Summer is supposed to be all about having fun, splashing around in the water, and hanging out on the deck until the wee hours of the morning chatting with good friends. Unfortunately, it’s also about sunburn, heat stroke, bee stings, and itchy mosquito bites. It would be nice if we could completely eliminate all the nasty stuff, but that would require never leaving our homes. Instead, I try to rely on home remedies to cure minor ailments brought on by summer’s nastier aspects.

I’ve tried numerous different ones over the years, and these are a few of my favorite home remedies for summer issues.

Tips for a Painless Summer: Home Remedies for Summer’s Worst Issues

• Mosquito Bites: I recently did an article on mosquito bites treatment options for Our Family World, and it’s filled with what I think is great advice. One of the tips in the article was to use stick deodorant on bug bites. I tried it right after writing that article, and it really did work! The tip came from my boyfriend Sal, who is full of interesting little home remedies.  Just rub the stick across your bug bite to take the itch out.
• Sunburn: For sunburn, nothing works better than aloe for soothing and helping speed up healing, but if you don’t have any on hand, Noxema works wonders too. That’s another tip from Sal. After a particularly grueling hot day, I ended up with a pretty bad burn on my chest. A nice layer of Noxema took the burn out right away. Of course, the best way to deal with a sunburn is to avoid it in the first place! Lather on that sunscreen! My skin is so fair that I even burn with sunscreen on.
• Regular Burns– No matter how careful you are, grilling season can cause some nasty burns. If they’re really bad, seek medical attention right away. If they’re minor, though, honey is awesome for soothing them and helping them heal faster. I burned my finger on a flat iron last week. I lost my grip on it, dropped it, and grabbed it by the hot plate. The bad news is, I lost half of my fingerprint in that burn. The good news is, I can now commit crimes and not get caught, as long as I only use that finger. Just kidding, of course, I’m not cut out for a life of crime. I ran it under water for 15 minutes, then put the honey on it and covered it with a band-aid. It didn’t even leave a blister, and it felt better by the next day.
• Over-Heating- If you suspect that you have heat stroke, seek medical attention. If you’re just overheated, drink plenty of water and put an ice cube on your wrist. I’m not really sure why it works so well, but I find that either icing or running my wrist under cold water really cools me down fast.
• Heat Rash– Oatmeal baths are one of the best home remedies for heat rash. You can either buy the fancy stuff designed for baths, or just toss some ground oatmeal into the water. If you don’t have oatmeal, baking soda works pretty well too.

Do you have any great home remedies for summer issues? If so, I’d love to hear them! I’m always open to learning something new.