Homemade Cough Syrup

I got a text from my sister a couple weeks ago.  She told me she had made her own cough syrup and asked if I wanted to see pictures.  I was a little shocked at first.  Who makes their own cough syrup?  Then I remembered that it was my sister, a mother of 6 who can cure almost any illness using herbs and essential oils.  I bet she saves a fortune on doctor bills and medicine. 

 I said of course and was expecting to see 1-2 photos of what she had made.  I should have known that my very thorough sister wasn't going to send just one photo... she sent 12, and gave me detailed instructions of how she made it.

It didn't take long to figure out that what she had sent would be a great blog post. A blog post where I don't have to be the guinea pig?  I'll take it!

So all of the following information came from my oldest sister, and to protect the innocent lets name her Roberta from Swiss Family Robinson.  

Homemade Cough Medicine
You Will Need:
1 cup elderberry's
1/4 cup thyme leaf
1/4 cup marshmallow root
1/4 cup cinnamon chips
1 cup spearmint leafs
1 1/2 cup sugar or honey
3 cups of water
storage bottle
cheese cloth

Directions:
mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  Bring water to a boil and add all the herbs to the mixture.  Stir so the herbs aren't floating on the top.  Place the cheese cloth in a colander and strain the herb mixture through it.  Pour the liquid that you strained back into the pot. Add sugar.  Cook until the sugar is completely dissolved.  

The website has a video (on the bottom of the page, with a women in a pink shirt) that gives details about why each herb is good and how to make the cough medicine.

Roberta said she found all the ingredients at her local Health Food Store and it cost her about $11.  I tried to find the herbs here but was unsuccessful.  You can get them online but you have to buy them by the pound and it can be little bit pricey.  

Here are all  her ingredients ready to go.  when my sister sent the photos I will admit that the only thing I recognized was the cinnamon.  I googled the marshmallow root because I figured the image in my head of white fluffy marshmallow fields wasn't correct.

Instead of the cinnamon chips, Roberta just used regular ground cinnamon

The website doesn't say how long to cook the herbs, it just says to pour them into boiling water and then let it cool.  Roberta said she let it simmer for a little bit.

Once it looked like nasty swamp water that a crocodile would be hiding in, Roberta poured the herbs through her colander covered in cheese cloth to strain out all the herbs.

Roberta used honey instead of sugar.  While this cough syrup is safe for all kids of all ages, don't forget to use sugar instead of honey if you are giving it to a child under the age of 1.  

It looks kinda nasty to me but Roberta says her kids drink it right up and they love it. 

Roberta says she gives 1 tsp for children around 3 years old and 1 Tbsp for adults.  For all the in between ages she just adjusts accordingly. It can take up to 20 min for it to work and will last around 4 1/2 hours. 

The Verdict: Clearly I have none because I haven't tried it.  I plan on making it one day when I can find the herbs for a reasonable price but for now you will just have to take my sisters word for it that "it works so good"