Samkadya
The following is a question and answer format for the natural cure for colds, coughs and sore throat. Home treatments that can be administered quickly and effectively. This is taken from an 1890s health magazine, a time when conventional medicine was just developing and some harmful chemicals that are now forbidden were being used to treat various ailments. Having said that the natural treatments mentioned in this article are still very effective. I have used these natural treatments and have found them more effective than conventional medicine. I too had misgivings about treatments such as hot foot bath and warm and cold showers until I used them and found them very effective.
" What can I do for my children when they take cold and begin to cough or have sore throat, especially in the night? I have always kept patent medicine in the house and given it to the children quite freely, but I find those that take the most medicine have the weakest stomachs, and I am afraid the patent medicine is doing harm to their stomachs. I see you advise simple home treatment for many diseases, without the use of medicine, and it strikes me very favorably. Now please tell me what simple home treatment I can use for my children when they take cold, as I do not wish to use any more patent medicine."
Ans.— We are glad to note that the public mind is being stirred up on the side effects of the patent medicine business. American children are born with poor stomachs at best, and this weakened vitality is still further reduced by the vicious practise of dosing with patent medicines for a score of ills which could all be quickly relieved and wholly cured by the use of simple home treatment which any intelligent mother may use without either expense to herself or harm to the child. In treating a beginning cold, you should give the child a hot foot-bath or a warm full bath. Just before removing the child from the bath, the temperature of the water should be cooled several degrees. Dry the body by means of a towel; rub sufficiently to give a good reaction. Finish with an oil rub, using olive oil, cocoanut oil, or even a little vaseline. Put the child to bed, and keep him warm. Should there be any cough or sore throat, a moist compress should be placed on the chest or throat. This is done by wringing out of tepid water a cloth about the size of a small table napkin. Fold it so it will cover the upper portion of the chest. Place over this a layer of oiled paper to prevent evaporation. A piece of writing paper on which a little oil is rubbed, will answer. Cover all with several thicknesses of dry flannel, and bind snugly to the chest so as to exclude the free access of air. This may be repeated on several successive nights if necessary
If applied for sore throat, the moist compress should be folded narrow, about two and one-half
inches wide, and placed on the throat, and covered with the oil paper and flannel the same as for the chest. This very simple method of home treatment, which any one can use and which can be used almost anywhere, will cure the average cold more quickly than any patent medicine, and has the great advantage of not disturbing the stomach, and of being free from the bad after effects of drugs.