#68. Ears, Tummies, and Throats, Oh My!: Tried and True Natural Solutions You Can Stand By

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They're the joyful agains our children shout on the swings, the

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exhausting agains of cooking and laundry,

and the difficult agains of discipline.

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So much of what we do

as mothers is on repeat.

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So what if we woke up with clarity,

knowing which agains we were called

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to, and went to bed believing we

are faithful in what matters most?

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We believe God's word is

the key to untangle from the

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confusion and overwhelm we feel.

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Let's look up together to embrace a

motherhood full of freedom and joy.

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Thanks for joining us for this

episode of again, brought to

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you by entrusted ministries.

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I'm your host, Stephanie Hickox.

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And in today's episode, I'm joined

by Jen Frackman, as she shares some

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truly helpful natural solutions.

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Although we hope everyone's

staying healthy in your house.

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We know that winter sickness is so

prevalent and we hope that you and your

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kiddos can find some relief and some help.

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Through these readily available options.

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Steph: All right, Jen, in our homeschool

community, you are known as Nurse

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Freckman or Nurse Jen to some of us, and

even our kids know when we have questions

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about what to do that you will have.

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A great solution.

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And what I love is so often it's

something that I already have in

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my home or something, that I feel

really great about giving my kids.

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I would really love it if you could

guide us through a couple symptoms

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and say when my child starts to feel

this, this is what I turn to first.

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Let's start with ear pain.

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I think that's such a tricky one

because we can't see it, right?

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Jen: Yes.

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Steph: I've been very tempted to buy an

otoscope or something just so I can see.

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They're telling me it hurts, but

it could be so many things oh,

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Jen: Dr.

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Mom.

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You can get them on Amazon.

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I think they're like 15.

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And I would look, even when

my littles were very little, I

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would just look in their ear.

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a number of different times throughout

a day or the week, just to get to know

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what their ears look like normally.

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And then as their ears started to have

ear infections or ear pain, I would

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know what looks differently for them.

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And so, you can tell, I'm not a doctor,

so none of this is medical advice, but

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Steph: we have to have

the caveats, don't we?

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Jen: Exactly.

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But you can tell, if there's

redness or just different things.

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So I would, I would look in their

ear with one of those scopes as well.

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And then I would also depending

on what it was you can get little.

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Eardrops of moulin oil.

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I believe that's how you pronounce it.

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And garlic oil, warm garlic oil.

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I've even made my own where I just crush

up some garlic and let it very, very

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slowly simmer on the stove top to get

it warm and then let it cool until I can

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put it on my wrist and it's not at all.

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Warm or too hot.

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And then I would just

drop that in their ear.

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Sometimes I'll do a warm salt sock where

I take like really coarse Himalayan

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salt and I put it in a clean sock.

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No, the most important part

is the clean sock part.

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And then I'll take it and either put it

in the warming tray or on the stove top

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and just heat it up a little bit and

get it warm and put that on their ear.

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And that soothes it very quickly and

well, and just helps blood flow go to

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that area because of the heat, drawing

the heat there increases blood flow.

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Depending on if they have a cold,

then I, might do a neti pot for

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them to help them get their sinuses

so that that gets out of their.

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Nasal passage.

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Also, I would lift the back of their

ear there's a bone right behind

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your ear a large circular bone.

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And I would rub that and then press

down as I rubbed and go down their

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neck, and that would just help.

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drain, whatever is in there.

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And it would usually feel good to them.

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So those, those are the things

we do for like ear pain.

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Steph: I still remember a friend

saying, yep, I walked into Jen's house

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and she had socks in a frying pan,

and I was like, ooh, tell me more.

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Jen: yes,

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Steph: So yep, so I've tried

it and it works amazingly.

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I've used Epsom salt usually but it,

it definitely does have to be coarse.

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You're right.

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Otherwise, it's a mess.

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And you have to watch it to make

sure you don't cook too long.

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Jen: Yep.

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Steph: and the garlic oil

drops are really helpful.

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I've done mixing melaleuca with lavender

and coconut oil and just rubbing

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that around the outside of the ear.

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And that's really helpful too

and, something I already have.

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Jen: Yes.

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Steph: I love that you studied your

children's ears, and they're healthy and

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that's so wise to get a baseline, right?

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Jen: it helps so much because, and

everybody's ear looks differently.

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Like I didn't, I had never looked

into an ear before, so I didn't know.

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And then I was like, Oh,

this is your normal ear.

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Okay.

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And then just recently Josiah had a really

bad ear infection and I could see Oh

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my goodness, this is, this is inflamed.

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I can see why you're in pain.

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And yeah, it was pretty cool to see.

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The inflammation go down and to see the

things that we were doing helping and

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we never had to take them in for it.

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So that was nice.

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Steph: that's great.

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And most ear infections are caused

by a virus and not a bacteria, right?

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Even though they're commonly treated

with antibiotics, that's not going

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to kill what's causing it usually.

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Jen: Yep.

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Steph: so it's helpful to have something

that will provide relief as you're

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waiting for those germs to be defeated.

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Jen: Yeah.

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Steph: What about if one of your

children has a bruise or a bump or

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hurts themselves in some sort of injury?

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Jen: Yeah.

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Our favorite is Arnica gel and they have

topical cream that you can put on or even

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when that's it dries really quickly cause

it has like alcohol in it or something.

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So we just rub that on and that really

does help a lot that's my favorite.

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You can also get little borion tablets

of arnica that they can take internally.

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They're like little tiny itty

bitty little circle balls that

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they just put under their tongue

and that goes right into their

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bloodstream and , that helps as well.

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But topically, I don't

know if it's what it is.

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It just helps them.

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I don't know how it works.

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I just know it does.

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Steph: The palettes, it's so funny because

some of the Latin names sound like,

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this sounds like hocus pocus, argentum

natricum, and you're like, I feel like

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you're saying I'm tricking myself, but.

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I, I've taken them myself even, for

like dental pain or something like

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that and you're like, well, even if

it's a placebo, it's working, like

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I feel better, so I'm okay with it.

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Sore throats are quite

common this time of year.

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What is your remedy for that?

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Jen: I love Manuka honey.

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Really good quality Manuka

honey lemon essential oil.

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If you just take it and put it in

right back wherever that soreness

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is, there is something to that that

just quickly can take that away.

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Throat coat tea is one

of my favorite teas.

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I, I actually like the flavor of it.

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Some people.

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It's not their favorite, but I enjoy it.

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That really does help a lot.

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And B propolis spray is

my ultimate favorite.

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We will spray that and just get it back

as far back in the throat as you can.

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And those typically will

soothe and help whatever that

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irritable sore throat thing is.

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If I feel it is strep, then I take

it a little bit more seriously and

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I'll either go get it checked to see

if it is strep and then I know what

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to do with different homeopathic

or different natural antibiotics,

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like oregano or garlic oil or.

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Colloidal silver, whatever

it is that we want to do.

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But I don't like to mess

around with straps, so.

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I will get them tested for that usually.

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Steph: Sure.

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Great.

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we've tried bee pollen, but I've

never tried the bee propolis spray.

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That's interesting.

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Jen: Yeah.

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It's super helpful.

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That's actually one of my favorite sprays.

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Steph: It's exciting to try these things.

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You don't want your kids to get sick,

but you, you want to see this stuff work,

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Jen: yes.

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Yes.

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Steph: Okay, and what about stomach aches?

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Okay.

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Jen: that's huge because.

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Whatever it is their body's having a hard

time digesting, it will help assist their

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body and into digesting whatever that is.

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Digestive enzymes help

activated charcoal, that helps.

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You can even take a capsule of that and

open it up and put it in grape juice

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and shake it up and have them drink it.

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They don't need a lot.

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A little goes a long way.

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Magnesium, typically, if they're,

constipated, then I will give them

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magnesium, give them a magnesium bath.

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Magnesium is best absorbed transdermally,

so having lotion or a bath or rubbing

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lotion on their tummy, that will help as

well but also taking magnesium, whether

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it's a drink or a pill, something like

that, to get some of that moving for them.

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We also love castor oil packs.

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Anytime they have a tummy ache and

it just comes out of nowhere and I

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don't really know what to do, I'll put

castor oil on organic flannel cotton

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and then I tie it around with a,

just a organic bow thing that I have.

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It's like a ribbon and we'll put a heating

pad over top of it for a little bit and

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let that sit on their tummy for a while.

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And most often that

will take the pain away.

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Steph: Wow.

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Castor oil also works best transdermally

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Jen: Yeah.

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Yeah, I have only used it on

topically, so I haven't taken it.

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I, I'm sure that there's things you can

do, but I haven't researched that as

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much, but topically it will increase blood

flow and it will reduce inflammation.

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And so it takes pain away and

it does work relatively quickly.

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Even for things like tummy aches,

headaches Olivia had a migraine this

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afternoon and I put Some on her forehead

and the heating pad on her forehead.

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And she said, mom, it feels so much

better, but it didn't take it away

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completely, but it did reduce the pain.

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Steph: That's excellent.

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Thank you, this is so helpful.

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And like I said, it always

brings me such peace to have

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things in my home that I can do.

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Historically, my kids always

get sick 10pm on Friday night

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Jen: Yes.

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Steph: and you're like, the

doctor's office isn't open!

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And then you think, do I really

want to take my little child into

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an ER or an urgent care so, having

things we can do at home is so nice.

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Jen: Yeah.

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Steph: And then often it's resolved

by Monday morning anyway, and then

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Jen: Yes.

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I know.

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Children do not get sick 9

to 5 Monday through Friday.

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It just doesn't work.

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It's like any off hour is

when they're going to get it.

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Steph: Yeah, for sure

well, thank you so much

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we know you're busy, Mama, so

we are truly grateful you joined

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us for this episode of Again.

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If you're looking for more information

about building your home on the

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foundation of Jesus Christ, head to www.

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EntrustedMinistries.

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com to learn more about our study for

moms, Entrusted with a Child's Heart.

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This scripture saturated study

has blessed families around the

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world, and we want it for you, too.

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Before you go, I want to pray

this benediction over you

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from 2 Thessalonians 1, 11 12.

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We're rooting for you.

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To this end, we always pray for you,

that our God may make you worthy of His

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calling, and may fulfill every resolve

for good and every work of faith by

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His power, so that the name of our Lord

Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in

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Him, according to the grace of our God.

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And the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Until we meet again.