A few days after our Thanksgiving gathering with family and exposure to sickness my youngest son looked like this
after a few more days he looked like this
and after a couple weeks of misery that included goopey eyes that itched and burned,
his eyes look like this.
Just days before Christmas, his cough finally relented.
I’m so happy to be on the other side of this battle. I nourished and supported his little body and environment in every way that I knew how. To see him still become so ill was really hard–especially because I work hard to nourish him and keep him healthy. I tried to see it as a positive, as an opportunity for his developing immune system to go to battle and come out stronger as a result. I told him to tell his body to fight and stay strong at heart.
To add to this, his dad also became very sick. The man rarely gets sick any more. For several years now, he has taken the vitamins I recommend, given up a lot of garbage (stuff you can’t really call food), and he eats what I cook from scratch. Since we’ve been together, his cholesterol levels have come down and returned to normal, he gave up the inhaler he has always used, he went from being lactose intolerant to being able to consume dairy without unpleasant side effects, and he stopped getting the nasty, blow a lung coughing kind of colds that he always got when we were dating. The man sounded like a barking seal reliably each year. He hasn’t sounded like that or come down with anything like that in years.
As a result, he has become accustomed to feeling well. I know because of how he reacted to becoming sick. He was not happy about the situation and everyone in the house knew it. It was rough-for both of us. His cough was unrelenting and his patience for it was slim. He consulted with a friend of his who is an oncologist and this is one of the items that was recommended to help him get through the nighttime coughing.
He went to the store and purchased this. I warned him beforehand it would be a bottle of poison, but he trusted his friend, the medical professional. He did not look at the label in the store before bringing his purchase home. In addition to the sleep aid there are chemical preservatives, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, and corn syrup in the mix. This is the solution when people are ill?
I’ve mentioned that Red No. 40 is banned in Europe. Enough said. High fructose corn syrup suppresses the immune system and promotes inflammation among other things. According to the Cosmetics Database Polyoxyl 40 Stearate (listed as PEG – 40 Stearate) is a moderate to high hazard ingredient. It mentions cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity, organ toxicity, and irritation concerns, and has been found to cause tumor formation at moderate doses in rabbits. (poor rabbits…) Sodium benzoate has the ability to deprive the cells of oxygen, break down the immune system and cause cancer. Saccharin showed up on a blood test of mine as antagonistic to my body, as did the colors. And did you catch the ingredient “flavor”? What in the world is flavor? What chemical concoction might that be? Shouldn’t it be required to be listed?
What is all of this doing in something people take when they are not feeling well and need some sleep? Why is a bottle of this even legal?
It was frustrating to see my little guy get so sick despite my best efforts and back flips to get him well. Thankfully, I never felt a twinge of anything. I ramped up my own immune boosting protocol and ate lots of live food in the process because I was playing with snot and getting coughed and sneezed on and hoped for the best! Christmas definitely came a little early for me in the way of wellness.
I went commando in my attempts to get them better. My son’s dad already thinks I’m an extremist when it comes to eating well and taking care of my family food wise. (I beg to differ.) I was probably not the most compassionate during this display of sickness. Because I work hard at wellness, I have no tolerance for whining, complaining and laying around if you are not doing everything you can to be well. I realized how deep I have to dig lately to be compassionate to others when they are not feeling well if they are not being proactive, eating wisely and moving their bodies. The same goes for myself if I choose to indulge from time to time. If I feel like junk as a result, I have no one to blame but myself and try not to mope around and complain about it.
I would in my defense like to say that I threw the book at them in my efforts to get them well. I ramped up vitamin C, D and zinc and offered fresh, live food.
I made soups with vegetables and homemade stock, I had humidifiers and simmering pots of essential oils going, I tried to get him to neti pot his nose and clean it out, I suggested he get some fresh air, sunshine on his skin and encouraged him to walk barefoot on the earth. I knew the barefoot part wouldn’t happen, but the walk did. 🙂 I made him teas and homemade cough syrups that had everything from apple cider vinegar to thyme and honey. I kept the four kids occupied so he could rest for hours at a time and I encouraged him to get his spine adjusted (noticeable improvement in health after), and I showed him love and support (I promise, I did).
After three weeks his cough finally subsided just in time for Christmas and I am praising Jesus!
I share all of this so you may be mindful of what is in those colorful bottles of cough syrup, sleep aids, etc. We have to be our own health advocates because unfortunately, the shelves are lined with bottles of toxic concoctions and well meaning doctors are not always recommending what is truly in our best interest.
Praying this finds you feeling well and staying well in the new year!
Rheum For God 