If being sick is tough when you're an adult, it's even worse for our children when they come down with colds and flu. Headaches, sore throats, stuffy noses, fever, coughs, or stomach bugs. It's easy to feel miserable and worn out when you're little, and as adults, we naturally want to ease and comfort our children in the best way possible. Here are some natural and completely non-toxic lifehacks you can use when your child gets sick!
1. Offer organic super honey water with ginger
Honey is an amazing food with many beneficial properties. It contains minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants that help protect the body from free radicals. Honey has antibacterial effects as well as expectorant and cough-suppressing properties. That's why honey is excellent to consume when you have a cold.
Recipe for honey water:
About 325 ml water
1 tsp organic honey, unpasteurized (remember that children under 1 year should not consume honey)
1 tsp fresh organic ginger
Here's how to make it:
Bring about 325 ml of water to a boil in a kettle or pot.
Let the water cool to about 38 degrees Celsius and add about 1 tsp of organic honey (honey should not be heated above 38 degrees as it will lose its beneficial properties).
Press about 1 tsp of fresh ginger into the water using a garlic press.
Stir in the mug or shake the bottle.
Adjust the recipe according to your child's age and size. This amount of super honey water is suitable for children between about 1-3 years old. It can often be difficult to get children to drink water and fluids when they have a fever or are suffering from a cold, and that's when this honey water can be a lifesaver because it tastes good from the honey.
2. Combat sore throat by gargling with salt water
Having a sore throat is really not pleasant. It scratches, burns, and feels like you've swallowed sandpaper. A sore throat can make it difficult to swallow both fluids and food, which are so important to consume when you're sick. Help your child soothe their sore throat with a completely natural and homemade remedy, namely salt water gargling! The recipe is super simple and contains only two ingredients that most people have at home. Children can usually learn to gargle around the age of 4. A smart tip is to teach your child to gargle with plain water before letting them gargle with solutions that need to be spat out. Let your child gargle with a mouthful of warm water and teach them to always spit it out. When the child knows how to do this, you can move on to salt water gargling.
Recipe for gargle water with salt:
About 2.5 dl warm water
1/2 tsp Himalayasalt
Here's how to do it:
Teach your child to gargle with plain warm water first.
Boil about 2.5 dl of water in a pot or kettle.
Pour warm water into a mug and stir in the salt.
Make sure the salt water is at a suitable temperature for your child and not too hot to burn them.
Let your child gargle with the salt water for about 30 seconds and then spit it out. It's good to gargle several times until the mug is empty.
Remember to constantly stir the mug so that the salt doesn't settle at the bottom.
Gargle with salt water as needed and up to 3-4 times per day. Most people feel relief immediately.
3. Test the onion trick for coughs
Yellow onion is also an amazing food with many beneficial properties. Onions contain sulfur compounds that can help fight mucus and promote the expulsion of phlegm from your airways during colds. Many consider onion to be the most powerful natural antibiotic, capable of fighting both viral and bacterial infections as well as relieving coughs. Onion has traditionally been used against coughs for hundreds of years. When your child has a cough, you can benefit from trying the onion trick during the night to relieve coughing attacks or why not make your own homemade cough medicine?!
Recipe for the onion trick (nighttime cough relief):
1 organic yellow onion
Bowl or deep plate
Warm water (optional)
Here's how to do it:
Peel the onion.
Cut the onion into slices or wedges.
Place the onion on the nightstand next to the bed or on the floor beside the bed.
If you want, you can pour warm water over the onion so that it's almost covered. Experiment to see what works best for you.
Let the onion stay in the bedroom overnight so it can help relieve the cough.
Recipe for onion syrup (homemade cough medicine):
2 organic yellow onions
10 tbsp organic honey (remember that children under 1 year should not consume honey)
Juice from 1 organic lemon
Glass jar
Here's how to do it:
Peel and coarsely chop the yellow onion and put it into the glass jar.
Mix the honey with the lemon juice, pour the mixture over the onion.
Put the lid on the jar and let it sit in a warm place for about 24 hours.
Strain the mixture into a new clean airtight jar and store in the refrigerator (should keep for about 1-2 weeks).
Take 1/2 - 1 tbsp syrup 2-4 times a day for coughs.
Onion syrup is an old-fashioned remedy for coughs that our ancestors used frequently. However, the onion syrup can have an unpleasant taste for both children and adults, and a useful tip is to hold your nose when taking it. That way, you won't taste it as much! 😉 The lemon juice also makes the taste more bearable.
4. Boost with Vitamin C
Vitamin C has long been praised for its health benefits when you have a cold or flu, and most of us have probably heard that we should load up on vitamin C when we're sick. However, the body doesn't produce its own vitamin C, so we must get it through our diet. The question is, how do we get this important vitamin into our children?
Here are some tips:
Make a smoothie with frozen banana slices, black currants, strawberries, plant milk, and add Pink Pitaya Powder which is rich in vitamin C, B vitamins, fiber, and minerals.
If your child can swallow a capsule, Dr Mercolas Liposomal C-vitamin is excellent. Suitable for all children from 4 years and up. For those who cannot swallow capsules, there's MaryRuth's Vitamin C Liquid Drops. Also suitable for children from 4 years and up.
Make homemade rose hip soup using organic rose hip powder.
Slice up yellow and red bell peppers and eat them as they are!
5. Hydrate the body with plain water!
Children's bodies can easily become dehydrated during colds, high fevers, or stomach bugs. Therefore, remember that your child may need to drink extra water during illness. Plain water works very well, and you should avoid juice, soda, and other drinks with high sugar content as they can increase mucus in the throat. If your child has vomited or lost a lot of fluid, you can use a homemade sugar-free rehydration solution with honey.
How do you get your child to drink fluids? Here are some tips!
Let your child drink with a straw.
Give your child a water bottle they can carry with them or keep beside their bed. With an insulated water bottle, the water stays cold and tasty for longer!
Freeze ice cubes and add them to the water glass. All children love ice cubes!
Flavor the water with squeezed lemon, orange, or other fruit that your child likes.
Make popsicles with water and berries.
Recipe for homemade and sugar-free rehydration solution with honey
1/2 tbsp Himalayasalt
1 liter water
2 tbsp organic honey (remember that children under 1 year should not consume honey)
Juice from 1 organic lemon
Here's how to do it:
Heat water and salt in a pot.
Let the mixture cool to about 38 degrees Celsius and add about 2 tbsp honey (honey should not be heated above 38 degrees as it will lose its beneficial properties) and the lemon juice.
Stir and pour into a glass jar, cool down and serve.
Store in the refrigerator. The rehydration solution will keep for about 3 days.
Last but not least! Children need lots of affection and love when they are sick. Take the time to cuddle with your child, read a book, play a game, and let them get plenty of mom and dad time!
Please leave a comment with your best lifehack for sick children so we can learn from each other!
