We are sick. We have been sick for a few weeks, off and on. About a month ago three of the kids had ear infections and I was exhausted and agreed to antibiotics. Now all three of those kids are getting hit with everything. Antibiotics kill all bacteria causing a crippling affect on the immune systems ability to fight off illness. So now those three kids are having a really hard time during such a bad time of year for sickness. So we are hunkering down and working really hard at getting our immune systems back up to par. Robert and I are sick too. Robert isn't too shocking since his body is still adjusting to a different climate and environment. But I almost never get sick, so you know it's bad! Mainly we are dealing with drainage, sore throats, achey, and unproductive, painful coughs. This has caused us to cancel part of our trip and post pone the rest of it. : ( Which means we have very sad kids. So I thought I would share some of the things we do when we are dealing with illness. Namely, cough and immune support remedies. I typically use homeopathy, and I have lately, but because of dairy allergies and the lack of homeopathic remedies that don't use a base of lactose I have been learning other alternatives. The above picture shows the cough syrups I had simmering this morning. The one on the left is a recipe my friend Melissa taught me except I added one ingredient. And the one on the right is a super easy recipe that I learned on line. For simplicity sake I will call the one on the left Herbal Cough Syrup and the one on the right Onion Honey Syrup. Almost anyone can make Onion Honey Syrup with what they already have in the house! And I can definitely sing it's praises. The Herbal Cough Syrup cured Cal and I of pneumonia a couple years ago. And I make it a few times a year whenever one of the kids is suffering from a cough that needs a little help breaking up the mucous. Above is the end product! Below I will share the recipes! Keep in mind that I made more than usual of each because so many in our family need them. Typically I would make about half as much.
Herbal Cough Syrup (the one on the left in the picture) -1/4 cup of licorice root -1/4 cup of mullein leaf -1/4 cup of marshmallow root (for sore throat) Cover herbs with filtered water in a small sauce pan. Put over low heat and let simmer for 30-45 minutes. Drain the liquid and mix with 2 Tbls of honey (preferably raw, local). Sometimes I add cinnamon too. I didn't this time. *Give 1 tsp (for adults 1 Tbs) every 30 minutes or longer. It tastes like concentrated sweetened tea. Bryse loves it! Really, there are so many herbs that are helpful with coughs but I keep these herbs in my medicine cabinet all the time, so these are easiest for us. Onion Honey Syrup -One onion -Enough honey to cover the onion(preferably raw and local) -Optional: A few cloves are garlic chopped up Put the chopped onion and garlic in a small saucepan and cover with honey. Simmer on very low heat for 30-45 minutes, until onion is cooked soft. You can drain if you want, but I try to leave some in the syrup because it doesn't hurt anything and the longer the herbs are in the honey the more healing power you get from them! *Give 1 tsp (for adults 1 Tbs) every 30 minutes or longer. Deakin is a fan of this one! This one is very basic, helps for any cold or cough, and if you put the garlic in there then you are really helping your immune system. Below is another recipe. You can actually find lots of variations of this recipe all over the internet. http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2009/11/homemade-cough-and-cold-syrup.html We have not used allopathic cough drops or syrups or suppressants in years! The reason for this is because we learned that God gave our bodies the ability to cough for a very good reason. To get out what doesn't belong there! So suppressing the cough or trying to stop it does the opposite of what the cough is trying to do. So now we use remedies that sometimes make us cough more or make our coughs sound worse, but in the long run we get better much quicker! I have both of the cough syrups sitting out and am giving them to the kids all day today. Already Cal's cough sounds less dry and more moist which makes me very happy. Now I know that (Lord willing) nothing will settle in his chest causing a longer, worse illness. Now on to immune support and supplements. I have all the kids on probiotics. Trying to help their immune system restore some of the good bacteria that the antibiotics destroyed. Echinacea, golden seal, vitamin C, vitamin D, and zinc along with their normal multi vitamin. If we had elderberry syrup we would be doing that too, but I'm out. For the boys (who can't swallow a pill yet) I open the probiotic and echinacea capsules into a bowl, add some cinnamon and cover with honey. Stir it up and then feed it to them with a spoon. You can also mix those vitamins with applesauce or DF yogurt but I tend to forget unless I just do honey when I give them their normal chewable multi and gummy zinc/vitamin D. We also do a lot of garlic during illness. I take a cut up clove like a pill twice a day for a few days. And I use my neti pot every night before bed to help with drainage and congestion. Also adding a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar to a glass of water and drinking it throughout the day is very helpful for colds. I'm not even gonna touch essential oils today because it will take too long! Ha! During the summer we just do a mulit vitamin most of the time. But this time of year and during illness, we do a LOT of supplements! And when I'm pregnant, good grief! It's ridiculous! But good. Anyway, I didn't have any new pictures to share today so I thought I would post about this since it's fresh on my mind.
1 Comment
Melissa Barrett
3/8/2013 07:35:22 am
Great post!
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