[Jen78fl]

Hi all. Well just a couple of weeks ago my DD, who is 5 months now, had a really bad cold. She was extremely congested and was choking on her mucus. She also had a cough that was very raspy sounding and it seemed like she couldnt breathe very well. She had a fever also. We ended up taking her to the ER where they gave her a breathing treatment which did help some with her congestion.. She ended up with an ear infection though, for which I gave antibiotics, which I really dont want to do again. Anyway, I just REALLY dont want to go through all of this again so soon, but my son has come down with yet another cold he got from school.. Its just constant. I am taking extra zinc and vitamin C but I dont know if I can prevent her from getting it.. It didnt help much that my husband gave DD a bath right after my son last night and then used the same washcloth!! But anyway, does anyone have any suggestions on how I can prevent DD from getting a cold or at least from getting a really bad one?? Should I just try to BF alot more often? Is there anything else I can do? I just dont want her to go through all of that again.. Not to mention I was up all night when she was sick whenever she coughed because I worried she might starting choking on her mucus again

Anyway I appreciate any suggestions!!

Jen

 

[baileyann3]

oh wow totally subbing.. we are at the tail end of something NASTY

(hah i didnt mean for nasty to be in caps.. macey pressed that button right as i was tying nasty --- she has been miserable the last 2 weeks)

i'd do anything to keep this from happening again. i'm considering hibernating the rest of the winter!

:

 

[Jen78fl]

Hibernating sounds like a good idea to me! lol

 

[tanyalynn]

When my son started to get sick (when he was ebf) I'd start taking bowel tolerance vitC, it took a lot to get to bowel tolerance. If I dosed myself at least 4x/day, he got enough that none of his colds got really bad. He got a lot colds, eventually it got very routine. When he started on solids, I had to give the vitC to him directly (in a couple teaspoons of water with an oral syringe) in order to get the same benefit. Taking zinc yourself is probably a good idea, along with cod liver oil. When my son was older, I gave both to him, I think the zinc, A, and D were all beneficial, but not til he was a toddler (and the zinc with a healthcare provider helping with dosing).

 

[LadyCatherine185]

My DS is also at the end of a nasty cold and ear infection! (at least I hope this is the end) I think he picked up something at Thanksgiving.... I don't think I'm going to let anyone hold him on Christmas.

 

[Jen78fl]

Thanks for the info about the Vitamin C.. So I guess 1000 mg a day for me wouldnt be enough to help her cold?

 

[Shanana]

Chiro adjustments can help with ear infections. Also, a huge amount of the immune system is in the gut, so giving probiotics to keep the gut healthy will help. This is SUPER important since she just had antibiotics and all the good flora was wiped out.

 

[not_telling]

Re. vitamin C, I read on kellymom.com that only about 60mg of vitamin c can be passed through breastmilk...so I thought mega-doses for mom didn't really have much of an impact....?

 

[tanyalynn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen78fl Thanks for the info about the Vitamin C.. So I guess 1000 mg a day for me wouldnt be enough to help her cold?

Bowel tolerance is really individual based on many things, including mom's health. I've got health stuff going on (the main reason my son gets lots and lots of colds) and I could take in the range of 40-ish grams per day without getting diarrhea (and that's when I wasn't sick). Healthy adults would be less (although mom's vitC need will go up if her immune system is fighting off the illness).

 

[tanyalynn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by not_telling Re. vitamin C, I read on kellymom.com that only about 60mg of vitamin c can be passed through breastmilk...so I thought mega-doses for mom didn't really have much of an impact....?

The problem with many of the studies I've seen is that the methodology wasn't great. If you dose mom in the morning and then measure vitC throughout the day and average it, you won't really see what's going on. Dosing needs to be throughout the day since it's used so rapidly in the body. And dosing is really individual, and most of the studies I've seen (except the kind referenced in the books specifically about vitamin C) have a pre-set dose for adults, often pretty low. Like I mentioned above, people with health issues (not just obvious stuff like cancer) can have very high vitamin C needs, but even giving a healthy person, say, an extra 1000mg of vitamin C in the morning would be used by that person pretty fast. I think there's reasonable data suggesting healthy adults can use 4-5 grams per day, and so studies that add 500 or 1000mg don't get close enough to our basic need to show an effect.

I've felt vitC be used very, very quickly in my body--I used high doses to treat mastitis twice. I was taking 6 grams (6000mg) every 20 minutes for 4 or 5 hours, and I could feel (and I measured) my body temp go down and then up between doses, and my fever/chills/body aches followed along. That was obviously an acute infection, most illnesses aren't that severe, but it is an extreme example showing that the individual and their situation are very important to determining dosing, and most studies I've seen don't take those into account.

 

[janasmama]

Wish Garden makes a tincture called Herbalbiotic. I give that to my kids and it seems to work well. Actually we all take it.

 

[Jen78fl]

Thanks everyone.. Just wondering, does anyone know if much of the probiotics that I take will pass through to breastmilk??

 

[Shanana]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen78fl Thanks everyone.. Just wondering, does anyone know if much of the probiotics that I take will pass through to breastmilk??

I think they get some through breastmilk, but I'm not sure how much. It is safe to give them directly to babe too. Both my homeopath, chiro and the holistic ped we see recommend HMF Natogen for babies. I don't think you can pick that brand up in your standard health food store, but my holistic ped sells it through her website: here. It's a powder (fairly tasteless), so I just lick my pinky and dip it in the powder then put it in her mouth, once a day. She takes it just fine. My homeopath says that little scoop is way too much. So giving this dosage (powder on pinky), the bottle lasts forever.

 

[User101]

Moving to Health and Healing

 

[luvmi4]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shanana I think they get some through breastmilk, but I'm not sure how much. It is safe to give them directly to babe too. Both my homeopath, chiro and the holistic ped we see recommend HMF Natogen for babies. I don't think you can pick that brand up in your standard health food store, but my holistic ped sells it through her website: here. It's a powder (fairly tasteless), so I just lick my pinky and dip it in the powder then put it in her mouth, once a day. She takes it just fine. My homeopath says that little scoop is way too much. So giving this dosage (powder on pinky), the bottle lasts forever.

Probiotics stay in the gut, they are not passed through breast milk.

Do not lick your finger and put it in anything you intend to save (food, makeup, medications.) The bacteria and moisture from your saliva/hands will contaminate the contents (most people have fecal bacteria on their hands.) You could make your baby very sick doing this.

 

[Gitti]

Here is a post that I compiled on the subject -
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...03&postcount=2