Motherwort helps to calm down in stress, relieve tension, improve night sleep, and overcome feelings of anxiety. Adults willingly take this drug because it is natural and herbal. Children, too, often need a sedative, because knowing the world around them is not an easy task, and stress in a child is even more severe than in an adult.
In these situations, mothers seriously think about whether it is possible to give motherwort to children and how to do it correctly. In this article we will try to understand everything in detail.
What it is
Motherwort is a medicinal plant that is not rare in Russia. It is found on wastelands and along roads in almost all central regions of the country, as well as in the Caucasus and Siberia.
For medicinal purposes, the roots and flowers of the plant are not used, only leaves and stems are harvested. Raw materials are collected and dried in summer, when motherwort blooms, it is during this period that the maximum concentration of nutrients accumulates in its greenery. The plant contains:
- Alkaloids. The plant contains several of them at once (stachydrin, leonurin). Their presence makes motherwort quite a powerful antidepressant.
- Tannins. The presence of tannin, in particular, gives motherwort anti-inflammatory, hemostatic and restorative properties.
- Essential oil. This component of the plant has an effect on the vessels of the brain and heart, gently and quickly relieving spasms.
- Carotene. Provides antioxidant action.
- Vitamin C. Vitamin C gives motherwort additional benefits for use against vascular disease.
- Steroidal and flavonoid glycosides. Thanks to them, motherwort has a pronounced sedative or anti-inflammatory effect.
Release forms
You can prepare motherwort yourself. Collect it from June to August. You should not cut the grass growing close to highways, within the city, next to landfills and solid waste landfills. Motherwort is dried in a dry room with good ventilation, avoiding direct sunlight on the raw material. After drying, the leaves and stems of the plant can be stored for no more than three years in a paper bag or cardboard box.
It is much easier to buy a ready-made pharmaceutical plant collection. Dry herb packaged in packs of 50 grams is always available and is inexpensive. You can buy Motherwort Forte from Evalar, a tablet form of a herbal preparation. Pharmacists also offer motherwort tincture - alcohol-containing liquid in pharmacies is sold in small glass bottles of 25 ml. Motherwort extract is a drop in small glass vials.
Application for children
The instructions for use, which are enclosed in the packaging of all forms of motherwort release, unambiguously state that this medicinal plant should not be given to children under 12 years of age. In fact, and many mothers will confirm this, motherwort begin to be used almost from the very birth of the baby.
The reason for the contradiction is in the general approach of manufacturers to herbal medicine. Since the effect of various herbs and roots on the child's body has not been studied in detail, that is, special clinical studies on children have not been carried out, pharmacists are legally not entitled to write that their product is approved for use in children.
According to established practice, children from birth to 1 year old are recommended to give motherwort only for external use - as part of baths. A baby who has already turned 2 years old can take home water infusion or a decoction of this plant with the permission of a doctor. At 3-4 years old, you can add an alcoholic motherwort tincture to a bathtub. From 5 years old, a child can dissolve alcohol tincture in water or juice (a few drops) and take it orally. Motherwort extract can be given to children from 6 years old, and the drug in tablets - from 7-8 years old.
Instructions for use
There are many indications for the use of motherwort. For children, the drug can be prescribed under the following conditions:
- A state of severe stress.
- Hyperactivity Syndrome.
- Sleep disturbance.
- Anxiety during teething.
- VSD - vegetative-vascular dystonia.
- Anxiety attacks, panic attacks, excessive moodiness and a tendency to hysteria.
- Various diseases of the nervous system.
- Immunodeficiency, weakening of the nervous system against the background of a long illness.
- Headaches.
- Formation and periods of menstrual irregularities in adolescent girls.
- Restless child syndrome.
Useful properties of motherwort and how to use it can be seen in the next video.
Dosage and method of administration
Motherwort and preparations based on it have a peculiarity: the dosage indicated for a particular age is, in fact, conditional, approximate and average. Depending on the diagnosis of the baby, the severity of his problem, the pediatrician can prescribe doses that are higher than average values and doses that will be much less.
Motherwort forte
This drug can cause serious harm to a growing body, and therefore self-medication with this form of motherwort should be completely excluded... The average dosage for children who have reached the age of 7-8 years will be 1 tablet three times a day. However, with severe stress or complex treatment for stuttering, the doctor may recommend double doses. And in case of sleep disturbance or frequent headaches, it is often advised only 1 tablet before bedtime.
Alcohol tincture
Like all preparations containing ethyl alcohol, this dosage form is not suitable for young children. Therefore, the drug has found its application in water treatments. For children from 3 years old and older, you can make baths with motherwort tincture. To do this, once a day, one hour before going to bed, add no more than 20 drops per 10 liters of water to the water prepared for bathing. Do not take this bath for too long. Bathing time should start at 5 minutes (first procedures) and gradually increase to 15 minutes. The course of treatment is about a month. Then you should definitely take a break.
Children from 5 years old are sometimes allowed to take alcohol tincture orally. Usually, such a need arises if the baby suffers from the “restless child” syndrome, if he stutters strongly, and also as an emergency aid in a situation of severe stress, fright, shock. The dosage in this case should not exceed one drop of tincture in half a glass of warm sweet tea, compote or juice. You need to give such a drink 2-3 times a day.
Motherwort extract
This medication is available in both tablets and drops. The solid form, as we found out, can only be taken from 8 years old, but drops are acceptable for children starting from 4-5 years old. The average dosage for nervous disorders in a child is 1 drop three times a day. The vials have convenient dispensers.
Motherwort herb
A wonderful herbal remedy that you need to have in your home first-aid kit from the very first days after the birth of a child. In pharmacies it is available in cartons and sachets. Parents have the opportunity to choose which form is most convenient for them.
For newborns, you can make baths with a decoction or tincture of motherwort. To prepare the broth, you need 1 teaspoon of dry collection and 200 g of water. Motherwort should be poured with boiled water, pre-cooled to 80 degrees. Put the container in a water bath and hold it there for about a quarter of an hour. The resulting broth is added to the bathing water for an infant.
The tincture will require the same amount of herbs and water. Plant raw materials must be poured with water, the temperature of which is about 90%, closed with a lid, and let it brew for about 40 minutes. The resulting product is also intended to be added to water. For a one-year-old child, you can add another medicinal plant to the infusion, for example, lemon balm or oregano. For a newborn, one-component herbal formulations are preferred.
Infusion and decoction of motherwort can be taken orally by children from 2 years old. The average dosage is 2 teaspoons three times a day. In practice, doctors try to avoid such treatment, except in particularly difficult and difficult cases.
Contraindications
Reasonable parents know for sure that not everything that is of plant origin is safe for the child's body. Motherwort should be taken with great care.
It can cause allergies in a child. Before the first bath with this product, it is advisable to make a test - apply a few drops of the prepared decoction or infusion to the child on the back of the hand. If after an hour redness and rash do not appear, then motherwort can be used.
If you are about to take the first intake of a remedy based on this plant inside, start with a dose that is three times less than the recommended dose. If after a day there is no reaction, you can take the drug as usual.
Motherwort in all forms is contraindicated in children with congenital heart defects, severe cardiac arrhythmias, hypotension, acute atopic dermatitis and a predisposition to a strong allergic reaction to plant components.
It is unacceptable to use motherwort for preventive purposes. If the child is calm, sleeps normally, it is not necessary to give him baths with such a remedy, since the motherwort effect "for future use" does not apply, and there is no need for an unnecessary effect on the healthy nervous system.
When to see a doctor?
If you are treating a child with nervous breakdowns and increased excitability with the help of motherwort, then you should know that 1-2 tantrums per month for a child aged 3 to 5 years is a variant of the norm. So the child's psyche "relieves" unnecessary stress. In these situations, giving motherwort is optional.
But if tantrums occur more often, accompanied by strong aggression, attempts to harm oneself (banging his head against the walls, biting himself), and against the background of taking motherwort, noticeable relief does not come within a month, then this is a reason to contact a child psychologist and psychiatrist, and also to visit neurologist and pediatrician.
There are children with signs of hyperactivity, which also affects the child's nervous system, and Dr. Komarovsky will tell everyone about this in the next video.
In adolescence, mothers often give motherwort to children, since the load grows at school, hormonal changes cause inappropriate behavior in children. If, while taking it, your teenager does not feel relief for a couple of months, if he has severe depression and depression, he needs other help, and medicinal plants cannot be dispensed with. Go to the doctor.
If, after taking motherwort, the child's symptoms worsened, he became even more agitated, sweating, slight tremors of the fingers are noticeable, you should immediately stop taking the drug and consult a doctor.
You will have to go to the hospital after the manifestation of an allergic reaction. The body usually reacts to motherwort with intestinal disorders, skin rash, in more rare cases - lacrimation with swelling of the eyelids, nasopharynx. Further administration of the drug is unacceptable.
General recommendations
- You should not give motherwort preparations in the morning, this will cause drowsiness and lethargy in the child during the day. It is best to do this starting in the afternoon.
- You can not give motherwort to school-age children before exams, control and other important events. The sedative effect of the plant can cause distraction, inability to concentrate, and excessive relaxation.
Reviews
Most parents who use or have used motherwort in the treatment of their children were quite pleased with the result, according to them, the positive effect came about 2-3 weeks after the start of the intake.
Mothers emphasize that all drugs have a specific bitter taste, children refuse to drink such a remedy, and therefore it is best to add the medicine to sugary drinks, which will mask the bitterness.
