Salt in Your Sock: and Other Tried-and-True Home Remedies [Paperback]

Lillian Beard M.D. (Author), Linda Lee Small (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 2003

When your child is seriously ill, nothing but the front line of modern medicine will do. But for all those minor ailments that children seem to pick up just by breathing, there are safe, effective, and inexpensive home remedies.

In Salt in Your Sock and Other Tried-and-True Home Remedies, veteran pediatrician Dr. Lillian Beard presents more than one hundred of her patients’ favorite all-natural treatments from around the world, collected over the twenty-five years of her practice. For each ailment, Dr. Beard offers a medical explanation, warning signs for when to call the doctor, conventional treatments, and a colorful array of folk remedies to try, such as:

• For cold sores, apply cool, wet teabags (Earl Grey preferred).
• For nosebleeds, have your child sniff a pinch of cayenne pepper.
• For earaches, fill a sock with salt warmed in a frying pan, then hold the sock against the affected ear.

The perfect marriage of folk wisdom and state-of-the-art medicine, this book will surely become your most-thumbed family resource.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pediatrician Beard gathers over 100 family recipes for healing minor injuries and ailments from acne to warts in this handy and occasionally offbeat reference. After cautioning parents to check with a doctor before trying any herbal treatment and emphasizing that folk remedies are no substitute for a doctor's care in the case of a real problem, she plunges into the suggestions. Some, Beard says, have a biological basis for effectiveness, while others seem unlikely to do much good but are harmless (she also lists some folk remedies that should not be tried). For each ailment, she offers a brief explanation of its symptoms and causes, a rundown of conventional treatments, and then a "Parent's Report" of what she's heard works. Coughs, for instance, can be soothed by a tea of slippery elm or sage and thyme; alternately, "add 2 or 3 slices of bread to 11/2 cups of milk and bring to a boil. Cool, then put this poultice over the child's throat." Earaches call for a few drops of oil of camphor or the titular recipe, wherein salt is warmed in a pan, put into a sock and placed against the ear. Beard postulates that the warmth soothes the pain and "perhaps the salt also draws fluid from the painful ear...and might decrease the middle-ear pressure." For do-it-yourself types, this is a good compilation of recipes and old-timey folk wisdom. Parents won't find any miracles here, but they'll be intrigued by the inventiveness that infrequent access to professional health care inspired over the years.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

When your child is seriously ill, nothing but the front line of modern medicine will do. But for all those minor ailments that children seem to pick up just by breathing, there are safe, effective, and inexpensive home remedies.

In Salt in Your Sock and Other Tried-and-True Home Remedies, veteran pediatrician Dr. Lillian Beard presents more than one hundred of her patients? favorite all-natural treatments from around the world, collected over the twenty-five years of her practice. For each ailment, Dr. Beard offers a medical explanation, warning signs for when to call the doctor, conventional treatments, and a colorful array of folk remedies to try, such as:

? For cold sores, apply cool, wet teabags (Earl Grey preferred).
? For nosebleeds, have your child sniff a pinch of cayenne pepper.
? For earaches, fill a sock with salt warmed in a frying pan, then hold the sock against the affected ear.

The perfect marriage of folk wisdom and state-of-the-art medicine, this book will surely become your most-thumbed family resource.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (February 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812933125
• ISBN-13: 978-0812933123
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,079,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Maryland Mom, August 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Salt in Your Sock: and Other Tried-and-True Home Remedies (Paperback)

Easy to read. Organized and super easy to find the ailment you are looking for. This book is full of all the "family secrets" for treating what ails your child. I've referenced it...my neighbor has referenced it...and I will likely be using it again in the near future. If I can avoid putting chemicals into my kids, I will!

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical, honest advice, March 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Salt in Your Sock: and Other Tried-and-True Home Remedies (Paperback)

This book gives honest, real-world advice that is great for any parent, but particularly new parents. Dr. Beard's approach and expertise allow you as a parent to trust the advice she dipenses. Most importantly, the advice really works! It has given me confidence and peace of mind.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars hmmmm, September 8, 2005

By 

B Readin' (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salt in Your Sock: and Other Tried-and-True Home Remedies (Paperback)

The book focuses primarily on herbal treatments for children; it was an okay read, but not what I expected. I wouldn't keep it in my library.