home remedies you would NEVER try

[ktwlpn]

Doing some research today and found a good one for lady partsl yeast infections-Insert a fresh clove of garlic wrapped in cheese cloth....I don't think so!

A former neighbor would wipe her baby boy's faces with their wet diaper to prevent acne when they got older.They never did have a zit but then again she and her husband both had very nice complexions.

Have you heard/seen any wacky home remedies to share?

[RadBSN]

I tried the garlic thing once for a mild yeast infection. First time it came shooting right back out and into the toilet. Then once I finally got the thing to stay in (new clove btw) I went to bed and woke up in the morning smelling like garlic! Oh, and it actually worked!

[Cherry2000]

Clove oil on a toothache works really well. Saved my husband's behind one weekend. :) Strong black coffee for an asthma attack. I don't know if it was just the placebo effect or not, but it got me through until I could get to my inhaler!

[Woodenpug, BSN]

Awww, it was lot's o' fun as "home remedies I would never try. " Now, it seems to be home remedies that really work. Oh well, I blinked.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Awww, it was lot's o' fun as "home remedies I would never try. " Now, it seems to be home remedies that really work. Oh well, I blinked.

I wouldn't try Johnson's hair food on my nips unless I were desperate, and I mean REALLY desperate.

[Woodenpug, BSN]

I wouldn't try Johnson's hair food on my nips unless I were desperate, and I mean REALLY desperate.

O.K., missed that, but when I did a postpartum clinical, we were to recommend soap and water. The company does not feel free to list ingredients not usually associated with simple soap. But it has been a long time since postpartum exposure and I seem to find it easy to make mistakes.

[Cinquefoil]

Ear candling. I don't want a flame that close to my head.

OMG, I have personal experience with this one.

Flame? Not so much of a problem. Hot liquid wax landsliding into ear canal? AIIIIIIIEEEE!

(No permanent damage, other than to my reputation for sharing:p )

[Cinquefoil]

Sticking a sweet potato into the hoo ha to treat yeast infection (though it's interesting to picture someone....ummm...shopping the produce bin for the perfect tater)

[CrazierThanYou]

I haven't tried the ear candles myself and I don't really have any personal experience with them but I know a lot of people who swear by them.

[GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN]

When our son got what I thought was conjunctivitis as a small baby, my husband told me to squirt a few drops of breastmilk into his eye a few times a day to clear it up. It was a funny sight, me trying to aim my boob at the eye of an infant who didn't really appreciate having his eye held open. (Son didn't have conjunctivitis, he had a clogged tear duct, so the breastmilk thing didn't work. But I've since heard other people swear by this as well.)

We do keep a head of cabbage in our unit fridge at the hospital for our moms with engorged breasts -it works beautifully.

I used to work at a community health center and we saw many kids with thrush, oral HSV, or strep come in with purple mouths. Moms had painted them with gentian violet. I did some looking/reading and found that gentian violet has antibiotic properties and is fairly common in Latin America....then the lightbulb clicked on that that's one of the ingredients in triple dye, which is what they use to paint babies' umbilical cords in some hospitals.

I have used gentian violet for nipple thrush- it does work! It doesn't wash out of clothes, though!

[Poi Dog]

My great aunt FIRMLY believes that if you have a child with asthma, you should buy a Chihuahua dog and allow it to sleep with that child. She swears that the dog will then take the asthma from the child. As she told me "...but then you have a dog with asthma, but you find little chihuahua dogs anywhere..."

...runs to go and hide my Chi

[hecallsmeDuchess]

When our son got what I thought was conjunctivitis as a small baby, my husband told me to squirt a few drops of breastmilk into his eye a few times a day to clear it up. It was a funny sight, me trying to aim my boob at the eye of an infant who didn't really appreciate having his eye held open. (Son didn't have conjunctivitis, he had a clogged tear duct, so the breastmilk thing didn't work. But I've since heard other people swear by this as well.)

We do keep a head of cabbage in our unit fridge at the hospital for our moms with engorged breasts -it works beautifully.

I used to work at a community health center and we saw many kids with thrush, oral HSV, or strep come in with purple mouths. Moms had painted them with gentian violet. I did some looking/reading and found that gentian violet has antibiotic properties and is fairly common in Latin America....then the lightbulb clicked on that that's one of the ingredients in triple dye, which is what they use to paint babies' umbilical cords in some hospitals.

Wow! The breast milk for conjunctivitis I knew about growing up, but there was never anyone with breast milk the few times I had red eyes. As for the gentian violet (GV as we called it) was much preferred by us kids for scrapes and broken skin better than iodine which hurt like you would not believe and we would beg our folks to apply GV instead of iodine. Guess which one we frequently got? I haven't heard anyone mention GV or breast milk antidote in a great long while, thanks for bringing back some childhood memories.

[hecallsmeDuchess]

Not to gross anyone out...

but has anyone heard of rinsing the hair with the first urine in the morning if one has dandruff? Tried it once, still have dandruff (now use head & shoulders). Maybe I didn't do it right since I was not sure if the first urine is the one when one wakes in the middle of the night to pee or if it's the actual first pee when one awakens for the day. Urghh