Nature’s best

our beautiful beaches and bushlands are the perfect place to spend the summer holidays, but they are also home to a number of stings, bites, burns and rashes which most kids come across at least once in summer. While you’re packing to go away, pop in some natural remedies so that you have them on hand when disaster strikes.

Baking soda

This marvellous substance is a godsend for so many ailments. You can mix it to a paste with water and apply to bee or wasp stings and mosquito bites as soon as they happen. A cupful in a warm bath will also soothe any itching.

For sunburn relief, mix up four tablespoons of baking soda with one cup of water and apply to the affected areas. If someone tangles with stinging nettles and gets a rash, make a thick paste of baking soda with water and apply. If you’re out of toothpaste, you can also dip your brush into baking soda and use that instead.

And if you’ve been fishing and your hands stink of fish, just rub about two teaspoons of baking soda onto your hands instead of soap.

Vinegar

Apart from being a must-have ingredient to go with cockles, vinegar is soothing on jellyfish stings. Rinse the sting immediately with saltwater – not fresh water, which will activate the stinging cells – then rinse with vinegar. Wine or gin also works.

And to avoid getting stung, your kids can wear pantyhose while they are swimming. You can also apply vinegar to bee, wasp or mosquito stings to soothe the itching, and a cotton ball soaked in vinegar then applied to a bruise for an hour will speed healing.

You can also deter mosquitoes by moistening a cloth with vinegar then rubbing it on your skin.

Sugar

oost people take sugar on holiday, but little do they know that it’s great in the first-aid cupboard. If you can’t get a stubborn prickle out of little feet, send them to bed with a plaster over the prickle which has been rubbed in soap and then sprinkled with sugar.

By the morning the prickle will have either worked its way out or will be easier to nab with tweezers. If your child gets sunstroke, it’s important to get an electrolyte solution into them. You can make this by mixing one litre
of cool, boiled water with one tablespoon of sugar and one teaspoon of salt.

And if someone is a bit keen on the hot sausage from the barbecue and burns their tongue, sprinkle a pinch or two of sugar on it and the pain will soon subside.

Aloe Vera

It’s well worth investing in a small aloe vera plant to take away with you. If you slice down the leaf to release the clear gel, you can use it on bites and burns to soothe itchiness and pain. If you have quite a lot, it also works really well as a moisturiser on your face after a day in the sun.

Ginger

Not all kids are created equal, and travel sickness can be a problem in the car or on the boat. You can make a ginger tea by grating a piece of root ginger which has been peeled. Put one teaspoon in a glass of hot water and sweeten with honey.

This tea is also great if someone eats too many sausages and ends up with indigestion. You could also pack ginger beer on your trip, or buy some ginger capsules from the health shop.

olive oil

There is nothing worse than getting an insect stuck in your ear canal, and it happens every year to someone. Get your child to lie down with the offending ear facing up and then pour oil into the ear cavity.

Try to keep them still until the insect drowns in the oil. Then drain the oil and let them marvel at how tiny it is, yet how loud it was.

oanuka honey

Shells, broken bottles and fish hooks all leave their calling card on your children’s feet. Firstly, clean cuts and grazes with a saline solution made by adding one teaspoon of salt to one cup of boiled water – to remove any debris. Then apply oanuka honey and a plaster.