Home Remedies That Worked For Us - Penniless Parenting

Skeptical about using antibiotics and other prescription medication on your family?? Short on cash or lacking insurance, making a doctor's visit and buying the prescribed medication unmanageable financially? Unable to make it to the pharmacy but need to deal with a medical issue? Here are some tried and true home remedies that have worked for our family, oftentimes working even better than prescription or over the counter medications.
No, I'm not a doctor, nor am I any sort of medical practitioner, either alopathic or naturopathic (is that a word?), nor am I qualified to give any advice. This is just my sharing my personal experience with you; before using any of these, discuss them with your medical practitioner. I am taking no responsibility if these don't work for you or if they cause further issues for you.
(And in case you're wondering why all the disclaimers- it can be illegal to "dispense medical advice on a blog" and can possibly land you with jail time, as with this case. So this isn't medical advice, just some "anecdotes".)

Ringworm/Fungal Infections:
A few days ago, while bathing my son, Lee, my husband noticed this strange mark on my son's back. It was a ring of reddish brown about a centimeter in diameter and we couldn't figure out what it was. I thought it looked similar to ringworm (which I had once in my early teens), but not exactly, because the ring wasn't raised the way it was when I had it... A trip to the doctor confirmed that it was, indeed, ringworm, and the doctor prescribed him an antifungal cream to put on a few times a day for about a month, until it completely goes away.??"Its tough to make ringworm go away," the doctor tells me.
I can't buy medication in my area; the nearest pharmacy is a bus ride away and it was too late to go that day anyhow. I said I'd buy the medicine the next day.
But then I was thinking to myself- if the medication the doctor prescribed takes a month to work, it can't be that effective. Maybe before spending my money on that, I should see if maybe there are natural cures that work better than that that I can make with what is in my house.
I consulted Dr Google and found a treasure trove of resources with home remedies for ringworm. Lots of people recommended taping slices of garlic to the patches of ringworm, but they said that the garlic often burned the ringworm patch and was very painful. I decided not to subject Lee to that.

I read some more, and in different places, saw that tea tree oil (a well known antigfungal) was recommended, as was the sap from fig leaves; since we have a few fig trees growing nearby, and since I had tea tree oil in my home, I decided to first attempt to treat Lee's ringworm naturally, with those, and if that didn't work, then go on to the standard medical care.

On day one after the doctor confirmed ringworm as the diagnosis, I rubbed a bit of tea tree oil on the patch. 2 times that day.

The next day, I dabbed some sap from a fig leaf onto the patch. Lee said the sap itched him a bit.

On day three, I again put on tea tree oil twice.

By day four, no remnant of the ringworm remained.

Much less than the month long treatment had we decided to go with the standard care.

Just a note- if you decide to do this yourself, only leave the fig sap on for a little bit. If it stays on the skin, it makes the skin incredibly itchy. Fig sap is also used medicinally on warts.

Apparently the same fungus that causes ringworm causes athletes foot, so I assume that this treatment would also work for athletes foot.

Sore Throat:

My husband is not a complainer. When he's not feeling well, he doesn't complain, pretends everything is fine, and goes on like usual, working full, long days, despite feeling under the weather. So when my husband told me one day last year that his throat was killing him, I knew it was something serious.

I had him open his mouth, and oh boy, it looked scary. His tonsils were so swollen, and they had huge white lumps on them, so that his tonsils almost looked like teeth in the back of his throat, the spots were so large. I told him (as the daughter of a doctor)- there's no doubt in my mind- you have strep throat.

And Mike did what he never does- he actually went to the doctor! Who, of course, confirmed my diagnosis. Strep throat. And prescribed him a round of really strong antibiotics.

My husband finished the complete round of antibiotics, but still felt just as ill, and his throat killed just as much.

He read up online a whole bunch of different home remedies, from gargling with salt water, to gargling with vodka, to drinking vodka, to having honey and lemon, honey and garlic, etc... Nothing worked. Not the antibiotics, not the home remedies...

And then one person told him to try mouthwash. He was a little skeptical at first, especially as nothing had worked for him until then, but to his surprise, it worked! After using the mouthwash once, he started feeling better, and after using it a few times, the sore throat was completely gone.

Since then, whenever my husband is starting to feel his throat getting a little bit sore, like he's coming down with some bug, he gargles with?mouthwash once, and he prevents the sore throat from staying- he's fine right away after and doesn't get sick.

On Friday, I felt like I was starting to get strep or something. My throat was scratchy and starting to be painful to swallow. I gargled with mouthwash... I have felt perfectly fine since.

We use Aquafresh mouthwash. I know, probably not the cheapest or healthiest for you, I just know this one works, so this is what we're sticking with.

And no, I have no idea why it works.

So there you have it- 2 home remedies that worked for us.

Have you ever used these home remedies before? Did they work for you?

Are there other home remedies that you've used successfully to cure medical issues? What were they?

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