Homemade Cure for Baby's Colic and Gas

A lot of our friends here at Healthy Kids Today have very little ones and so, quite inevitably, often we hear them cry woefully about their little bundles of love suffering from colic, reflux, gas and upset stomachs etc.

We know that many of you have tried the various so called 'cures' readily available in the stores and from what we understand most of you are experiencing the lack of success that we did! Believe me when I tell you that we tried them all! Sadly despite our succumbing to the marketing hype of practically every 'herbal' or 'homeopathic' remedy available and having handed over countless dollars, our poor little son would continue to howl throughout the night with gas and then immediately bring up all of his milk after every feed.



This sorry state of affairs went on for months until a very dear Indian friend of ours shared a wonderful little secret with us: Fennel Seed. Yes, we know that fennel seed is one of the ingredients in many of the store bought remedies for colic and gas etc, but what can we tell you, from our experience they just don't work like the tip we are about to share with you!

So, we decided to give our Indian friends suggestion a go for two reasons:

We were desperate and...
If something has worked for generations, which apparently it has for generations of Indians, then surely there must be something good in it!
So, this is what we recommend and hopefully it will help relieve the discomfort of your little one and hopefully give you all a few more hours sleep!

You're going to need some fennel seeds which we suggested buying either at your local health food store or Indian store. That way you can purchase a really big bag, inexpensively. Unless you really have to don't go to the supermarket and buy one of those tiny 'McCormick's' type bottles which are expensive and won't last long.

Take a heaped teaspoon of the fennel seeds and place them in a mug or some other container that can hold hot water. Then steep the seeds in one cup of boiling water for at least half an hour. (The general idea behind the steeping is simply that the seeds will sit for a period of time in the hot water allowing them water to absorb all of the goodness that we are going to need.)We used to let the fennel seeds sit in the water until the water was completely cold.

The next step is to remove the seeds from the water - The easiest way is just to pour the liquid through a tea strainer or something similar. Don't worry if there's residue of any kind in the water, it won't harm.

Once the seeds have been removed pour the cold, fennel seed liquid into an air-tight bottle to store. We used to keep it for a couple of days before making fresh.

Now to the all important step - Every time you give your little one a feed, place a tablespoon of your fennel seed liquid into the formula / milk. It's that simple!

By the way, if you are breast feeding we suggest either mixing a little expressed milk with the fennel seed liquid in a small bottle or using a 'Tylenol' type syringe to slowly drop it into your little one's mouth.

All we can tell you is that over the years we have recommended this to countless people for their children and we can't think of anyone that it didn't help. It really is the miracle cure!

If you do go ahead and try it please let us know what you think and how successful it was for you. Also if anyone else has any wonderful remedies to share with us then you know we would love to hear from you.

Don't forget…. 'we are the caretakers of the next generation!'

(P.S. It goes without saying that if you have any concerns about giving your child fennel seeds then Healthy Kids Today strongly suggests that you talk with your Pediatrician first.)