Cold and flu season.
It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. The media is already having a field day with the new respiratory virus hitting several states in the US. The image of a young girl with an oxygen mask over her face is enough to send a shiver down any mom’s back. Personally, I try to ignore the fear-based media reporting as much as I can. Yes, I think it’s important to be aware of current events and especially of new viruses our children might encounter in school. But I also know that the severity of any virus is also influenced by the strength of a person’s own immune system.
For instance, two children can catch the exact same virus and each will experience a different severity of the virus depending on individual immune function. The media is reporting on worst case scenarios and we really have little-to-no background on each child’s health history. So, instead of worrying about the worst case scenarios we hear about on the news, let’s instead focus on what we can do to increase immune function today.
You can help your child stay healthy and strong in the face of new and unidentified viruses this season by incorporating proactive and positive immune boosting habits into your child’s life NOW. So if and when a virus visits your home the illness stays mild and resolves quickly. Here are 8 ways to keep children healthy this winter.
1) Increase immune boosting food and drink. Immune boosting food and drink keeps the body well-nourished so when viruses do strike the immune system has fuel to work efficiently. Immune boosting foods like garlic, ginger, fresh green juices, and foods packed full of vitamin C like cut orange slices or pomegranate seeds are a great addition to your weekly meal planning. Making herbal teas out of anti-viral and anti-bacterial herbs is also a great way to work medicinal plants into your diet. Try this thyme tea recipe with your kids, it’s wonderful! Read more about natural immune boosters for kids here.
2) Simmer mineral ALL WINTER LONG. As soon as September rolls around I pull out my stock pot and it basically runs all winter. Mineral broth is packed full of trace minerals. It’s highly absorbable and nutritionally dense making it the perfect winter tonic. Often nutritional deficiencies in children impact immune function so mineral broth is an easy-to-digest remedy. I make weekly soups, use the broth instead of water to make rice or quinoa and I also encourage my kids to drink some like tea. Find my mineral broth recipe here.
3) Increase immune boosting supplements. During the winter I change my children’s supplement protocol to make sure we focus on immune function. I add a few weekly doses of elderberry
4) Keep sugar to a minimum. I know I’m no fun, but sugar really isn’t a great treat for kids, especially during the winter. Consuming sugar has been shown to decrease immune response and increase systemic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is the root of all disease. So, if your children eat sugar on a regular basis they could very well be walking around with chronically depressed immune systems. Couple this with chronic sugar-induced inflammation and your child is a good candidate for catching every cold and flu around.
5) Detox regularly. If our immune systems are constantly overburdened with toxins from food, the environment and personal care products, they can’t properly protect us from seasonal viruses. Add a weekly detox bath to your child’s bath schedule to help the body detoxify. Herbs like cilantro are great detoxifiers, so try to sneak some into green smoothies or juices. Also make sure you get out and MOVE as a family—sweat is the body’s way of eliminating toxins, too.
6) Make sleep a priority. Sleep is the way our bodies repair and heal during the night so make sure your children get enough sleep during cold and flu season. We also use magnesium oil
7) Protect your child’s schedule. Stress is one of the biggest immune system busters around. When we are under stress, our immune function is greatly impaired. The problem is that the body can’t tell the difference between different types of stress. The body reacts to over-scheduling activities the same way it reacts to a food we are sensitive/allergic to or an emotional worry we are thinking about. For all three of these very different stressors… the body elicits the same reaction: A STRESS RESPONSE (known as the fight or flight response). When the body is in a stress response, immune function declines. During the school year stay protective of your child’s schedule as much as possible.
8) Practice gratitude. Over and over again research is finding that gratitude practices actually increase immune function! If ever there was a time to start a mindfulness practice, it’s now. Help children to give thanks to their bodies on a daily basis for being so strong and healthy. Saying thank you goes a long way. Our bodies are always listening to our thoughts and appreciate our thanks and gratitude.
Are you interested in learning more about natural remedies?
Then you might love my ebook, Natural Remedies for Children. This book saves you time and money by detailing easy and safe natural remedies for the 11 most common childhood ailments our kids face today. Learn how to build a holistic medicine kit and build strong immune function, too. Click here to get all the details!
How are you keeping your children healthy this winter? Comment with your tips below!
Want more posts about staying healthy? Try these from my favorite bloggers.
Top 5 Tips to Recover from a Cold from Real Nutritious Living
How to Boost the Immune System Naturally from Loula Natural
What to do When Kids Get Sick from Loula Natural
12 Step Program to Stay Healthy from MIX Wellness
How to Make Elderberry Tea from Holistic Health Herbalist
How to Make Fire Cider from Holistic Health Herbalist
How to Make Echinacea and Elderberry Syrup from Oh Lardy!
Black Cherry and Elderberry Gummy Snacks from Don’t Mess with Mama
Hi Kulamama! Amazing site / links / info here … Bookmarked and added to my home screen many of these pages!
I have been on a quest for immune health for my girls since my husband and I began talking about having children. Well, my twin girls are 3 months old and are exclusively breast fed. My question is regarding immune health and breastfeeding. Are you aware of anything I can be consuming that will cross into the breastmilk and boost my babes’ immune systems? I already take klaire probiotics and cod liver oil, but my diet is lousy.
Any advice from the health guru would be most appreciated (:
Thanks~~
Thank you so much for putting all this in one post! I wish I had had this information years ago. I will recommend it for the kids in my life and implement it for the adults in my life too. Thanks for all your research and for all you do!
These are some great tips. I especially like “practice gratitude.” Thank you!
I always have such good intentions to do it all, but to remember everything and make it part of our routine, that’s were I struggle. Do you make daily lists/weekly lists? Any suggestions for keeping organized daily/weekly? I am definitely going to try to implement the bone broth as our first step in the right direction.
Great! But don’t forget about coconut oil! It anti-fungal, -viral, and -bacterial. Plus, you don’t even have to injest it for the benefits. I use it as our sole source of skin moisturizer in the winter months and as a protectant/healer of skin in the summer.
Great addition, Heather!