Natural Health |

First off, if you’re not sure what The Keeper is – it’s a reusable menstrual cup. As you might guess, since this is a post lauding all the benefits of using The Keeper as well as praising my own personal Keeper – there might be parts that are just too much information for some. So, consider yourself forewarned!

I found out about The Keeper a year or so after the birth of my first nearly 11 years ago. I had heard about cloth menstrual pads but I’ve never been a pad gal myself; I had always used tampons so I knew that option wasn’t for me.

At that time I was thinking a lot about how I could green my period up and, I considered a lot of different options including organic tampons and pads. But, they’re both quite pricey and not within my budget; they still aren’t.

I knew I had to find something that would work as I was also getting more and more sketched out by using conventional tampons since they’re made from cotton doused with so many chemicals it would make your head spin; and I didn’t want that near my special lady bits anymore now that I was aware of the consequences.

That’s when I finally was introduced to The Keeper. Made of natural rubber the keeper is a reusable menstrual cup that catches your menstrual fluid and then is emptied a few times a day. When you’re done with your cycle you just put it away and there it is ready for your next month; no running out to the store cause you’re out of supplies, or spending money in any way on your cycle except this once!

The reason I decided to write this post is because as I came up on my moon this month I realized I’ve had my Keeper for about 10 years now! I think that’s just amazing. I can’t imagine how much money I’ve saved myself, how much I’ve saved my health, and even what I’ve saved going into the land fill as well as the reduced use of pesticides by ditching conventional tampons. Of course these are all small things – but over 10 years! 12 cycles each year…less babies and such – that’ s a LOT!

Personally I find The Keeper the best option for me but I encourage you to investigate all the options available including The Diva Cup (same idea different design), cloth menstrual pads (AKA “mamma cloth” ) – which you can make yourself using a free online mamma cloth pattern, and – well, you tell us.

What is the most earth friendly way you feel you’re able um, managing your moon time? We’d love to hear all the different things natural mammas are doing to green their period so we can all make our monthly cycle more sustainable.

You never know when someone’s going to need some type of remedy to fix them up; the probability of something happening is even higher when you’ve got a family. Now, I’m definitely no boy scout – I’m not always prepared, it’s actually quite the opposite – but, I do keep around a few staples in the medicine cabinet that we’ve come to rely on for our natural health care.

Arnica

The homeopathic remedy Arnica is definitely the first medicine I think of when I consider natural medicines we rely on here at our house. It’s amazing for bruises; we’ve avoided many a black and blue mark by taking Arnica after injuries. And, it’s just as good for sore muscles and trauma.

Garlic and Mullein Oil

Garlic and Mullein oil (or just garlic oil if you can’t find it w/the Muellin) is excellent for curing ear infections. In fact, I’ve known people to say they just stick a clove of garlic in their ear if it is achy and have avoided antibiotics that way too. The oil form is a bit more comfortable to put in the ear than the clove and is highly effective in our experience; especially if you catch the ear infection/ache right at the start.

Tea Tree Oil

Tea Tree Oil has multiple uses in our home because of it’s antibacterial properties. For natural health care we’ve used tea tree oil as a soak for particularly nasty scrapes (just a few drops in a bowl of water and soak for a bit) and you can make a light antibiotic spray the same way just put into a bottle w/a spray nozzle.

Valerian Root

I keep Valerian Root around as we all have difficulty sleeping from time to time either because of illness or sleeplessness. A touch of Valerian is excellent for getting the sleep needed to heal and rejuvenate and it doesn’t make you “need it” or feel “groggy” in the morning. There are even formulations w/out alcohol made for children too.

Honey

We all love honey! Even when we’re not sick but, especially when we’re not feeling well. Honey too has anti bacterial properties so is quite beneficial in many ways. The kind of honey is somewhat important – organic honey is great, there is raw honey and that has even more health benefits and then there are certain types of raw honey that have more beneficial properties than others. Any type of honey can be healing inside and out though.

Some of the ways you can use honey include taking spoonfuls to help coat a sore throat, in warm water to sooth a cough/respiratory illness, and on a bandage to help heal, fight infection, as well as to prevent the bandage from sticking to the wound.

What are your favorites? Are there natural medicines you always keep stocked? Some you can’t stand?

Of course we all have to make different choices about our health care from time to time and there have been quite a few situations in my life where I’m exceedingly grateful that allopathic medicine has been there to help return someone I love back to health too. Maybe there are some medicines you rely on that might not be described as exactly natural but are totally essential.

Please, come share about what you’ve got in your medicine cabinet so we can all stay healthy and heal our families as naturally as possible.

Category Archives: Natural Health

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