5 effective tips to keep your children flu-free this season

There are 5 very important and effective things that parents can do to help support their children’s health and decrease the likelihood that they will get sick:

1: Ensure that your children get enough sleep. This may sound obvious, but I can tell you from field research that I have conducted in addition to classroom visits that many children are not getting enough sleep. The best sleep is generally had between, if not from, sundown to sunup in a dark, quiet room with no electronics. One of the reasons quality sleep is so important is because the immune-boosting bacteria in the gut do their work at night and in the dark. There is a lot more to this, but for the present purposes: Less sleep = less immunity. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

2: Ensure that your children get real, unprocessed, quality food. The more you succeed in providing fresh, local, whole, unrefined, non-GMO, organic foods the more your children will benefit. 

Anything processed or refined, by definition, provides less nutrition and saps the body of nutrients. Wheat, for example, has several parts: the germ, the bran, and the endosperm. To make wheat bread, the endosperm is separated from the germ (nutrients) and the bran (fiber) and ground into white flour (sugar). Most breads are essentially glorified sugar providing little of the fiber or nutrients that would support their digestion and overall nutrition. Know that food products such as “whole wheat” can have up to 70% of the germ removed. Understanding labels requires some training these days!

3: Provide quality supplementation. I have come to rely on several products to support my family. Both myself and my children take Living Fuel (available direction from the company or at the 360 Wellness Clinic) daily. It is, hands down, the highest quality food supplement on the market. Cod Liver Oil, controversy aside, can be of benefit. 
When we need an additional boost, we make a fresh dose of Sodium Ascorbate. Stir and drink:
1 tsp  Ascorbic Acid crystals (with nothing else added) 
Half tsp  Baking Soda 
1 x 8oz Cup  Water
This is the equivalent to about 4000mg of Vitamin C. The difference is that it is more easily absorbed by the body and is generally well digested. If you need it, you can feel it within minutes. (Note: This boosts your system so much that it is not to be taken before any type of surgery and may interfere with medications. Consult with your chosen health care practitioner before you take it.)

4: Use homeopathic remedies. One for consideration may be Boiron's Influenzinum. From the Boiron website: This homeopathic medicine is not a vaccine. It is a homeopathic dilution, prepared from the approved seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine. It is authorized for sale in Canada without therapeutic indication. As a manufacturer Boiron cannot substitute health care practioners who may recommend a specific protocol. 

5: This last point is for those parents who are interested in taking health care to another level, as they realize there may be another contributing factor to why children get the flu and that it isn’t just because of germs and immunity, although these are also important. 

If this is you, consider what was happening in your child’s life approximately 3 days before the onset of flu symptoms (could be 1, could be 4, but generally it’s 3) .
The flu has been associated with a preceding experience of feeling weak or of feeling uninvolved, not feeling part of the group or even feeling excluded from a group of interest. Of course, this may not be the case, and that is fine. But if it is, then becoming aware of it promotes increased understanding of the effects of such circumstances. If the circumstances and the result are repeated, a pattern can be discerned. A calendar is helpful! From here, there can be increased awareness for both the children and the parent. If you get to this point, as a parent, you’re likely to run with it and if at all possible, change the circumstances!

Stay warm and stay well!

Edited by Ivy Lishman, Staff Writer for Lisa Torres, Homeopath