This perennial plant with truly extraordinary properties has long been known in folk medicine. In ancient times, people called thyme or creeping thyme "Mother of God herb", which heals many diseases.
Thyme is equally useful for both adults and children, and methods of its use have been described since time immemorial. The first mention of thyme can be found in the writings of Avicenna. He described in detail what diseases this plant can expel. Today, many are also interested in such a question as how thyme helps children cough and from what age it is suitable.
Features
Coughs are known to be best treated with preparations containing natural substances at their core. They do not harm the body, and this is relevant when it comes to treating children.
The healing properties of thyme for cough for children are explained by the fact that the chemical composition of thyme contains, among other elements, essential oil. It is in it that there are substances such as thymol, carvacrol, pinene and terpinene, as well as oleanolic,ursolic, thymunic, triterpene, quinic and caffeic acids. They make thyme an indispensable tool in the fight against cough, including in the smallest children.
To some extent, according to reviews, thyme cough for children can replace even such an undesirable intake of antibiotics. And since there are very, very many supporters of such treatment with the gifts of nature, thyme is only gaining popularity.
Application
Grass is successfully used for all types of coughs, diseases of the nasopharynx, pneumonia, whooping cough, bronchial asthma and other diseases. Essential oils help a sore throat, relieve bouts of indomitable coughing, and relieve spasms in the bronchi. In folk medicine, there are recommendations to take creeping thyme even with certain forms of tuberculosis.
Thyme is used in the preparation of medicinal children's syrups for colds and coughs. Its bronchodilator properties lead to intensive separation of sputum in children and a decrease in inflammatory processes in the upper respiratory tract. When treating cough in babies under the age of 3, thyme should be used only after consulting a doctor.
Collection rules and places of growth
It is important to choose the right herbal product. Thyme is widely distributed in warm southern countries, on the European continent and in the Mediterranean region. It grows throughout the Russian Federation, including the Crimea, as well as in Ukraine, in the mountains of the Caucasus and in Central Asian countries.
The places of its natural habitat are forest edges, steppes and mountain slopes. Among the large number of plant species - creeping thyme, small-leaved, Crimean, flea, Ural, Siberian, Zhiguli - there are none that would not retain healing properties, despite their external differences. However, these properties are manifested only with strict observance of the rules for collecting thyme, otherwise the effectiveness of the plant is reduced significantly, or even completely lost.
In the process of harvesting, in order to properly use the plant for medicinal purposes, you need to pluck only green branches - they become so during the flowering period of the grass. Very soon the plant will become woody, so it is necessary to have time to collect it at this time or, in extreme cases, after heavy rains have passed over the growing area.
When buying thyme in a pharmacy, you also need to pay attention to the freshness of the plant, as evidenced by its bright green color.
Storage
Medicinal value is the stem and flowers of thyme. Thyme cut during the flowering period is dried spread out, turning over from time to time.
For storage, you can use a vessel with water - in this case, the thyme will be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. You can save the herb in a dry form, but then the essential oils will evaporate and the healing effect will decrease significantly.
Finally, another way is to grind and freeze the plant. In this case, all useful elements of thyme will remain safe and sound.
You can store raw materials for two years, but it is still much safer to restock annually.
Using fresh thyme to treat a child's cough is better and more effective. Then it retains absolutely all the substances necessary for influencing the diseased organism. Pour thyme with hot water, but not boiling.
Plant based products
Pharmacologists have long known about the healing properties of thyme, and therefore produce various types of medicines based on it, and pediatricians willingly use it in the treatment of children's coughs. For example, tea for children from cough "Grandmother's basket" is a mixture of thyme with lemon balm and fennel. The plant is sold dry in cardboard packaging of various sizes and in filter bags. In the latter case, it is more convenient to brew them and make up different dosages for a sick child.
Classical medicine for the treatment of symptomatic cough in children recommends the medicine "Pertussin". It is made from liquid extract of thyme. "Pertussin" actively affects the ciliated epithelium of the child's bronchi and increases the separation of sputum from them.
Codelac is also popular - a good remedy for dealing with children's colds.
Thyme-based syrup is prescribed from the age of two for coughing, and the effect of its use is achieved after a few days of treatment.
German whooping cough recipe
German folk medicine used and usesthyme in the treatment of whooping cough - a terrible disease that brings great suffering to children.
A simple decoction recipe, known since the 16th century, includes one teaspoon of honey, four to five drops of thyme essential oil and 200 milliliters of warm water. The finished product can be used in the treatment of children both for gargling and inside to enhance the coughing process. You need to do this at least three to four times a day.
Cough syrup
It has long been cooked at home. A small bunch of flowering thyme is well washed, crushed and dried. Then they pour it all with water and put it on a slow fire until the water boils away by half.
For a dry cough, take 5 grams of grass per 100 milliliters of hot water, and for a wet, medium bunch, pour about half a liter of water and boil until the liquid remains half as much.
250-300 grams of honey are added to the cooled and filtered broth. It makes a fairly thick syrup. For an adult patient, it is also recommended to add squeezed garlic juice to it, but children do not need to do this.
The resulting mixture should be left in a closed container in a cold place, and if stored properly, its healing properties last up to six months.
Give the decoction to children one teaspoon two to four times a day. If you give your child a ready-made collection purchased at a pharmacy, then just in case, you need to carefully look at the dosage of thyme for children from coughing - most often the manufacturer forgets to indicate the dose of the drug forbabies.
If the child is less than a year old, then the indicated dose should be reduced ten times, and if from one to four years old - five times. If there are any contraindications, you should consult a doctor.
Popular recipes
Thyme goes well with other medicinal herbs that complement and enhance its properties. Here are some more recipes with thyme for coughing for children:
- In 200 ml of boiling water, pour a tablespoon of the dried plant, let it brew for an hour, and then strain through a sieve or gauze. How to drink thyme for a child's cough - give an infusion of 1 dessert spoon three times a day.
- Take the squeezed juice of freshly cut aloe, mix it with honey and add one tablespoon of thyme infusion - all in equal proportions. The resulting medicine can be given to children in small sips when coughing.
- Three tablespoons of thyme mixed with a spoonful of mint and the same amount of oregano, pour boiling water over the mixture and leave to infuse overnight. The resulting product can be given to the child as tea.
- A freshly prepared decoction (1 tbsp of raw materials per glass of boiling water) should be left in a container and, throwing a dense cloth over the child’s head, put him to breathe steam for about a quarter of an hour, and then put him to bed.
Effective tinctures
It will help to defeat a child's cough and the collection of thyme with the fruits and flowers of hawthorn and blackcurrant in equal proportions. Such an infusion of thyme for coughing for children is usually prepared in a thermos and left for 8 hours.
Cough relief and thyme tincture with chamomile and plantain flowers. Allthe components are mixed in equal parts and infused for about an hour. Toddlers under three years old will need one teaspoon 15 minutes before meals, and older children - one tablespoon.
You can try mixing thyme with wild rosemary. At the same time, one tablespoon of wild rosemary thyme should take no more than one teaspoon, since this poisonous plant can cause serious irritation of the nasopharyngeal mucosa. The mixture should be poured with one glass of water and boiled.
Children can be given half a teaspoon of the drink no more than three times a day.
Finally, for coughs and colds, you can still make a drink from a mixture of thyme, valerian root, currant leaves, adding mint, St. John's wort and rose hips - all in equal proportions.
Tea
Tea with thyme is worth stopping separately. This drink contains a large amount of thymol (essential oil). It is he who cleans the upper respiratory tract in children very well, along the way restoring the mucous membrane of the larynx, healing the resulting microtraumas with a dry cough. So in cases where the child is overcome by seizures, this tea will help.
Many are interested in the age at which thyme can be used for coughing for children. In the absence of contraindications and strict observance of all the rules for preparing a medicinal drink, it is recommended to try to give it to a one-year-old baby. An unsaturated decoction of thyme for coughing is sometimes recommended for children even at the age of eight months. From the age of three, tea with thyme can be given to a child without fear of consequences.
Not everyone knows how to brew thyme for a child's cough. cookremedy is simple. It is only necessary to brew a few branches of the plant in boiling water. To make the drink more pleasant to drink, it is better to add honey to taste.
Contraindications
There are many benefits of thyme, but there are also many contraindications. The main thing is to strictly observe the dosage, especially for young children. There are also a number of diseases in which it is better not to give thyme to children at all:
- arrhythmia;
- cardiosclerosis;
- thyroid disease;
- liver and kidney disease;
- increased stomach acidity;
- pathology of cerebral vessels.
To this we should add a tendency to constipation and individual intolerance to preparations, tinctures and decoctions based on thyme.
Recommendations
Experts, despite the availability of thyme, still advise not to neglect the recommendations of the attending physician. And this is especially true for the treatment of children under the age of three.
The wide possibilities of combining thyme with other medicinal herbs can cause the opposite effect in a child due to intolerance to one or another type of plant. Do not take thyme for more than two weeks, since the substances contained in it, with prolonged exposure to the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx, esophagus and stomach, can cause undesirable consequences.
Another danger is that the medicinal plant has a depressing effect on the thyroid gland, causing its dysfunction.
Conclusion
In general, thyme (creeping thyme) has proven itself for centuries as a reliable, andmost importantly, a safe drug for children. This is evidenced by the numerous reviews of parents who used the plant in the treatment of their children, including cough.
Due to its natural origin, even today, with all the variety of drugs offered by the pharmaceutical industry, this natural product is very popular among doctors and parents of young patients around the world.
