I love you, garlic!

Garlic has been my friend for quite some time. I love to cook with it- I use it in just about as many dishes as possible. But, for the last few years I've been experimenting with using garlic medicinally. I've used it minced, chopped, 'squished', grated and squeezed to get the juice, etc. I've used it the most during winter times to help 'cure' colds, coughs, etc.

Angel Baby started with a cold on Friday. Yesterday she came down with a fever and last night we didn't sleep one bit. I sat with her in the chair, rocking and rocking the hours away. I would hum a lullabye and she would try to sleep but just couldn't. I knew something wasn't right. I kept giving her tylenol to help the fever but she just couldn't rest. There was a shrill sound to her restless cries...by baby number 4 I'm beginning to figure some things out.

Between my yawns and clouded thoughts, this morning I came around to thinking she may have an ear infection. This always shocks me because I exclusively nurse our babies, they don't go to daycare, they don't have lots of exposure to 'the public', but we do have a lot of people in our house and who knows what germs we carry home? So, I entertained the thoughts of a possible ear infection.

She wouldn't eat (she couldn't breathe anyway because her nose was so stuffy). I did everything I could think of with Vicks, the humidifier, nose suction (and saline solution), etc. The poor thing just couldn't rest although she was super exhausted! By nap time, I thought I would give some garlic a try on her ear (I suspected the left ear). I've used garlic in oil for infected ears before but I've never tried just a clove. I've read about this technique but never tried it- there's always a first time for everything.

So, I peeled a clove of garlic and cut it small so it would fit just inside her ear canal without going in too far. I squished it a little so the garlic oils/juice would come out and wrapped it in a single layer of kleenex. I trimmed it all very small and very carefully placed it just inside her ear canal. I waited the recommended 15 minutes to see if she would get any relief. I got the room ready for nap time and got Princess all snuggled down in her bed. I laid on DD#3's bed with Angel Baby and assumed the 'nap time' position. Angel Baby snuggled in to me and was able to breath enough through her nose that she could suck on her pacifier. She was out cold in no time!

I watched and watched her, wondering if the garlic would actually work. I made sure it stayed just inside the ear canal and didn't come out while she was laying down. We layed there for an entire hour and Angel Baby never fussed or moved- she slept peacefully! Well, garlic, you must have done your job because she was miserable before.

She woke up an hour later, ready to eat. She was a little fussy then because her fever had begun to climb again. I took her temp and it was 102.7. So, we headed to the doc to see if my suspicions of an ear infection were right- they were. She has a badly infected left ear and we came home with antibiotics and numbing drops. Although I like to do things as naturally as possible for meds, I did give her the first dose and used the numbing drops so she could hopefully get some sleep tonight.

We will go back to the garlic though. We love you, garlic. Thank you for being you.