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?

[PickleCat]

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..."

Poor Chihuahua dogs!

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

Eating a balanced diet and exercising to lose weight. No way, I'll go for the risky elective surgery before that.:lol2:

[RNperdiem, RN]

Castor oil

Many people of my grandparents' generation swore by castor oil as a cure for just about anything.

[OrionQuiltsRN]

Try using "alum" for canker sores. Moisten your fingertip, dip finger in alum, and apply to the canker sore. The alum causes shrinking and helps the canker heal. Leaves a funny taste in your mouth, but works so well!

[gentlegiver, ASN, LPN, RN]

For a cold my Mom gave us Turpinhydrate (spelled wrong sorry) at bed time by the morning our sheets would be soaked but the cold was really gone. Horrible taste by the way!

[flashpoint]

I had an instructor in paramedic school that recommended "inducing a fever" for just about everything. He would take 100 mg (yikes!) of Benadryl and put on flannel pajamas, socks, and a hat and crawl into bed under all of the covers he could find. He swears that by morning, whatever he had going on was gone.

Sounds like a bad plan to me!

[Vikingkitten]

For a cold my Mom gave us Turpinhydrate (spelled wrong sorry) at bed time by the morning our sheets would be soaked but the cold was really gone. Horrible taste by the way!

No doubt, as the stuff is 40% alcohol! No wonder you slept so well. When I was in the Service, we called it "G.I. Gin"! Even had some with Codeine! The old soldiers would come into my Troop Medical Clinic asking for it by name!

Speaking of home cures, when I was a G.I., I got a call one day from one of the Mess Halls, they were bringing over one of the Cooks who got burned on a stove. His Sergeant (a real, down-home Southern boy!) brought him into the clinic and I had him take the patient to the Treatment Room. "Were did you get burned? My hands, Sarge! Why is the rest of your arm so red, I asked?" His Sergeant piped up with," I put the arm in the oven to bake the heat out it!" ?

Got to be some Southern thing.

[JDZ344]

How about cracking an egg on the head for headlice? An older lady I knew when I was a kid told my motehr to do that because nits are allergic to egg, according to her.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

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

[josinda421]

Red thread on the forehead will get rid of hiccups. Egg under the crib will draw out the fever and cook the egg. Crisco on the butt for diaper rash. Rubbing alcohol on everything...ouch!!

Any type of thread will get rid of hiccups. I tried it many times before, it works.I used to tear of hanging theards from the any clothing I have and it works. Even on babies it works. It will disappear before you know it.

[Guest 360983]

I like to use ginger for nausea. I've heard that urine will help really stinky feet. My cousin swears that putting an unwrapped bar of soap under her sheets fixed her restless leg syndrome when she was pregnant (maybe an offshoot of the soap for leg cramps thing?). I've heard of killing head lice with gasoline.

The weirdest one I've heard was rubbing a cut potato under your arms if you sweat too much.

[belgarion]

Read the bar of soap thing in a syndicated doctor's column. A lot of people swear by it. I haven't tied it myself.

The following ones are some I learned growing up on a west Texas ranch.

If you brush up against a bull nettle, urine applied as soon as you feel the sting works wonders.

Wet potato peelings wrapped in a rag will reduce the pain and swelling in eyes that have been exposed to welding glare.

Crush up a cigarette, make a poultice from the tobacco, and put it on a bee or wasp sting. It's supposed to draw out the poison.

Turpentine is good on ringworm. (Actually turpentine seems to the major component of a lot of home remedies out here)

One of my favorites was told to me by an old Hispanic man who lived on our place. He said the best remedy he knew for a cold was to put a hat on the foot of the bed, get under the covers and start drinking tequila. When you see two hats, stop drinking and go to sleep. He absolutely guaranteed that you would not think about the cold. He never did tell me a cure for the next day though.