My entire family has been sick this week. Well, Eliot got a cold last week, and the rest of us have been sick this week. Shockingly Eliot was the least sick of all of us! He's the one who in the past would typically get sick and stay sick for a long time and it would usually be way more severe than anyone else. I think all the things we are doing to boost his immune system are helping! Yea!
So, since cold season is upon us, I thought I'd share what we do to treat it at our house. It's fresh on my mind so it's easier to remember it all. I think this is the first time we've had colds where I didn't give the kids ANY conventional medical intervention...not even tylonol! And, they are recovering marvelously! We haven't even been up all night with them (except one night with Abraham). My friend
Joy has a great list of what they do at their house as well.
1. At the first sign of Eliot's cold I began giving all the kids eccinacea. We use Herbs For Kids. They got this 3 times a day for about 10 days. After that you could become immune to it's immune boosting power!
2. We doubled their daily dose of cod liver oil. CLO (when from a great source) is a wonderful source of vitamin A and D...great for the immune system! We use
Green Pastures Fermented Cod Liver Oil. It's about the best you can find.
3. Essential oils. Eucalyptus oil is great for colds and respiratory issues. We put a couple drops on the bottom of the kids feet before bed.
4. Badger balm. You can find this at any health food store. It's an herbal chest rub with eucalyptus in it. We use that on the feet too!
5. Vaporizors with a few drops of eucalyptus oil for diffusion.
6.Hylands homeopathic remedies. I bought this great kit from Be The Butterfly. It has remedies for colds, fevers, runny noses, injuries, etc. WONDERFUL, although I do wonder if there's a better quality brand of homeopathic products.
7. Willow/garlic ear oil by Herbs for Kids. You can make your own and I've done that in the past, but sometimes when the whole family is sick no one has the energy to make something else! :)
8. Elevate beds. I've found that it's much easier (especially with kids) to elevate the mattress by putting a pillow under it or by putting books under the front bed legs rather than to add an extra pillow under their heads. This one thing almost entirely eliminates coughing and drainage!
9. Probiotics. We do these daily anyway, but we make sure not to miss a day when we're sick.
10. Vitamin C. Seems basic, and it is. Vit. C is wonderful for immune system support. Make sure to look for a brand that is from a whole food source, like acerola cherries. Radiant Life has a vitamin c called Pure Radiance C that we love.
11. Healing foods. When sick, our bodies need all the energy it can muster to heal. If you eat a steak, your body is going to have to work so hard just to digest it that it won't have any energy for healing. So, we eat foods that are really easy to digest like steamed veggies, soaked grains (this week we've had a lot of quinoa) and above all, soups made with homemade broth!!! Bone broths that are homemade and cooked for days have more nutrition and healing properties than about anything else we can eat. I have a recipe for both chicken and beef bone broth that are wonderful. We also do a lot of fermented veggies. These cleanse the body and detox as well as add in good bacteria.
12. Drink plenty of liquids. We bought herbal immune system supporting teas. Traditional Medicinal makes specific teas for colds!
13. NO SUGAR. PERIOD. One serving of sugar weakens your immune system for 24 hours.
14. Raw honey. Natures only predigested food. Wonderful healing properties and enzymes. Actually, this is how we get our kids to take cod liver oil! We dip the spoon in honey and then put the CLO on the spoon. The kids actually get excited to take "honey oil"! Thanks to
Deborah for that great idea!
We actually did all of these things (except the ear oil...no one complained of ear aches) but we were pretty sick. With a mild cold you maybe able to get by with just a few. But if I had to prioritize it'd definitely be taking away sugar and putting in healing foods! It really only took about 5-6 days of doing all those things. It was worth it! I know if we had interfered with medicine we'd probably just have further damaged our immune systems ability to fight infection on its own. However, for the sake of total honesty, Matt and I took ibuprophen on a couple of occasions. I had a fever one night of 102, which I let burn. But then the whole next day my body hurt so bad and I had 3 small kids to care for by myself. 'Nuff said.
