Thursday, December 16, 2010

Enhancing Digestion in Babies, Pregnancy and Beyond.

Photograph of abdomen of a pregnant womanImage via WikipediaRecently I have been researching and experimenting with herbs. My husband the accountant will vouch for this! Perhaps in my future life I will go back to school and study herbology, for now though I must be content to self study through the lens of my nursing background. I already have a plan written out for growing a whole bunch of my own herbs this coming summer. I am excited to see what works and what doesn't.



My Digestion Story:

Until I was pregnant with Olivia I never really experienced any gastric distress. I quickly found that pregnancy changes things. Compared to a lot of women my pregnancy symptoms were mild, very mild. I would be slightly nauseated at night when I would lie down to sleep. I attributed this to position and thought I should start taking something to help. I began a nightly ritual of drinking a ginger tea concoction relabeled as a wellness tea for pregnant women, from Earth Mama Angel Baby company. It worked wonders!
 Then I gave birth to my lovely little girl, who seemed to experience many many symptoms of gastric distress in the first 6 months of her life. "Colicky" might be the word. She cried a lot. Then one day my mother came home with a small bottle of homeopathic medicine called "colic calm". My life changed for the better. Olivia no longer screamed as long. If she woke up crying or suddenly started to cry I would put a bib on her (it's black and stains) and feed her this licorice based product. Relief! I swear by it still. I recently read reviews on a similar product called "Baby's Bliss Gripe Water" and have ordered it to try it, since it is cheaper and it isn't black so it doesn't stain. I will let you know how it works. I also started her on probiotics for babies since she was a C-section baby she did not pick up all the normal flora a baby would passing through the birth canal. I believe this also helped her poor little tummy in the long run.

Since I am no longer pregnant I now drink straight ginger tea and/ or peppermint tea or hot lemon water when I feel slight distress or  take licorice tablets. I take deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL) tablets.( If they are not DGL they can raise blood pressure). Licorice is know for it's ability to soothe and heal the esophageal tissue by decreaing inflammation and ulceration. Most herbalists recommend about 760 mg prior to each meal if indigestion is an issue. I have also gotten into the habit of making sure I have the much spoken of "probiotics" and "digestive enzymes" in my diet on a daily basis by taking a supplement or incorporating it into my meal.

What do you do to treat your nausea, or indigestion?


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1 comment:

  1. I remember my mother telling me that they gave babys gripe water for intergestion in England in her day. It is made with dill seeds or fennel and you boil it, but you can only keep it for 24hrs.

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