Along with the holidays at the end of the year comes cold and flu season. With kids in school surrounded by other kids, parents normally are at the brunt of the sickies–kids are cesspools of germs and they loooooove sharing them with us. As a pretty “crunchy” mommy who doesn’t really like to inundate my system or my kids system with all of these medicines that are designed to treat symptoms that often result in worse side effects I keep my house stocked with some essentials in order to boost all of our immune systems as well as heal us holistically–with a little help from some Lysol.
Clean House
This is obvious but I don’t mean just your normal, daily cleaning. You’ve got to get a good deep cleaning going on. Get the allergens out of the carpets, evidence of summer fun off the baseboards and walls, and disinfect EVERYTHING. You can make your own housecleanerĀ or buy some–my preference is to make. To clean carpets, sprinkle some baking soda on the area and let it sit for 15 minutes before vacuuming up. Make sure that you get windows, window sills, door handles, light switches…all the places that will be touched.
Clean Your Body
I’m all for a cleanse during this time of the year. One of the best hardest cleanses that I’ve done was an equinox cleanse. For 7 days we fasted on a gallon of water, grapes, apples, and one mustard/leek salad with lemon juice each day. Doesn’t sound like much and it actually was pretty gross but it got rid of all the mucous and toxins in our bodies. Anytime I do this fast, I don’t get sick. But in case you aren’t into extreme measures, here are some other options:
- Drink 8oz of hot lemon water every morning on an empty stomach
- Drink 1oz of Apple Cider Vinegar
Ā 3 times per day. Some make it as a tea with hot water and honey.
- Remove all forms of dairy from your diet and drink half your body weight in water
- Cardio, yep, as in working out
The main thing is to get rid of the mucous that dairy forms in your body. Mucous is where the germs go to fester and grow in our bodies.
Stock Your Medicine Cabinet
Essential Oils
Make sure that you have the following oils:
- Tea Tree
– a natural antibiotic
- Lavender
– helps to relax the body, a natural antibiotic
- Four Thieves
– check out the history of it here… It’s a really cool story but it’s certainly essential to have
- Peppermint
– fights off fevers
- Eucalyptus
– breaks mucous up
Homeopathy
I love the little pellets that you get from Whole Foods but in case you don’t have your whole paycheck to spend (see what I did there? Ha!) Hylands and Zarbees have some great options. But these have helped me in the past:
- Kali Bichromicum
– this helps get rid of congestion and mucous that is clear/white. When we were dealing with abc’s chronic ear infections, this right here was amazing and helped prevent them from returning.
- Hyland’s Line – they have a really comprehensive line available to help with everything from the sniffles to coughs to trouble sleeping.
- Zarbee’s
– this line is pretty new but they have everything from immune boosting to probiotics to cold care
- Silver Colloidal
– this comes in a couple of different forms–nasal spray, drops, etc but it’s worth it to take since it can help stop a cold before it develops
- Sambucal – made from elderberries this will help to boost your immune system. Already feeling like you got got? Guzzle a bottle and you’ll be feeling way better.
Probiotics
These help with the digestive system and this is definitely critical during this time. You want to make sure that nothing gets caught in your system that can manifest into a nasty cold.
Naturally you shouldn’t forget to do the obvious things like wash your hands a million times per day, cover your mouth when you cough/sneeze, and steer clear of all the germy kids ha!
How do you stay sick free during this time of year?
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