Homemade Cough Syrup

Recently my hubby got a really bad cold and cough. He doesn’t often get sick and it really knocked him around. As well as my regular cold and flu fighting remedies, I also made him up a homemade cough syrup. It worked so well I wanted to pop it on the website for you all to try out too.

This homemade cough syrup is from the amazing Aussie naturopath, Mim Beim and her book, Natural Remedies! It’s a must have book for anyone that wants simple home remedies for a huge range of common ailments.

What I love about this remedy is that you probably have the ingredients already in your pantry. No need to source weird herbs or ingredients! You can’t get much simpler.

So this is how you make it:

Homemade Cough Syrup

What you need:

1 onion
enough raw honey to cover

*use organic ingredients if you can get them

What to do:

Chop the onion and place in a bowl. Pour over enough honey to cover and set aside in a warm place for a few hours or overnight. The onion will steep into the honey! Strain into a sterilised jar.

How to use:

Mim says that adults can have one dessertspoon of honey every hour and children can have one teaspoon.

I can’t believe how well it worked, within two doses, he had stopped coughing! That was a relief for all of us, I can tell you!! 😀

When I mentioned this recipe on social media, some of you suggested adding lemon and garlic and you could totally do that as well. In fact the beauty of natural remedies is that you can tailor make them. Pretty cool huh.

Just make sure you are using a good quality honey – not that yucky supermarket stuff!

How to beat cold and flu – naturally!

Colds, coughs, snotty noses, flu ….. ugggh! Is there anything worse?

Well, it doesn’t have to happen at your house quite so frequently. We haven’t had a flu or even a bad cold in years at our place!

There is no ‘cure’ for the common cold but natural, toxin-free remedies can help stop the lurgies from getting too bad. As you know, I am not a doctor or a naturopath or have any medical qualifications at all. All I know is that my family hasn’t had a flu or even a really bad cold in ages (actually, this probably coincides quite nicely with our decision to go toxin-free!)

All I can share is things I have researched and tried out over the years that work for us.

First though I think we need to talk about prevention. Everyone says ‘prevention’ is better than cure, right?

What we do to prevent colds and flu:

* a diet high in fresh, organic fruits and vegetables

* a healthy lifestyle (exercise, sleep, toxin-free, no smoking, no drinking, not getting rundown)

* probiotics or fermented foods on a daily basis

* lots of water

* thorough washing of hands

* essential oils like Immune Boost blend from Twenty 8

* drink bone broth (with lots of ginger, turmeric and garlic in it) regularly or put it in our food

* freak out and run away from anyone with a cold 😛

What we do if we start feeling a bit sick:

* olive leaf extract – a couple of doses a day. It tastes feral, but we mix it with a little juice and do a juice chaser. It makes me shiver every time !

* several doses of Super Greens and Reds green powder

* rest, rest, rest

* extra fruit and veges (green smoothies usually do the trick)

* ingest coconut oil, usually in a herbal tea or smoothie

* Immune Boost blend essential oil in the diffuser and on the soles of the feet overnight

What we do if the germs get us:

* all of the above, plus

* a natural chest rub that we make ourselves (and we also use it on feet at night)

* manuka honey, coconut oil and lemon in chamomile tea