This past Memorial Day weekend was a real scorcher so the choice to spend time in the pool with friends and family was a no-brainer.  Splashing and  racing in the cool water seemed  like a perfect way to spend the afternoon until my 6 year old started screaming like alI hell had broken loose! I quickly rushed over to him and saw that he had been stung by a wasp on the palm of his hand. I’m sure I must have seemed quite strange but I was stoked! Not because he was hurt, but because I happened to have the perfect remedy in my arsenal of homeopathic remedies!

I kept very composed and told him to take slow deep breaths.  While removing the majority of the stinger with my fingertips, I assured him that I had a cure that tasted great and was just the thing to get rid of nasty wasp stingers.  At this point, Tiger’s palm began to swell and turn red, causing him to cry out from the pain.  He was soaking wet from tears and pool water as I calmly led him to the kitchen and instructed him to continue breathing deeply and slowly.

We reached the kitchen and I pulled out LEDUM from my homeopathic home kit. Ledum is a homeopathic first-aid remedy extracted from flowers that work wonderfully for puncture wounds, animal bites, cuts and insect stings as it helps injuries heal from the deepest point up, minimizing the chance of trapping matter inside. It is the PERFECT remedy to help expel the remaining shard of wasp stinger and help the wound heal.

Tiger was an extremely compliant patient, as you will find most kids are, when it comes to homeopathic remedies. The pellets are sucrose-coated so it wasn’t a struggle to get him to take them in his mouth.  After a giving him few pellets, and then a few extra in his hand to lick off (our ritual), I followed up with a small ice pack on his palm to reduce the swelling.

 The pain disappeared within about 20 minutes and there were no further reactions. The rest of our afternoon resumed with lots of splashing, racing, delicious barbecue and fun.

It's funny that I think of this as common knowledge, yet so many of my friends have never heard of this, and are thrilled to learn of this little cure to alleviating stinger interruptions to a perfect day.

My ultimate suggestion is to put together a kit of the most commonly used natural remedies to keep in the home. You will find that if you select just the right treatment, they work very quickly and effectively.

I hope your kids never get stung but if they do, then you might want to have some Ledum on hand. The key is expulsion. Once the irritant is removed, the pain tends to calm down. This is an over simplification of the medicine, but it worked quite well for us this past Memorial Day weekend. You can find Ledum at most natural health food stores in the homeopathic section.