I started a whole fad in my college dorm for using Glovers Mange Cure (for Dogs and Horses) and still available, for dandruff. On Saturday morning the whole floor would smell of coal tar while we all walked around with towels on our heads having a treatment. Philip Ingerman
Diaper Rash
This is relatively new but it works. Take Maalox and rub it on the babys bottom before you put on anything else, this will neutralize the acid in the babies waste. It works wonders as long as you apply healing agents over the Maalox. Billy
Diarrhea
Castor Oil: My mother honestly believed that mixing orange juice with castor oil made it more palatable----which it DIDN'T!! Furthermore we received castor oil whether we were constipated OR had diarrhea---in the latter case it was supposed to "rinse out" all the germs. Howard Congdon
Add more cheese to your diet. Rosanna
If something is eaten that seems good and upsets the stomach, add vinegar to water and sip it. It works immediately. If not taken right away and the toxin passes thru the system and causes diarrhea the vinegar will still work as soon as taken. I have personally used this and will swear by it. Vinegar is so simple and cheap --- my favorite kind of remedy. Betty C
Dizziness / Sea Sickness
This really works! Eat crystalized ginger. Tastes good and also acts as a breath freshner while it curbs all kinds of motion sickness, dizziness, sea sickness, and vertigo. Connie Matejek
Dry Skin
Bag Balm: This was used for chapped skin on hands and face as well as it's intended use which was as an ointment for cow's udders. I still keep Bag Balm in the house because it really works better than most of today's lotions. Mary Stuart Parks
Dysentery
Red Oak boiled will stop Dysentery RD
Ear Ache
We had a teen girl that was in our care, by court order. We were foster parents. This 14 year old girl whose family came from one of the deep southern states, came to me and ask for a cup that was disposable. I gave her a paper cup and ask why she needed it. Her answer was quite a shock to me. She said she had an earache. She would urinate in the cup and pour it in her ear. That is how her granny cured earaches. Has anyone else heard this cure? Rose Deal
Yes; my Dad (who is in his 70s) told me that was his mother's cure for an ear ache. (My grandmother was from very rural east Texas, with Tennessee roots.) Your foster daughter's granny had access to a modern refinement - the disposable cup. Daddy said he learned, real young, to tilt his head a little to the back rather than forward, because the warm urine usually trickled out of the ear and ran a bit. I like to tell this cure to my children's pediatricians and watch their faces. Marie
Yep...and actually, it serves the purpose (warm sterile liquid). The one I know of but never had the nerve to try was the one where you roast an onion and then use it as a poultice on the ear. Partially the same concept, I guess (hot liquid) along with the fact that onions and garlic include a natural antibiotic. Megan Zurawicz
Cigar smoke blown in the ear to cure earaches (it works) Roy D. Hurley
All thru my growing-up years I was plagued w/ ear-aches. Mom always heated some camphorated oil in a teaspoon, soaked a small cotton ball in the warm camphorated oil, & put cotton ball in my aching ear. Ah-h-h, such relief. Didn't take the pain away altogether, but surely did help ear feel better & made pain bearable. Mary
For an earache my father would take a puff on his pipe and blow tobacco smoke in the affected ear! No idea why it worked but it did. Pat Bales
When I had an ear ache, she would bake an onion in the coals of the fireplace and cool it and the put 2 drops of onion juice in my ear, with a piece of cotton to keep it in. Anne
When a child, I constantly had an ear ache. Once my grandfather found out, he immediately went into the woods, and found what he called a "Betsy Bug", which looks like some type of beetle. He said there is one drop of blood in its head, which he squeezed out, and placed inside my ear. I have never had the ear ache since. I understand these can be found under old logs or large pieces of wood. They are black in color and have a hard shell. K. B. Pate
Im 65 and as a kid had ear aches all the time. My Mom would heat regular table salt and put in a terry towel. It gets really hot so you need to watch when using on kids. I always felt it was the heat that put me to sleep. It was more of a heating pad than anything else. My Doctor told me..in a pinch...heat vegetable oil...test on the wrist, before using. This also gets very very hot. Use an eye dropper to put in the ear. I read once where a lady heated and just put it into the childs ear...Of course the child had severe burns and also went deaf. I could never understand how this could happen....heat any type of oil and it STAYS HOT. Rae Painter
When I was a small child I had a lot of ear aches, my mother would take a small square of soft cloth (diaper) and put a small amount of black pepper then fold over the cloth to make a small bag and tie it with thread. Place this in the ear and in no time the pain is gone. Larry Long, Drury MO
Here is one i was told about a couple of yrs ago by an older lady, and i use faithfully it works....Garlic is a natural Antibotic and I keep garlic oil in gel caps on hand and take it orally. I take 1000 mg orally but have been keeping a lower dosage on hand for this, 300 mg. I have used both mgs, You decide. But poke a hole in the tip of the cap and put drops in the ear with child or adult laying down so it will drain way down into the ear, cover with a cotton ball in ear. We did this on a weekend when we were unable to get to a Dr. My son hadnt slept in 24 hrs he was feeling so bad. Within 15 minutes of applying the garlic oil to his ear he was free of pain and sleeping. In 3 days he had no infection. Needless to
say we no longer see the Dr for ear aches. You could also put a heated wet wash cloth on or a heat pad these both help ease an ear ache. I also add that if the problem continues that one should see a Doctor ASAP. Wouldnt it be nice if Natural medicine and MD's would work together. Gayle aka Stormy
Couldn't resist sending this in after reading your section on earaches. I didn't see what I thought would be a given. The Native Americans call it coning, but in Argentina, where I grew up, my grandmother would roll up a sheet of newspaper in the shape of a cone, with the small end tiny enough to fit in the ear. I would lay on my side, aching ear up and she would stick that cone in the ear and light the other end on fire! Then you just let it burn slowly and the warmth at the end of the cone sucks out any water or air, just as a fireplace sucks out the air from the rest of the house. Often you can hear the air rushing out loudly! When done you flip over so the ear can "drain" (and it does). I have done this to my children who both suffered from earaches when young, much to the dismay of my pediatrician, but also to the relief of my children. This really works and has spared my children many hours of pain. Dora Schwemley
Fever
Aconite for fever. That remedy really worked. You took two drops per teaspoon of water, if high fever. And usually one took two teaspoons every two hours. If fever wasn't very high, one drop per teaspoon was given every two hours until fever dropped. Wilma
I remember my mother telling me, when she was a young girl, she had a high fever and her father took a large onion, cut it in half and put the cut part against her feet and tied them there. She didn't remember the length of time but said the onion turned black and her fever went away. Loretta Goss
As with the sunburn, the same ability of vinegar will also bring a fever down in someone who is very warm. It appears to only work locally where it is applied. CG482@aol.com
Fire Ant Bites
I grew up in tobacco fields. And spent most of my time bare foot. When I stepped on a honey bee, someone would put wet tobacco on it. I live in Texas now, and use tobacco from a cigarette (preferably a left over butt) to cure fire ant bites. works on yellow jacket stings too. With fire ants, they leave a permanent pustule that hardens...not if you use wet tobacco within 5 minutes. Charline Burress
I live in Florida and want to pass on some information regarding the "sting" of fire ants. A couple years ago a little gal staying at the resort here fell into a large mound of fire ants. She was rushed to the hospital emergency room (at a cost of $300 and some change) and all they did was spray her with Windex WITH amonia. (It has to be the kind with amonia added) So the next time I got bit, I tried it ~~~~ it works! Jean Partridge
You can also pour bleach over an ant bite or put Vicks on it and it will stop the festering. My sister-in-law Cecile taught me this. Joyce