Health Gazelle: Poultice

Poultice

This is how I make a poultice using ordinary tea bags. It is a transdermal means to deliver an herbal antibiotic. I have found it to be very effective in keeping me out of the ER and off of prescription antibiotics. The side effects are generally more tolerable as well. However, I am now allergic to chamomile because I used this so very often while trying to get well. I have been told that is not unusual with using alternative remedies and the allergy is likely to go away over time.

I read somewhere (or heard) that tea has the most health benefits when it has been steeped for 3 to 7 minutes. Longer than that reduces its benefits. I found that cold water poultices weren't very effective. I would buy tea that came in bag without a string or I would snip off the strings and put the tea bags in a large measuring cup (like 2 cup or 4 cup measuring cup -- they have a handle for pouring and are a good size). I poured boiling hot water over it and let it steep for a few minutes. I probably set a 5 minute timer, but I haven't done this in about a year (I am now allergic to many of the things I used for so long at such high doses, including several types of tea). Then I brought a small hand towel that was designated "acceptable to ruin with tea stains", and folded it in four layers. I squeezed the water out gently -- you don't want to crush the tea leaves, just make them wet but not dripping wet -- and laid them out so that the tea bags would have the most surface contact possible with the skin. I found that 15 or 20 minutes was a minimum effective time and after 45 minutes the poultice generally stopped having any further effect. If I was really sick, I might spend all evening making new poultices every hour in order to avoid going to the ER that night.

Please note that I am a big woman (Germanic descent: tall, big boned, busty, and haven't been thin in years) and my youngest son is now 15 and outweighs his older brother by 60 pounds but is not particularly fat. I think he weighs about 180 pounds right now and the last time I weighed myself, I was over 200. So for a small child, you might start with only 2 to 4 tea bags and see what works best. An overdose generally makes one feel nauseous. So if the child complains of feeling nauseated, you are using too much and/or for too long at a time.

My sons and I found that the poultice is most effective when it is placed on the skin while still quite warm but not scalding hot and if the contact with the skin is broken and the heat is lost, the effectiveness drops so dramatically that my kids would simply throw it away at that point and make new. If you are trying to figure out how hot it should be for a child who is sleeping, you have to press your hands flat and very firmly across the tea bags to test. Lightly touching them will not tell you whether or not they are the right temperature. What feels tolerable with a light touch can still be scalding hot when pressed firmly to the skin and covered with a towel. When you can firmly press your hand down across them and not be burned, you can safely put the poultice on a sleeping child. If the child's skin is more sensitive than yours, you will have to learn exactly what is comfortable for them. Doing this a few times while awake until you get a feel for what works for them is probably the safest means to learn how to judge the temperature. Since cold tea bags are not nearly as effective (I think it interferes with the transfer rate), learning to judge the temperature is the hardest part: too hot and you scald them, too cold and you aren't doing much for them.

Funny, that sounds a lot more complicated than I found it to be. I learned a lot of the details of what seemed to be most effective by doing it regularly for a long time and getting feedback from my kids.

Also, I used a lot of chamomile -- which is a well-known herbal antibiotic -- and mint teas (both peppermint and spearmint -- I think peppermint was stronger but both worked). I know I sometimes used other teas to good effect if I just happened to have something else on hand, but I can't tell you what else I used. Chamomile poultices were one of the most consistently effective herbal antibiotics that I used to get well. NOTE: Chamomile is part of the ragweed family and can cause a bad reaction in people who are allergic to ragweed. Reference

Email Michele

Want to know about updates?

Join the Group

Withdrawal
Tips and Tricks

Atypical Cystic Fibrosis

Mental Models

Food, Not Drugs Updated!

Flat Bread NEW!

Foods List
Vegetarianism

PH Balance Updated!

Lifestyle Changes

Fighting Infections

Other Conditions