Worried about Back-to-School Cooties?

Those of you with kids going back to school may worry about the sharing of germs and “cooties” that often happens at school.  It’s just a fact of life that kids get sick, and sometimes you do too, but here are some ideas to lessen the odds and strengthen the immune system.

*Note:  As I’m often asked which specific brands I recommend, I’m providing you access to an online source that I use to help take the guess work out of your decision-making.  My recommendations are listed there and you get a10% discount off of the entire site too (they also carry personal care products and pet health products).

If you’re interested, here are the instructions:  

go to www.emersonecologics.com and open a new account.  When prompted, enter my access code (finnie) and zip code (95062).   Payment is done by you and products are shipped directly to you.  Easy peasy!

Physical Remedies

• Acupuncture – Studies show that regular acupuncture, or even just at a season change, can strengthen your immune system.  Many practitioners work with kids if you can talk them into it!  If not, ask about acupressure instead of needles.

• Herbal Medicine – Echinacea is a great herb to boost your immune system.  You can take it alone, or in combination with other herbs.  If you think you’ve been exposed to something, take a dropperful in water twice a day, for a few days. You can take it longer if you do get sick.  Check product labels for kids’ dosages.

        Astragalus is another herb that can be used in the same way.

Isatis Gold by Health Concerns is a good formula to take if you do get sick.  Take 2 pills every few hours until a day after you are well.  You can also just take a couple doses if you think you’ve been exposed to something.  For kids, reduce the dose.     Yin Qiao is a similar product.  If it doesn’t help after a couple days, discontinue taking it.

• Essential oils – A nice way to treat the immune system or an illness is to use a diffuser in the house (Emerson has one, see above).  Around kids, you can use lavender, lemon, rosemary, and tea tree.  These all have anti-viral properties and you can even diffuse in their bedroom at night.

• ​Homeopathy – a flu remedy that works well IF it’s a match to the current strain is Oscillococcinum.  Take as directed.  There’s a kid’s version too.

• A saline nasal spray is useful to keep your sinuses hydrated.  A dry nose will more easily catch germs, so if this is you, use one twice a day.

• Homemade Hand Sanitizer without Alcohol – (I’m not a germaphobe, but these do come in handy, especially with kids, so why not make your own healthy version?).  Fill a 2 oz flip-top bottle with 1 ounce pure aloe vera gel, 1 1/2 tsp witch hazel and 10 drops tea tree essential oil, 5 drops lavender essential oi and 5 drops lemon essential oil.  Shake and enjoy.  You can shift the number of individual drops around, but keep the total number of essential oil drops to 20 in this little bottle.   Put in your kids’ backpacks and teach them to use it and see if it helps keep those cooties at bay.

Diet / Nutritional 

• Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
• Eat lots of protein and eliminate sugar and dairy.  Consider also eliminating other inflammatory foods like grains.
• Probiotics, zinc and vitamin C are all good daily immune system supporters.

Emotional / Body-mind approach

Do you have the mindset of “I catch every cold that goes around”?   Could be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Try changing your self-talk to:  “My body is strong and healthy and I easily ward off illness”.  It may take some practice to rewire this thought pattern, but try to catch your negative beliefs and replace them with positive ones – it really does make a difference.

Hope you find these suggestions helpful.  Hit reply and let me know how it goes.  If you need more help, click here to schedule a  “Getting to the root of what ails you” strategy session.