beyond vitamin C

It's October 1st and while I have a whole series planned for this month on a different topic I wanted to first post about the flu season.

So, flu season has already begun and I've been gearing myself up for all the ways I can prevent illness in our home. I know after reading this you'll think I'm a germ-a-phobic and I risk exposing my Nazi-germ ways, but let me preface this by saying that my daughter had immune system issues as an infant and her specialist made me this way! To be fair, I was also raised by germ-a-phobic parents. Seriously though, a lot of this started because I had to with my daughter but I quickly learned that these things REALLY DID cut down on how often she was sick. Her specialist was on to something. From there I learned more about how we eat and how that contributes to our body's ability to fight off illness.

These are things I've been doing and testing over the past several years and I'm happy to report that our family gets sick on average once a year. That means that some years we get a head cold twice a year and other years we don't get sick at all! To boot, I've also noticed that we are sick for only a short while when others that have the same thing are sick for more than 2 weeks. I'm all for a short duration! Now, our daughter does get sick more often than the rest of us because of her issues with getting sick so easily but I know that if I didn't do these things that she would be sick much more often like she was in the first years of her life. Now she will get sick just a handful of times through the winter with the stomach flu but the rest of us don't get it.

Here are the things I'm gearing up for that I already know WORK......

- Lysol.
you think I'm kidding? oh no, I'm not. So, here's the deal. I buy those little sample size bottles in the check out isle of Walmart and keep them in my purse. So, every time we go into a store with a cart, my kids are trained to not touch the cart till it's been sprayed. I know you are thinking "overkill!" but trust me, this works. I was SHOCKED at how much less we got sick when I started this scene-causing-practice. You know, there comes a point in life...say about 30 yrs old, when you just don't care what people think anymore! To save some face, I only do this through the flu season or when something is going around....uh, I guess that's almost all the time. Oh well. Now, I know that Lysol isn't the most natural chemical I can spray around my family but considering swine flu and other green nasty things I see coming out of kid's noses who suck on the cart handles....ya, I'm thinking we'll go ahead and suffer the effects of Lysol as opposed to stomach flu, influenza and swine flu. I saw such a significant drop in our illnesses when I started this practice that as crazy as it is, I keep it up. Oh and my kids only panic and scream every once in awhile when someone goes to touch a cart without me spraying it first. BUT having said that, it leads me to my next one.......

- shop online!
Yep, we've seriously cut down how much we go into the store thanks to doing our groceries through delivery! But that's not all you can get online. You can do tons of shopping on line through places like Ebates.com, Amazon.com, Drugstore.com, and many others. Watch for free shipping promotions and you save yourself a ton of flu season exposure by shopping from the comfort of your own home. Need to know where the deals are? Go to www.dealnews.com.

- don't go around sick people.
okay, duh. We'd probably all agree with this one but truly how often do we sacrifice fun and socializing because someone has been sick, might be getting sick, or IS SICK! There doesn't seem to be a general rule with moms like you'd think....you know, the "I won't get your kids sick with my sick kids" rule....Nope, I'm convinced there is NO SUCH understanding in the mom world. Thankfully, my friends know how Nazi how important this is to me and have been super about not exposing my kids to even the slightest possibility of germ sharing. Thank you friends!

- hydration.
this is usually called "fluids" once it's too late and you're already sick. "Drink lots of fluids"...which, hey, is great, but seriously, if we drank more water to start with and our kids weren't running around dehydrated we'd fight off sickness better. I get my kids to drink distilled water to help detox during flu season. Besides detoxing, keeping our mucus membranes moist from hydration helps stop germs from going further and plain old helps our bodies function better. I read a study once that showed that most preschool children were dehydrated every day....which was the cause of many other ailments that they had.

- vitamins.
not from a bottle. Gotta get those germ fighting greens in. Power greens like broccoli, kale, spinach, etc. are awesome for ultimate health as flu season approaches. Don't forget everything that is packed into squash, green beans, and cauliflower. Pump up your blood with beets and almonds, and cream of wheat. Get your vit. C from citrus and red peppers. Fruit has got lots of vitamins and detoxes our bodies as well. Sprouts are an awesome food for good health.

- detox.
some foods that help us detox are brown rice, beans, barley, millet, quinoa, greens, cabbage, lemons, and fruits. Try to cut back on meats, dairy, and sugar.

- homeschool.
yep, believe it or not it cuts our illness I'd say at least by 75% from our friends that don't homeschool. Now, of course, this isn't the reason you should decide on what form of schooling you should provide for your kids but as an observer, I have to say this truly does cut down on exposure. Just a fact.

- change out hand towels often.
I try to change out the bathroom and kitchen hand towels more often as flu season approaches and during flu season. I also change sheets more often and try to air out the house from time to time....especially once I know we've been exposed or are coming down with something.

- wash hands after being out.
every time we come home from a store, I have my kids go in and wash their hands with soap immediately. I also carry handiwipes in my purse so that they can use them when we are out, especially before eating.

- train your kids.
train your kids to wash their hands regularly, to not pick up trash off the ground in public, to not put things in their mouths, cough into their elbows, etc. Kids are amazingly capable of meeting the expectations set for them. Prevention on this level is huge! I've noticed that a lot of parents do "damage control" parenting with their children and miss out on the benefits of training their children first. It's worth it to train them for prevention purposes. (Training them has other great benefits too but since this is a cooking blog I won't go there.)

- cut out refined sugar.
refined sugar lowers our immune systems. Cut out refined sugar and limit natural sugar.

- prevent mold and air out.
my daughter's infection specialist had us clean our daughter's room thoroughly regularly. Vacuuming daily even under the bed. Making sure there was no mold in her room (or in the house for that matter). Using allergy grade filters on our furnace. Wiping down her windows and sills regularly. Changing and washing her bedding often (all of it, dust ruffle, comforter, etc) and we used allergy covers on the pillows. Airing out the room with the window open every few days. These were all things that we did for her and then started doing with the whole house. This made a huge difference in how often we got sick.

- in the end, still make contact.
all of the above can sound very cold and unloving. Let me encourage you to still make contact with others, hugs, kisses, hand shakes, and gatherings. Fellowship and human touch are so important even through flu season. Just do it with discernment. Don't become so paranoid that you don't have any contact with the world outside of your front door.