Remedy
Fever
Fever is a tool. Cool the room, push the sugar-salt drink, use willow only in adults who could take aspirin.
No willow or aspirin-family anything to a child or teen with a viral illness. Stiff neck, purple rash, seizure, baby under 3 months: Illness chapter, not the herb shelf.
Do this
- 1.Light clothes, air, water. Acetaminophen or ibuprofen from the med chest if you have it — they beat willow for most people.
- 2.Yarrow or elder flower tea, hot, if you want a sweat at the very start and they can drink.
- 3.Catnip tea to help a restless person rest. It does not take the fever down much.
- 4.Write the number down. A fever that lasts past three days and is getting worse is a different story.
Recipes
Yarrow tincture
Fever sweat on the inside, wound wash on the outside.
Willow bark decoction
Adult ache and low fever tea from creek willow. Treat it like aspirin that tastes of wet wood.
Chamomile or catnip rest tea
Evening cup for a crampy belly or a person who cannot come down from the day.
Elderberry syrup
The jar you reach for at the first scratch in the throat. Cooked, honeyed, shelf-stable enough for a cellar.
Plants
Also see Fever, gut, heat, and cold and the medicine chest.