Burn Remedy

 In our home we seem to have ample opportunity for skin burns.  Whether it's the wood stove, the oven, or the stove top.....undoubtedly someone is getting burned.


A couple months ago my husband had a pretty nasty burn on his hand from our wood stove and it immediately blistered.  I was getting ready to leave the house but wanted to tend to his burn before I left.  Of course the first thing I did was to look in the medicine cabinet to see if I had any burn gel....no such luck.  There is always the first aid spray but I happen to know from personal experience that it is not pleasant to use.


In a last minute effort, I ran to the computer and looked up natural remedies for burns.  I quickly discovered 2 remedies that looked promising since I had them in the kitchen.

The first remedy was Honey....

If your burn is a 1st degree or 2nd degree burn (without an open wound), you can place honey over the burn to relieve the stinging and assist in the healing process.  Honey has been proven to have anti-bacterial, antioxidant, and antiseptic properties.  My husband said that as soon as his burn was covered in the honey, the burning feeling was relieved and it was completely gone after a couple minutes!

The second remedy was Camomile Tea....

Take a tea bag and soak (about a minute or so) it in a cup of very cold water, remove the bag and lightly squeeze excess water.  (You want the bag to still be wet so that the tea inside seeps into your skin, you just don't want it pouring water out the bottom) Apply the cold water soaked camomile tea bag directly on top of your burn. (If it is a large burn you may have to use multiple bags so that the entire burn is covered in tea bags) Apply pressure for at least 10 minutes.  The tea will take away the redness and relieve stinging as well as keeping your burn from blistering if you catch it fast enough.

For my husband I decided to use both since his burn was very painful and looked pretty bad.  We covered his burn, which had already blistered, with honey and then we set the tea bag on top of the honey.  We took an ace bandage and wrapped his hand to keep the tea bag snug and in place over the burn.  

Because his burn was so bad and this remedy was giving him relief, we left it on for quite some time.  After about an hour and 1/2 we removed the wrap and reapplied fresh honey and also placed a new tea bag on top of the burn.  Once this was done we wrapped it again to keep the tea bag in place.  In total he kept the honey and camomile tea bag on for several of hours.

What started out as a very red, painful, and blistered burn....ended up the next day as a small mark.  No red or irritated skin, no burn, no blister.  We were so amazed we couldn't believe that my last minute remedy actually worked better than the normal over the counter gel and antibiotic ointment.  In the long term, the burn never scared or left a permanent mark.  


I know that in our home, the next time anyone gets a burn, we will be using honey and camomile tea!

*Note*

Never use this remedy on a 3rd degree burn.  3rd degree burns require immediate medical treatment!