It’s been a weird winter here in Boston. Hardly any snow so far. But that doesn’t stop the colds and flus that come around when all the windows are shut and the kids are sharing germs like crazy with their friends.

Awhile back, my daughter caught some kind of bug, and then she cured herself – it was so cool!

Here’s what happened…

Ruby (my 9 year old) and I were at the local natural food/everything store looking for clay to make our own face masks (I’ll give you that recipe another day). While we were there, we picked up a book for Ruby, called A Kid’s Herb Book: for Children of All Ages. (I can attest to the ‘all ages’ part, I love it just as much as Ruby, and I want to make every recipe in the book!)  It’s a practical and fun book by Lesley Tierra about herbs and healing potions and nature and more. To me, it’s magic in a book. Ruby pored over the book and tagged recipes she wanted to try.

About a week after we bought the book, Ruby started to get a cough and started to feel stuffed up and crummy. Now usually we reach for our familiar arsenal of natural remedies when someone in our house gets sick. But this time I encouraged her to look up her symptoms in her new book, and see if there was a remedy she might like to try.

Well, she found this fantastic Garlic Syrup!

Now before I go on, let me tell you honestly, if I had found this syrup recipe, made it myself, and suggested she take it, she wouldn’t have tried it in a million years! But she made it herself (with a bit of help from me), she decorated the bottle and claimed the concoction as her own!  She took it every two hours for a day and half and wow – total recovery – super fast!

Here’s the recipe and notes straight from A Kid’s Book of Herbs:

“This syrup is especially good for stubborn coughs, bronchitis, pneumonia, mucus and lung congestion (when there is clear to white mucus). If there is heat (high fever, slight chills, and yellow mucus), then eliminate the ginger and cayenne. Take in teaspoon doses every two hours or as needed.”  ~ Lesley Tierra

Enchanted Healing Garlic, Lemon and Honey Syrup:

Mix together thoroughly: (Ruby and I just put everything in the blender)

• 1/2 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed is preferable)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 5 large cloves of garlic – minced or pressed
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger or  1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
• a dash of cayenne powder

Put it in a container and keep fresh in the fridge.

Note: What we noticed was that the longer we kept the syrup in the fridge the stronger the syrup tasted of garlic. So I think next time we would make 1/2 the recipe and use it within the week.

If you’d like more natural healing remedies for colds and coughs, check out my comprehensive list here.

May you and your family not need this remedy, but if you do, may healing happen quickly.

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Nina Manolson, MA, CHC, LMT is the Smokin’ Hot Mom Mentor and Family Wellness Expert. She’s the founder of SmokinHotMom.com and HealthyYummyKids.com. She helps busy moms look and feel their best, and helps them feed their kids well in a world that doesn’t.

3 Responses

1. Margie King says:

   January 18, 2012 at 5:17 pm

   Thanks so much for this post, Nina. I am still getting over whatever this thing is that’s going around and have been using these ingredients individually. Love the idea of combining them into a healing syrup!

   Reply
   • ninamanolson says:

     January 18, 2012 at 5:36 pm

     I wonder if there’s a synergistic power in using them together? If not synergistic, at least heavy hitting!

     Reply
2. Hypnoflair says:

   January 20, 2012 at 3:50 am

   This elixir is one that a friend of mine swears by. He drinks it daily ( for the past 10 years) and swears that it balances his alkaline levels. He preaches it to everyone. Personally I can not stomach it, but Chelsea thinks it is a great salad dressing! Thanks for confirming just how wonderful it is.

   Reply