Does your child get sick quite often?..
Here are few tips to tackle child sickness..
Once upon a time I was sailing in the same boat.!
When my daughter turned two, I enrolled her into preschool. (So early because I wanted ‘me’ time after deciding to be stay at home mother leaving a full time job.)
But we never realized this two hour time would turn so bitter for us. My daughter started getting sick after every week or fifteen days with cough,cold or fever. Well, the doctor was prescribing very strong antibiotic which in turn was hampering her immunity.
We consulted another doctor! He asked us to do all kinds of tests..blood test and urine test... The result just said little low hemoglobin level. But the doctor told us that she may be allergic to things and she can face such recurrent coughs throughout her life… :-(
I called my helpline numbers - my uncle and my cousin who are doctors. Both told me same thing. Not to give her antibiotics at all. Keep cold water strips on forehead for fever. If required, give low dosage paracetamol. For cough and cold, apply home remedies or give ayurvedic medicines like sitopaladi churna in low dose.
I sincerely followed their advice. I read on the internet on the guideline to deal with child fever. So it just came out that it is body’s mechanism to increase temperature while fighting the germs attack. Nothing to worry if it is just 100 degree. So I kept close watch on fevers with thermometer. If in case it crosses 100, then only we decided to take action.
Another front we had to fight was cough and cold. So, I made ‘Aai ka Nuskha’ which I am still using. Whenever my daughter has slight inclination of cold, I make lots of Turmeric-Jaggery laddus( Very small size) . Right from childhood, she likes to eat those laddus. So this is her three times dosage for a day (with warm water). Earlier I used to give her little bit sitopaladi churn as well (mixed with honey for dealing with cough). We also took homeopathic medicines early on which also helped a lot.
Another advice which my uncle had given was that not to eat or drink anything from the fridge directly. But this one we were already following.
My husband and I drink water from simple steel jar.( now tap water in Europe). Only in three months of summer we use Matka water. This has immense benefit on resistivity. Other thing is that I cook fresh food twice a day and don’t eat anything stale from the fridge. So my daughter was getting fresh food from early on.
We realized, if we have to boost her immunity we have to take more efforts so that she eats well. (Basically she is very picky eater. Without doing any faces, she doesn’t start eating.) So I started feeding her wholesome meal, (dal, chawal, roti sabji) . So my routine was to tell stories, sing songs with nearby children or simply playing with her and somehow make her eat. So one meal time was approximately one hour for us. (No mobile or tv intervention while eating). My husband used to help feeding her in the evening.
We used to have huge relief when my mother in law or my mother would visit us!
So we kept on feeding her….trying and failing completely in making her eat on her own. When she turned four, her school principal asked me when I am going to let her eat on her own. I declared to my daughter that she has to eat on her henceforth…
The same declaration continued...till she turned ‘six’!
And my husband still teases me on my declarations …
And I miss the fantastic time with bachcha party while feeding her…
So, this whole exercise turned out to be well. While eating right, we made sure that she is actually turning away from most of junk food. So we took steps..buying potato chips once or twice a year, not buying fruit juices at all, buying chocolates rarely, buying packaged stuffs once in a while etc. Instead, I started making fresh fruit juices, soups, Laddoos, Puris, chutneys at home. I buy fryums and fry it in fresh oil for her. Ice cream is allowed in summer months only.( I strongly believe, it is total myth that Ice Cream can be consumed in winter as well.) These little steps were big booster in her immunity level.
All these efforts started giving fruits...Cough and cold attacks got minimized to once or twice a year.
(no allergy sort of thing). In last four years, we went to see a doctor only once when her stomach was really upset! Other times, her tummy was all fine and we never had to clear her vomiting or deal with loose motions.. (Fingers crossed…xxx)
I understand every child is different. But if you are sailing in the boat of child sickness, do check your lifestyle, eating habits and medications being prescribed!!
Another last sort of ‘advice’ - Use floor cleaner sparingly (Once or twice a month).Instead mop with plain water. Little dirt is actually good for health!
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
