Jamu Cekok to Restore Your Child’s Appetite

Cekok is a term from the Javanese language. It means to squeeze jamu directly and forcibly into the mouth of your little one. Usually, of course, the little one will cry and scream from being forced to swallow the bitter cekok herbs.

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Jamu cekok are usually composed of rimpang (rhizomes) and other types of jamu ingredients that have properties for healthy digestion. For example, jamu cekok can be made from natural ingredients such as lempuyang (bitter ginger, Zingiber zerumbet), temulawak (Java ginger, Curcuma zanthorrhiza ), ginger, and kunyit tua (aged turmeric). Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 7 cm lempuyang
• 1 small (around 7cm) Temulawak
• 3 cm ginger
• 7 cm old turmeric
• 200 ml water
• 1 teaspoon powdered rock sugar

How to make:

1. Peel the turmeric, lempuyang, and ginger, then wash and pound into smooth paste.
2. Boil the paste with water, wait for around 3 minutes until the water is reduced
3. Remove and strain the water, pour it into a container with rock sugar.

Apart from the above ingredients, you can also use additional ingredients of papaya leaves and tempe bosok (rotten tempeh, expired tempeh). Here is the recipe.

Bahan-bahan:

• 1 telapak tangan daun pepaya
• 1 ruas jari temu hitam/temu ireng
• 1 ruas jari tempe bosok
• garam secukupnya

How to make:

Ground All the ingredients into paste consistency, then wring it out using a clean cloth and put it in the child’s mouth. The benefits of temu ireng are to get rid of worms, while papaya leaves are to increase his appetite, and tenpe bosok for his stamina.

Generally, parents giving jamu cekok to their children because of a lack of appetite which worried them it will affects their physical growth. This mindset is what makes some Javanese parents feel that giving jamu cekok is an obligation.

Interestingly again, jamu cekok is not only for appetite problems, but also for overcoming disease and nausea or fever. The herbal medicine is usually given twice a week. Using a rounded filter cloth the size of a ping pong ball, the jamu cekok inside it then squeezed into the children’s mouth.

Source:

KOJAI