I have a little thumb sucker that lives in my house and every time the kids get sick, I get more and more determined to help her stop that habit. My nurse cousin Lisa told me about something that some hospitals do in order to remind everyone how easily germs spread. So a found something similar, a little petri dish kit you can buy with a special medium in it that makes it real easy to show what germs you have on your hand or your door knobs or whatever you swab. It comes with a little cotton swab set so you can just swab whatever you want and then rub it on the petri dish and leave it on the window sill to grow.
We swabbed my daughter’s favorite thumb and hand as well our one of our door knobs last week, and then set the little dishes on the window sill to grow whatever bacteria came off the swabs. It takes a few days, but yesterday I noticed some yucky looking stuff growing in the little petri dishes and called her over to see it. Her eyes grew wide and she started prancing around the house saying “Garlic! Garlic! Give me some garlic!”
Grandma Calame is a strong believer in the antibiotic and antiviral properties of eating raw, chopped garlic. So every now and then she talks one of us into eating some, but it’s something that you usually refuse to do again for at least a few months, because it kind of sets your mouth on fire. Usually it’s an act of congress to get A’Dell to take any garlic, but after seeing that bacteria growing from the swabs on her hands, that’s the first thing she thought of.
It goes down just fine with a teaspoon of local honey (which is also known to be good for allergies) or if you just swallow minced garlic with a glass of water you can hardly taste it’s horrible kick.
It’s kind of a mom thing I guess, when you are tired of the kids getting sick you’ll try raw garlic, you’ll grow bacteria in petri dishes…anything beats another trip to the doctors and long sleepless nights.