Keep Your Kid’s Sniffles Away with Boo Candy – a Natural Cold Remedy
We used to get sniffles in our house but now it’s super rare. OK, I’ll admit it, we’re both home sick today.
But it’s the first time in at least a year, and we just moved, and all the ingredients for this natural cold remedy were in a box somewhere so it really reminded me how useful this particular natural cold remedy is.
If you google “natural cold remedies,” you get very little help. Vitamin C, Zinc, etc. It never helped me much. My baby used to get colds so often that they would run into each other and last all winter – for both of us.
Then I started studying Ayurveda.
Ayurveda, the oldest medical system in use today, teaches that everything is made up of the elements, and the elements have qualities, and if we are familiar with these qualities we can find balance.
We balance ourselves using the elements all the time: my skin is rough (air/wind element), so I use oil (water element).
I feel heavy (earth element), so I lighten up by eating less and moving (air element).
I feel cold (earth element), I take a hot bath (fire element).
My brain is bouncing off the walls (air element), I meditate to find calm (space element).
No duh, right?
No one ever taught us how to find balance health-wise, using the elements.
That is, unless you grew up in traditional India or learned Ayurveda.
Here’s what we need to know: mucous reflects the element of cold (earth element). We want to burn it up (fire element).
To do that, we can use spices.
When I got to Washington DC
this summer, I felt a cold coming on.
I went into my brother’s kitchen, boiled water, and put all the spicy herbs I could find into a mug: cayenne, black pepper, and ginger.
It didn’t taste half bad (I did put a little honey in) and the cold was gone. Just like that, never to return. I swear.
But how do we get spices into our little ones for this natural cold remedy?
Boo Candy Recipe – My Favorite Natural Cold Remedy for Kids
Get out a small plate and a spoon.
- turmeric powder ( you can dry roast it first in a skillet for added benefit).
- ginger powder
- cloves
- if your child has the sniffles or is fighting something, also add:
- black pepper
Then, pour honey over it, put it all on a spoon, and give to your child. You can do it each night or whenever you think of it.
My Favorite Natural Cold Remedy for Me
I make myself a tea using Trikatu, which is an herb that means “3 Hot Things.”
In it are several kinds of pepper.
When I drink it throughout that first day when I start to feel the tickle in the throat and fuzziness in the head, and I cancel everything and rest, I can usually wake up the next day all better.
This works for me better than any cold remedies I’ve ever found.
What other natural cold remedies can you use to support your family this season? Here are my essential tools for fighting colds with Ayurvedic practices.
Want to learn more about how to keep you and your family healthy and energized through the seasons? Join us for Mayurveda – our online self-care, daily rhythm and food-as-medicine training for busy nurturers of families and projects. 😊
