Ok, it’s not new. It’s new to us.
My ‘new’ behavior did NOT cost us $25 for a doctor visit for pink eye (I diagnosed it myself) and at least $10 for a one time use prescription. The ‘new medicine’ cost me only $10 total, so we saved only the cost of a doctor’s visit this first time, BUT I still have plenty of the ‘medicine’ to use down the road and/or to share with friends (I guess I’ll be getting calls when readers’ kids have pink eye. Fine by me.). That adds up to savings.
I used herbal medicine for the first time. Don’t run away! Stick with me.
All I had to do was buy some Eyebright capsules at the health food s
tore. I opened four capsules and brewed a tea (10 minutes of seeping time). I then used the slightly warm tea (had to let it cool down, of course) for compresses for our one year old three times a day. I also flushed his eyes with the tea just after using the compresses. The hardest part of the whole gig was having to hold the compresses on him for two minutes (It took my and My Sweetie to do this). He hated it, but he would have hated eye drops too (and it still probably would have taken two of us to get it done right!). This is better for him and has no side effects. I could use this treatment guilt free. It cleared up his pink eye in three days. And only one other child got it. We only had to treat her once.
tore. I opened four capsules and brewed a tea (10 minutes of seeping time). I then used the slightly warm tea (had to let it cool down, of course) for compresses for our one year old three times a day. I also flushed his eyes with the tea just after using the compresses. The hardest part of the whole gig was having to hold the compresses on him for two minutes (It took my and My Sweetie to do this). He hated it, but he would have hated eye drops too (and it still probably would have taken two of us to get it done right!). This is better for him and has no side effects. I could use this treatment guilt free. It cleared up his pink eye in three days. And only one other child got it. We only had to treat her once.
So… give herbal medicine a try. It’s not voodoo. No eyes of newt are called for in any of the treatments I’ve run across. Yet.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
This was new news to me..thanks for sharing, I’ll have to remember your on call for this one ;0)
If you are nursing, you can express some Mommy Milk and put it in the eye… this will not be allowed if the child is old enough to know what it is, though. And it is HUGELY embarrasing to even SUGGEST it to a pre teen boy.
Not that I’d know, or anything. Ahem. I’d never do that.
Oh yeah- and whatever tea you use, make sure it doesn’t stain said pre-teen boy’s face pink.
I did know this, but I can not express… I don’t know why. I have plenty of milk. If you think suggesting it for a pre-teen boy is hilarious, you should have watched (hypothetically, of course) me trying to start the nursing/let down process just so I could yank away to try to spray my son. Hil.ar.i.ous! Didn’t work. Imagine that.
You go girl!!! If I was still living in your town (whoops almost wrote it out!) I would have gladly given you some of my expressed milk…unless that would gross you out of course…and if that’s the case pretend I never mentioned it!!! Love you.
Wow this is good to know for future reference…KK had pink eye last year I could have used this then. Hopefully won’t have to worry about it but if I do now I have a plan.
Heather S.
Hugs,
very cool. and I did not know that about the expressed milk thing. Do you think this eyebright would work for Episcleritis (an inflammatory eye condition that is recurrrent every 1-3 months, so I know I will be getting it again in that time frame) Not much doctors can prescribe for a pregnant women, he did give me a very low dose of steriod, btu said it will take ALOT longer to clear up since it can not be treated aggressivly, any thoughts?
Glad it worked for pink eye and I will try to remember that.
Megan
Very nice to know that there is a remedy for pink eye that we can do ourselves. I always hate going to the doctor for something I feel I could handle myself if I just knew what I needed. Thanks for sharing!
~Luke
“mommy milk” treats ear infections, too! Between that and garlic oil, we’ve NEVER needed antibiotics for ear infections – a pretty good rate for someone with 7 kids!
But I don’t tell the kids what it is… just special medicine mommy made for their ears, LOL, and put it in a medicine measuring cup so it looks “official”.