Why Essential Oils for Common Childhood Ailments?
There are many essential oils available with minimal to no safety concerns in children. Whether “gold standard” trials exist or not, there is a plethora of research dating back 2,000 years to back up that essential oils do work for various medical conditions and physical symptom relief. Essential oils are a great alternative tool to help relieve your child’s suffering as a result of common injury or illness. And, using essential oils can often save you time and money on doctor visits and prescriptions.
As parents, we all know far too well that children are little cesspools of germs! They pass on “kiddie krud” (as I call it) like wildfire. There is no cure for the common cold or for most viral illnesses. In addition, antibiotic resistance is an increasingly pervasive and concerning modern-day problem. More times than I would like, I have seen children in the ER present with persistent ear infections despite a round of amoxicillin and ear tubes. MRSA is a growing problem in the pediatric population with more and more babies and young kids presenting with skin abscesses that require sedation and surgical drainage. Wouldn’t it be nice if we knew we had something at our fingertips, on our shelf at home, that could potentially prevent these problems, without concern for resistance?
As I mentioned in my first blog, and I will repeat it here:
Scan the aisles in the pharmacy and you will see an overwhelming number of options for antidiarrheals, pain medicines, cough/cold treatments, and more, all marketed for children. But what many parents do not know is that in 2008, pharmaceutical companies withdrew cough and cold products marketed to children ages 2 and under, and warned against using these products in children under the age of 4. Moreover, the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA) and American Academy of Pediatrics advised that over-the-counter cough and cold medications not be given to children under the age of 6. 1, 2, 3
Why? Because research has demonstrated that these products in general provide no benefit to young children, and can even have potentially serious side effects. 4
Yet, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported in 2014 that despite these warnings and advisories, over-the-counter medication use in children in the ER and ambulatory settings has not decreased. In fact, it has increased. 5
The truth is that most common childhood illnesses need to run their course and will resolve with or without medicine and with or without supportive care. You just need the confidence of knowing that there are things you can do to help your child that don’t include offering him or her a teaspoon of medication.
Essential oils have been demonstrated time and again in the laboratory and clinically to have significant antimicrobial activity. I am most fascinated by and convinced of the antimicrobial properties of essential oils. In the backdrop of antibiotic-resistant microbial strains, an increase in the population with lower immunity, and increased incidence of drug-resistant infections, studies of the antimicrobial activity of essential oils are more important than ever.
Multiple studies have already been published on the antibacterial and antifungal effects of numerous essential oils, 6, 7 including cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, geranium, grapefruit, kunzea, lavender, lemon, lemongrass, lime, orange, peppermint, rosemary, sage, sandalwood, tea tree, and thyme.
Additionally, some oils are antiviral and inhibit the replication of herpes simplex virus. 8 Some oils treat and prevent the growth of fungus/yeast in both the vagina and throat. 9 Some are even effective against pests, such as lice and scabies. But more gold standard testing needs to be done so that clinicians and parents alike can feel comfortable with these treatment modalities.
You may wonder: What about resistance to essential oils? To date, there has been no resistance due to repeated oil exposure. Why? Because oils don’t just act on one mechanism within the microbe. They have a synergistic effect: the interaction or cooperation of two or more components of the oils produce a combined effect that is greater than any one individual chemical components of the oil on its own. 10, 11, 12, 13
Next week, I will discuss two more of my FAVORITE and EVIDENCE BACKED essential oils...don’t miss out!
In general, medical doctors don’t know much about essential oils with regards to the actual existing research and evidence, and, in my honest experience, neither do most essential oils sales users! I’m going to be providing some well researched insights and hope you will join me on this journey to learn more about when, how, and IF to use essential oils!
Want all the information NOW? Check out my E-book, The Evidence Based Guide to Essential Oils: What Parents Need to Know to Safely Manage Common Childhood Ailments. You can purchase it online now for 25% the retail price with the Promo Code FF919 at checkout!
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Download my E-Book, The Evidence-Based Guide To Essential Oils: What Parents Need to Know to Manage Common Childhood Ailments and learn more now!
***Join me next week and in the weeks to come to learn more about alternative and integrative therapies for children and adults alike!
References
1 OTC Cough and Cold Products: Not For Infants and Children Under 2 Years of Age. Food and Drug Administration. [FDA Link]
2 Sharfstein JM, North M, Serwint JR. Over the counter but no longer under the radar--pediatric cough and cold medications. N Engl J Med. 2007 Dec 6;357(23):2321-4. [PubMed]
3 American Academy of Pediatrics. Withdrawal of cold medicines: Addressing parent concerns. [AAP Link]
4 Lowry JA, Leeder JS. Over-the-Counter Medications: Update on Cough and Cold Preparations. Pediatr Rev. 2015 Jul;36(7):286-97 [PubMed]
5 Warnings have little impact on the use of OTC cold medicines. AAP Publications. 2014. [AAP News]
6 S. Prabuseenivasan, M. Jayakumar, S. Ignacimuthu. In vitro antibacterial activity of some plant essential oils. BMC Complement Altern Med, 6 (2006), p.39. [Link]
7 Warnke PH, Becker ST, Podschun R, Sivananthan S, Springer IN, Russo PA, Wiltfang J, Fickenscher H, Sherry E. The battle against multi-resistant strains: Renaissance of antimicrobial essential oils as a promising force to fight hospital-acquired infections. J Craniomaxillofac Surg. 2009 Oct;37(7):392-7. [PubMed]
8 Carson CF, Ashton L, Dry L, Smith DW, Riley TV. Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree) oil gel (6%) for the treatment of recurrent herpes labialis. J Antimicrob Chemother, 48 (2001), pp. 450-451. [PubMed]
9 Jandourek A, Vaishampayan JK, and Vazquez JA. Efficacy of melaleuca oral solution for the treatment of fluconazole refractory oral candidiasis in AIDS patients. AIDS, 12 (1998), pp. 1033-1037. [PubMed]
10 Inouye S, Takizawa T, and Yamaguchi H. Antibacterial activity of essential oils and their major constituents against respiratory tract pathogens by gaseous contact. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Volume 47, Issue 5, May 2001, Pages 565–573 [PubMed]
11 Chouhan S, Sharma K, Guleria S. Antimicrobial Activity of Some Essential Oils-Present Status and Future Perspectives. Medicines (Basel). 2017 Aug 8;4(3). [PubMed]
12 Orchard A, van Vuuren S. Commercial Essential Oils as Potential Antimicrobials to Treat Skin Diseases. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:4517971. Epub 2017 May 4. [PubMed]
13 Djihane B, Wafa N, Elkhamssa S, Pedro HJ, Maria AE, Mohamed Mihoub Z. Chemical constituents of Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don essential oil and their antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, filamentous fungi and Candida albicans. Saudi Pharm J. 2017 Jul;25(5):780-787. [NCBI Link]