Ginger for children
Last reviewed: 11.04.2020
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With a thousand-year history of applying ginger root for medicinal purposes and the almost flawless phytotherapeutic reputation that it has for today, there is still a question: can ginger be given to children?
Pediatricians say that the root of ginger for children can be used, but only after fulfilling the child for two years, that is, when the number of glands in the gastric mucosa starts to increase, the GIT tissues differentiate and the digestive system adapts to a more "adult" diet. But to give ginger to children up to a year the European and American physicians do not recommend.
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Useful properties of ginger for children
The list, which includes numerous useful properties of ginger for children, traditionally opens up vitamins, which are numerous in the fresh ginger root (C, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, B12, E), and chemical elements (potassium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, selenium). But, imagine, this is all - secondary, since such a set has many habitual vegetables and fruits.
Ginger has ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids, as well as irreplaceable amino acids - tryptophan, threonine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, tyrosine, etc. However, it's not even about them: under normal circumstances, every child gets them from food products - dairy, meat, cereals, legumes.
The healing properties of ginger are provided by alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds (terpenes, terpenoids, terpenic acids and their isomers), which are part of its essential oil. All of them can not be listed, but the most active ones need to be mentioned in order to give some "biochemical arguments" that confirm the useful properties of ginger for children and adults. These are 6-gingerol, 6-shogal, zingeron, eugenol, capsaicin, myrcene, p-cymene, α- and β-pinenes, linaool, fullandren, quercetin, β-bisabolene, farnesene, borneol, camphor; Coffee, chlorogenic and ferulic acids, etc. And then - medical facts and recommendations about when and how to give ginger to children.
Ginger root for children: cough, runny nose and not only
Most phenol-containing natural compounds have antiseptic and antibacterial properties, and in the composition of the ginger root there are more than enough: gingerols, cineole; α-terpineol, shogaol, benzaldehyde, β-pinene, capsaicin, chlorogenic acid, citral, citronellal, furfural, limonene, linalool, myricetin, etc. In β-bisabolene, α-pinene, curcumin, bornyl acetate, limonene, cymene and Above mentioned acids revealed antiviral properties (including against the herpes simplex virus), and in 6-gingerol, 6-shogaola, borneol and eugenol-antipyretic. Therefore tea with ginger for children is one of the best home remedies for all colds and infections of the upper respiratory tract.
You can use ginger from cough for children: this will help the combined expectorant action of cineol, camphene, geraniol, limonene, α-pinene, citral and bornil acetate, as well as relaxing bronchial and calming effects of lenolol and nerol terpenoids.
How to give ginger to children with a cold? Just like adults - in the form of tea. And to make tea with ginger for children is just as easy. A small piece (2-2.5 cm long) is cut from the root, peeled, cut as small as possible, poured with two cups of boiling water and boiled for a quarter of an hour. Then, the broth is infused to an acceptable temperature for drinking and filtered. It is advised to add a little honey (if the child does not have allergies) and a slice of lemon; give 100-150 ml two or three times a day. By the way, during the boiling of ginger, you can add a teaspoon of dry green tea, and before using directly into the cup squeeze the juice from half an orange.
Ginger helps and when the throat hurts - thanks to the analgesic properties of 6-gingerol, myrcene, 6-shogaola, r-cymole, quercetin, as well as coffee, ferulic and chlorogenic acids. In addition, tea with ginger is recommended to drink in tonsillitis: inflammation in the throat will pass faster, because the active substances of the plant inhibit the synthesis of the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX-2), a catalyst for all inflammatory processes in the body.
Ginger from the common cold to children is used in the form of inhalations. The first way is to breathe a couple of decoction of the root, the second - to rub a little ginger on a grater and a few times a day for 2-3 minutes to breathe in the nasal secretion of essential substances.
Ginger is widely used as an alternative treatment for nausea associated with motion sickness in transport. To do this, the mother needs to have a bottle of ginger essential oil, and as soon as the baby feels nauseous, drop one or two drops of oil on the palm of your hand (with warm skin it will evaporate more) and let the baby breathe.
Safe and effective enough is the ginger root for children as a carminative, antiparasitic, hepatoprotective agent. Due to the antihistaminic properties of shogaol, gingerol, citral, myricetin, etc., smell of ginger and drink ginger tea as an anti-asthmatic.
And the general calming effect, which gives tea with ginger for children, is provided by gamma-aminobutyric acid, cineole, karyofilene, citral and other substances of the root of this plant.
Contraindications to the use of ginger for children
As you understand, there can not be no cases when, for all the unconditional use of the plant, it is not worth using. Ginger is no exception: there are contraindications to the use of ginger for children.
First, it is necessary to take into account the individual hypersensitivity of the organism, in which ordinary tea with ginger can cause an allergic reaction. Therefore, for the first time giving gullet to a child ginger tea - should be limited to a few sips and during the day to follow the reaction: whether there are rashes on the face, abdominal pain, disorders of the stool, etc. In addition, ginger is contraindicated in diseases of the stomach and gall bladder, expressed pathologies of the cardiovascular system, thrombocytopenia.
Possible harm to ginger for children is that the "horny root" dilutes the blood and may increase the risk of bleeding, and can also reduce blood sugar. Flavonoid kaempferol does not combine with iron and worsens its assimilation. Alkaloid capsaicin (giving a burning taste to the taste of ginger) irritates the upper respiratory tract, skin and mucous membranes, increases salivation. The action of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid is accompanied by a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate. The terpentoid galanolactone is an antagonist of 5-HT3 serotonin receptors - acting on these receptors in the intestine, lowers the motor activity of the esophagus, which can cause dyskinesia of the gastrointestinal tract in preschool children.
But, basically, ginger for immunity to children can bring a lot of benefit: its active substances not only help to regulate some metabolic processes in the body, but also protect it from free radicals, increasing resistance and protective forces.
In the book of Indian physicians S. And A. Pakrashi (Pakrashi) "Ginger: A Versatile Healing Herb" says that the ideal time for introducing a baby ginger in the diet - two months after the beginning of complementary foods more dense food. One of the main advantages of ginger for young children is the solution of problems of indigestion, constipation, colic and flatulence. Asian doctors believe that to do this, once a day give the baby a quarter of a teaspoon of fresh ginger juice, mixed with half a teaspoon of fruit juice.