Fennel seeds are traditionally used as a “settling” tea for aiding digestion. It can dissipate excess acid in the stomach rather like magic, and it’s also one of my favourite teas, with its aniseed flavour, for getting rid of bloating or stomach ache.

You can either buy fennel tea bags (available at Waitrose and healthfood stores) — just add them to a mug of boiling water — or buy the seeds loose from apothecaries, which can work out much cheaper; just add a few seeds to the mug.

According to medicinal herbalists, the crushed seeds can be used in tea to act as a diuretic, and patients with kidney stones and cystitis also seem to find that it helps to relieve the symptoms. Raw fennel can have the same effect.

Mums find that a cooled fennel tea can be good for babies with colic or wind, and you can also use fennel seed essential oil (available from health stores) to massage your colicky baby’s sore tummy. Colic seems to be the cause of my neighbour’s screaming two-month-old baby and we are all waiting for the four to five-month point when most babies stop suffering.

If your baby seems to be colicky, there are foods to avoid if you’re breast-feeding: citrus fruits, such as oranges, grapefruits and tangerines; and broccoli and cauliflower. Keep onions and garlic consumption down, too, along with pulses and beans, as they can aggravate your baby’s gut. Science may not know why this is the case, but it’s my experience that making small tweaks to your diet can help to relieve some of the colic.

If you suffer from wind and can’t hack fennel’s aniseed flavour, other herbal teas to try include mint. Just pop a few fronds of fresh mint into a pot with boiling water and leave for a few minutes. Drink it on its own or with a little honey, or add camomile flowers, dill, lemon balm or basil.

You could also peel and chop a little fresh root ginger and add it to hot water, as ginger can also take the wind out of your sails (sorry, I know being very windy can be a serious problem).

On the food side, I’d watch fatty foods, caffeine, cream, pastry, cheese, fresh bread, fizzy drinks and beer.

A special group of foods that can also cause a windy gut are called the resistant starches, found in peas, beans, under-ripe bananas and, in the brassica family, for example, sprouts and cabbage.

So why not turn to fennel for some delicious light relief.

To make a refreshing salad that’s a different hit from leaves and tomatoes, try fennel. Simply take a couple of bulbs of fresh fennel, clean them, perhaps removing the tougher outer layer, and slice them thinly lengthwise. Arrange on a plate, drizzle with good virgin olive oil, sprinkle with crunchy Maldon sea salt, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a little freshly ground black pepper.

You can add steamed long French beans, sliced ripe avocado and a few capers as a variation. But as the fennel has a strong presence, it goes well with all cold meats, fish and cheese, although I like a mild, youngish hard goat’s cheese.

Fennel is also yummy roasted in the oven. Prepare as above, but cut the bulbs in half, place on a roasting tin with some olive oil and pop into a hot oven (190C/375F/gas 5) for about 40 minutes or until soft and golden brown. This is good with roast chicken or any game, which is just coming into season.

Jane answers your questions in T2 on Tuesdays; e-mail Jane.Clarke@thetimes.co.uk and visit www.janeclarke.com. She cannot enter into personal correspondence

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