Chamomile is the Mother of all herbs in my opinion. It was the first herbal tea that I ever used medicinally and it is the most important herb that must be in your kitchen medicine chest. Chamomile is the first herb that I give to my babies, the tea that my young children drink most and it is the last thing my Italian grandfather was able to drink in the hospital before he died.
Chamomile has is the nurturing soothing calming influence of a good mother. It’s no wonder that the latin name for the flower is Matricaria recutita. European herbalists call chamomile “the mother of the gut.”
The first mention of the word chamomile for many of us was in the story of Peter Rabbit who got a chamomile tea before bed when he had a chill. I recommend this to my clients when they mention any one of the typical assortment of baby’s problems: colic, digestive discomfort, constipation, teething, fever, overstimulation, problem sleeping. For older babies I will add honey as needed to encourage the drinking of bedtime chamomile tea. For younger babies, just a little bit will do a lot. Children adore the nightly ritual of their bed-time tea. The effect of the muscle relaxant chamomile slows them down enough to ease into sleep.
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