Friday, November 11, 2011

Failed Experiment: Cough Syrup


Horehound from my Mother's Garden

 
Maybe my first post on herbs shouldn't be about one of my failures. But I believe it's important to talk about one's failures as much as one's successes. Spoiled violet cough syrup, burned comfrey oil, spoiled comfrey oil, stinky garlic salve...now I'm adding infant cough syrup to the list.

Lina had her first cold last week and with it came a cough. Honey is one of the best things for coughs but obviously I couldn't give her any (no honey for a child under the age of one). Often, I will gently heat honey and add thyme to treat an adult's cough. When honey heats up it becomes thinner and it's easy to strain out the thyme when I am finished.

I thought I could just do the same with brown rice syrup....wrong. I added horehound and peppermint to the syrup. But when I heated it up, it did not thin out and I couldn't strain out the herbs. To compound the issue, it tasted VERY strongly. An adult could handle the taste but I knew no child would swallow it. Hmmmm....a new challenge for me.

I ended up just taking a thyme tincture myself and nursing Lina. We also spent lots of time in our steamy bathroom. Hopefully, I won't have to conduct too many more cough syrup experiments this winter!

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