A lot of things baffle me about American culture as well as our all-encompassing Allopathic/western medicine healthcare practices. No doubt antibiotics are the bomb, true enough. I unwillingly had to take a cycle last week to finally knock out a lingering nasty concoction made up of some type of strep, sinus, and chest nightmare. I tried all my usual suspects to cure myself; acupuncture, fresh ginger and lemon tea, greens, herbs, homeopathy, bone soup, Vitamin D, the list goes on and on. My husband finally had to threaten me. And I must say, thank you baby Jesus, because I seriously think I could have died without them. What a wonderful, beautiful, lifesaving drug; yet sadly they are over-prescribed and overused which is leading to our longer term sickness.
Here’s the low down… Antibiotics are needed to kill pathogens, the bad guys, but in the process, they also kill all the good bacteria living in our gut. This good bacteria (in the trillions) help to regulate our health, how quickly we can lose weight, how we process toxins, the list goes on and on. So we want to make these guys happy. If you are depleted, you’ll have a harder time fighting off the bad guys and the chances of multiple rounds of antibiotics could be greater the next time you are ill. So it becomes somewhat of a cycle. And you think one round of antibiotics isn’t so bad, think again, it could take an adult up to 1 year to build back up their microbiome (good bacteria).
Mothers ask me often about my daughter. She is hardly sick, has never been on antibiotics, and doesn’t have any allergy, asthma, or auto-immune issues. Below I share my insights that have worked for me in keeping her immune system strong and healthy.
Her morning regimen includes: Probiotics, Kefir & fish oil
Her diet is mostly made up exactly what I eat to make it simple: oatmeal, nuts, grassfed and organic protein, wild caught fish, fruits, veggies, fats such as ghee, coconut oil and olive oil. She eats sprouted bread, almond flour tortillas, raw sauerkraut with probiotics. All fresh, all bought at organic markets and made at home.
She drinks plenty of water, coconut water with lunch w/ some vitamin D drops, coconut milk and organic cow’s milk from grass-fed cows.
Snacks if requested: raw nut bars (rx has a good blueberry, one she loves, go marco has a great cashew, one she loves), organic pouches in a pinch, hamburger meat, edamame, apples with cashew or almond butter, ice pops (made of fruit and coconut milk — she makes them herself!). Of course, she eats normal stuff too like ice cream, and the occasional candy.
If she’s around a lot of kids for the day, I will give her a teaspoon of elderberry syrup. She also gets a multi-vitamin but I don’t sweat this too much. She has her own whole food kid’s vitamin or I let her suck on my vitamin drink throughout the day.
If she is starting to get sick, I make her chicken soup right away with bone broth from scratch. The secret is to add apple cider vinegar to extract all the minerals from the bones into the broth. If she won’t eat it, I mix the broth in with her food. I usually cook a whole chicken every 2 months and freeze the broth so I have it.
If it doesn’t look like she’s going to kick it, I take her to the acupuncturist and she can usually needle it out. The symptoms she’ll experience are less and she can also give her an herbal tincture if needed to help boost her immune system to fight it naturally. Alternatively, I might ask her homeopathic doctor for her recommendation. Sometimes she recommends homeopathic medicine you can buy at wholefoods.
That’s pretty much it. Feed her the right food, avoid bad food as much as possible without being extreme. Find ways to help her immune system be strong, get populated with the good bacteria and get her some help when sickness comes on.
Of course, if more serious signs are present, I take her to the doctors as necessary.
If this seems like too much to change to your routine, pick one or two things to do and slowly work it in over time. Adding the probiotics and fish oil is easy and can make a big difference. In all honestly, this is so second nature to me now, and it’s really little to no effort at this point. I cook double chicken at dinner time and save her some for lunch the next day. Simple things like that.
I think as a society, we’ve traded good nutrition for quick fast food and our overall wellness is suffering. You can either spend the time to set your life up for wellness or spend your time dealing with a sick kid. For me, I’d rather not deal with a sick kid constantly on antibiotics. The stronger she is, the stronger we are as a family. I want to teach her that she has the power to heal her body and keep it healthy — wellness is her responsibility. It’s the greatest gift I’m giving her.
I hope this helps you and your family. Let’s take our health & vitality back!