When my baby was 11 months old she came down with a cold. The usually stuffy nose made nursing miserable for a couple days. Gladly, that part didn't last long and nursing is as easy as ever. Unfortunately, ever since then (just over 3 weeks ago) she has had a cough. Her cough is so bad that she occasionally gags and throws up everything she just ate. I feel so sorry for the poor thing, and am starting to get concerned with the length of time it is taking her to recover.
My baby has never been to the doctor. She was born at home, and is unvaccinated, and has been completely healthy so there hasn't been a reason to until this month. However, I'm sure that if I take her then they'll prescribe antibiotics, which I absolutely do not want for her. I hope to provide her body what it needs to heal completely naturally.
Here's what I've done so far:
-Broken open allimax capsules and dissolved in filtered water and administered 1/4 to 1/2 capsule at a time with an eye dropper. She absolutely hates this, and I don't blame her- I'm sure it tastes terrible.
-a few days ago she started taking fermented cod liver oil and butter oil from greenpasture.org
-took her to see an acupuncturist friend who told me about a pressure point on the back of the neck on either side of the backbone that will help ease the gag reflex when she starts a coughing fit. I'm convinced that knowing this trick and being able to use it has kept several meals down that wouldn't have otherwise.
She hasn't taken to solids well yet, so most if not all of her diet is breastmilk. I wish she would eat food, so I could get some liver from grassed cow into her, along with some homemade chicken or beef broth, and some fermented foods such as yogurt or homemade fermented salsa.
I decided this morning it's time to start taking more drastic measures. I just borrowed a nebulizer from a friend, but instead of using prescription medication in it, I spent quite a bit of time this morning researching and reading about alternatives. I settled on using a couple drops of essential oils (lavender and eucalyptus), along with a dilution of food grade hydrogen peroxide.
I went out and bought 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide (which needs to be diluted with 1 part HP to 11 parts water, but I will probably to 11.5 or 12 parts water, just to be extra safe), distiller water, and glass eye droppers to mix them and put the solution into the nebulizer.
I will update with her progress and how this treatment works.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Bronchitis (& Other Infections)
The more I learn, the more I strive to avoid antibiotics at all costs.
I got bronchitis the first time when I was 15, and my parents took me straight to the doctor and I took my course of antibiotics.
I got bronchitis again when I was 22. I didn't want antibiotics, but I didn't do anything besides let time pass to wait for it to clear up on it's own. I didn't rest much either because at the time I had a 10 month old into everything and my husband was out of town. It turned into pneumonia within a couple weeks, and I broke down and got a prescription for antibiotics.
The pain associated with pneumonia is unbelievable. I lost my resolve to not take antibiotics when I felt like I was going to die every time I coughed.
Well, here I am, three years later. I have a really bad cough again, and I'm doing everything I can to kick it before it gets worse.
Here's what I've done so far, and why:
-Rosemary essential oil- Read about it HERE, and click HERE for a great recipe for homemade vicks vaporub. I boil a pot of water, add 1 drop of eucalyptus oil and 2 or 3 drops rosemary oil, lean over it and tent my head with a towel. I've been doing this every night before bed and not only does it help me breath better and give me a night mostly free of coughing, its also very very relaxing.
-Colloidal Silver
-Homeopathic Remedy: I went to Earth Fare and matched up my symptoms to "natrum sulphuricum". Homeopathic medicine essentially tell your body, "Hey! Here's what going on. Fix it!". If I did my symptom matching right then my body will react to the homeopathics and kick into gear to fight whatever I have. When I was picking it was between this one and another one, so I do hope I picked the right one. If it doesn't work I may have to go back in 5-6 days to get the other one.
-Allicin, a specific extract of garlic. Allimax brand, to be specific. It's the only brand I have confidence in. Allicin is a very fragile component of garlic and is easily lost in processing, and this company has got it right.
-Fermented cod liver oil/butter oil from the only brand I trust: Blue Ice from greenpasture.org. This has astounding levels of vitamins A & D and is an awesome immune system booster. I take it all the time, but I've been upping my dose for the sickness.
-Sleep more, drink lots of water, and take deep breaths often. This basic stuff is easy to forget when you're busy trying to cure yourself with natural remedies. Sometime I have to be reminded to just give my body what it needs and sit back and rest.
So, that's it. We'll see how it goes.
UPDATE:
It worked! The cough cleared within about a week of this post with only the treatments and supplements I mentioned. I feel that the allimax was the biggest contributed, but there's no way to be sure. I've since learned that eucalyptus essential oil naturally dilates the bronchial tube, so that is a great thing to mix in with the rosemary essential oil.
I got bronchitis the first time when I was 15, and my parents took me straight to the doctor and I took my course of antibiotics.
I got bronchitis again when I was 22. I didn't want antibiotics, but I didn't do anything besides let time pass to wait for it to clear up on it's own. I didn't rest much either because at the time I had a 10 month old into everything and my husband was out of town. It turned into pneumonia within a couple weeks, and I broke down and got a prescription for antibiotics.
The pain associated with pneumonia is unbelievable. I lost my resolve to not take antibiotics when I felt like I was going to die every time I coughed.
Well, here I am, three years later. I have a really bad cough again, and I'm doing everything I can to kick it before it gets worse.
Here's what I've done so far, and why:
-Rosemary essential oil- Read about it HERE, and click HERE for a great recipe for homemade vicks vaporub. I boil a pot of water, add 1 drop of eucalyptus oil and 2 or 3 drops rosemary oil, lean over it and tent my head with a towel. I've been doing this every night before bed and not only does it help me breath better and give me a night mostly free of coughing, its also very very relaxing.
-Colloidal Silver
-Homeopathic Remedy: I went to Earth Fare and matched up my symptoms to "natrum sulphuricum". Homeopathic medicine essentially tell your body, "Hey! Here's what going on. Fix it!". If I did my symptom matching right then my body will react to the homeopathics and kick into gear to fight whatever I have. When I was picking it was between this one and another one, so I do hope I picked the right one. If it doesn't work I may have to go back in 5-6 days to get the other one.
-Allicin, a specific extract of garlic. Allimax brand, to be specific. It's the only brand I have confidence in. Allicin is a very fragile component of garlic and is easily lost in processing, and this company has got it right.
-Fermented cod liver oil/butter oil from the only brand I trust: Blue Ice from greenpasture.org. This has astounding levels of vitamins A & D and is an awesome immune system booster. I take it all the time, but I've been upping my dose for the sickness.
-Sleep more, drink lots of water, and take deep breaths often. This basic stuff is easy to forget when you're busy trying to cure yourself with natural remedies. Sometime I have to be reminded to just give my body what it needs and sit back and rest.
So, that's it. We'll see how it goes.
UPDATE:
It worked! The cough cleared within about a week of this post with only the treatments and supplements I mentioned. I feel that the allimax was the biggest contributed, but there's no way to be sure. I've since learned that eucalyptus essential oil naturally dilates the bronchial tube, so that is a great thing to mix in with the rosemary essential oil.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Chlorinated City Water
Today I placed an order (on amazon, of course!) for a Sprite shower head/chlorine filter. I've been doing a lot of learning about water lately, and I'm not liking what I find.
Did you know that filtering the chlorine out of your drinking water is not enough? It's not even a start! Skin readily absorbs chlorine (like the chlorine in water treated by the city), especially when it's warm because it opens your pores. It also vaporizes.
So this morning while I took a long hot shower and enjoyed the steam. Yeah. I was absorbing chlorine and inhaling it's toxic fumes.
I'm afraid to bathe the kids until the shower filter arrives!
I also found out that vitamin c somehow neutralizes chlorine (and even more dangerous chloramines, which we don't have in our water- I checked) and I bought some vitabath vitamin c tablets for bath time. That way we don't have to spend 10 minutes filling up the bath tub with the shower head.
Did you know that filtering the chlorine out of your drinking water is not enough? It's not even a start! Skin readily absorbs chlorine (like the chlorine in water treated by the city), especially when it's warm because it opens your pores. It also vaporizes.
So this morning while I took a long hot shower and enjoyed the steam. Yeah. I was absorbing chlorine and inhaling it's toxic fumes.
I'm afraid to bathe the kids until the shower filter arrives!
I also found out that vitamin c somehow neutralizes chlorine (and even more dangerous chloramines, which we don't have in our water- I checked) and I bought some vitabath vitamin c tablets for bath time. That way we don't have to spend 10 minutes filling up the bath tub with the shower head.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)