There is definitely something very contagious going around. Here are some of my best practices and tips that help us stay well:
- Prayer–we pray pretty much every night for good health. I didn’t want to be remiss and start a list without first giving glory to Him.
- Boosting the immune system – it’s our natural defense – it can only handle so much stress–lack of sleep combined with eating junk food/white sugar/processed foods are all stresses on the immune system.
- If you are going to endure one of those stresses listed in number 2–never do them both at the same time. I find coupling bad eating with lack of sleep is usually a guaranteed recipe for me and the kids to get sick.
- If you do get sick: sleep, sleep, sleep and don’t eat any junk food. Example: in my experience, sugary popsicles for a sore throat are a bad idea for the immune system and slow the healing down. Instead freeze smoothies into your own popsicles.
- I know this gross out many but we swear by vegetable juices – we never travel without Barley Max (raw dehydrated Barley Juice powder–it’s gluten free) and also if I even get a hint of sickness we are napping and going to bed early and drinking my cure-all: equal portions of carrot juice, green apple juice, beet juice, kale juice. We have a juicer and we juice these ourselves but Whole Foods will also juice fresh for you too (just not very economical).
- Persistent coughs- especially ones that keep you up at night – a water humidifier does wonders for us. Not the dinky kinds from the essential oil companies but ones that really put some water in the air. We use the Tribest Humidifer – it has lasted us 10 years and going strong. The key with these (and any thing you put water in and want it to turn to mist) is in AZ we have hard water. I store distilled water (reverse osmosis water would work too). You need this before you get sick so just order it. Because in the middle of the night when your baby is suffering it’s too late so just have it on hand in the closet.
- Hot steamy showers and gargling salt water work great for sore throats (if phlegm in throat is the issue).
- I’ll finish with sleep–it’s the most important thing for preventing illness and disease. The more sleep you get before midnight the better. Your body knows sleeping from 1am to 10am isn’t the same as 9pm-5am. That’s why you can go to bed at 1am and wake up still feeling like a train wreck.