Who's Sick Of Being Sick?

I am! I've been told by many people that this is apparently the worst year for illnesses in a long time! I can only speak for myself on this subject and this has been the worst year for illnesses for me in my whole life! I have been well for 10 days in the past 40 and that is not a great ratio!

However, I have a plan. I will be attacking these germs and leaving no survivors (I hope). I like to be organized (as you can probably tell by Glow Baby and our products) and so I will be using my special organizational skills to help me beat the flu and any other illness this winter throws at me.

The first step was to start eating heathier. That meant more vegetables and fruits, less pre-packaged meals. So far, I am on week three of this and it is going really well! It helps that I am relatively healthy at the moment. When I took the girls to McDonald's last week, I didn't order anything for me!!!! Talk about will power.

The next step was to meet with a nutritionist to put together a plan of attack. Or rather a plan of prevention. I was lucky enough to meet with Marina from www.zenbeginnings.com. She not only provided me with a plan for prevention but also gave me non-medicinal options for when I did get sick. The main goal with this was to work on getting my immune system back into fighting shape. I am now just waiting for my supplements to arrive but am hopeful that this will give me a chance for being healthy for the remainder of the winter.

The third step is to join a gym. This is going to be the toughest one for me. I hate the gym! It is my least favourite thing. I find it boring. I have found a gym near me that has classes and I'm hoping that this may hold my interest. Maybe I should look for some other moms who would be willing to go with me....

How are you doing this winter with illness? Are you finding this year worse than previous years? Are your kids sicker than usual? What are you doing to stay healthy?

Guest Blog by Sprout Right: How To Avoid Winter Flu's

I came across this posts for alternative ways to boost your immune system and avoid illness this winter and was happy when Lianne from Sprout Right let me post on the blog. I will definitely be printing this out to try and stay healthy!

How to Avoid Winter Flu's
By: Lianne Phillipson-Webb, www.sproutright.com
It’s cold and dark outside. Yes winter is coming and we all know what that means—colds, flu, and other bugs flying around the office, school or daycare, and then brought home to circulate the family.

So far I’ve heard of Norwalk hitting hard, lingering coughs and colds, but not the flu… yet. Whether you find yourself achy all over, warming up with a fever, that scratchy throat feeling or nose is running like a tap, it means something’s coming. Those damn bugs gotcha!

Do you go for the medicine cabinet, or vitamin cupboard? In my house, well you can guess, I get out my remedy first aid kit and start there. I pull out the oregano oil (mixed in some Echinacea syrup so we can get it down), probiotics, vitamin C, garlic drink and specific homeopathic remedies depending on what the symptoms are. My daughters know that feeling sick means the caster oil and cold wet socks are coming at bedtime too (I’ll explain that craziness later on).

That may sound like quite a list, but I really hate being sick. If I could just lie on the couch and let it ride, I still wouldn’t like it. So I throw it all at us. And it works. If we’ve had some virus or whatever bug gets us, it generally hits us less or leaves faster.

What can you do to help your family? Here are my top tips:

Find yourself a naturopath or homeopath. As well as booking an intro consult, ask if they offer phone/email consults for acute situations. I’m able to email mine with symptoms and get feedback of what homeopathic remedies that will help speed recovery and lessen symptoms. If you aren’t familiar with homeopathy, it sure packs a punch. Your naturopath or homeopath can help you with specifics, so don’t worry about not knowing what it’s all about.
Create your own remedy first aid kit.
Start with vitamin C. A powder is best and most versatile for the family. It should dissolve in water or dilute juice and can be downed in one or sipped throughout the day. Adults can take about 2000 mg once or twice a day and kids 200 – 400 mg per day (too much vit C = diarrhoea, so ease off if that’s the case). Chech out the link below for my favourite product, Ascorbate C.

Oil of Oregano has potent antiviral and antifungal properties. It is taken against colds and flu’s, candida and parasites. Start it as any symptoms start. Adult dose – one to two drops mixed in with juice. Babies and children – put one drop on the soles of their feet. *Oregano oil is not recommended for breastfeeding. Use for no longer than three weeks and dose up on probiotics too while taking it.

Echinacea is an herbal immune booster. It works best when you feel the start of a cold or other symptoms. Long-term use is not advised. Take for one week then not the next. Continue over the winter months.

Probiotics are a sneaky way to boost the immune system. It sounds kind of backwards, taking good bacteria when it will go to my intestines – but when you understand that about 80 per cent of your immune system is in your digestive system, it all makes sense. Check out the link below for a description of Genestra’s products that I’ve used for years.

When you are hit with something, these crazy sounding remedies can be used on the whole family.

Castor Oil - Rub a loonie size of caster oil on the chest, over the lung area, front and back. Do this before bed, and use a hot water bottle over the area if age appropriate.

Cold Wet Socks – This is a great natural remedy for coughs, colds and congestion. Here’s what you do:

Before bed, make a pair of cotton socks with cold water, squeeze out excess water. Put the socks on the feet and cover with wool or wooly overtop. As crazy as it sounds, it really works. I’ve got up in the middle of the night before to re-wet my socks so I stop coughing. It’s better than cough medicine.

I have not made either of these up, they’ve been around for years. I know it sounds completely nuts, but I promise you it really helps!

Check out SproutRight.com here for more information on specific supplements.

Other suggestions include:

Avoid sugar – I know, I know, you only feel like snacking on comfort foods. Sugar can suppress the immune system for a period of hours, so it might be the difference to one day off to a few.

Drink immune boosting herbal teas and ease off the coffee and milk – don’t send me packing with my ideas just yet – let me explain. Your body (or your kid’s) need fluids so herb teas are warm, wet and also can help give a boost. Dairy products are mucus forming, so you may find yourself not needing any help in the mucus-producing department (both coughs and colds), so just shelve it for now.

Try the ‘Garlic Bomb’. You are at home anyway so it doesn’t matter if you have garlic breath. This one is probably only for adults, not kiddies. Fill a mug with boiled water from the kettle. Use a garlic press to crush a clove of garlic into the water. Add a teaspoon of honey, a squeeze of lemon and even a chunk of fresh ginger if you have it. Drink it all. The garlic bits at the bottom too.

So now that you’ve got more than enough ideas of how to make this a healthier winter, go stock up and be ready for what comes!

This is not meant to take the place of medical advice or a visit to the doctors.

Back-to-school and the exotic germs it brings

Okay, so maybe we don't get exotic illnesses here in Canada. However, I got an email today from my daughters' nursery school informing us that one of the children has Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Now, I have heard of this virus, really only in passing. I have never seen a child with it or have had it myself. So for me, it is exotic.

When I was in school the only illness that freaked me out wasn't even an illness. It was lice. I had it when I was six and still remember staying up all night having the nits picked out of my hair. I know my mom was traumatized by this as she never let us share any clothes, hair things, pillows etc. again. During Ainsley's first year at nursery school there was an outbreak of panic at the thought of lice in our home. Luckily we avoided it.

Today's email sent that same panic coursing through me. And this time I had no past experience to draw upon. I turned to my parent friends to ask what to look for, how sick my poor kids could get and treatment information. It turns out, this virus is really only exotic to me. Turns out it is fairly common in nursery schools and since it is extremely contagious, small epidemics will break out in classrooms.

So right now I am on the look out for the symptoms of HFMD and am watching my girls a lot more closely than I usually do. If they do get it, I hope it's mild and quick and that the bounce back quickly.

The light at the end of the tunnel?

I am finally seeing the light at the end of a very long tunnel. The past 7 weeks (starting with my tonsillectomy) have been very tough on our poor family. Just when I was starting to feel better after my surgery, we all came down with a nasty stomach bug. Just when we were all feeling better from that, we all got a cold. The number of days that Ainsley was able to go to nursery school was cut in half which was very tough. Talk about cabin fever.

Then when we were getting better from the cold, I was advised by my doctor to keep Ainsley and Juliet away from other children for the week before Juliet had eye surgery to repair her strabismus. We needed to make sure that she didn't get sick so we could have the surgery done. We have waited for almost a year for this date so I wasn't taking any chances.

Ironically, the day before the surgery, I got the stomach flu again!! This was the second time in 3 weeks. Luckily it was quick and I was able to be with Juliet before and after her surgery. I would have felt so guilty if I wasn't able to be there for her.

So now, Juliet has recovered from surgery, no one has stomach bugs or colds (knock on wood) so I am hoping that we might have a few weeks of health. I was so glad that I could take Ainsley to play with her friends at school today and we could get back to our regular routine. Which means I can once again focus on the business.

Here I am, back in action. For how long? Who knows.

What is your toughest time as a parent?

Today is day four of a stomach bug that has gone through our household. I was sick a week ago and it took me 6 days to start feeling normal again. Juliet came down with the illness on Friday night and the poor thing was sick all night. She is slowly getting better and is starting to eat food. Ainsley was sick twice Sunday night but seems to have recovered quickly.

I find it very tough as a parent when my kids are sick. I feel so badly for them when they are sick and the only thing you can do is comfort them. Last night for the first time since Juliet was just born she slept with us in our bed. We as a rule don't sleep with our children because I find that I don't sleep well and they don't sleep well. However, last night Juliet could not be consoled and for the sake of my sleep and her sleep I caved and we slept. I just hope she doesn't expect this to become a routine.

I am starting to see the end of this illness which has put a strain on our washing machine and my husband is thankful that we had a ton of sleepers for Juliet as we definitely needed them!!! I hope that we now will have a period of health for awhile.

Each time they get sick I find that I am able to deal with it a bit better but it's tough. It's emotionally draining and it's tough not being able to leave the house for days. At least Brett and I are a pretty good team and work well together to get our kids back into fighting form.

What do you track when your child is sick?

Hello Readers,

I am brainstorming for new products to add to the Glow Baby line and I've been asked by a few people to create a sick log for their children. I have been lucky enough to not have gone through any serious illnesses (neither of my daughters have had a fever yet) so I am asking other moms to weigh in on this.

What do you track when your child is sick?

What would you want to see included in a sick log?

Thanks to all who participate. I appreciate getting feedback from other moms. Please feel free to invite your friends to comment.

The Plague

Well that's what you'd think he has when he's sick!

When I have a headache, I'm down in the dumps, feeling sick to my stomach, overly tired, I usually keep it to myself. That's not exactly the case with my dear hubby. See... I've never really been a nurturer at heart. Growing up, I wasn't really babied when I was sick. I've only been sick from work once or twice in my entire life. I may think I have deadly diseases but when it comes to showing it I suck it up.

I guess when it comes to being sick we all have our preferences for how we'd like to be treated. I like my space. I'll take a nap and try to sleep it off. My better half... A headache will out him out for the rest of the day and he'll be whining through the entire process.

If his stomach hurts he'll insist he's about to throw up... Go spit in the toilet and say he did. It's actually quite humorous.

It took me a few years to realize it was love and affection he needs during his "sick" moments. Where I would rather pop an aspirin and be done with it, he's rather a more "natural nurturing" approach. I didn't get it at first, in fact I'd get pretty angry. But over time I learned to endure and suffer quietly. I've found I've actually adapted, and I don't really mind babying him and nurturing him back to headache-free health. It's nice because it makes him feel better, he appreciates me more, and I feel better about making him feel better. Funny how that works.

Anyway, I'm glad WE got that problem worked out but I still wonder about my kids. Will my self-diagnosis of disease and his consistent feeling of sickness wear off on our kids? Maybe we should make a deal that we won't talk about being sick or dying around our kids... That way they won't go to class telling their teacher their mom has cancer and their dad has lammonia (ok I totally made up that disease) or brain damage (ok maybe he has a little of that) or whatever!

Are you afraid of random character traits carrying on to your children?