Activated Charcoal

I hope everyone had a FABULOUS Memorial day weekend.  We were working on our new stair gate for a good amount of the time.  I will hopefully have a post for you soon, but in the mean time, I want to talk about an AWESOME remedy for any kind of upset tummy issues. 

The reason I bring this up is in the last few weeks my entire family(except me thank goodness), my nephew, and just yesterday my sister in law and her son have had some kind of nasty bug that brought on throwing up with a side order of the runs.  No fun, right?  Now, normally we would just make sure everyone is drinking plenty of fluids, and a probiotic if they can keep it down.  But what do you do if you can't keep anything down?  Activated Charcoal my friends!

(I normally buy it in bulk and make my own pills for costs sake, but I wanted to let you know what to look for at the health food store.  And no, you can't buy this at Wal-Mart.  I have only seen it in the Health Food Stores.)

Everyone should have some activated charcoal in their medicine cabinet!  Seriously, this isn't just the health nut in me talking about how awesome herbs are.  Activated Charcoal's most common use is as an anti poison agent!  So if you have small children who like to put anything and everything in their mouths, this is seriously a must.  Poisons, upset stomach, vomiting, diarrhea, gas, it does it all!  The Charcoal soaks up whatever is causing the problem so it doesn't bother you anymore.  And it begins to work almost immediately after you've taken it!  Even ambulances carry this stuff for the people who O.D.! 

Are you convinced yet?  Need I go on? 

Now, I'm not a doctor, so if you, or someone you know ingests poison, its still probably best to call poison control.  And you want to make sure to drink plenty of water when taking activated charcoal because it will absorb all it can and you don't want to become dehydrated. 

So, if this nasty bug keeps going around, activated charcoal is your best friend!  So go out right now, before you forget, and pick some up.  Follow the instructions on the bottle, and for kids I would probably mix one pill in a sippy cup full of juice and have them drink it little by little.

You Welcome ;)