|
 As parents, we want happy healthy children. Sometimes it seems like a fight to get our children through the cold and flu season without major battle wounds. Our suggestion is to play offensively. Strengthen your child's immune system all year long, to prevent the struggle of treating cold and flu symptoms over and over and over again. Focus your time, effort, energy (and money) on building your child's internal army. Not only will he process colds and flus more effectively, he can better protect himself from immune system malfunctions that lead to allergies, asthma, eczema, auto-immune diseases, and cancer to name just a few. We take a 3 step approach to strengthening our children's immune systems: the basics, the supplements, and the extras.
The Basics
Feed your child REAL food and leave the fake foods on the shelf. REAL food is full of the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that support health and healing. Fake food not only lacks important nutrients, but is filled with anti-nutrients such as sugar (in many different forms), enriched flour and artificial ingredients (partially-hydrogenated fat, high-fructose corn syrup, food additives and dyes). Anti-nutrients such as these weaken your child's immune system. Include lots of RAW food, such as raw vegetables, nuts and seeds which promote a healthy digestive system, and therefore a healthy immune system.
Water, water, water! Teach your child how to drink half her body weight in ounces every day. Water hydrates the cells so they can function properly. This includes the cells that make up your child's immune system. Make it a goal to drink your daily water before you drink anything else! Morning cup of coffee anyone? Those little eyes are watching us all the time! Drinking water automatically crowds out drinks that have too much sugar, caffeine or other fake food ingredients that decrease your child's immune function. Use our water chart. Post it on your fridge and make it a family competition. Who can meet their daily water goal and for how many days in a row? Easier said than done!
Don't forget the no-cost way of supporting your immune system...sleep. Rest plays a large part in helping our bodies heal and our immune system function properly. Guarantee most adults and teens fall short. Sleep plays a large part in helping your child’s body heal and function properly, including the immune system. Traditionally (before the electronic gadget era) people would go to sleep when it became dark and wake with the morning sun, which meant more sleep in the fall and winter months. With all the activities and distractions, we often forget about the important role of sleep when it comes to staying healthy. Sleep deprivation adds up over time….An hour less per night is like a full night without sleep by the end of the week! How does your child compare to the average recommended hours? Here are some basic guidelines:
- Infants: 17 hours per 24 hours
- 1-3 years: 12.5 per 24 hours
- 4-5 years: 11 hours per 24 hours
- 6-12 years: 10 hours per night
- 13+ years: 9 hours per night
The Supplements
Wouldn't it be great if that was it? Feed your child REAL food, drink some water and fall into bed? We certainly wish that were true. If your child is eating mainly REAL food, he is getting a ton of nutrients.Way more nutrients than if he were eating all the fake foods filled with toxic ingredients. So why does he need supplements too? Unfortunately, even a diet full of REAL food can fall short of what our bodies need due to farming practices, soil quality and toxins in our environment.
There are three supplements we consider "must have supplements". These supplements (backed by research) do such an amazing job of supporting your child's immune system, it's worth your energy (and money) to get these into your child everyday!
- multi-vitamin with minerals
- probiotics &
- essential fatty acids with extra vitamin D
These particular nutrients used to be available to us through food that was grown in pure mineral-rich soil, traditional food preparation (fermenting) and spending lots of time outside in the sunshine (without sun screen slathered all over us).
Multi-Vitamin with Minerals
Unfortunately, even if your family is eating REAL food, local and organic, you still fall short on supplying all of your mineral needs. Studies that compared the mineral content of soils today with soils 100 years ago found that agricultural soils in the United States have been depleted of 85% of their minerals. (Rio Earth Summit 1992) The alarming fact is that foods – fruits, vegetables and grains – now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contains enough of certain needed nutrients, are starving us -- no matter how much we eat of them. (U S Senate Document 264, 1936) That's why it is so important to support your child's immune system with a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement. Vitamin A helps make the white blood cells that fight infections and is part of the barriers that make up the body's first line of defense against invaders (skin, respiratory, intestinal and urinary tracts). Vitamins C and E and the mineral selenium are free radical scavengers, reducing the damage these charged particles do to cells (which unchecked can lead to cancer). Zinc is another mineral involved in activating the white blood cells that are designed to identify and destroy invaders.
Probiotics
Some of you eat fermented food daily - good for you! For the rest of us, we need to supplement with probiotics for an easy source of the beneficial bacteria found in fermented foods. A study published in Pediatrics found daily probiotic supplementation during the winter months to be a safe and effective way to reduce the number and length of fevers, runny noses, and coughs in pre-school children. This same study also found probiotic supplementation decreased the number of times antibiotics were prescribed, as well as the number of missed school days due to illness.[1] Probiotics support the 70% of your child's immune system that is in her gut, called GALT (Gut-Associated Lymphoid Tissue). A healthy GALT creates a balance between the cells creating inflammation and those cells decreasing inflammation. Remember, inflammation is at the root of most chronic diseases including allergies, asthma, eczema, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Imagine, a simple pill a day to keep all those away!
Essential Fatty Acids with extra vitamin D
Since we shouldn't feed our families fish daily due to water contamination, it's important to supplement with cod liver oil to meet our essential fatty acid needs. Most of us don't spend enough time out in the sunshine (without slathering on sunscreen) to soak up the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D. See why vitamin D is essential for your family's health. The research supporting the benefit of vitamin D and essential fatty acids found in cod liver oil is mind boggling. Just look at how many studies show how these nutrients support a child's health and development, from the fetus inside the womb on through the adolescent years into adulthood. It is truly amazing!
Vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and probiotics all play a role in supporting your child's immune system. Start supplementing your child's diet today!
The Extras
During the cold and flu season we add in a few extras, for "extra insurance". Our two favorites are highlighted here. For more ideas see Traditional Remedies for Colds & Flu.
Starting September 1st, we give our family a homeopathic flu remedy every two weeks through the end of April. This remedy has been 88% effective in preventing the flu and 82% effective in treating flu-like symptoms in clinical trials. We also use this same remedy 3-5 times daily during a cold, since it has been shown to be 75% effective in treating common cold symptoms (runny nose, nasal congestion and cough). It is safe and effective without any side effects. It is actually more effective than the flu vaccine in preventing the flu! See Vaccines.
Another favorite extra of ours in the essential oil blend Immune. Pure essential oils incorporate the healing power of plants that have been used for thousands of years around the world. Immune is a blend of oils that are antiviral and antibacterial. Including this simple remedy in your child’s daily bath or nightly vaporizer is a simple and inexpensive way to protect from viruses and treat symptoms plus there are no negative side effects. Follow these easy tips for how to use Immune.
All this to support your child's immune system? YES! May sound like a tall task to some, but in time it becomes second nature. The result of your invested time, effort, energy (and money) is right in front of you! She's worth it!
Susan McCreadie, MD is a Holistic Pediatrician and co-founder of nourishMD. She shows parents how to find REAL health for their child, so they can stop treating their child's symptoms and instead find solutions that help their child heal from the inside out.
Sources:
1. Leyer, GJ. (2009, Aug). Probiotic effects on cold and influenza-like symptom incidence and duration in children. Pediatrics. 124(2):e172-9
|
Articles 
