Meet the healing herbs in our Diaper Rash and Thrush salve!

June 19, 2013

When your baby’s bum is red and painful, you want effective, safe relief.

Our Diaper Rash and Thrush salve is an all-natural remedy for persistent, inflamed diaper rash, possibly caused by yeast.  It can also be used on mother’s nursing nipples to prevent thrush from being transferred to the milk ducts, and does not need to be washed off prior to nursing. Our salve has a zero rating (zero toxins) on the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database and is made with 96% certified organic ingredients. Because it contains no zinc oxide, it is compatible with all diapers including cloth.  The Diaper Rash & Thrush can also be used on other yeast caused issues, such as a vaginal yeast infection and athletes foot.

We thought we’d take a moment to explain and pay tribute to the wonderful healing herbs in our salve.  Here they are, along with their many functions:

As the name suggests, Oregon Grape is native to the American west (pictured to the right).  It’s a shrub with evergreen leaves that turn red in the fall, and in the spring it produces small yellow flowers that bloom in clusters on terminal spikes.  These later turn into purple berries that can be made into jam, jellies or juice.  The bitter tasting yellow root contains the alkaloid berberine, and is antibacterial, antimicrobial, and antiseptic.  You can use it on psoriasis, eczema, boils and wounds.  It is considered a “blood purifier” and liver tonic, as it stimulates bile production and clears up skin conditions.  The root is also used to make a yellow dye.

Yarrow is an aromatic herb that grows in meadows and is native to a number of areas including North America.  In New Mexico and southern Colorado it is called plumajillo (Spanish for ‘little feather’) for its leaf shape and texture.  It has alternate, wooly gray-green fern-like leaves, and its tiny, white flowers each have 4-6 ray petals that grow in flat-topped clusters.  You can put the leaves or flowers on wounds or a bloody nose to quickly stop the bleeding, or use it as a wash on rashes, runny sores, boils, poison ivy, chapped or cracked skin, and hemorrhoids.  It can be drunk to relieve indigestion and gas.  Yarrow promotes sweating when taken to reduce a fever. It is also said that the smell repels mosquitoes.

You may recognize Myrrh as one of the gifts brought by the Three Wise Men in the nativity story.  It is a gum resin that was also used by the ancient Egyptians to embalm bodies.  Myrrh constituents are antibacterial and antifungal, exhibiting activity against e.coli, staphylococcus, and candida albicans - an overgrowth of which leads to yeast infections.  Its antiseptic and disinfectant properties make it useful as a wash on cuts, burns and skin infections.  You can gargle several drops of tincture in water to relieve a sore throat, or use it to treat mouth sores and thrush by applying it to the mucus membranes inside of the mouth.

Calendula may be a familiar herb, as it’s used as a soothing agent in many natural products.  It is an easily planted annual with orange and yellow flowers and alternate leaves.  The unusual curlicue seedpods easily reseed themselves.  This herb is an all purpose skin healing herb used to stop bleeding, wash wounds, heal cuts, abscesses, rashes, boils, chapped skin, and eczema.  It relieves muscle cramps, painful swellings, hemorrhoids, and insect bites.  It can be used in a footbath on swollen feet and as an eyewash on sore, tired eyes.  A hair rinse reduces dandruff. The orange and yellow petals of this edible flower are a colorful addition to salads.

Image credit:  Wikimedia Commons

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