Back to School Herbs: Natural Remedies to Boost Your Child's Health and Focus

Have you ever wondered how to support your child's health and well-being during the school year with natural remedies? This episode dives into essential herbs like garlic, Tulsi (Holy Basil), and elderberry, offering practical tips to boost immunity, reduce stress, and improve focus.

Whether you’re preparing for cold and flu season or looking for ways to help your child stay calm and concentrated, these simple herbal remedies can make a significant impact. Learn how to incorporate these herbs into your family’s routine for a healthier and happier school year.

If you’re ready to explore more about making effective herbal remedies, join me for a free class right here: https://www.theherbalistspath.com/herbal-remedies-that-work

00:45 - Garlic: Immune Booster and Antibacterial Powerhouse
05:12 - Tulsi (Holy Basil): Stress Relief and Enhanced Focus
08:36 - Elderberry: Immune Support and Cold Prevention

And, if you’re interested in deepening your herbal knowledge, join us inside Medicine Making Mommas for more insights. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and share it with friends!

Ever feel unsure about using herbs with your kids? If so, I've got a FREE class for you! It's called 5 Essential Herbs Every Mom Must Know, and you'll learn how to use kid-safe herbs for everything from tummy aches to cuts! The class is LIVE & I can't wait for you to join me! Click here to sign up!! 

Do you or your kids find it hard to focus, and you just wish you could get them to stay on task?  If you've ever been there, WishGarden Herbs' Attention Ally may be the perfect thing for your kids, or you too. It's the perfect blend of herbs to calm the nerves and improve focus! You can grab yours right here.

Chapters

• 1:27 Herbal Remedies for School Success
• 5:26 Powerful Herbal Remedies for Health
• 19:21 Practicing Safe Herbalism

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:28

Hello and welcome to the Herbalist Path, a podcast where you'll discover how to make your own herbal remedies at home so that you can take better care of yourself, better care of your family and better care of our planet. I'm Mel. I'm a clinical herbalist, environmental educator and mountain-l living mama with this crazy passion for teaching more mamas and their little loves how to use plants as medicine in a safe, effective and tasty way, so that there can be an herbalist in every home. Again, it's an absolute honor to have you on the journey down the herbalist path with me so that together we can make herbalism Hashtag spread like wildflowers. Hello, hello, welcome back to another episode on the herbalist path.

Speaker 1: 2:24

I'm really excited for today's episode as I see so many people out there posting pictures of their adorable kids going back to school or the fun homeschooling activities that they're doing and planning, and it's just an exciting time of year. I know it's nerve wracking for so many as well, especially the kiddos, and for us and all the things we have to do to help them prepare for a successful school year. So I actually wanted to come on today and talk about some herbs that I think are absolutely imperative to have on board to help your child have a successful school year and to help you navigate mom life during the school year. It makes such a huge difference and my daughter she's done quite a mix of going to public school, going to outdoor school, going to homeschool and doing a little bit of all of it. So I've definitely got the perspective from all of the angles of homeschool mom, public school mom, outdoor school mom. What I wouldn't do to be able to have her go to outdoor school forever and ever and ever. She really thrived in that environment and she had so few other students so she got a lot of attention from the teachers and it was absolutely amazing. And throughout this whole time we have absolutely there I go using the word absolutely again but we have totally been using various herbs to help support her, whether we're talking about supporting her and her immune health, because we all know when you go back to public school everybody gets sick in the first month, no matter what. There's just snot flying all over the place and there is no stopping getting that sickness. But I can't really say that because I have definitely watched quite a few times where everybody was getting sick. Yet Anira, my daughter, was not and heck, yes, I credit that to some of the herbs we'll be talking about today.

Speaker 1: 4:43

And then another thing that I think comes up a lot for kiddos is just the stress factor. Like there's a lot going on in school, there's a lot of pressure, whether it's peer pressure, whether it's the pressure of tests and anxiety around that, or just performance anxiety in general, or having to deal with things like active shooter drills or adapting to a new schedule and time change. There's a lot of tough things to deal with, right. And then, of course, we all want our kids to be able to focus during school and be able to get their things done. And, um, yeah, that's always a big, big one. Yes, kids should be playing an awful lot in school. That will certainly help with the focus and moving their bodies and things like that.

Speaker 1: 5:26

And there are herbs that can really act as powerhouses in this department to support your kiddos. So, yeah, let's dive into it. Are you ready? So the first one I wanted to talk about I want to spring up because I'm quite positive. You already have it in your house. You probably use it on a regular basis, and if you're like so many other people, you totally discredit the incredible power of this herb and just think, wow, this is really yummy. I'm going to load it up on all my food except my ice cream, and that's garlic.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Garlic is phenomenal. It is an excellent antiviral herb that is very specific against the flu viruses. It can help with rhinovirus and all kinds of things. So ideally you're using the fresh garlic for these virus fighting properties, and that can be challenging, but we'll talk about that again in just a moment, because I also want to talk about how it is incredible for its antibacterial properties. It's actually been shown to be more effective or effective against eight out of nine antibiotic resistant bacteria out there.

Speaker 1: 6:54

So our antibiotics are manmade antibiotics and we have these bacteria that like to invade our bodies. And these bacteria are smart. And, yes, our scientists that create the antibiotics, they're also smart, but they are not as smart as the bacteria and they quickly learn what's going on with the antibiotics that are made by the scientists and they learn to adapt to them and they learn to resist them. But these bacteria are not so smart with the plants. Let's just say the plants are incredibly intelligent and know how to somehow magically keep those bacteria fighting actions strong and prevalent throughout the whole time.

Speaker 1: 7:45

That is attributed to the antibacterial properties, and the best way to get allicin into the body is through using raw garlic. So once you score or smash some garlic it releases the allicin, but once it's cooked it kind of cooks that allicin away. So this can be really challenging because garlic is hot. If you've ever eaten raw garlic, it can make you really nauseous and want to vomit and it can actually burn in the digestive system, especially for more sensitive kiddos. So how do we bring garlic into the body where it's not just going to burn and feel so icky?

Speaker 1: 8:31

And one of my favorite ways to do it and you may think this is gross, but it's really not is to use garlic fermented honey, and I do have a recipe for some garlic fermented honey. Just reach out to me if you want that recipe. Maybe I can get Jennifer to pop it into the blog. We'll see about that. By the way, jennifer is my assistant one of my assistants. She's absolutely amazing. But yeah, a fermented garlic honey is an easy, easy way to go, and I like to do the whole cloves where I've just scored them a little bit because I like to eat the whole cloves. They're absolutely delicious to me Once they've been fermented in that honey, you're still getting the benefits of the rawness.

Speaker 1: 9:15

You're also getting the benefits of the honey, which has some very potent antimicrobial properties to it as well. So the ability to fight off fungal infections, viral infections and bacterial infections which, hooray. We need that, and it's kind of coating and soothing if somebody gets a dry or raspy throat or anything along those lines. So that's my tip for you there. Like you've got medicine in your kitchen cabinet right now, and if you haven't grabbed my kitchen cabinet cures guide, which is like a mom's guide to battling cold and flu season, you got to grab that. Maybe I'll link to that too in the show notes, okay. So garlic, don't forget your garlic. Um.

Speaker 1: 10:01

The next one I wanted to talk about is also a really great herb when it comes to um, immune health, right, and it's great for the respiratory tract, but it's not the reason I want to talk about it. So the next herb we're talking about is Tulsi, or holy basil, and I love this herb because it is so yummy, like it is just delightful to drink, and I can always convince my kiddo to drink some Tulsi tea, so that's a win right there. But also what Tulsi does is bring circulation up to the brain, which improves oxygenation to the brain. It improves their ability to stay clear and focused and alert. It happens to be very specific for people that have a poor memory, people that have ADHD or ADD, and it actually comes in to protect the brain. It has loads of antioxidants. It has been shown to prevent the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia. It can be a bit of an energizer. So if your kids are kind of groggy and lethargic in the morning, getting a little Tulsi in for the morning can be a really great way to go, and it's just as simple as having a tea. Maybe you've created a Tulsi glycerite or something like that. That would be lovely too.

Speaker 1: 11:31

And then another reason I love Tulsi so much is back to that stress piece. Tulsi is a phenomenal adaptogenic herb, so that means that it helps the body to adapt to various stressors throughout life, and this can be emotional stress, physical stress, any kind of stress actually. So that is really, really going to help. It's also going to boost their mood. It's known to help for people that deal with seasonal affective disorder. So if your kids or yourself, mama, take care of you, if you tend to get a little more sad during the darker months of the year, tulsi can be amazing. It can really be a fantastic helper. It can really be a fantastic helper. It actually increases dopamine levels and increases your serotonin levels when you are stressed, and has the ability to just counteract all the negative and harmful effects of stress on the body, including increased cortisol levels. So it is phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 12:41

I love Tulsi. It is a must have in our home. I love to drink it on the daily. It is generally regarded as safe or grass, so that is another great way to go and, yeah, super duper easy to whip up a cup of Tulsi tea just on its own or blend it with other herbs that you know your kiddos love or that they need for any other particular kind of ailment, like I love to do Tulsi with go to cola and hibiscus and cinnamon, and sometimes I'll add in a little ginkgo as well, and it is just super yummy for me. So blend it up with the things that you think are great for you and that'll be fantastic.

Speaker 1: 13:29

And then the third one maybe you know this one already. I was on a call yesterday with another herbalist and I asked what their favorite herb was and they brought this one up and they're like I know it's a basic herb and I'm like this is not a basic herb. It may be well known because it's so fantastic and really, really works and it's so easy to get kiddos to take, but it's elderberries, y'all like. Elderberries are phenomenal for the immune system and back to that like whole okay, everybody's going inside and now suddenly everybody's sick thing. Wow.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Elderberry does a fantastic job of being able to stimulate and boost the immune system, fighting off over 10 different flu viruses. It's also been shown to shorten the duration of illness from six to eight days down to two to three days. That's amazing. It's also nice, again tasty. But if you like, make elderberry syrup and you have honey in there and it's going down the respiratory tract. If somebody has something like just mono or sore, scratchy throat, elderberry is a really fantastic treat. That's usually really easy to get your kiddos to take. And another really neat thing about elderberry one it's loaded with vitamin C, so that's great. We know that's going to help with the whole immune system doing its job, kind of thing. But what it also does is strengthen the cell walls. So when a virus is trying to attack that cell and penetrate through those cell walls, it can't because the elderberry has come in and did a big workout for your cell's walls and that virus has a much harder time invading the body and getting you sick. Wow Right, epic.

Speaker 1: 15:25

I definitely recommend people start taking elderberry right when you see that your neighbor's sick or all the kids in school are sick. Like, take the elderberry right away Anytime. Anira like mentions a sniffle or anything along those lines. We are all dosing up on elderberry in our whole family and we rarely get sick. So you know win, win, win. Of course there's lots of other herbs I would recommend for cold and flu season, for back to school, all of those kinds of things, and I do have a workshop on it. It's called Herbs to Thrive in School and we cover all of these topics in much greater depth. It's a really fantastic one.

Speaker 1: 16:10

Yeah, and as we head back to school, we are doing all kinds of fun and exciting changes here at the Herbalist Path with our programs, with our website. I am thrilled we're doing a lot of work on the back end. So I am definitely utilizing Tulsi a lot just to keep my brain focused, manage any kind of stress that might happen when you're basically shifting all kinds of things on the back end of your business and it has really been a helpful, pleasurable, joyous kind of herb to have around. So I hope that's good for you and, of course, stay tuned for all of the exciting things that are coming up. I am truly thrilled and I'm basically just taking what we have built out and done over the past couple of years with Apothecary Mama, with Medicine Making Mama, and Medicine Making Mama is staying the same, but we're doing some shifts in Apothecary Mama and they're not quite finalized yet, but I think it's going to work out really well for you, no matter which level of herbalism you are at or you are interested in. We are making some pretty amazing steps with all of that.

Speaker 1: 17:29

So I won't keep talking about it, because I'm being vague right here and I don't want to just totally tease you and make you be like well, what the heck are you doing, mel? But I do want to let you know that there are quite a few changes on the horizon and I am thrilled and I think that you will be thrilled and yippee. So, anyways, I hope that this episode has been helpful for you. I hope that now you're like okay, great, I will use garlic. I will ferment that garlic and honey, which, by the way, reach out to me if you want the recipe, and I will use that Tulsi and recognize what a powerhouse herb this is, and definitely have those elderberries on hand. You will not regret it. You know what I mean. Okay, that's it for me today.

Speaker 1: 18:23

Let me know if you learned anything new on this episode or if it was helpful for you. I really do love when you guys reach out and you just say hey, I listened to your podcast, because it feels good to know that you're listening and that I'm helping in some kind of way. So I thank you so very much and, of course, if it's helpful, please leave me a review on your favorite podcast listening platform. That helps other people be able to learn about these kinds of things as well, definitely helps make herbalism spread like wildflowers and makes the world a better place, because the more people that use herbal medicine in their lives, the better off they are, the better off our planet is. So thank you again and don't forget to share with a friend. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Have a great day.

Speaker 1: 19:21

Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the herbalist path. Being on this journey with you is absolutely incredible. If you dig this episode, please leave me a review on your favorite podcast player and share it with your friends so that together we can make herbalism hashtag spread like wildflowers. On another note, I must mention that, while I know you're getting some good info here, it's important to remember that this podcast is purely for entertainment and educational purposes and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. While the information in this podcast is absolutely relevant, herbs work differently for each person and each condition. That's why I recommend you work with a qualified practitioner, whether that be another herbalist, a naturopath or your doctor. So thank you again. I am truly honored that you're tuning into these episodes and on the path with me to make sure that there's an herbalist in every home. Again, don't forget to share this episode with your friends so that we can make herbalism Hashtag spread like wildflowers.