Sunday, October 18, 2009

Coping with the flu.

It's been a rough week at our house. It must have been the dreaded flu virus. This girl was hit hard.


Fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Check!

I feel pretty good letting her run a fever. I reason that the fever aids the body in fighting off the infection. I just make sure that she gets lots of extra fluids

My 8 year old son, on the other hand, gets Tylenol with his fever. He had several febrile seizures when he had RSV as a toddler. If I never again see a child have a seizure, it will be too soon. His dentist believes that his teeth that have enamel defects were damaged by the extremely high fever. 

It is so hard to know what to do for your children sometimes. Now that the flu has been through the house is there a reason to get the seasonal flu vaccine? What about the swine flu vacccine? What about natural immunity?

What about diet? Is it coincidence that the kids fell ill after gorging on candy from the Fall festival parade? I hear that sugar can lower your immune system.

I use my mother's intuition, and I read a lot, and I listen to experts with my critical ears on. I haven't yet decided on flu shots, even for Ralph. I have decided to make sure that the kids get some sunshine whenever possible and to cut back on sugar.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject of flu shots.


1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking illness after the Fall festival has more to do with germs acquired there than the sugar, but that's just me. Our lifestyle has included so few incidents (any?) of sugar overload, I have no personal data to compare.

I can tell you what the 3 of us will do, but that may have little bearing on what is best for your family. We all try to get the annual flu shot. (Did miss it one year.)

Hubby is a school teacher - lots of exposure there. I go into the homes of medically fragile children to work - not wanting to expose them to anything.

Our teen has already received her's - made available in our BIGgovernmentmedicalsystem to teens before us. Hubby and I can get ours on Oct 28.

Having taken the vaccine for years, we will continue. The new vaccine, I'm not sure. Haven't decided yet, and it is not available to us yet.

*shrugs shoulders*

Barbara