I wanted to write this on Mother’s Day, but it didn’t get past the thought version before my big day was in progress. no time left for writing until today.
We say Mothers Know Best and often they do. Wisdom is passed down from generation to generation, and from one mother to another. When it comes to health tips, mothers have been the first line of defense in doctoring their kids for eons of time.
Even some old wives tales probably have an element of truth to them, though I’m pretty sure most are really more superstition than science. Like the one that goes something like this: if a pregnant woman looks at strawberries, her baby could have a strawberry colored birthmark. That one is no doubt a mere superstition.
But mothers worldwide seem to know what to do when it comes to their kids. And those kids instinctively know to run quickly to Mom when something hurts. Right?
So what things did your mom do to keep you healthy, or to patch you up when illness or injury struck?
Here’s a list of some things I learned from my Mom’s repertoire of health tips. It by no means covers everything I learned from her, just a few that come quickly to mind from my childhood memories.
Lets see…
Baking soda for bee stings. We had a yard full of white clover in Kansas City, which attracted honey bees. So it was a common summer occurrence for one of us to go limping into the house every week or two, wailing Mommyyyy! I stepped on a beeeeee!! And of course, the bee had defended itself against the descending bare foot.
Well, what did Mom do?
Step 1: be sure the stinger isn’t still in the skin. (If it is, carefully flick it off into the trash with something stiff like a credit card. Never use tweezers or fingers because there is still poison in the stinger. Any squeezing action will force more poison into the skin.)
Step 2: make a paste of baking soda and a few drops of water. Apply this to the sting.
Baking Soda Paste is also great for insect bites or any itchy skin condition.
Salt is good for several things: Sore throats can be helped by gargling with warm salt water.
You can also use salt or baking soda on your toothbrush for cleaning your teeth. Works great, and totally non-toxic. (But mainly we used Crest toothpaste.)
Calamine Lotion for Chicken Pox, measles or insect bites. Nowadays you might not be dealing with measles, but the other two could happen in your home. I don’t even know if they still make it, but what we actually used was called Caladryl (not sure of the spelling). It was a calamine lotion with benadryl in it.
Homemade bread was standard fare in our home when I was growing up. Whole grain flours of several varieties were usually included, along with unbleached white flour. Mom was a firm believer in wholesome, natural foods when possible. And it was delicious!
Warm lemonade made with honey. I mentioned this already in another post. This was Mom’s immediate response whenever one of us had a sore throat, or just needed additional fluids while fighting a cold or flu.
Honey to help the medicine go down. Also mentioned previously, this was a great-tasting way to get crushed pills into a sick kid. Or to get vitamins into a healthy kid… before the days of liquid or chewable children’s vitamins.
Applesauce. I recall being given a few spoons of applesauce with something mixed into it, too… similar to using honey (above).
Vicks VapoRub. This stuff smeared on your chest when you had a stuffy nose or cough worked wonders! (I still use it under my nose every night before going to sleep. It keeps my sinuses open.)
Saltine crackers and small sips of 7-up worked wonders in settling queasy stomachs.
I could go on, about Band-aids and gauze/cloth tape dressings, merthiolate on cuts (some sort of red antiseptic liquid that burned a lot), vaseline to soften rough skin and I don’t remember what else it was good for. (I do remember a friend using vaseline to clean and polish her patent leather shoes, though. That made an impression.)
Ponds dry skin cream. Chapstick and another one called ChapCheck. Rubbing alcohol to kill germs (ouch!). A cool washcloth on the forehead for low-grade fevers… so the fever could be allowed to do it’s job. Regular plain aspirin for high fevers.
Playing outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine. Staying warm on cold winter days or in rainy weather. Getting warmed up quickly if you got chilled, before you could catch your death of the cold. (I don’t think my mom really used that expression, but it was common back when she was growing up!)
Washing hands after using the bathroom, of course, and always before eating a meal. In fact, that’s how Mom would call us to dinner. When we heard “Wash your hands!” that was our signal that it was time to eat.
So yes, mothers know a lot of things. Mothers know how to keep us healthy and safe. And with Mother’s Day having just passed, I bet you’ve been thinking about some things you’ve learned from your own mom.
Do any special memories stand out for you? Leave me some comments if you want to share what you learned from your Mom.
