What I did when my children came down with a cold last week

It’s usual practice in our culture to carry on as normal when a cold strikes, especially when children are within the school system. It’s a new dilemma for my 14-year-old whose only been in the system for 2 1/2 months. Should he go into college and keep up his 100% attendance, or should he go with the needs of his body and take rest?

He chose rest. And whilst I understand that this choice can be a matter of privilege, it has always been a conscious decision of mine to foster self-care. I think the ultimate care is the love of a mother, and that closeness, connection and bond like no other. I’ve always said that a child’s best medicine is ‘Mummy-medicine’, and so this is what we have prioritised as part of our cold care protocol.

Together with Mummy-medicine is the power of rest. In fact, being close to mother is incredibly soothing for the nervous system, which means that in the absence of stress, the immune system is free to work optimally. We’ve always prioritized rest when needed, we’re a very active family, and so when our body is screaming “stay in bed!”, we think it’s wise to comply.

Strong Instincts

This has been one of the blessings of home-educating. From birth our instincts for self-care are strong, and I wanted my children to preserve theirs as much as possible. Getting in sync with our natural rhythms fosters greater ease and more robust health. It’s been interesting to witness different needs with each of my three children in terms of eating, sleeping, movement and socialising.

They each experience illness differently. My eldest rarely gets fevers and has suffered from a few bouts of tonsilitis. My middle son gets ill rapidly with a high temperature, often through the night, only to wake as though it never happened. My younger daughter is somewhere in between.

I always find that a really good cold is a fantastic excuse for a couple of days in bed. Get all the supplies together; hot flask of tea, plenty of water, a book, journal and snuggly clothes. Let all the symptoms be expressed in full force. Hopefully the high temperature can burn most of it out. All energy is conserved for mounting an effective immune response.

I do see this as a privilege to be able to do this, which saddens me when circumstances don’t allow. We should all have the right to self-care when needed. However, it is often a choice to prioritise health that many people don’t take, and this also saddens me.

I’ve observed how a cold can be stopped in its tracks by carrying on as usual, only to experience deep exhaustion when finally stopping, or recurring low level symptoms.

Tonics, Teas and Tinctures

We know how to do illness in our house. It’s like an event. We have evolved a natural protocol that doesn’t even need to be voiced it’s so ingrained. Everything slows down, rest is prioritised, along with nourishing foods and medicines. My herbal medicine skills are mobilised and I set to work on making natural remedies.

We automatically stop eating sugar knowing it’s a poison that inhibits the immune system. The boys stop eating dairy as it’s congesting, (the rest of us are dairy-free anyway). We start taking vitamin C, plus a good quality multivitamin.

I make tinctures, tonics and teas!

My husband creates simple easily digestible soups from fresh veg grown in his kitchen garden.

My tincture blends have around five herbs in a bottle of which we take 5ml at least three times daily. Often, I’ll include echinacea, liquorice, thyme and elderflower among other awesome immune boosters which work according to a wide range of mechanisms.

The teas are mostly taken fresh straight from the garden and include thyme, herb Robert, oregano, bramble leaf, self-heal, lemon balm and mint. Absolutely full of powerful phytonutrients!

Foraging Medicines

I love making tonics as slow decoctions in my slow cooker which holds about 1L. Last week I added finely chopped fresh nettle, (a hand-blender works well), with elderberries and blackberries, (from the freezer frozen in humous pots), plus lots of thyme from the garden, (my favourite!), and a few chopped apricots. After 24hrs I strained it and added a large tablespoon of molasses for flavour and preservation, as well as a teaspoon of ascorbic acid, (vitamin C), which also preserves and supports the immune system.

I made another batch this week after harvesting more nettles up on the hill. It’s amazing to see the winter re-growth available at this time of year! I picked even more this time and when I strained the tonic I could see that it was good to go again, and so poured in a bottle of live vinegar from our local orchard. I’ll leave this to soak most of the week before straining and rebottling. Live vinegar is massively health giving and gives the liver a boost when taken first thing in the morning in a glass of water.

Both tonics can e take three times a day at around 20-30ml, more is ok, but may be laxative. For a family of five a litre of tonic is all gone before the week is out, so no need to worry about preserving.

Additionally, we drink cleavers water whenever they are available to forage. I found some new shoots this week growing in readiness for spring. They are an excellent lymphatic tonic which encourages the flow of the lymph and help optimise lymph gland health.

All the tonics are pretty tasty and give us the reassurance that we are nourishing our body with concentrated nutrition which will give us the boost wee need to support the extra demand placed upon our bodies whilst responding to the infection and making a full recovery.

Resources & Rest

After 17, 14 and 12 years my children trust our system for dealing with illness. It follows the principles of convalescence, rest, simple foods, natural medicines. Our aim is to work with the body, (not against it through suppression, as per conventional approaches), supporting our innate capacity for recovery. Giving it what it needs, (all the resources & rest), to do the best job it can:

- Respect the high energy demands required of an illness by not directing energy to anything else other than recovery

- Nutrient dense fresh whole foods, warm, blended and modest to avoid overtaxing the digestive system whose function is not a priority of the body during illness

- Medicines in the true sense of the word. Agents that act to strengthen the body, build up resources and naturally enhance effectiveness. Medicines that act so deeply and are so far reaching, even with all our modern research it’s barely comprehensible how much our body thrives in their presence. These are agents we have evolved with over millennia. We get each other beyond our cognitive understanding.

Blessings

I feel blessed to have raised my family with my herbal knowledge, as well as understanding the process of illness, from both conventional and holistic perspectives. It has allowed us to feel empowered to care for ourselves and take responsibility for our health without over-the-counter meds and trips to the GP.

My children are in choice, and in touch with their instincts. They know what to look for, when to rest and when to cut out the crap and get the medicines in. It’s a natural part of our life. We’ve never reached for the Calpol, paracetamol or ibuprofen.

Chamomile tea has always been our go to. When the children were little, they’d dip the tea bag in the mug repeatedly and suck out the tea. We also created hand soaks in the sink with it. It’s soothing, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and enhances digestion.

In fact, when I had covid, tea was my saviour. Along with my daughter! It was my she who, without instruction, took up the scissors to fill the teapot with an array of fresh herb from the garden. Out of all the things I was taking, I can honestly say that it was that hot tea that made a genuine difference to my experience, giving me instant and much needed relief.

Which brings me back to ‘Mummy-medicine’ being the best medicine, or simply attentive loving human care. It means we can let down our guard, sink in, rest deep, conserve resources and take the strain off our body. Being cared for is incredibly restorative for our nervous system, which by-the-way, when agitated and stressed is a further strain causing suppression of the immune response.

Convalescence

Care during the recovery period is just as important as during the active infection stage. The period of convalescence allows us to build back up to full strength. An illness is incredibly depleting of energy and resources which needs to be replenished before we get back to our usual daily activities. Failing this puts a strain on our immune system and we can end up with recurrent infections and even fall into a state of chronic fatigue.

One way of supporting our capacity to convalesce is by utilising mild sedatives. I always joke that I sedate my children. Using mild herbal sedatives reduces restlessness, anxiety and fretfulness. They encourage deep restorative sleep and proper rest. Chamomile is a great one for this, as is lime flower/linden blossom and Californian poppy.

My children’s health is strong and resilient, and they feel empowered to care for themselves when they come down with a cough or cold, working with the body’s natural rhythms and capacity for returning to wellness.

When my children came down with a cold last week I made them fresh herbal tonics, tinctures and teas. My husband cooked fresh nourishing soups, and my children allowed themselves the rest their bodies longed for.

If you’d like to explore creating a natural approach to treating your family through winter infections, get in touch and we can go about making it happen!

www.healthneedsthyme.co.uk