Herbal Remedy: Garlic Poultice For Treating Infections

This is such an all-purpose remedy, and so simple that I can’t believe I didn’t know about it til a few weeks ago; I just have to share it!

I just had our third baby, Olivia Jane about a month ago and as any new mama knows, when your milk comes in, it comes with a vengance. I reduced the supply to a more comfortable level using cabbage leaves, but when Olivia slept through one of her feedings, I began  to develop mastitis. (The plugging of a milk duct, which causes lots of pain, inflammation and redness, can cause a high fever and infection. Not fun at all. Especially when you’re healing up from just having a baby!)  Thankfully I caught it early and didn’t get a high fever but I did have a bit of one, was achy and tired and in pain.

My friend Kayci sent me this video and said to make a garlic poultice and put it on the affected area, so I did. And guess what? I started to feel better within 20 minutes of applying the poultice, my low grade fever disappeared within an hour and the pain was greatly reduced! I did another poultice that night before bed and the next morning I was almost completely healed up. My breast was still a little sore, but not swollen or hot like it was the day before, and I had my energy back. The day after that I was completely fine. Hooray!!

Garlic has anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and immune system boosting properties in it that makes it one of the best healing foods around. Its been used throughout history for colds, coughs, infections and illnesses to help ease discomfort and literally draw out the infection from your body. And it works! I’ve used garlic countless times, both topically and culinarily (is that a word? In food..) and it always helps heal our bodies. The best part when using garlic as an antibiotic is that it doesn’t kill the good bacteria in your body, like amoxocilin or other commercial antibiotics.

To make the poultice, I just took a couple cloves of raw garlic, peeled and diced them finely, then spread them out on a small rag. I folded the rag up kind of like a square burrito and poured warm water over it, let it sit a moment, then wrung it out and put it on my breast where it was hurting for a minute or two. That was it! If you keep the poultice on too long, the garlic can burn your skin so check it after a minute to make sure you aren’t getting a blister.  (ouch!)

The video explains everything in detail, so make sure to watch it. And you can use the poultice for colds and sicknesses too- it has so many uses! I’m so thankful Kayci told me about it!

If you use this and like it, why not spread the word and tell a few of your friends too?