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Making homemade vapor rub was not what I had planned. A week ago all three of my men and I were enjoying a shopping trip. I thought to myself, “We’ve been really healthy, wow it’s going to be a great holiday.” One week later and we are all sick. My husband and I had to miss seeing Rogue One and the boys had to miss seeing their grandparents/sitters. What a super bummer. Below are some things we do to help fight cold and flu symptoms.


Home Remedies for Cold and Flu

Homemade Vapor rub and other tricks to deals with the symptoms of cold and flu.Moisturize the Air

In addition to the typical medications for fever control for the boys and NyQuil for the adults. We also got the humidifiers out of storage, loaded them up with some distilled water, and cranked them up in the boys’ rooms. Downstairs we put some orange slices, cinnamon sticks, cloves and rosemary in a pot to simmer and added some moisture to the air. We are in Wisconsin and it’s been about -10 degrees with 8″ of fresh snow. The air is very dry, so we need some help with moisture this time of year.

Clear Out Your Nose

When I get up in the morning and before going to bed at night I get out my neti pot , saline and distilled water and clean out those nasal passages. Homemade Vapor rub and other tricks to deals with the symptoms of cold and fluIf you don’t know what neti pots are all about follow this link to a video of what it is. Be sure to use distilled water rather than tap water to avoid getting whatever sediments that may be in your tap water stuck in your nasal passages.

Essential Oils to Help Sleep

In the evening I toss a homemade shower bomb in my shower and take a nice hot steamy shower to help me breathe. When I go to bed I put some homemade vapor rub on my chest and soles of my feet. All these actions make it possible to actually get the sleep that I need to heal. In addition to breathing nice humidified air throughout the day

Homemade DIY Vapor Rub

Using these Mason 4 ounce jars filled with an organic cold pressed coconut oil as my carrier oil. A carrier oil is used when applying essential oils to the skin because essential oils are incredibly concentrated and can be strong and irritating to the skin if not applied in a diluted form when using topically. Learn more about the safety of essential oils here. The vapor rub is made about with a 1% essential oil solution. To make a 1% dilution is about 6 drops of essential oil for every ounce of carrier oil.

Homemade Vapor rub and other tricks to deals with the symptoms of cold and flu.

 

  • 4 ounces coconut oil, melted
  • 10 drops of spearmint oil
  • 14 drops of eucalyptus oil

Combine all three ingredients mix vigorously to combine and then allow the to mixture to come to room temperature where coconut oil will return to a solid form.



The two essential oils are eucalyptus due to it’s ability to relieve coughing and spearmint due to it’s menthol properties. I have a very small collection of essential oils and peppermint is not one of them. Peppermint is higher in menthol properties than spearmint. You could substitute peppermint for the spearmint. If you find peppermint to be too strong you may prefer the spearmint. That’s the great thing about homemade, you get to make the vapor rub to your choice.

If you are using this vapor rub on your children keep the essential oils to 1% to .5% dilution. If you are using this solution on adults that do not have sensitive skin, you could increase the dilution to about 2% but I would not go above that for a topical application. Eucalytus and peppermint/spearmint are considered sensitive oils and should be diluted.

I hope that everyone has a healthy holiday season! If you don’t maybe some of our remedies will help you deal with the symptoms and not miss out on the fun! Hopefully my family will be on the mend by the time Santa makes an appearance!

 

Homemade DIY Vapor rub and other tricks to deals with the symptoms of cold and flu.