:: The following is a guest post by Amy at Amy Loves It! ::
It is always exciting to find an inexpensive tip that works well, but the way I found out about the best way to treat a sting was not without tears.
While we were on vacation a few weeks ago, my 3-year-old daughter was stung twice in the hand by a yellow jacket. It immediately began swelling, and she was, of course, screaming very loudly.
Needless to say, several people heard her cries, including a lady in a shop next door. She immediately came to me with a baking-soda-and-water-paste, and told me to apply that to her stings. And, so I did… even as I thought, “this is never going to work.”
Well, guess what? I was wrong. Oh, so wrong!
The baking-soda-water-paste worked. And it worked well. It was like a miracle cure. My daughter calmed down and ate her lunch and never said another word about her stings. Not one! She never scratched them, or even thought about them again.
The swelling in her hand went down almost immediately after applying the paste. It took the itch away, as well.
I am a believer! I do not know what it is in the baking soda that counteracts the venom, but it is fabulous!
Another fabulous thing, is that most of the time, we all have baking soda on hand (unless you are on vacation… although I will definitely pack it now!); and water is a given.
I do not have an exact measurement of how much water and baking soda, but you can pretty much tell when you make a paste.
:: Add water to the baking soda, a little at a time, until you get a pasty consistency.
:: Apply paste to the sting (after you remove the stinger), and let it dry. It will dry almost immediately.
:: No band-aids needed, unless they are requested!
And, just so you know, I only applied the paste once. I covered the places really well, but I still only applied it one time. You cannot beat it!
Update: [This post was originally posted on 07/Jul/09, and since then, I have used this “miracle cure” three times… each time, I had the same, fabulous results!]
Amy is a WAHM to 3 girls and the wife of a youth pastor. She lives on coffee, loves her Jesus, and thinks that red heels go with everything. You can find her and everything she loves on her site.
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This is great to know! Thanks for sharing
If you're ever outside where there's no Baking soda, you can use mud too (although one would want to be a little discriminate about what dirt they're using to make the mud). i'm not sure it's more or less effective than baking soda, but the old school families that use the baking soda paste, also use mud when that's all there is, and it's effective.
We used the baking soda paste on my daughters bee sting in May. It worked so well and she never said a word about it. She doesn't even remember being stung.
Baking soda is an extractor. You can also use it to get the green, from swimming, out of hair. And if you have well water you can use it to get the excess metal out of your hair. Just make sure to use lots of conditioner after, it will dry it out.
Mom used that while I was growing up and now I use it on my own 5 children. We were once at a family reunion when one of the children were stung, we didn't have close access to baking soda, but there were a few smokers. They kindly gave us some tobacco to make a paste with. If you add saliva to tabacco it will take the sting out.
You can also use this on mosquito bites. However, it does tend to flake and fall off if you move all it.
Anonymous – Thank you for your comment! It is funny that you mentioned tobacco, because my father said the same thing… he just didn't know how to "make it work." Great idea! Thanks!
Vicki – I didn't know that mud would work, too. Thank you so much for that tip! It is definitely nice to know for when you don't have baking soda handy!