Many of my clients include babies and young children, consulting me for a range of health concerns, including chronic ear infections, skin rashes and food reactions, constant colds and sore throats, as well as constipation and diarrhoea. The majority of these small patients are prescribed liquid herbal medicine as only children aged 9 or 10 can swallow tablets and capsules whole. (Powdered pro-biotics are also often prescibed... a healthy gut means a strong immune system.)

The herbs used for younger patients are often in a glycetract, making it sweeter and more palatable than its adult equivalent. However getting it down can still be quite a challenge! Some compliance tips include the following.

Place the entire bottle of herbs in the refrigerator, and dispense cold. This will to some degree mask the taste. (Compare the taste of a cold tomato to a lovely room temperature one.)

Although we try not to encourage too much fruit juice drinking, adding these agents to a herbal mix is often very useful. And besides itʼs normally only short term. So try adding the herbal mix to blackcurrant of pear juice, or even honey or maple syrup. This is best added in a small quantity once the herb has been dispensed For example, 5 –10 mL fruit juice concentrate can be added to a dose of say 2 mL. This is quickly consumed and followed down by water.

A last resort can be the old jelly trick. Make up a strong natural jelly with fruit juice and agar. This is quite important, as the mix needs to be stronger than usual, made with less water, to allow for the extra herbal liquid to be added to it. The mix is poured into an ice cube tray, and an appropriate single herbal dose, say 2 mL is added to each compartment. The tray is placed in the refrigerator to set. Each time a dose is required, the child is given a jelly cube to swallow whole. It will slide down quickly, and being cold will have little of a strong underlying taste.

Older patients can of course try any of the above, although I would encourage my more adult patients to use the old one/two method
first. That is, scull measured herbs straight and follow by a quick glass of water. Be brave, herbs are your friends after all!