My oldest daughter banged her head on the underside of a the chick brooder when she heard the ear piercing scream. It had come from just outside the barn stall where our toddler was standing. Quickly she rushed out to check on him.
His face was in anguish. But that wasn’t all that was on his little face. It also had the tell-tale sign of a sting quickly swelling on his right temple. She looked around and saw a few wasps fluttering about and surmised what had happened. Poor guy! Stung on the face by a wasp.
If you’ve ever been stung by a wasp, you know how unpleasant it can be. A sharp pinch followed by heat and more stinging. Bad enough for an adult, but for a toddler stung on the temple, ouch!
First Aid for Wasp Stings
Thinking quickly, my daughter scooped up the toddler and rushed him to the house, where Laura was tending to other farm-related chores. The sting was swelling rapidly on his young face and he was crying. Although certainly not life-threatening, this is a pretty traumatic experience for such a young one.
Laura looked down and found some broad-leaf plantain growing in the yard. She didn’t have to look far. We allow it to grow anywhere and everywhere it will. Not only do we avoid putting unnecessary chemicals on our small farm, we also like to make use of the natural resources that God has provided us. Plantain is one of them.
Laura picked a couple of leaves from the plant and crushed them in her fingers, allowing the inner juices to flow out. She applied those directly to the wasp sting and went inside to get a piece of ice.
She applied the ice to the top of the plantain so that the plantain was against the skin and the coldness from the ice could be felt through it. She held it there for a few minutes. Of course the toddler didn’t like having something cold held to his face and squirmed to try to get away. Eventually she allowed him to get down.
All was well. His crying had stopped and he was once again exploring the great outside. Thirty minutes later, we could hardly tell where the wasp had stung him.
Plantain: It’s Not a Weed
Common, broad-leaf plantain has many medicinal uses for the prepper and survivalist and this is just another real-world and practical one.
The irony is that people spend millions each year to rid of this and other “weeds” from their yards. Yet the same people spend good, hard-earned money on over-the-counter remedies for many of the same ailments that the “weeds” that they just poisoned would have treated.
Have you tried plantain?
PreppingToSurvive.com 
May 31, 2012 at 9:28 am
We use bleach its so fast acting it draws every thing out and no swelling what so ever its like it never happened
May 31, 2012 at 9:57 am
Hadn’t heard of using bleach to cure wasp stings before now. Interesting.
One nice thing about plantain is that it is all around us, now and in an uncertain future too. Of course, we’ve also stored away powdered bleach for water purification purposes.
Thanks for the comments.
Joe
May 31, 2012 at 10:23 am
I have to try that we save all the plantain to feed to our meat Rabbits (trying to keep it natural) so why not be natural in our first aid as well thank you 🙂
May 31, 2012 at 10:24 am
We do that as well. Rabbits seem to love plantain for some reason.
Joe
May 31, 2012 at 9:53 am
Pictures of Plantain? I thought Plantain was some kind of banana that you had to cook.
May 31, 2012 at 9:55 am
Hi Jimmy –
Here’s a link to another post that Laura published a while back.
She shows some pictures along with other potential uses.
Thanks!
Joe
May 31, 2012 at 9:57 am
Oh, ok… I have that growing too. It’s everywhere. Very good to know. Thank you.
May 31, 2012 at 9:58 am
By the way, there is also a banana like plant in the tropics that is called plantain.
May 31, 2012 at 10:55 am
I use plantain all the time, great for sunburns, other burns, bites stings ect… and you can eat it
May 31, 2012 at 11:29 am
That’s great, Michael. You’re way ahead of the curve on this one. I didn’t discover its many uses until a couple of years ago when Laura was doing some research on wild edibles.
And to think, many Americans spend tons of money trying to eliminate it from their yards.
Joe
February 7, 2013 at 3:49 am
Aloe Vera is commonly used to treat sunburn. As well as providing soothing relief, it may also assist in the healing process. Apply to the affected areas as needed. Although the gel extracted directly from an aloe Vera plant works best, if you don’t have ready access to one, you may use an ‘over the counter’ Aloe Vera Cream that contains the gel. For this to be effective, just ensure that the cream contains a high concentration of Aloe Vera than it does water or other solutions.”
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June 14, 2014 at 10:55 am
I love natural aloe-vera juice of gel for sunburn treatment, and
I also find it makes a great skin protector to be used after shaving or on dry patches of skin. It is cooling,
soothing and moisturising, plus it stimulates the development of new cells
and skin tissue with natural steroids, enzymes and amino acids.
Beside that using natural aloe-vera is also very promising.