Back to school means back to the routines and schedules; sports, music, homework, et cetera. It also means back to the lice and germs and illnesses that run rampant in many schools.
We had a lice notice from the nurse the second week of school; someone in the class has it. Although we’ve never had an outbreak in our family, we figured an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so we applied a 1:1 mix of lavender and tea tree to the kids’ scalps in the evening and then again before heading to school. So far so good and we smell great too! In the event that someone in my family did get lice, I would mix the same oils in jojoba oil and saturate the hair with it, cover the head with a shower cap and let it soak for the length of a favorite movie. Shampoo the hair well to get the bulk of the oil out. The end result will be a lovely shiny head of lice free hair! No chemicals.
We are starting to use our Thieves more regularly as the school year also started off with fevers, stomach viruses and general sniffles reported in both schools. Knock, knock on wood, we are still healthy and strong! We’ll keep up with the Thieves again this winter. Last year we had another successful year of avoiding most of the sicknesses from school. At just over $40 a bottle I think it’s well worth it for a healthy family, no doctor visits, no prescriptions to fill and no missed days from school.
Another common complaint among kids is earaches and ear infections. We like to ease the pain and prevent an ear infection from getting worse by using lavender and rosemary essential oils. At the first sign of any ear pain, I warm up about 1/4 ounce jojoba oil and add a few drops of each lavender and rosemary. Testing for temperature, I gently drop the oil mix into the ear canal using a bulb or plunger style medicine dropper. Once the canal is filled the warm oil acts as an internal heating pad for the inflamed area. The lavender is soothing and calming, the rosemary is very antimicrobial. As the oil cools, I place a cotton ball at the ear and tip the child’s head over to drain the oil. Then I proceed to the other ear. I find that doing this 2-3 times a day during a painful ear infection is enough to move it in a healing direction. Again, no prescriptions filled.
It’s been a few months since I’ve added any posts. I am hoping to get back to this more frequently. In the meantime, if you have any questions on my posts or need advice on other uses of essential oils please contact me directly at scentedjourneys@gmail.com.
Scented Journeys 