Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Homemade Gripe Water

A friend recently asked me about making homemade gripe water. When Tripp was a baby, we went through quite a bit of gripe water, and buying it from the health food store was pricey. Several big box stores carried it as well for a little cheaper, but the kinds there had not so great ingredients.
So, we made our own. 
It's really simple, too.

Homemade Gripe Water

3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of chamomile (appr. 2 tea bags)
1 teaspoon of crushed fennel or dill seeds
2 teaspoons of fresh grated ginger 
1 teaspoon of agave nectar (you can use 2 teaspoons of sugar, but I just don't want to give my babies sugar)

Put all your ingredients (except agave) in a tea strainer, tea ball or muslin cloth bag (whatever you use to brew loose leaf tea) and add to the 3 cups of boiling water. Allow to boil for a couple of minutes and then, turn off the heat & allow it to steep for 20 minutes or so with the lid on your pot. Strain and add your agave. Store in a sealed container (a mason jar works well) in the fridge for a couple of days. 


All the ingredients are traditionally known and used for dispelling gas, calming the stomach, calming the nerves and general digestive aids. We would give this to Tripp using a dropper several times a day and especially before bedtime.

12 comments:

  1. Very interesting! I've never seen a recipe for gripe water before. When Liza was so gassy as a little baby, several people recommended gripe water but I couldn't bring myself to give her anything that had been sitting in a plastic bottle on the shelf for who knows how long. This is much better ;)

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  2. I found this when I was doing a Google search, and it seems to be helping my fussy baby. Thank you! How much do you give in one dose?

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  3. Hi Maria! I'm glad it's helping! We used a glass medicine dropper and would give him 1 or 2 dropper's full of it at a time. We'd give it to him when he was cranky/fussy which amounted to several times per day moreso, in the afternoon/evening before bed. Not very exact, I know, but not too much and always after nursing or giving a bottle b/c you want your baby to get her nourishment first (especially with newborns/young infants). Hope that helps!

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  4. Thanks for the tips! I've been giving about half a medicine dropper whenever she's fussy-- didn't want to give her too much and wasn't sure how much was too much. I've noticed the fussiness decreasing pretty much seconds after giving it to her, which seems a little too good to be true, but I'll take it. I've also noticed a lot more noise and grumbling coming from her tummy.

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  5. If breastfeeding, mom should try drinking chamomile/fennel tea so the baby gets it directly. I drank 2-3 cups a day while breastfeeding and my daughter didn't have any colic/stomach upset issues for 2 years.

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  6. Woodwards Gripe Water is a excellent remedy for newborn babies. Works in minutes. I was raised on it and now my grandson is too. Brilliant - recommend for all mothers with newborns.
    Baby gripe water

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  8. Thanks for the recipe! It was a great starting point!

    I just wanted to highly recommend that you read up on agave nectar. Most of it is no better (and some say worse) that HFCS.

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  9. Loving the information on this website , you have done great job on the posts. Thanks for providing such a great information with us.
    Baby gripe water

    ReplyDelete