poor sicko babies - natural cold remedies for kids (and mamas)

My children are sick. I would feel sorry for them, poor little buggars, except I am exhausted at this point. SO whiney SO demanding SO crabby. I am ashamed to admit it but they are on their second (possibly third?) viewing of a 90 minute Curious George DVD.

OVER and OVER and OVER.

I begged them to change to Telletubbies this morning and they refused.

Pathetic folks.


And if it’s not the TV, little missy, the sicker of the two, wants to be “plugged in” to mama, as it were. “MILK A MILK mama! MILK A MIIIIIIIIIIIILK!”

I seriously feel dehydrated.

And, I am fighting it off too. Extra crabby-ness ensues.

So I figure a post on cold-busting good for you health remedies was in order.

This is what I do for colds for the kids:

C-Plus Cold Tablets by Hylands – just keep popping them in their mouth all day. They are little sugar tablets with good stuff that dissolve really quick. They really work to dry out boogie noses.

Echinacea – I get straight up drops to give them, diluted in juice.

Emergen C – I let little man drink one packet of this daily, with some sips for babydear.

Little missy instantly gets sore ears. She had her first ear infection at 3 months and has had a few since. The doctor always said, go for antibiotics, if you like. I say, no thanks. I don’t like what they do to the gut (strips away all the good stuff as well as the ick).

Instead I do drops in her ears. A concoction from my mother including tea tree oil, garlic oil, and olive oil. I just dab in a q-tip and let it drip into her ears.

And then I do a vaporizer in the bedroom and for little tiny ones you can put a rolled up towel under their mattress to alleviate respiratory problems at night. (Re respiratory issues in little ones. It always sounds worse than it is. If they aren’t gasping for air and acting lethargic it usually isn’t life threatening, but do take your child in to be assessed at the doctor, it’s just not ER worthy, you know?) Also cut back on dairy and increase their intake of water, of course.

Here is the mother of all remedies though…

My lovely midwives gave me this remedy when I was horribly sick while pregnant with babydear.

Juice of 2 or 3 lemons (you can use lemon juice but it doesn’t have the enzymes that fresh lemons will have.)
¼ cup honey
¼ cup apple cider vinegar or kombucha
I also throw in some kind of herbal tea, today I used orange spice. YUM.

Make up in a pot and drink hot or you can drink iced too. Keep drinking this all day. Pot after pot. Because, MOMMIES CANT GET SICK. DON’T YOU KNOW THAT?!?! (and even if you do get sick you know its like you are allowed one afternoon nap on the couch and that is it - interrupted by whiney children arguing over a toy that dada said they would have to give up if they can’t share and MAMA ITS MY TOY. Etc etc. After that nap you are healed and no longer allowed to be sick. Hence my desire to not get sick. Because that sucks.)

Other remedies I have heard but not tried:
Colloidal Silver (my mom does this)
Garlic cloves in your ears (sounds smelly to me, I had a garlic aversion in both pregnancies and don’t think I could do this)
Elderberry syrup (for coughs)
Netti pot (I really plan on trying this soon, especially if I give up and get this cold)

What do you all have to add?

little missy feeling better after being dosed up...

(ooh, these are the kick ass homemade woolie
overalls i made her. arent they GREAT??)