Sunday, November 28, 2010

Cough and Sore Throat tea

We survived a virus that caused everyone to cough and have sore throats.  Some of the kids had a dry, hacking cough and others got wheezy with it.  At least 3 of my children lost their voices.  (Sadly, that didn't seem to create a quieter atmosphere here since it was only one at a time.)  The first to catch this virus was my son Samuel.  He seems to end up with asthmatic symptoms whenever he catches any cold.  One morning he was struggling so much he couldn't even make it up the stairs to his bedroom.  I had to leave, but made him some tea and instructed Grace, his babysitter for the morning, to push the tea.  She said she had him sip it every time she could--maybe every 15 minutes or so.  When I returned 4 hours later, he was fine and went to play outside.

So what was in the tea?  I will share my list of ingredients.  But if you don't want to make it yourself I have now made a HUGE bag of it and would be glad to share.  $5 for a 2 ounce bag.  In about 3 weeks I'll have a tincture made from it and will want to test that on somebody. :)  I'll need a local person with a cough to test so let me know if you feel bad about 3 weeks from now.  Not wishing it on anybody, but just letting you know I'll be glad to share my tincture free for the first person who is sick and willing to test it out.  FYI it will be alcohol based.

My cough and sore throat formula is this:  1 part each of mullein, licorice root, echinacea, peppermint, spearmint, stevia, dried elder berries.  1/2 part lobelia.  Sometimes I throw in an extra part of mullein.  It doesn't seem to make a difference though.