Many times parents bring their children with sore throats to our office to “check if it’s strep.” Some are disappointed to find out that their child does NOT have strep. Moms and Dads lament, “But what can I do for him if he can’t have an antibiotic? At least strep is treatable.”

Take heart. Strep or no strep, there are many ways to soothe your child’s sore throat:

• Give  pain medication such as acetaminophen (brand name Tylenol) or ibuprofen (brand names Advil or Motrin).  Do not withhold  pain medicine before you bring her in to see her pediatrician. Too many times we hear “We wanted you to see how much pain she is in.” No need for this! Pediatricians are all in favor of treating pain as quickly and effectively as possible. Pain medicine will not interfere with physical exam findings nor will it interfere with strep test results.
• Give lots to drink. Some kids prefer very cold beverages, others like warm tea or milk. Avoid citrus juices since they sometimes sting sore throats.  Frozen Slurpies, on the other hand, feel great on sore throats. Tell your child that the first three sips of a drink may hurt, but then the liquid will start to soothe the throat. Watch for signs of dehydration including dry lips and mouth, no tears on crying, urination less than every 6 hours and  lethargy.
  
• Provide soft foods if your child is hungry. For example, noodles feel better than a hamburger on a sore throat. And ice-cream or sherbet therapy is effective as well.
• Try honey (if your child is older than one year) – one to two teaspoons three times a day. Not only can it soothe a sore throat but also it might quiet the cough that often accompanies a sore throat virus. Give it alone or mix it into milk or tea.
  
• Kids older than three years who don‘t choke easily can suck on lozenges containing pectin or menthol for relief. Warning: kids sucking on lozenges may dupe themselves into thinking they are hydrating themselves. They still need to drink and stay hydrated.
  
• Salt water gargles are an age-old remedy.  Mix 1 teaspoon of salt in 6 ounces of warm water and have your kid gargle three times a day.
  
• Magic mouthwash: For those older than 2 years of age, mix 1/2 teaspoon of liquid diphenhydramine (brand name Benadryl 12.5mg/5ml) with 1/2 teaspoon of Maalox Advanced Regular Strength Liquid (ingredients: aluminum hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide 200 mg, and simethicone) and give a couple time a day to coat the back fo the throat prior to meals. Do not use the Maalox formulation which contains bismuth subsalicylate. Bismuth subsalicylate is an aspirin derivative and aspirin is linked to Reye’s syndrome.
  
• For kids three years and older, try throat sprays containing phenol (brand name Baker’s P&S and Chloraseptic® Spray for Kids). Use as directed.
  

Strep throat does not cause cough, runny nose, ulcers in the throat, or laryngitis. If your child has these other symptoms in addition to her sore throat, you can be fairly sure that she does NOT have strep. For a better understanding of strep throat see our posts: “Strep throat Part 1: what is it, who gets it and why do we care about it” and “Strep throat Part 2: diagnosis, treatment, and when to worry.”

Any sore throat that prevents swallowing or prevents your child from opening his mouth fully, pain that is not alleviated with the above measures, fever of 101F or higher for more than 3-4 days, or a new rash all merit a prompt visit to your child’s doctor for further evaluation. Please see our prior post on how to tell if you need to call your child’s doctor for illness.

Julie Kardos, MD and Naline Lai, MD

©2012 Two Peds in a Pod®, reposted 2015

My twins just got their driving learner’s permits (yikes!), and Dr. Lai’s son is a few months away from getting his. We know that we will have many talks with our sons about driving. But is my teen listening? Books and community lectures on the topic of “how to talk to teens” abound, and in the office we hear exasperated parents searching for ways to talk effectively to their teens and bemoan “She never listens to me, maybe she will listen to you.” In this post, we give you tips on talking to your teen.

Here’s the secret: while teens wear their “bored face” or may act as if they do not hear their parents, in fact they are listening. Below are suggestions on talking to your teen in ways your teen will find palatable.

1-Express your opinion as your opinion, such as “I believe…” or “Your dad and I feel…,” which implies to your teen that you understand that he or she may have a different opinion.

2-Remember that while teens do have opinions, they lack life experience. Use anecdotes: “I remember when I was in high school, a friend of mine found himself in this situation…” Anecdotes are less confrontational than directly warning your child about a situation that you are concerned he may be in.

3–Join your teen when she watches TV. Comment on the characters or plot theme, and ask what your teen would do, or if she thinks that the show reflects reality. Criticize the character if you disagree with the way the character is reacting to a situation and allow your teen to hear your thought process. She will file your thoughts away for future consideration even if she disagrees with you at the time. Encourage dialogue from your teen.

4–Say good-night to your teen in his room. Stay and visit a bit. Just like when they were young, teens often choose bedtime to bring up an event or dilemma from earlier in the day. (Hopefully they are getting to bed before you do.)

5-If your teen actually does choose to ask your advice, avoid jumping in immediately with a solution. Remember to pause and ask first how he thinks he could solve the problem or what he has already tried. Then you can encourage your teen’s ideas if you think they have merit and praise his insights, or you can offer your suggestions as further options.

6–Attend your teen’s sporting events or concerts. Your child is the same one who at age four looked for you in the stands during the T-ball game. The event will give you both something to talk about later. Just refrain from yelling out anything embarrassing. Or anything at all!

7-Preface your rules with “So you are safe.” Teens stomach house rules better when they hear you are concerned about their safety rather than about being the boss. For example, “So I know you are safe, please call or text me if you are running late,” rather than “You will be punished if you break curfew.”

8–Put down your phone when talking to your teen, and insist that he does the same. When you are using your phone, your teen feels ignored (think back to trying to talk on the phone when your teen was a toddler) and thus you encourage him to ignore you back.

9- Car trips are excellent times for talking to your teen, so volunteer to drive him rather than always relying on the other teen’s parent. Maybe it’s the lack of eye contact, but when you drive your teen somewhere, you are not otherwise distracted- your teen might be encouraged to talk to you in the car. Do not, however, invite possible heated conversation while YOUR TEEN is behind the wheel- especially when he is still learning to drive!

In addition to strengthening bonds with our kids, routine talking with our teens encourages them to talk to us when they need help, to consider our advice, and to learn from our own life experiences. In turn we impart communication skills and independence as teens learn to problem-solve and avoid life-altering mistakes. Talking with our teens encourages positive attention. Again, remember your teen as the toddler who might have thrown a toy or hit his brother to get your attention.

Dr. Lai’s friends joke that they renamed their children “Door 1” and “Door 2” when they became teenagers because the parents spent a lot of time talking to closed doors. But her friends kept talking, because they knew, even behind closed doors, teens do listen.

Julie Kardos, MD and Naline Lai, MD

©2019, updated from 2015, Two Peds in a Pod®

thanks to therapist Dina Ricciardi for her input

Recent comments by politicians have brought vaccines back into the public eye. In this post, we get down to basics.

Did you ever wonder how a vaccine works?

To understand how vaccines work, I will give you a brief lesson on the immune system. Trust me, it is interesting. Let me give you an example of me. When I was eight, I had chicken pox. It was a miserable week. I started out with fever and headache, then suffered days of intense body itching from blister-like spots, and ultimately, because I scratched off some scabs, ended up with scars. During this time, my immune system cells worked to battle off the chicken pox virus. Immune cells called memory cells also formed. These cells have the unique job of remembering (hence the name “memory cells”) what the chicken pox virus looks like. Then, if ever in my life I was to contact chicken pox again, my memory cells could multiply and fight off the virus WITHOUT MY HAVING TO GET SICK AGAIN WITH CHICKEN POX. So after I recovered, I was able to play with my neighbor even while he suffered with chicken pox.  I returned to school where other children in my class had chicken pox, but I did not catch chicken pox again. Even now, as a pediatrician, I don’t fear for my own safety when I diagnose a child with chicken pox, because I know I am immune to the disease.

This is an amazing feat, when you think about it.

So enter vaccines. A vaccine contains some material that really closely resembles the actual disease you will protect yourself against. Today’s chicken pox vaccine contains an altered form of chicken pox that is close to but not actually the real thing. However, it is so similar to the real thing that your body’s immune system believes it is, in fact, real chicken pox. Just as in the real disease, your body mounts an immune response, and makes  memory cells that will remember what the disease looks like.  So, if you are exposed to another person with chicken pox, your body will kill off the virus but YOU DON’T GET SICK WITH THE CHICKEN POX. What a beautiful system! Rather than thinking about a vaccine as a foreign substance, think of it as a substance that is able to strengthen your body’s natural immune system.

Before chicken pox vaccine, about 100 children per year in the US died from complications of chicken pox disease. Many thousands were hospitalized with pneumonia, skin infections, and even brain damage (encephalitis) from chicken pox disease. Now a small injection into the arm can prevent a disease by creating the same kind of immunity that you would have generated from having the disease, only now you have one second of pain from the injection instead of a week of misery and possible permanent disability or death. I call that a Great Deal!

I used the example of chicken pox because the vaccine was invented during my own lifetime. However, I could have used the example of polio, which, prior to its vaccine development in 1955, paralyzed 10,000 children per year in the United States, or measles, which infected 4 million children per year and killed 3000 per year in the United States before doctors began to give children a vaccine against measles in 1963.

All vaccines operate by this principle: create a safe environment for your immune system to make memory cells against a potentially deadly disease. Then when you are exposed to someone who actually has the disease, you will not “catch” it. Your body will fight the germs, but you do not become sick. If everyone in the world were vaccinated, then the disease itself would eventually be completely eradicated. Even if MOST people were vaccinated, this disease eradication can occur, because the majority of immunized people protect the few who are too young or too ill to receive vaccines themselves. This happened with small pox, a disease that killed 50 percent of infected people. There is no longer small pox because nearly everyone on earth received the small pox vaccine. Now we do not need to give small pox vaccine because the disease no longer exists. This is a huge vaccine success story.

Friedrich Nietzsche said “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” We pediatricians feel this is unacceptable risk for children. We would rather see your child vaccinated against a disease in order to become immune rather than risking the actual disease in order to become immune. The vaccines that we give children protect against diseases that can cause serious, lifelong disability or death.

Hopefully this blog post answers your questions about how vaccines work. For more details or more in-depth explanations, I refer you to the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) website www.aap.org, the Immunization Action Coalition, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center,  and the book Vaccines: What You Should Know, by pediatricians Dr. Paul Offit and Dr. Louis Bell.

Julie Kardos, MD and Naline Lai, MD

© 2009, 2015 Two Peds In a Pod®, updated 9/2015

For more information about vaccines, please see our prior posts: Should I vaccinate my child?, Closure: there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, Fact or Fiction: a flu vaccine quiz for all teachers, babysitters, parents, and anyone else who breathes on children, Do vaccines cause autism?, Measles outbreak: would you recognize measles in your child?, A vaccine parable , and Are my teen’s vaccines up to date?

It’s only a few weeks into the school year and we are running out of snack ideas for our kids. We looked back and found a couple of our favorite posts for snacks by guest bloggers Dr. Roxanne Sukol and  Health Coach  Mary McDonald .  Click here if you are in the same boat:

Packing your child’s school lunch: Beware of junk food disguised as healthy food

Overhauling the Sports Snack Stand

Julie Kardos, MD and Naline Lai, MD

2015 Two Peds in a Pod®

Dr. Kardos says she still remembers when her friend dumped her back in 7th grade. Guest blogging for Two Peds in a Pod, is child and adolescent counselor Dina Ricciardi with advice to help walk your kids through the experience.

It can happen very quickly, and often without explanation: your son or daughter gets “dumped” by his or her best friend or group of friends. One minute they are inseparable; the next, your child is left out and being ignored, and is completely bewildered as to why or what happened. Welcome to cliques, a typical part of the tween and adolescent landscape. While enduring these shifts in peer relationships can be extremely painful for both of you, there are some things you can do to help your child emerge safely on the other side of the experience.

Do empathize. Make sure your child knows that you understand why they are upset, and that you would be too.

Do take your child’s grief seriously. We adults know that friendships change and shift over time, and that we all survive. However, your child may see this as the worst thing that has ever happened to her, and she may be right.

Don’t downplay your child’s pain. It’s normal for him to feel hurt and rejected, and to question his own actions and the authenticity of the friendship.

Do keep an eye out for bullying or name-calling. If the situation seems to require it, enlist the support of school personnel to monitor things under their watch.

Don’t disparage or belittle the offending friend(s). It might feel good in the moment, but it can set the wrong example and make it difficult for your child to reconcile if the opportunity presents itself.

As a parent, it is hard to watch your child suffer. Our instinct is often to try to fix the situation, which we need to resist. Part of adolescence is allowing our children to develop their own identity and to learn relationship skills. Through their peer relationships, they learn sophisticated concepts such as trust, loyalty, empathy, compassion, and tolerance. They also start to encounter difficult emotions such as jealousy. The most important thing we can do as parents is be available to help our children sort out their feelings and to give them a different perspective. We can also help them discover that while peers are important, they can be strong and fine on their own, and do not need other people to give them their identity. This helps them value themselves as individuals. In the process, maybe we parents learn something new also. Buckle in; it can be a bumpy ride!

Dina Ricciardi, LSW, ACSW

Dina Ricciardi is a psychotherapist in private practice treating children, adolescents, and adults in Doylestown, PA. She specializes in eating disorders and pediatric and adult anxiety, and is also trained in Sandtray Therapy. Ricciardi is a Licensed Social Worker and a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. She can be reached at dina@nourishcounseling.com.

Dr. Lai adds: Help your kids cultivate their interests. As they do their interests, they will look around and find that  those kids will become their friends. The hardest part about adolescence is figuring out your own interests, and not those of your peers.

2015 Two Peds in a Pod®

Ouch! Stung on the scalp.

Ouch! Stung on the hand.

Ouch! Stung on the leg.

Ouch! Ouch! Stung TWICE on the lips.

Those nasty, nasty wasps. During the hot days of August, they become more and more territorial and attack anything near their nests. Today, in my yard, wasps mercilessly chased and attacked a fourth grader named Dan.

As everyone knows, you’d rather have something happen to yourself than have something negative happen to a child who is under your watch. As I had rolled out the Slip and Slide, I was relieved not to see any wasps hovering above nests buried in the lawn. I was also falsely reassured by the fact that our lawn had been recently mowed. I reasoned that anything lurking would have already attacked a lawn mower. Unfortunately, I failed to see the basketball sized grey wasp nest dangling insidiously above our heads in a tree. So, when a wayward ball shook the tree, the wasps found Dan.

What will you do in the same situation?

Assess the airway– signs of impending airway compromise include hoarseness, wheezing (whistle like sounds on inhalation or expiration), difficulty swallowing, and inability to talk. Ask if the child feels swelling, itchiness or burning (like hot peppers) in his or her mouth/throat. Watch for labored breathing. If you see the child’s ribs jut out with each breath, the child is struggling to pull air into his/her body. If you have Epinephrine (Epi-Pen or Auvi-Q) inject immediately- if you have to, you can inject through clothing. Call 911 immediately.

Calm the panic– being chased by a wasp is frightening and the child is more agitated over the disruption to his/her sense of security than over the pain of the sting. Use pain control /self calming techniques such as having the child breath slowly in through the nose and out through the mouth. Distract the child by having them “squeeze out” the pain out by squeezing your hand.

If the child was stung by a honey bee, if seen, scrape the stinger out with your fingernail or a credit card. Removal of the stinger prevents any venom left in the stinger from entering the site. Some feel scraping, rather than squeezing or pulling a stinger with tweezers lessen the amount of poison excreted. However, one study suggests otherwise. Wasps do not leave their stingers behind. Hence the reason they can sting multiple times. (Confused about the difference between wasps, hornets and yellow jackets? Wasps are members of the family Vespidae, which includes yellow jackets, hornets and paper wasps.) Relieve pain by administering Ibuprofen (trade names Motrin or Advil) or Acetaminophen (trade name Tylenol).

As you would with any break in the skin, to prevent infection, wash the affected areas with mild soap and water.

Decrease the swelling and itch. Histamine produces redness, swelling and itch. Counter any histamine release with an oral antihistamine such as Diphenhydramine (trade name Benadryl). Any antihistamine will be helpful, but generally the older ones like Diphenhydramine tend to work the best in these instances. Just be aware that sleepiness is a common side effect.

To decrease overall swelling elevate the affected area.

Soothe the area by spreading on calamine lotion or by applying a topical steroid like hydrocortisone 1%.

And don’t forget, ice, ice and more ice. Fifteen minutes of indirect ice (wrap in a towel, for example) on and fifteen minutes off helps relieve both pain and itching.

Even if the child’s airway is okay, if the child is particularly swollen, or has numerous bites, a pediatrician may elect to add oral steroids to a child’s treatment

It is almost midnight as I write this blog post. Now that I know all of my kids are safely tucked in their beds, and I know that Dan is fine, I turn my mind to one final matter: Wasps beware – I know that at night you return to your nest. My husband is going outside now with a can of insecticide. Never, never mess with the mother bear…at least on my watch.

Naline Lai, MD with Julie Kardos, MD

2015, updated from 2009, Two Peds in a Pod®

With some states now legalizing pot for recreational use, drug education for kids has never been more critical. The American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement this past year opposing legalization because of its potential harm to children, teens, and young adults. We welcome Dr. Shannon Murphy who dispels myths surrounding marijuana. – Drs. Kardos and Lai

Why is pot so different today than 30 years ago? Pot is 5 times stronger than the 1980’s.

THC, the psychoactive ingredient in the plant, previously hovered around 3%. Now the average THC level is closer to 16%. As of this year, some plants have been tested with levels reaching between 20-30% THC. There is a new form of pot known as hash oil that is almost pure THC with levels around 90%

I heard pot was not addictive. Is that true? Pot is addictive.

In fact, the younger you are when you start using pot, the more likely you are to get addicted.10% of adults and 17% of young adults who try pot will become addicted to it. If one chooses to use on a daily or near daily basis, the addiction rate climbs to 25-50%.

How long does pot stay in your body? Pot is different from many other drugs because it can stay in your body for days after use.

In addition, the more you use pot, the longer it stays in your body. For regular users, it can remain in your body for several weeks. As a result, there is a sub acute impairment that persists with many users once the initial “high” has worn off.

When used, pot is distributed throughout one’s body. These areas include the brain and spinal cord, heart, lungs, muscles, and fatty tissues. In fact, it is stored in fatty tissue. If one is pregnant and one uses pot, not only will the mom be affected by pot, but so will her unborn child. It also concentrates in breast milk. People who use marijuana should NOT breastfeed their baby.

Isn’t pot safe to use? I heard it was safer than other drugs. Pot is harmful to the brain, heart, and lungs.

Regular use of marijuana, particularly at a young age, can create biochemical and structural changes to the brain. Some of these changes are not reversible. Moreover, the effects are dose dependent. The more you use, the more likely to affect change.

Marijuana causes cognitive impairment. It harms learning, memory, attention, and critical decision-making. A recent study showed that regular use of marijuana at a young age causes a permanent decrease in IQ of up to 8 points.

Marijuana is linked to the development of mental health issues including anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Research has shown that regular daily to weekend use of pot increased one’s risk of psychosis 3-5 times that of the general population. Sadly, we are seeing this played out in states like Colorado where people have died from psychosis related events.

The American Lung Association has reported that pot has more cancer causing agents than tobacco smoke. Like tobacco, it causes chronic cough, wheeze, phlegm production, and frequent infections.

Marijuana has cardiac effects as well. Temporal links have been found between using pot and arrhythmias, stroke, and other major cardiac events.

What are “edibles”?

In 2014, with the legalization of pot in Colorado, the marijuana industry began selling food products with infused THC. These products, which include candy, cereal, pop tarts, and sodas, are indistinguishable from regular food.

In fact, exposure of kids to marijuana increased by 200% over this last year because of these products. These accidental poisonings were secondary to exposure of kids to edibles typically in their home. Many kids ended up in the ER, some with serious complications like seizures and difficulty breathing.

What does “dabbing” mean?

Dabbing is inhaling vapors from heating a concentrated form of pot. Dabs, which are also known as BHO (butane hash oil), “budder”, “honeycomb”, or “earwax” contain much higher concentrates of THC, usually upwards of 90%. Dabs are much stronger than a single joint and the high is administered all at once.

How does smoking pot affect driving?

Driving high is dangerous to the driver, others in the vehicle, and people sharing the road. In fact, marijuana is the number one illicit drug found in the blood stream of drivers involved in fatal car accidents.

Pot impairs skills needed to drive safely. It negatively impacts alertness, coordination, and reaction time.

Pot and alcohol don’t mix. Using both drugs at the same time has been shown to increase the THC level in one’s blood stream. This makes for a deadly combination on the road.

Is it okay to use pot while pregnant?

It is NOT okay to use pot while pregnant. As mom gets high and feels the effects of the drug, so does the unborn child.

Studies have shown that children exposed to marijuana in utero have lower scores on visual and motor coordination as well as lower scores on visual analysis and problem solving. In utero exposure is also associated with decreased attention span and behavioral problems. Finally, studies have shown that teens are more likely to be marijuana users if their mom used while pregnant.

What if my teen says that since pot isn’t a big deal anymore and many of their friends are using it?

Now more than ever, it is incredibly important to speak clearly regarding the risks of pot use. Many teens see legal as meaning safe, so we are entering a critical time when it comes to our kids and marijuana use. Here are a few suggestions when it comes to talking to your kids about drug use in general.

Talk early and often. This should not be a one-time conversation.

Make sure your child knows your rules on drug use and set clear consequences if these rules are broken. Role-play real life situations so kids can know how to respond when confronted with scenarios that may involve drugs.Base education about pot and other drugs on facts.

Check out the National Institute of Drug Abuse website for up to date information. To learn more visit www.learnaboutsam.org .

Shannon Murphy, MD, FAAP

Dr. Murphy is a board certified general pediatrician who currently serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics Practice Advisory Committee for Adolescent Substance Use. She heads a non-profit coalition, SAM Alabama, whose goal is to educate parents and kids on the public health issues and safety concerns associated with marijuana.

2015 Two Peds in a Pod®

What is it? Pictured below are the toes of one of my best friend’s toddler. She is happy, has no fever, and plays nearly everyday in the neighborhood pool. The round shiny pink bumps and dots on her toes appeared yesterday morning and haven’t changed much in a day. They don’t seem to bother her very much… answer below.

It’s Swimming pool pulpitis- a fancy word for a reaction of the pulp (the meaty tip) of fingers or toes. Mostly seen on the finger tips, the pulpitis is usually caused by irritation of the fingers by the rough side of the swimming pool as kids pull themselves in and out. Kids are sometimes annoyed by the dots, but they go away on their own as soon as the kids decide to use the ladder. In this case, this little swimmer irritated her toes, not her fingers, while “monkey walking” along the side of the swimming pool in the water.

Naline Lai, MD with Julie Kardos, MD

©2011,2013, 2015 Two Peds in a Pod®

A snippet from a quick search on youtube for “true laugh”

There’s another game in town called “Find your true laugh,” but it is no laughing matter. One kid lies down and another kid either sits on the recumbent kid’s chest or pushes hard on the recumbent kid’s chest with his hands (think CPR chest compressions). As the recumbent kid starts to laugh, his laugh purportedly changes. In this case, in addition to compromising a kid’s airway, the force of another person pushing hard on the chest can lead to rib fractures and, as one of our patients discovered painfully, even a fractured sternum. Rib fractures are acceptable as a side effect of CPR but are not an acceptable side effect of a game.

Tweens in particular seem vulnerable to trying the “Hey, this looks fun, let’s try it, ” airway blocking games. Explain to your tween that anything that can possibly interfere with breathing can hurt him.

Dr. Kardos tells tween patients:

Your nose is for breathing air. NOT for breathing fumes from glue or markers in order to get high. Called “huffing,” this can lead to sudden fatal heart arrhythmias.

Your mouth is also for breathing. Tweens can all recite the dangers of smoking cigarettes, but they can find it amusing to breathe in crushed candy, which can irritate lungs, or to try to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon while taking the “cinnamon challenge.”The coughing and vomiting that result from this challenge are evidence of its potential danger.

Air moves through your neck to reach your lungs. Tweens play the “choking game” by strangling themselves in order to get a brief high before passing out. Tell your kids to never tie or loop anything around their necks, for obvious reasons. Kids have died playing this game.

Your lungs are in your chest. To get back to the find your true laugh game: this game involves smushing the chest. Point out that lungs can’t expand to hold air if someone is crushing your chest.

Earlier in this summer, Dr Lai  turned  around at a party to find a pile of tween girls on the rug giggling and trying to push in each other’s rib cages. After explaining to the girls why one should never block her airway, one of the girls  ferevently nodded and said , “I see, like the bologna game?”

“What bologna game?” asked Dr. Lai

” The one where you take a piece of bologna, cover your mouth and inhale it in.”

“Yes, like the bologna game, ” said Lai with a sigh.

What will they think of next?

Julie Kardos, MD with Naline Lai, MD
©2015 Two Peds in a Pod®

You may not think of your kitchen as a convenient pharmacy, but parents used common kitchen items successfully to treat various maladies long before CVS and Walgreens were invented. 

Crisco– May not be healthy to eat, but smeared on skin, it’s an old fashioned but effective treatment for eczema or dry skin.

Oatmeal– Crush and put into the end of a hosiery sock. Float the sock in the bathtub for a natural way to moisturize skin.

Olive Oil–

• Put a couple drops into the ear three times a day to loosen ear wax (don’t put in if your child has a hole in their ear drum eg. myringotomy tubes).
• For cradle cap, rub into your baby’s scalp and use your fingernail or a soft brush to loosen the greasy flakes.
• Also use to kill lice.  Work the oil through the scalp, tuck hair into a shower cap and wash off in the morning. Although studies are unclear on how well this method works on lice, it certainly is worth a try.

White vinegar-If swimmer’s ear is suspected, mix rubbing alcohol one to one with vinegar and drop a couple drops in the ear to stop the swimmer’s ear from progressing (don’t put in if your child has a hole in their ear drum eg. myringotomy tubes).

Ginger– Boil ginger to make a tea to take the edge off nausea

Honey– Shown to soothe coughs-give a teaspoon of dark (buckwheat, for example) honey three times a day. However, NEVER give honey to a child who is younger than one year of age because it may cause infant botulism

Lemon– An old singer’s trick—combine lemon juice with honey in tea to alleviate hoarseness

Salt– Mixed into lukewarm water, gargling with salt water will help ease sore throat pain

Baking soda:

• Mix with water to make a paste to help soothe itchy skin, from maladies such as poison ivy .
• Can also be mixed with water to make toothpaste if you run out of your usual minty whitener.
• Another use of baking soda: one part baking soda with 4 parts corn starch makes a natural underarm deodorant.

Sugar: Mix sugar into weak tea (or your ginger tea from above) and give small amounts frequently to soothe your older child’s nausea and help rehydrate after vomiting.

Ice: Ice not only decreases swelling when applied to injuries, it can also be used to combat the itch of bug bites and poison ivy.

Kitchen sink: This is an excellent place to wash any cut, scrape, or bleeding wound under running water with soap. Immediately after a burn, rinse the burned skin under cold water for several minutes to limit the extent of the heat injury. Contrary to popular lore, DO NOT put butter on a burn. You may, however, put butter on your toast. In small amounts.

Naline Lai, MD and Julie Kardos, MD

©2015 Two Peds in a Pod®, revised from 2011