I don’t know what it is, but I feel like the sickness going around JUST WON’T LET UP!! The funk tried to grab ahold of three of the four of us this week, but thankfully it didn’t last long or hit too hard! I’ve been fighting back tooth and nail (or should I say, “with essential oils and vitamins”)!
I want to share with you some easy things that we do in our family to boost our immune systems and fight back agains the onslaught of germs that seems to be never ending this season. Hopefully this will encourage you in seeing how a few simple steps, done regularly, can turn your immune system from a scrawny, struggling weakling to the Incredible Hulk.
Here’s our All-Star line up (in no particular order):
1. Vitamin D – We use liquid drops for the kids. Basically tasteless. Amount is based on weight, and up the dosage by 10x for about 5 days when sick or around those who are.
2. Vitamin C – The simple way to look at how much to take is not scientific or excessively “nice” to think about, but it’s essentially this: take as much as your body will accept before your stool becomes loose. Fun, right? It takes some trial and error for each person, but it’s worth it. We usually start with 1-2 tablets of the chewable supplements, and take it from there.
3. Probiotics – NOT ALL PROBIOTICS ARE CREATED EQUAL!!!! Seriously. Please do your homework before wasting your money on probiotics that are mostly ineffective. We do usually have to go to a specialty store such as Whole Foods, Sprouts or Natural Grocers to find ours, but I just plan a trip to one of those stores about once a month and stock up on probiotics along with our goat dairy and other things we can only find there.
We usually go with Garden of Life or Flora Udo’s Choice. Our oldest doesn’t mind either, but our youngest doesn’t like to swallow pills, so she prefers the first (chewable) choice. When they are sick or near others who are, like the vitamin d, I always double their probiotic doses for about 5 days or so.
When our kids were babies/small toddlers, we DID start them on probiotics almost immediately, and it was a GAME changer with baby gas, etc. For that age, stick with probiotic powders that you can mix into breastmilk or baby cereal (whatever they are already ingesting).
4. Elderberry Syrup – Wellness Mama (if you haven’t heard of her, look out – you’re about to be obsessed) has a great recipe for this – very simple! I order our dried elderberries from Mountain Rose Herbs.
I also like (and often have on-hand if I have run out of my own) the Gaia Herbs brand’s organic Elderberry Syrup (just a heads up, from what I can tell, the kids version is the same as the adult version, just a different dosage and a higher price. Just FYI).
5. Immunity Booster Tincture – The one that I’ve had on hand recently is one that I’m just waiting for my son to end up reading when I leave it out, and I’ll have to explain the product name, so y’all pray for me when we have to have that conversation… Maybe I can act nonchalant about how it’s funny because that word means “donkey”, and he won’t end up using the word 3926374 times that week… ha! Here it is: Kick-Ass Immune Activator
6. Immunity Booster Essential Oil Mixture – We call this blend our “Flu Bomb”, but really it’s just another line of defense in bolstering our immune system! In a 15ml roller bottle, I add a mixture of essential oils: Lemon, Frankincense, Oregano, Thieves, Peppermint, Tea Tree, and top it off with an organic carrier oil (usually jojoba or grapeseed).
This mixture gets rolled onto the spine, chest, and bottom of our feet as frequently as every hour when we are fighting off something! For regular use, I like to swipe it on our kids’ spines before they go to school, church kid classrooms, birthday parties, etc.
7. Diffusing EO’s – Depending on what’s going on, and what we are fighting, we will diffuse different combinations of essential oils. Some we commonly diffuse are:
1. Thieves Oil: for general germ killing,
2. fir, lemon, thyme, frankincense, and thieves: for bad coughs,
3. lavender, lemon and peppermint: for allergies.
You can also (and I love doing this…) add these mixtures to about 1-2 cups of epsom salt before adding into a perfectly warm bath. Soak in that bath to relax and enjoy the healing benefits of the essential oils at the same time!
*NOTE: Do not drop the oils directly into the bath water. Doing this runs the risk of any hot oils sitting at the top of the water (oil and water. right? yep.) and that can actually cause the oils to burn your skin. Always drop the oils onto the epsom salt first. K? Great. 🙂
8. HYDRATION – WATER WATER WATER WATER (hot tea, too, but WATER)!!! Your body CANNOT flush away all of the germs, mucus, and general funk out of your body if you are not intaking a CRAZY amount of water!
The more water, the more you have to pee… obviously…which is SUPER ANNOYING (it can’t just be me who is irritated by this…ha), BUT… all of that peeing you’re doing? Flushing (quite literally…ha) away all of that which you DON’T want staying in your body! YAY!
9. Saline Flushing – for head colds/sinus pressure/allergies/drainage, a saline flush works wonders. When I was pregnant with our daughter, 6 years ago, I was blessed with a lovely and severe sinus infection that lasted SIX WEEKS. SIX WEEKS, YALL. Seriously…
It was awful since I was unable to take anything serious enough to kick it because of the sweet bun in my oven, BUT one thing that I was introduced to during that time was THIS. I had known about the Neti Pot before, but THIS was SO MUCH BETTER! It provides just enough pressure to move the water through your sinuses, and works so much better in my opinion than the pot.
10. Excessive Hand Washing – This may seem like a “duh” inclusion. but I’ll bet you’re not washing your hands (or the hands of your kids) NEARLY as much as you should be… If you are, then kudos to you! That’s how we slow the spread of this stuff!
ANY time we get home from ANYWHERE, our kids know that the first things they are going to do are:
1. take your shoes off at the door + put them in the cubby, and
2. wash your hands with soap (fellow parents, please explain: why do we have to specify this??) for AT LEAST 30 seconds with the soap on your hands before you rinse.
If we go to a restaurant, their first stop no matter where we have just come from (unless it was from our house where they washed before we left) is the restroom because 1. kids always “have to” use the restroom in new places (ha), and 2. There’s no telling what they’ve touched before or upon arriving, and they’re about to put their hands all over the food they’ll put in their mouth… GERM CENTRAL.
Bonus points to those other moms who travel with hand and face wipes and use them to wipe off the table and seats when you sit down (maybe excessive, but honestly, I’ve worked at a restaurant, and I don’t trust the bus-boy’s ability to disinfect the table with those rags and his hasty wipe-downs…).
Ok. well, now you know…
…What we do, and how I might be a little over the top for your taste, but you know what? I’m 100% okay with that! Weirdos unite! LOL! I’ll be a weirdo/excessive mom if it keeps my kids even just a little bit healthier and happier.
We use these remedies regularly, and up the dosage as needed if someone in our family/friend circle is sick or if we are feeling it ourselves. It may not always keep it away completely, but I firmly believe that building up our immune system before anything hits helps us to kick sickness faster than if we wait to start the remedies when we are in the depths, and just trying anything to dig our way out.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m definitely no doctor, so this is in no way meant to take the place of you seeing a doctor if you need one, but I’m happy to share any wisdom I may have gained over my last thirty-some-odd years, and especially those learned in my 8+ years as a mama to our precious kiddos.
STAY WELL, MY FRIEND!
