Possible strep and sodium ascorbate

[danipoppins]

Heya,

DS9 has had a sore throat for a couple days. I just got him back from his time with his other parent. His throat, tonsils and back of his upper palate have lots of little red dots on them and his uvula is also red. He's been running a low grade fever.

I'm thinking he may have strep, which is going around these parts, and considered bringing him in for a strep test. BUT, I really don't want to give him abx. He *just* got done a round a month ago for whooping cough (so he wouldn't be contagious and could go to school, argh). That was only the second time in his life he's had abx, but I really want to avoid giving them again if I can.

So, I told the other parent to give him sodium ascorbate when he started getting sick, but of course the effort was half-assed. Today is his first day back with me and he's had 10 or 13 grams (I lost count) and actually asked me to wake him up in the middle of the night so he could take more because he believes it's helping him get better. We haven't hit bowel tolerance yet.

Is this a reasonable approach if it is strep? I don't want to be neglectful, just want to give him what he needs to get better and avoid abx at the same time.

Thanks for your input

[LovelyNJ]

Honestly one of the only things I would go to the dr. and get them for is strep. It can get serious and continue coming back (I have had it several times with high fevers and needed antibiotics each time since trying to treat it myself once). If the test comes back negative just dont take anything, but it might be worth taking in the case of strep.

[tanyalynn]

I would be willing to treat myself and my kids with the various nutritional and other supports we use for a sore throat w/o testing for strep, and use our progress, or lack thereof, as a guide as to whether we needed to seek medical help.

You may want to add in things that are more topical in the throat--a friend uses turmeric, almost tossed back in the throat, I haven't tried that but I'm keeping the ideas as backup if I ever need it.

I make Aviva Romm's garlic lemonade and we sip that when we're coughing or when our throats hurt, in addition to SA. It's really yummy--garlic, lemon juice, water, and honey.

[EVC]

We just went through strep/scarlet fever about a month ago. We did the abx so she wouldn't be contagious (as you did for WC)--that was also her first time with meds. So I sympathize.

I've recently become interested in Manuka honey. We are very new users, so I can't really provide any personal experience at this point. But I have read *claims* that it is effective against the strep bacteria.

Might be something to look into as well.

[EVC]

Here's a link, for example:

http://www.manukahoneyusa.us/Sore-Throats.htm

[danipoppins]

We finally reached bowel tolerance this morning after 6G more of SA. He had 4G with breakfast, said he was having some cramps, then he had 2G about 2 hrs later and barely got it down before he raced to the bathroom.

I got some propolis spray at WF while we were out because I read that could help. I only got him to use it once before he declared it was gross AND burned.

During our lunch of homemade chicken soup with bone broth, he said his throat didn't hurt anymore. Phew. Glad I didn't take him and and stayed home and went with my gut on this one.

So, now that he's at bowel tolerance, where do we go with the SA? I gave him another 2G with lunch and so far no more cramps or trips to the bathroom. Do I keep giving it to him until he reaches BT again then back off to a maintenance dose for a couple days to make sure he's out of the woods?

[tanyalynn]

If his body is still using a lot to deal with this infection, the amount he needs could stay elevated--you'll have to fine-tune how much he needs and how often, but once the infection is fading, the amount his body needs should start dropping. I'd try to tweak the amount to follow what his body needs--there will definitely be trial and error, but I found that helpful for the next illness. Get an idea now, and less guesswork is involved the next time he's sick.

Glad he's feeling better today!

[danipoppins]

Thanks tanyalynn I guess I need a little more clarity though. Do I just keep giving it to him every couple hours? I was giving him 3-4G every couple hours, after we hit BT I cut back to 2G. Should I just keep along this way until we hit BT again, then keep giving it to him? I guess what I'm asking is, once we hit BT, do we take a break or just keep on dosing? Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, we're new to SA. Thanks!

[tanyalynn]

Dosing 3-4x/day total should be enough--you shouldn't have to give more doses, but that's where the tweaking comes in.

For example: let's say he was taking 3 grams every 3 hours, so 5 doses per day, 15 grams total in a 24-hour period.

You should be fine re-adjusting that to 5 grams 3x/day, and then you'd expect that, at some point, a 5-gram dose would be too much and you start reducing the amount--it may go down very quickly though, seems to depend on the illness and the person.

But for example--when I had mastitis, I wasn't sure how big of a dose I needed, so I ended up taking SA every 20 minutes. I probably could've taken a much larger dose, a lot less frequently, but it was hard to figure out at the time. But the SA clears the system (either used up or just flushes out) in about 6-ish hours (faster if you're really sick, but I don't think you can make it hang around in your body, even if you're healthy, for more than 6 hours) so that's why you want at least 3 doses/day.

Once you get to the diarrhea stage, you're actually somewhat over bowel tolerance, and you'd want to dial back the amount to a reasonable guess so that it's less than the diarrhea-inducing dose. The "bowel tolerance" amount isn't an exact amount so much as a close-enough guess.

Is that clearer? There IS a lot of estimating at first, I even wrote down times and dosages early on, but you'll get a feel for it over time.

[danipoppins]

Originally Posted by tanyalynn

Is that clearer? There IS a lot of estimating at first, I even wrote down times and dosages early on, but you'll get a feel for it over time.

That does help. Thanks!