The Flu

Hi all,

How are you all doing?

We were doing great until the flu knocked on our door this weekend.
Sophia has been coughing her lungs out since Saturday evening. Took her to the pediatrician early this morning. Diagnosis: The flu plus an ear infection #nosleepformommy

She woke up with fever this morning, which scared me. She isn't a very fever prone kid. She rarely gets high fever. I was shocked when I saw 39.5 Celsius on the thermometer. I didn't even call the doctor, I just showed up there like a crazy lady.

I'm actually typing this post to give you some tips to soothe/calm the coughing.
We have been struggling with Sophia's coughing since she was born.
Normally her flu's have a pattern:

1. Runny nose
2. Ear pain (due to runny/clogged nose)
3. Crazy cough
4. The end

We try to prevent the flu getting to stage 3 but we're not always successful.

I use nose drops, which work wonders to prevent the ear pain. BUT, Sophia hates them so it's a massive struggle to actually get the drops into her nose. Let me know if you have some advice for me on that.

Second thing are herbal baths to open up the the clogged nose.

Here is the one we buy at DM in Germany (We live nearby).

When none of these really improve her condition, I initiate the "kill the virus" treatment.

This consists in making a powerful concoction of: raw honey, lemon and coconut oil.

Only if this doesn't help at all, I start with giving her medicine. Of course, if she has fever, like this morning, I'll give her paracetamol to make the fever go down.

The Concoction

Basically you mix:

• 1/4 cup of raw honey
• juice of an entire lemon
• 1 table spoon of coconut oil

in a small saucepan and slightly (really just barely) heat it up, so the coconut oil melts. Do not cook this, honey should not be cooked. Mix it all very well together and store it in a jar. It can be stored up to a month in the fridge and makes about 1/2 a cup.

You can give as much as you want to your kid and/or take it yourself. I personally do the treatment with Sophia, because I'm very prone to flu's myself.

Please note that honey is not recommended for kids under the age of one.

Normally, I would give Sophia a big spoonful every one or two hours and after an entire day, you could already notice the improvement.

I found this recipe on pinterest by the way. Here is the link to the original recipe.

The original recipe only calls for 3 table spoons of lemon juice and two table spoons of coconut oil instead of one. I have changed it up slightly, just because the taste of coconut oil was too overpowering and Sophia would start to gag. She (and I as well) prefers the lemon taste.

Bonus tips

• For really bad night coughs, try to add humidity to the bedroom. I take a midsize towel and damp it with water. Damp is enough, it doesn't have to be soaked. Then I hang it in Sophia's room during the night. You can also just put a bowl with water in the bedroom, same effect. Most convenient thing of course, an humidifier!
• This is my grandma's ultimate stop cough tip: Cut an onion in half and position it near the bed. Not directly in the bed, just near the bed on the floor. Works very well for Sophia as well. Warning: Your kids bedroom will smell like a Kebab in the morning! But hey, who doesn't love Kebab? #kebabislife
• Snuggles and an extra dose of love always help!!

Hope you enjoyed the post and you can actually put some of my tips to practice #healthykidshappyparents

Let me know if you do use the recipe or try any of the tips. If you have any advice yourself, please share it with me. I'd love to hear your tips as well.

Talk to you later....

xoxo

Jeny