Tummy Aches

There are several things we are using for tummy aches.

Peppermint can help with heartburn. Licorice too. Ginger is supposed to be great for nausea.

But there's one thing that is really helping almost every digestive problem we are encountering and I want to share that. Slippery Elm.

When Ezra was having trouble being able to handle any solids we started adding Slippery Elm bark powder to his applesauce and he was suddenly doing much better. Over the course of a couple months, he was able to eat all kinds of things without all the diaper rash and upset stomach problems he had been having.

I shared this with a friend and she tried it on herself. She said it worked better than the prescription drug she was taking. (A popular reflux medication)

One of our daughters has trouble occasionally where everything she eats will hurt her stomach. This comes and goes and we can't figure out why. But she started taking slippery elm for it and it healed it up. For now at least. If it comes back we know to try the slippery elm again.

Everything I've read says this is safe for pregnancy, but I had trouble with it once while pregnant. I had some spotting while taking it and it stopped when I quit. Maybe that was a coincidence, but I'm cautious. I just wanted to alert you that it could be a problem so watch carefully for trouble if you are pregnant.

You can get it in capsules, but I don't know how much it would help with upper digestive problems because it wouldn't touch the area. We buy it as a powder and mix it with juice, water, or applesauce. It will thicken whatever liquid you mix it in, so you'll want plenty of liquid. My daughter says it gets kind of gross with water, but it's worth it. 1 tsp seems to be plenty for adults. I am sure you can cut this down for children. I know when Ezra was taking it as baby food we mixed a teaspoon with a bowl of applesauce. It's a food so you can't really overdose on it, you just don't want to waste it.