As my daughter begins school this year I start to think about how to support her immune system through the flu season with all those germs that get past around at school. It may be inevitable that our kids will catch colds and get sick in general but you can support their health and lessen the severity. I see children get sick and still exhibit lots of energy but they will get worn out when an illness lingers or the pattern becomes excessively frequent. This is why I focus on diet and herbal formulas to limit the duration and severity of an illness. The digestive system is key!

Good nutritious food promotes healthy growth. Infants and young children are growing rapidly. For their body size they tend to consume a lot of food and need to eliminate a lot of waste. Their body’s ability to function is immature including their digestive system. Appetites my increase and decrease frequently. Tips for supporting the digestive system to support their health are as follows:

• Don’t over-eat – over-eating will clog up the digestive tract and lead to all sorts of problems such as constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, excess mucus, tiredness and more.
• Eat lots of vegetables – some parents give their kids proportionately too much fruit and not enough veggies – a good ratio to follow would be to eat twice as many veggies as you do fruit. When parents tell me their kids don’t like veggies I believe it’s the parents tastes that are being past down. Everyone needs to eat more veggies!
• Eat warm foods especially during cold weather or symptoms of feeling cold – in Traditional Chinese Medicine refrigerated foods and foods cold in nature can weaken the digestive fire. The term “cold foods” has a dual meaning – foods can be cooked or refrigerated and the thermal nature of a food can be hot or cold i.e. hot peppers are warming and watermelon is cooling in nature without cooking or refrigeration.
  • cold signs include: clear copious runny nose, pale face, patient feels cold, the patients body feels cold to you – especially the arms, face and neck, lack of appetite, tiredness, sneezing, diarrhea, frequent urination, belly aches.
• During sickness optimize digestion by eating light, easy-to-digest foods such as soups as opposed to the heavy, poorly-nutritious pasta and meatballs or pizza dishes. Also limit what foods you combine together to optimize digestion.

Another important factor to speed recovery or even prevent an outbreak it to deal with mucus and phlegm. It’s hard to prevent illness such as colds and flu in my practices because patients aren’t able to get into the clinic fast enough before the illness really sets in. The key is to be preventive by eating right, getting your sleep, exercise and also using supplements and herbal formulas if needed to strengthen and support the body. I give my children whole food supplements to support their health but when I start seeing signs of illness I reach for the liquid pediatric herbal formulas. I used these formulas right in the beginning even as an infant. They are very gentle and effective. There are  several formulas to address a variety of conditions including weak digestion, diarrhea, constipation, cough, runny nose, fever, restlessness, poor sleep, poor development and more. the early signs I look for when I think a cold may begin is either cold body sensations, belly ache, frequent sneezing or constant throat clearing. All of these are signs that the body is getting clogged up with phlegm and mucus. In such a stagnant environment just like stagnant water bacteria or viruses will settle in and begin to fester. If I can react quick enough with the right formula and right dosage I can turn those early-stage symptoms around and prevent that cold from setting in. Lessening ailments regarding occurrences and severity makes for stronger growth and development for children. And that’s always a wonderful thing!