Plant Nations

When my oldest son was five, he backed into our wood stove and got a nasty, big burn on his back.  I consulted my natural healing book and put honey on his burn.  Then my mother called the doctor.  He told us to take the honey off.  I left it on.  My son’s burn healed quickly and beautifully with no signs at all of any kind of infection.  (If the burn had been very serious, I would have taken him to the doctor.)

Today I learned (from my new friends at www.learningherbs.com) that a poultice of grated raw potato effectively pulls the heat out of a burn.  First you run cold water on the burn while someone grates a raw potato.  Then you take the burn out of the water and put on a wad (poultice) of the grated raw potato.  You can put on fresh potato wads as needed until the burn feels better. Then you can put on the honey and a sterile bandage.

Learningherbs also reminds us about the old vinegar remedy for burns in which you wrap a burn in a clean cloth soaked in apple cider vinegar.  I have never tried this, but if I don’t have a grated potato handy, I will!