How To: Make Neti Pot Solution

I have lots of allergy and sinus problems.  Lovely, I know.  And colds make me miserable.

What makes me less miserable?  My neti pots!  Here is a Wikipedia article in case you don't know what they are.  They can be bought at any pharmacy or grocery store, or Amazon.  Basically you pour a saline solution into one nostril and it runs out the other, unstuffing your nose.  It takes some practice, but once you get the hang on it (and get over the feeling that you are drowning!) it works wonders.  And best of all it isn't medicine and you can use it as often as you want.  Same idea as saline nose spray except the gunk gets flushed out instead of just snorting it further into your nose.

Nice mental picture, right? :-)  You are welcome.

To use the neti pots, you mix your own saline solution using warm water and little packets of salt stuff that comes with the pot.  You will eventually run out of the free samples though.  This is where they get you - that stuff gets expensive!  When I am sick or in the middle of allergy season, I might go through 5-10 packs a day (at least).  And what if you need to use it but you are all out of packs?

You can make your own for pennies with things already in your food pantry!  I have been doing this for a while now and trust me, it works just as well.

Gently stir together:

• 1 cup warm (not hot) water (I use tap water because I'm cheap and lazy)
• 1/4 - 3/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Adjust the amount of salt as needed - when you first start, you want to use less or it will H.U.R.T.  You can use more as you get used to it (I use 3/4 tsp).  

After a while, I got tired of measuring and mixing this every time - so this is what I did today:

No I did not become a cocaine dealer!  Ha.  (I made sure to explain this to Jeff, although I would have liked to have seen the look on his face when he found my stash had I not told him).

I measured out the salt and baking soda for one "serving", poured it into cheap plastic sandwich bags (without the zippers), taped them closed and cut the extra plastic off.  I put them all in another plastic bag with instructions for myself.  It took me around 15 minutes to do while watching tv.  Now I have 20 "servings" ready to be cut open and used, for probably 50 cents total!