Spring colors and sick kids

I'm sorry it's been such a long struggle for you all! Having the flu really stinks! That said, I strongly believe that our bodies sometimes need to get sick. It's, in the long run, healthier than never having an illness. Maybe you can cling to that as you work with the last, dying strains of this one?

Washing dishes. Put a drop of bleach in the dishwater to disinnfect dishes that are washed by hand and air-dry them so you don't transfer germs from dishtowels onto cleaned dishes. Body alakalinity. Viruses don't survive in a body that is more alkaline. Buy alkaline strips and test your body alkalinity. Test your drinking water. If it isn't around 7.3 mix it with distilled till you get the right alkalinity. Bone broth. Use organic chicken (best for flu and colds),or organic beef bones to make the broth add: Peas, carrots. Ginger, garlic, onion, celery, peppers, salt, peppercorns, strain the broth and boil it down to half. Drink the broth with a sprinkle of Cayenne pepper in a cup. Extra broth can be saved in quart jars and used as a base to make all sorts of hearty vegetable soups. Even freezes well. Sometimes I add a packet of gelatine to my cup of hot broth if I am not eating much solid food. Feed a cold, starve a flu. That's my motto. Eat lots of toast and tomato when in recovery mode to pamper your liver.

~~Many sympathies for the illnesses in your house.  This week I was hit, quite suddenly, with a fairly severe cold that turned into bronchitus.  Of course, every cold I get turns into bronchitus so I don't find it all that concerning.

I"m not an expert by any means, but my life experience has lead me to believe that natural remedies and such are much better as preventatives rather than actual treatments of illness.  Not that western medicine is any better in terms of treatment unless you have an actual bacterial infection.  In my experience, once you're sick you're just sick and your body needs to fight it off.  Granted, common sense things like rest and healthy foods are imperative so one can't dismiss their importance.

My guess is being in the city and involved with the homeschool co-op are more the causes of the illness.  Schools, and other groups of kids, tend to be petri dishes.  ;-)  Back before I had kids I was sick much more frequently than I am now because I was working with students from every school district within a 25 mile radius.Not to mention handling their violins and cellos.   My husband commented that before he hooked up with me he was rarely ill but would catch everything I managed to come down with.  Now that I'm not teaching we get sick much less often.

That said, my kids go to public school and when the older one started K3 they both started getting sick more often. When my younger son was 5 months old my husband had N1H1 at the same time my older son had chicken pox.  Fun times.   Even so, we only contract mild ailments like a short stomach bug or cold.  We have very few sick child doctor visits and the last few have been for things like athlete's foot that wouldn't go away with OTC and natural remedies.  Just this week I did an inventory of the last time anyone in our family had oral antibiotics and the most recent was five years ago. I don't think my younger son has ever had them.  We eat what I consider a very healthy diet with very few processed foods but we do eat animal products.  I'm not convinced we would get sick less if we became vegan.  Of course, I'm pretty careful about my kids' sugar intake so that could be part of why we tend towards only mild illnesses.   Part of me wonders if it's just sheer luck.  We have family members who have similar food habits and their kids are sick much more frequently and severely than ours are.  Who knows. 

Although I will concede that the past month or so I've stopped drinking my ginger lemon honey tea mixed with fire cider on a daily basis.  Maybe that's why I was hit so hard this week.  If I look back on the past several years, the handful of times I was ill were times when I didn't or couldn't heed the warning I was getting sick and load up on remedies and rest.  I think that's partly why I believe more in preventatives.  Who knows.

I love learningherbs.com.  I haven't taken that particular course, but you are in excellent hands with Rosalee de la Forêt. Herbal medicine is a beloved hobby of mine.  I lean to the side of caution with essential oils, and with colds and flus I mostly use herbs for preventative measures...this year.  When we move to a new city or state we usually get sick a lot our first year and I go through my knowledge and resupply herbs and remedies that, like you, had dwindled and I never replaced.  I share your gratitude for the knowledge we have available to us in natural medicine and the wisdom to know when to use antibiotics.  And I love that you buy yourself flowers for the soul!  Take care!  

Whenever my kids have a stuffy head or say their ears are starting to hurt I put homemade swimmers ear drops in right away. It dries out the ear and changes the ph so bacteria can't grow. Don't do this with a full-fledged infection though (ouch)!

I can sympathize with your family.......I've been coughing off and on since early January with sinus congestion, etc and it is very hard to shake!   Really hope you're all on the mend soon!  I've used some oils but my Buckley's stops the coughing the fastest.

This has been the worst flu season I've experienced with kids in 27 years. The youngest (15 year male) had to go to the doctor twice because of first bout and then the worse 2nd bout. He has never had an antibiotic and he hasn't been to the doctor for an illness in 10 years. He had to have breathing treatments with a steroid for three days, which scared me, but the doctor said his lings were so closed off with mucous and infection, he'd have to go to the hospital without the treatments. He's also on antibiotics. Long story short...I had nothing for him since he never gets sick. We eat traditional food, so that wasn't a problem since he's had it his whole life. The new factor was that all his siblings are out of the home and he decided to try school, so,  I'm assuming the new germs this winter, and I'd guess that's the same for your kids in co-op. I liked what one commenter said above...sometimes we need to get sick to build up an immunity. Grateful for modern medicine when we need it. 

I'm sure it's the fact you are in a city and exposed to new germs.  Don't blame yourself.  Zinc is great to take at the first sign of cold -- it really helps lessen the severity.  And garlic has antibacterial/antiviral properties, but it has to raw, not cooked.  Beyond that, wash your hands A LOT.  More than you ever though possible.  Wash before you leave coop and then again when you get home.  Carry wipes if necessary (you can probably make your own) and bring alone one of the safer hand sanitizers you can get at a health food store (or make your own).  That is the way most respiratory viruses are transmitted -- hand to face.  You're not just with new kids, you are on public transportation, etc.  Also, do your kids play any ball sports?  Anything where kids are passing a ball with their hands allows infection to be passed on.  Feel better!

Yes! I have the same feelings about color...and Spring...and motherhood. You've written a lot of what's on my heart at the moment. Thank you! P.S. Purple and green are my colors this season, too. 

Renee,

Could you please share how you protected yourself and your children from ticks and other insects while hiking the appalachian trail/  Thank you.

Our local medical clinic is very holistic, anti overuse of anti-biotics, very trustworthy. My doctor once told me that we tend to totally underestimate how long recouperation takes from an illness such as flu or chest infection etc. We've been led to believe that a week or so and we should feel fine. Sometimes that does the trick with lesser coughs and colds, but for more serious illness it takes weeks to recover, sometimes longer. I think as a society  this idea of long recouperation does not fit in with our thinking - either because of busy, demanding schedules or because we like to believe we have mastered control over illness. Neither are true. Sometimes it just takes a long time and sometimes it takes some active medical rather than home remedy treatments. In any case, it is hard going when sickness goes round the family - I hope you are nearly through it. 

When I was working, I found that I 'caught' colds easily when something 'was going around' until I realized that I had to hide my coffee cup in my desk and not let anyone else use it. Even though the cups that everyone used were washed, the germs were not sterilized off with just a little soap and water. At home, I learned to appreciate the 'sanitize' button on my dishwasher, because it really disinfected the dishes used by anyone in the household that was infected. It cut down on the number of illnesses and reinfections. I also learned to sanitize my keyboard at work when the flu was going around, doorframes, door handles etc.Even being careful not to use the same hand towels in the bathroom. A doctor once told me, if a bug doesn't seem to go away, sometimes people get reinfected more than once with the same bug.

My husband is a physician and claims this is the worst flu season he has seen in at least 10 years...people are getting hit hard by it and taking a long to recuperate---including him! Sending get well vibes to your family. 

Miso soup is very nourishing when you're sick.  South River Miso (online) has many different types of miso (a living food), tamari, etc, that are probiotic, and even some that are soy free.  It's a good soup to sip when you're recovering.  Also, Aviva Romm has a website, Healthiest Kids, where she offers online classes about keeping well and using herbs and tinctures as both preventives and to treat illness.  It's a good course, excellent content.

I am sorry you've been hit so hard.  We are a military family and move every two years, and I have noticed, our first year in any place we are all a bit sicker than normal, the second year we usually have fewer (if any) illnesses.  So, every other year is a sicker year, lol.  Perhaps a big part of it is just being in a city, with a lot more people, and a lot more germs.  Vigilance with handwashing can help.  I make my kids sanitize their hands immediately upon leaving any public place (grocery store, post office, library, etc), and then wash them thoroughly with soap and water when we get home.  I also encourage handwashing prior to eating anything, unless they are in the back yard or on the trail, because I think dirt germs are helpful, while flu germs are not.  I also try to remind them to keep their hands away from their face (it is so hard to do--we all touch our faces subconsciously all day long!).  It does seem to help.

In cold/flu season, I give elderberry syrup to everyone every day, more if they are sick.  They also get a multivitamin, extra vitamin D and C, and probiotics every day.  You may already be doing all of this, and perhaps this is just one of those bummer years for you, and I really feel for all of you.  I hope you are all well and back in stride again soon!

This tip is related just to the congestion/sinusitis. . . I am very prone to this especially following a cold or during allergy season and it would often lead to bad sinus infections.  My doctor advised that I use a nettie pot daily or at least at the first sign of any congestion with mild saline.  I use it once or twice a day now when I have the slightest sign of sinus pressure/congestion and it has totally worked--no full blown sinusitis and no sinus infections since I started doing it a year ago. 

This is the worst season we've ever had for sickness as well, and it has been that way for most of our friends. So much so that between a few families it was either them or us for most of the winter and so I haven't seen some people in a long while. It seemed we went only a week or two before something else would hit. It was all respiratory stuff but some of it was really bad, not just mild. We haven't changed our diets or anything really. I was told by a few people it was the mild winter? We did have real winter with snow but much warmer than our usual -20 C and below. Very few -40 days. So maybe that was it? I don't know but we haven't had anyone sick here in weeks and its been a huge relief.