Chamomile for cough for a 4 month old baby

Healing properties of chamomile

Chamomile is rightfully considered one of the best medicinal plants that can fight a large number of diseases. It is easily accessible as it grows in all regions. If you were unable to stock up on herbs in the summer, you can find them in the pharmacy at any time of the year. It costs a penny, but the benefits from it are priceless.
Infusions and decoctions are prepared from chamomile. It is useful to drink tea from chamomile or from a herbal collection that includes this plant. It has the following properties:

• kills bacteria and viruses;
• relieves inflammation;
• calms;
• strengthens the immune system.

Decoctions are used internally as tea, and externally for rinsing and lotions. It helps with colds and coughs. Can be used by both adults and children.

Properties of chamomile

Chamomile seems to be specially created for the care of small children. Azulene, which is part of chamomile essential oil, has anti-inflammatory properties. Thanks to the content of apigenin and apiin, chamomile relieves spasms. It contains vitamin C, matrices, flavonoids, carotene, coumarins, linoleic, stearic, palmetic, and oleic acid glycosides. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory, hemostatic, antiseptic, astringent, disinfectant, analgesic, sedative, anticonvulsant, diaphoretic and even choleretic properties.

Most often, chamomile is used as an external remedy - it is part of many children's cosmetic lines. There are also children's teas with chamomile, which are used to improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and restore the body after colds. But with the same success, you can prepare an effective preparation from dry chamomile raw materials at home. You just need to know how to give chamomile to a baby and in what cases it should not be done.

Can infants have chamomile?

It is not recommended to use this product internally for newborns. Doctors believe that this may prevent the child's body from developing its own immunity. And when the child turns 4 months old, a weak decoction of this plant will be very useful for colds.

But you need to consult a doctor so as not to harm your still fragile body.

Chamomile can be used externally even from the first day of life. It is useful to wash the baby's eyes if they become sour. If a child has a cold and his nose is running, it can be washed with a weak decoction.

There will be no harm if you clean your ears with a cotton swab dipped in chamomile infusion. For a healthy baby this will be like preventing a cold, and for a sick baby it will be a good help in fighting infection. For infants, chamomile for cough is an excellent remedy when chemotherapy is not possible.

Chamomile for colds

Chamomile tea is not just harmless, but also a truly effective remedy for colds.
In addition, this is an excellent alternative to many potent medications. But remember that you should give your child chamomile tea only after the doctor makes a diagnosis and confirms the viral nature of the disease. If your baby has an acute respiratory viral infection, he is tormented by a stuffy nose, a slight cough, fever and a red throat, you need to make chamomile tea. To do this, pour a teaspoon of medicinal chamomile inflorescences with a glass of boiling water, let it brew and strain thoroughly. It is permissible to take no more than 100 ml of the prepared decoction per day. If the broth is too strong, it can be diluted with warm boiled water. In case of ARVI, drinking plenty of fluids is the main source of recovery. It is very useful to rinse a child’s nose and throat during ARVI. The prepared decoction, when warm, should be dropped into the nose as often as possible using a pipette, and then the stagnant mucus should be drawn out with an aspirator. If the doctor has prescribed you some medicinal drops, they should be instilled into a clean nose. If you drop chamomile into your nose 10-12 times a day, you can significantly reduce the time of illness and get rid of congestion and runny nose. For a red and sore throat, you need to draw chamomile tea into a syringe without a needle, place the baby in a horizontal position, open his mouth and carefully irrigate the cavity of the sore throat. If some of the broth gets inside, it’s okay. But remember that you cannot perform the procedure on a child lying down - he may choke. When coughing, it is very effective to do steam inhalations based on chamomile tea. Boil water, prepare a decoction, cover yourself with your child over a bowl of hot water, and inhale the healing vapors. Be sure to be close to the child under the blanket - you should feel the temperature of the steam with your own skin to avoid burns. Do not inhale at high body temperatures - remember this. In addition, it is not recommended to use herbal decoctions in special inhalers; a particle of the plant can get on the bronchial mucosa, which is dangerous.

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How to prepare chamomile for use yourself

Chamomile flowers are purchased at the pharmacy. But some people prefer to collect it in the fields themselves. To collect and use chamomile, you need to know a few rules:

• You cannot collect flowers near roads and in fields where agricultural work is carried out with herbicides and fertilizers. Plants from such places are not useful. They accumulate chemicals and exhaust gases, which are then released into the broth and harm the body. Therefore, it is better to collect them in the forest, away from the city and human activity.
• The most useful substances are found in flowers, the rest of the plant is less useful.
• It is better to collect plants in the morning, immediately after dew.
• For brewing, you need to use only well-dried flowers. They should have a pleasant floral scent. They should not smell like dust or mold.
• Chamomile should be dried in the shade, avoiding direct sunlight, which destroys beneficial substances.

Chamomile flowers prepared in this way should be stored until next year in a tightly closed container. Best of all - in a jar with a tight lid. This way they will always be at hand if something bad happens to your baby in the form of a cold.

Benefits of chamomile tea for babies

Brewed chamomile flowers have an anti-inflammatory and softening effect, so the decoction is used to gargle for sore throat, pharyngitis, and tonsillitis.

Chamomile tea is very useful for infants with colds; it increases sweating and lowers body temperature.

The flowers of the plant are a strong antiseptic; they act as an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agent. The decoction copes well with skin itching and rashes, which often occur in infants. It relieves inflammation well and helps in the healing of wounds, cracks, and ulcers.

Due to its anti-inflammatory effect, drinking chamomile tea has a positive effect on the baby’s nervous system, it calms and helps you fall asleep faster. Baby tea increases the protective functions of an infant, helping to fight viruses and infections. It also has a healing effect for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Acts as a pain reliever for abdominal pain.

Chamomile tea helps relieve babies from colic in the tummy, it eliminates pain and gas formation.

If the baby has dysbiosis, you can give the decoction in large doses. Also, if your baby has a poor appetite, try giving him tea infusion.

How does chamomile affect a child's body?

Any remedy from the flowers of this plant helps the baby fight colds. Thanks to the beneficial properties of chamomile, when a baby coughs, phlegm comes out better, and inflammatory processes are stopped and stop spreading. The airways are cleared of infection.

If a child does not have a fever, but coughs a lot, it is useful for him to inhale with chamomile. This will give a good calming effect and the cough will stop. A runny nose and sore throat can also be treated well with chamomile. But treatment must be started immediately as soon as there is a suspicion that the child might have contracted an infection - when he became hypothermic or had contact with sick people.

If chamomile infusion does not help, the infection does not go away and the disease progresses, you should consult a doctor. He may prescribe chemotherapy and suggest using a decoction of the plant as an adjuvant.

It is useful to add chamomile decoction to a baby's bath. It has a calming effect on the baby’s body, cleanses the skin well and protects the body from infections. It is recommended to carry out such bathing regularly at least twice a week. It helps the umbilical wound heal and strengthens the immune system.

Warm bathing with chamomile is also useful for coughs. The steam from the font thins the mucus and helps it separate. But after bathing, it is very important that the child is put to a warm bed, otherwise the cough will not only resume, but also intensify.

Chamomile for bathing

Chamomile decoction is perhaps the best cosmetic product for water procedures. Due to its disinfecting properties, it is added to newborn baths during the healing period of the umbilical wound. Later, when the baby grows up, bathing in chamomile will serve as a preventive measure against diaper rash and skin irritations. In addition, this herbal medicine relaxes and calms the child before bedtime.

How to properly bathe a child in chamomile? First you need to make sure that there is no negative skin reaction, although chamomile practically does not cause allergies. Prepare a small portion of the decoction, soak a cotton pad in it and apply to a small area of ​​skin on the child’s arm or leg. If no rash or redness appears at the application site within 15 minutes, the product is suitable for bathing.

There is no clear dosage of the proportions of chamomile decoction for bathing. Many pediatricians recommend taking 1 tbsp. l. dry raw materials, pour a liter of boiling water, leave for 15 minutes, then strain. The result will be a rich yellow decoction. Prepare bathing water in the bath, add and stir the chamomile infusion. As a result, the liquid will be barely noticeable yellow. Do not go for high concentrations as this may cause skin irritation.

When swimming, you need to follow three simple rules:

• the water in the chamomile bath should be at a temperature of about 37 °C;
• the duration of the water procedure for babies up to 3 months should be about 5 minutes, for older children – 7-10 minutes;
• Bathing in chamomile should not be too frequent, once a week is enough.

How to brew chamomile correctly

To get the best effect from using this plant, you need to know how to brew it correctly so as not to destroy the beneficial substances. Chamomile decoction is prepared very simply:

• When preparing a decoction of chamomile in filtered bags, you need to fill one of them with 100 ml of boiling water. To do this, take a large, clean cup, which you first pour over with boiling water.
• Cover the cup with a lid and wrap it in a towel to keep the broth hot longer.
• Leave for about half an hour, remove and squeeze the bag.
• Add 200 ml of warm boiled water.

If homemade collection is used, the flowers must be boiled over low heat for about half an hour. For this, 1-2 tbsp. l. fill with water up to half a liter. Then remove from heat, wrap and leave for about an hour. The decoction is filtered before use.

You can brew the herb in a thermos using the same dosages. But it must be stored in a cool place and used no longer than a day.

It is very useful to make chamomile tea. Babies drink it with pleasure. To prepare it, 1 tsp. flowers, pour 250 ml of boiling water and infuse.

But you should not overuse it, since chamomile is a very strong remedy and its constant use can lead to an overdose. Therefore, such tea should be prepared only at a time when the child is at risk of infection and begins to cough. When chamomile is used correctly, a baby's cough can be stopped at its first stage.

Rules for brewing chamomile for infants

There are instructions on the packaging of a product purchased at a pharmacy. To prepare drinks and other solutions from the plant, different recipes are used. Parents must follow the dosage indicated in the recipes so that the child does not have a negative reaction from the body.

Infusions

For infusion 3 tsp. raw materials are poured with 250 ml of boiling water. The product is left to infuse for half an hour. The liquid is used to rinse the mouth or throat. Since an infant does not yet know how to do this, a piece of gauze is soaked in the solution and the inflamed areas are treated.

Decoctions

A decoction of the plant can be used to bathe a child. To prepare it you will need:

• water - 500 ml;
• chamomile - 1 tbsp. l.

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First, the raw materials are filled with water, the container with the mixture is placed on the stove and boiled for 20 minutes. The liquid is left to infuse for half an hour. After this, the infusion is poured into the baby’s bathtub.

The decoction prepared according to this recipe can also be consumed orally, but warm. For a small child, 250 ml three times a day for 2-3 months is enough.

To get rid of a cough in a newborn, prepare a decoction of the following ingredients:

• plant inflorescences - 5 tbsp. l.;
• water - 500 ml.

Chamomile must be poured with water, boiled over low heat for about 20 minutes and cooked for another quarter of an hour. After this, the drink is cooled and filtered. Doctors advise giving children warm drinks. You can also rinse your nasopharynx and oral cavity with it. The procedure is carried out up to 5 times a day. Without a doctor’s recommendation, you should not give chamomile to an infant or treat with other folk remedies.

Teas

To prepare tea you will need the following components:

• 1 tsp. chamomile flowers;
• 200 ml water.

The raw material is brewed with boiling water, a small amount of honey is added and used for drinking. The drink is infused for about 20 minutes and given to the child to drink warm.

How to give chamomile to a baby

Products from this plant have a strong antibacterial effect. If it is consumed constantly, the microbial balance in the intestines may be disrupted in the infant. To prevent this from happening, tea or decoction is given to the child no more than 3 times a day. You can pour it into a bottle and give it to drink a little after feeding instead of water.

When preparing the product for babies, it is important to follow the dosage. While an adult can drink strong chamomile tea without harm, it can cause trouble for a baby. An overdose of chamomile may cause a headache and a deterioration in the baby’s general condition.

Sometimes children react poorly to a weak solution. This means that the child cannot tolerate this plant. You should be attentive to your child so as not to miss such a condition and not cause harm.

Possible harm and contraindications

Allergy testing should be done before using chamomile. To do this, apply a few drops of the plant decoction to the baby’s skin and observe the skin’s reaction for 24 hours. If there are no rashes or redness, then chamomile can be used to treat and prevent various diseases.

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From the first days of life, the child’s digestive system adapts to new living conditions. The intestinal microflora and mucous membrane are finally formed during this period. The child begins to drink chamomile decoction from 2 months, so as not to cause negative manifestations from the gastrointestinal tract. The dosage should not be exceeded, and if an allergy occurs, stop taking the drug.

Self-medication is prohibited. For a child in the first year of life, drinking chamomile can be dangerous and cause the following side effects:

1. Vomiting, caused in most cases by the bitter taste of chamomile.
2. An allergic reaction, manifested in the form of redness, rashes, anaphylactic shock and Quincke's edema.
3. Diarrhea associated with the plant’s ability to tone the intestinal muscles.

Chamomile solution, which is prepared in cold water without processing the raw materials at high temperatures, may contain dirt and components that are dangerous for the baby. This drink should not be given to a child. In infants at 2 months, side effects occur more often than in children 6-8 months.

If a nursing mother drinks chamomile tea, the active substances pass into breast milk. This can cause a negative reaction in the child's body. For this reason, a woman should avoid chamomile during lactation.

For which children is the plant contraindicated?

For a cold, chamomile is not always indicated for babies.
Some children cannot tolerate the plant. To avoid dangerous consequences from use, you need to check the child’s reaction. To do this, place a small drop of the product on his wrist. Before this, make a small scratch with a sterile syringe needle. If there are no changes within an hour, the child can be treated with chamomile. And if the area turns red or a rash appears, then you need to choose another remedy. Infants under four months should also not drink this infusion; there are other remedies for them.

If chamomile remedies are used correctly, the child may not become ill. A timely fight against infection prevents microbes from spreading and capturing new territories for their activities. As a result, the child remains healthy and cheerful. But before using chamomile for babies, you should definitely consult a doctor.