In this episode of DadLabs Daddy Brad meets with Jennifer Crain of Mommy's ER to discuss home remedies for summertime maladies. The two discuss some of the common bumps and bruises that occur with kids every summer including bee stings, spider bites, sunburns and ear infections. Watch this informational video to learn more about some of the natural home remedies you can use. If your child is stung by a bee and doesn’t have bee alergy’s consider removing the stinger with a credit card. Natural remedies such as papaya and baking soda can help ease the pain. For mosquito bites consider using tea tree oil or lavender oil to prevent itching. For swimmers ear nothing works better than a little apple cider vinger and/or rubbing alcohol to prevent nasty ear infections. Remember things laying around the house can often be used to ease those summertime bumps, bruises, stings and sunburns that are sure to happen with kids around the house. DadLab ep. 525 is brought to you by BabyBjorn.

Daddy Brad: Summer's here and that means baseball, backyard barbecues and bathing suits but it also means bumps bruises and bee stings. Stick around and we'll learn how to treat these summer time maladies naturally.

This episode is brought to you by Baby Bjorn, great baby gear, Baby Bjorn. I'm really pleased to be joined by Jennifer Crain of Mommy's ER. She is going to show us how to treat some of these regular summertime maladies with stuff that you have in your pantry. Jennifer, welcome!

Jennifer Crain: Thanks, Brad. Nice to be here.

Daddy Brad: Ok, so say I throw a back yard BBQ, you know, we've got Sprite and the honey barbeque sauce. It attracts bees and my child gets stung by a bee. As long as they're not allergic, what can I do to treat them with maybe some ingredients that I put on the chicken?

Jennifer: The first thing you want to know is that most people will pull out the sticker with tweezers. Don't do that. The venom has a pouch in the stinger so you're going to release more venom that way. Just take your finger nail or take a credit card and slide across to get the stinger out.

Then you want to use an antiseptic so if all you've got is soap and water, use that. But if you have witch hazel which I highly recommend having on hand. Use witch hazel or use apple cider vinegar or even white vinegar if that's what you've got. And then you'll follow it with baking soda. Everybody's got baking soda. It's going to tenderize the area, bring down inflammation and soak up some of the venom.

After that or instead of that, if you have a papaya, cut it up, put it on the bee sting and just hold it there for an hour because this is also going to break down some of the venom and inflammation that's being caused by the bee sting.

If it's a spider bite you can use basil. Break off some pieces of fresh basil if you've got it or basil oil, and you can put that on it. It's even better for spider bites.

Daddy Brad: That's why Italians are not scared of spiders.

Jennifer: If we're talking about mosquito bites then get yourself some tea tree oil or some lavender oil and just put that on directly.

Daddy Brad: What else?

Jennifer: Let's talk about sunburns! Most kids get sunburns, right? Aloe Vera gel. It's going to bring down the pain and inflammation. You can also take a baking powder, not to be confused with baking soda.

Daddy Brad: Big difference. You don't want to mix that up.

Jennifer: Yeah, any baker will tell you that. Just make a luke warm bath and put in some baking powder. I also just recently learned that you can grate a potato and the starch of a potato will bring down pain swelling and inflammation in the skin. So that's something most of us have in our kitchen.

Daddy Brad: You know that's why the Irish are not scared of the sun.