ABC Herbal
by Steven Horne. I started perusing. Although much of the book contains
“recipes” for making different concoctions for treating various
things. I came across a section on infections. It talked about garlic
being nature’s penicillin with “powerful infection-fighting
qualities” and how it can be very beneficial for colds, respiratory problems, earaches and infections, fevers, other infections, etc and how it helps to expel phlegm. Well, phlegm expulsion is definitely
what my boys needed and I had garlic on hand! Not knowing much (or
anything) about herbs, I didn’t quite understand how I was suppose to
use the garlic, but I did read that it could be used internally OR
externally. So that night at bedtime, I got out the jar of minced garlic
we keep in the fridge (we love to cook with garlic), put some in a
small container and as we tucked them into bed, I smeared some garlic on
their chests and thighs. The next morning, my oldest son was basically better,
just a slight lingering cough. Jordan rebounded after a few more nights
of this treatment. Although it worked, I wouldn’t recommend doing it
with this method. I’ll explain…
A few weeks later, the boys got sick again and it coincided
with a trip to Jordan’s cranial sacral doctor. He recommended chopping
up an organic clove of garlic and soaking it in olive oil = this makes
garlic oil. Then take the garlic oil and spread it on the bottoms of
their feet. I mentioned I had tried something very similar but had put
it on their thighs, he quickly commented that if they did fine with it
on their thighs, that it would be fine to put it directly on their chest
then. Whew, that’s good since I already had. Again, it only took one
night of this for my oldest son to be over his cold and congestion. And about
3-4 nights for Jordan. This is way better than the two weeks it had
traditionally taken AND it’s all natural and completely non-toxic!!
Additional Note: An experiment I found interesting…in his
book, Steven Horne related an experiment a nurse did. Here is an
excerpt. ”She worked in a hospital growing bacterial cultures and proved
to herself the powerful effect of garlic. She took a petri dish with a
very powerful strain of bacteria and set a peeled clove of garlic in the
center of the dish. Within two hours, every bacteria in the dish was
dead. She told me ( Steven) that it took eight hours for the strongest
antibiotic the hospital had to kill that same strain of bacteria when
the antibiotic was sprayed over the whole plate. That shows you how
penetrating the effects of garlic are.”
