How we treat a stomach bug with natural remedies

We just got through a weekend of a not so fun sickness in Bodie. There is an unbelievably strong and very contagious stomach bug making its rounds through Colorado. Sadly Bodie caught it and that put me into "natural remedy" beast mode. Yes, even the best preventative measures can't keep some very strong bugs away. I stand my ground that by the use of preventative remedies, this virus cycled through Bodie fairly quickly. We can also lessen the intensity and shorten the duration of a sickness with very effective alternative medicine.  I want to share how we handle any sickness in our house using natural methods to include essential oils. homeopathy, herbs, nutrition and chiropractic adjustments.Oh and most important REST REST REST!

Knowing that there has been a very contagious bug going around, we did the best we could to build our immune systems and ate a very nutritious diet. Even the best prevention cant keep all sickness at bay and lets face, kids WILL get sick. It is also good for a body to have the chance to fight an illness as this will boost immunity. Immunity is VERY important for health as a child grows.

This bug hit around dinner time on Friday night, at least that is when I noticed a change in Bo's
behavior. My normal healthy eater was being very picky, throwing his food on the floor and screaming for me to pick him up. I tried offering many types of food, and all he ate was a small puree pouch. He acted fine after that, maybe a little fussier but still played until bedtime. We got him ready for bed with a relaxing bath, I nursed him and he fell asleep in my arms. Then about 30 min after putting him in bed both Andrew and I heard what we thought was choking. We heard it again coming from our room, then cries started. Sure enough, he was covered in puke. My heart broke for him. Andrew decided to just jump in the shower with him to rinse him off. We got him into clean clothes and he fell back asleep in my arms. within minutes, he was projectile vomiting all over me, himself and the bed. We quickly undressed him, cleaned him back up and just laid towels down on the bedroom floor, near the tile so we could quickly move him with easier clean up.

The beginning- on the bathroom floor

We sat on the bathroom floor for a little while, allowing him to move about because he was uncomfortable staying still. I know all too well how it feels so I let him do his thing while I comforted him the best I could. He eventually fell asleep laying on top of me while I sat in the most uncomfortable position on the bedroom floor right next to the bathroom tile. But it didn't matter how comfortable I was; all that mattered was that Bodie was comfortable.

At this point, he still hadn't reached a fever but I started scanning my brain for what I knew of to help ease a stomach virus and to reduce symptoms. We got out the Thieves essential oil and mixed it with coconut oil. *For information on each remedy I used, I go into detail at the end of this post*. Basically, Thieves is a very strong, natural anti-viral, anti-bacterial essential oil. We rubbed it along his spine and he stayed asleep for a good stretch. This continued throughout the night, with several wakings of dry heaving but quickly back to sleep. I tried nursing but that just came right back up. We decided to keep all fluids out of him for the remainder of the night.

The next morning, Bo was crying out for water. I let him have his sippy cup but within 10 min he was

On the car ride to Dr. Patti's. Such a sad face :(

puking the water up. Andrew took him into the shower again to clean him up. We got him dressed and headed off to our amazing chiropractor, who agreed to see us even though she was not in the office. This woman is amazing! On our way, B-man was looking very pale and lethargic and was dosing off to sleep. We finally got to the chiro and Dr Patti adjusted his lower back and opened the nerve pathways to his tummy. His color came back almost immediatly and his eyes brightened back up. The power of chiropractic adjustments can never be underestimated! On the drive home, I even got some smiles out of him. Talk about relief from mama! I was getting worried about his lethargy.

Feeling a bit better after getting adjusted

During our time out, we had no puking thankfully. In fact, his vomiting completely went away for the duration of his sickness. He only threw up for a span of 12 hours tops. Once we got home, Bodie was acting hungry so I heated up some homemade bone broth that I always keep on hand for sicknesses and for everyday prevention. He sucked it down and best of all, he kept it down! He started to regain his energy and started laughing again. Quickly though he became very tired so we snuggled on the couch for a bit and then he went down for a good nap. We cycled the rest of the day of napping, regaining energy, then quickly becoming tired again. Once we applied the essential oils back to his feet, he swiftly dosed off and woke up energized again.

Napping on mommy makes everything better

Daddy cuddles are nice too.

After he awoke that evening, we noticed signs of congestion and runny nose. I used Eucalyptus essential oil and rubbed this on his chest and bottoms of his feet. Within an hour, his breathing cleared and his eyes were not watering anymore. I kept with the eucalyptus oil throughout the evening and placed some in a diffuser as well. I also gave him some homeopathic remedies to ease the cold symptoms. Before bed, Bodie spiked a fever of 101, nothing worrisome but you could tell it bothered Bodie. We knew to let the fever do what it was meant to do so we didn't give him anything to reduce it. A fever is a good thing the body does to kill off whatever is invading the body. If the fever spiked further and kept up for more than 24 hours, then we would look at other options. Thankfully, the fever broke throughout the night and it was down to 99.1 by morning.

Sunday morning and all flu like signs were gone except for one bout of a diaper blow out, but the congestion and runny nose were taking over. We steamed a shower with eucalyptus oil and that cleared his breathing again. He nursed, drank more bone broth and coconut water and then took a nap in my arms again.

When awake, he was able to eat a banana just fine which gave him more energy. As the day went on, he slowly regained more and more energy, had some more great naps, and was able to eat more. In fact, he was becoming his little energizer bunny self again :)

Feeling better!

Back to his mischief self on Sunday night during the Super Bowl

Before bed Sunday night, we re-applied the Thieves oil, placed Eucalyptus on his chest and he VERY quickly fell asleep. We were worried he would wake often with his congestion but he slept very very well, even cuddling up next to daddy for a portion of the night. He slept in pretty late into the morning as well. So thankful his body is so smart to know when its time to rest! When he woke, he
was hungry and was able to nurse and eat a pear and some oatmeal. He went about his morning playing as usual and so far his schedule as been fairly normal. He went down for his normal nap around 10:00 so I think we are back on track!

When people hear that we do not go straight to conventional medicinal remedies, they think we just let our son tough it out without relief. It is anything FAR from that. In fact, we probably do more than most people do to support the body's natural healing process. I spent this entire weekend helping Bodie work through this sickness, holding him as he napped to ensure he was as comfortable as possible. I try not to view a sickness as something terrible, but as something that helps the body build itself up and come out stronger on the other side. Do I think a flu shot could have prevented this? Not in the least. I am grateful for true, natural medicine and even more grateful for the support and guidance of our chiropractor, Dr. Patti.

Natural remedies for a cold or flu

Essential oils-

Theives essential oil- mixed with a carrier oil such as coconut or almond. Rubbed on the bottoms of the feet for prevention, rubbed along the spine during acute sickness. I use strictly Young Living Essential oils because of the purity and the safeness to even ingest the oils internally.

Lemon essential oil in a diffuser- Lemon kills airborne germs.

Eucalyptus oil- anti viral and helps with respiratory symptoms. Mix with a carrier oil and rub on feet and chest when there is congestion.

Chiropractic adjustments

This is like a huge immune system boost. An adjustment will open the nerve pathways to the stomach and help ease digestion. Almost immediate relief was seen in Bodie, Color was back in his face and his personality was coming back.

Homeopathic and herbal remedies for children


Children's Cold Calm- I gave 2 pellets every 15 min for a total of 60 min. I repeated this 3 X a day

Children's Flu Relief- Same as above, but not during the same hour. This stuff gave immediate relief when Bodie was in the thick of flu-like symptoms.
Sniffle Support- this remedy is awesome for colds with runny noses and sneezing. I did not use this this past weekend, but thought I would recommend it anyway because we have seen huge success with this product

Nutrition

Bone broth- contains high mineral content and helps repair the stomach from a sickness. Bodie regained energy after drinking just a couple sips.

Coconut water- excellent source of electrolytes, especially after vomiting and/or diarrhea. Stay away from Gatorade and the like, they just contain gross sugars and not a good source of nutrition. A banana is even better than Gatorade.

Fermented Cod Liver Oil- Taken everyday as preventative measure and helps shorten the duration of sickness with a high content of Vit D.

Food- For prevention, I stick to a whole foods diet to include animal protein with animal fat, raw dairy to include butter and yogurt, tons of fresh fruit and veggies with an emphasis on greens (kale, spinach, broccoli, chard etc), avocados, nut butter and bone broth. We limit grains and include them on occasion, but our diet does not revolve around grains. We very rarely eat corn and no wheat. I will say that soaked oats a hit with Bodie, especially mixed with raw yogurt and fruit. We eat very little sugar, mostly in the forms of natural sugar, maple syrup and honey.

Not related but just wanted to share his cute little curl after his shower this morning :)

The Brighter Side

Now, I need to tell the OTHER side of my postpartum recovery, which made every single day of pain more than totally worth it. In my last  might have made it sound like this past year was full of glum and pain, but in the midst of all that, I had the best year of my life and I have never been happier! Bodie has been such a light in my life and I can't even imagine what life would be like without his quirkiness in it. I just love him to absolute pieces.

I have learned a lot from this little man, and God has graciously provided me with patience, understanding, tenderheartedness, and pure love for such an amazing little boy. I prayed for years for a baby of my own, and God did not disappoint! I am pretty sure it is mentioned every day by either Andrew or I how we are so blessed and lucky to have such a spirited, animated, and oh so loving boy. Everyday brings a new challenge, but the growth we learn from these challenges has been exponential. Bodie has taken me outside my comfort zone in more ways than I can count.I still think I learn more from him than he does from me :)

Through Bodie, I have learned how to laugh at the little things and not to sweat the small stuff. Really. When you look at the big picture of life, does a messy house or wearing yoga clothes day in and day out really matter? I don't think so (or I am just trying to convince myself that yoga clothes is still acceptable at a year postpartum lol). I have let go of a lot of my control issues of having a specific routine everyday. There were no two days a like that's for sure! I am a very routine gal, but having a baby will sure put a wrench in any planning you do for the day! And you know what, I am starting to enjoy the glow with the flow mentality. Though, I have to admit, I am a stickler for trying to maintain normalcy with nap and bedtime routines. Trying is the key word though. I owe it to Mister B to allow him the rest that he so deserves and more importantly, needs. And I am finding that he thrives when I stick to a time frame for naps and bedtime. I know some people think I am being anal with this, but it is area that I feel is important to his growth and emotional well being. Ok, enough of routine talk :)

The biggest, most important aspect of this year that I have learned- a love so deep that I did not know could exist. From day one, I was head over heels for this little man. I used to cry as I was rocking him to sleep in the early days because I felt so blessed. I wanted to shout it to the mountains how much I loved and adored him. I want only the best for him, and will do whatever it takes to do so. And if that means going against mainstream, conventional ideas, then so be it. If it means family or friends looking at me like I am some crazy hippy, so be it. I don't care one bit what others think about my parenting. I am doing what I feel is right for my son and I never just do things purely because it's the "norma". I do what do based on hours of research, reading, discussing with friends and most importantly, conversing with my husband what we see is best for our family. This is one area that I have greatly improved on. I used to want to feel fully accepted by family and friends, and in doing so, would conform to their ideas or change my views. Not any more. It is very freeing to actually live a life NOT based on what others think or approve of. A love so pure that you want the best and only the best will do this to you :)

I want to mainly express is that this past year was amazing, challenging, tiresome, exhausting, ever-changing and totally AWESOME!
Here is just a quick glance at why it was so awesome- month by month-

Day 1 of the most amazing adventure

1 month old.

Mister personality

Getting more of a spirited attitude :)

MOM! Not another picture please

The big O-N-E

One year later- a postpartum recap

I have been wanting to write a postpartum recovery post for a while, but wanted to wait until I felt fully recovered. Yes, it has taken me almost a full year to recover completely. I want to write this for my own good too so I can look back and remember what I went though because let me tell you, it was NOT an easy year of recovery. For a long time, I thought something was wrong with me but it turns out my body just needed TIME and SELF LOVE to fully heal.

I will just start from the beginning and make my way through the year, at least from what I can remember. Looking back, it is hard to remember when I was in the trenches early on.

I will start with labor because the toll it took on body was the very reason I endured a long recovery. Labor was very long and hard on my body. I went 21 hours of completely natural labor, no drugs whatsoever. NONE. Not to mention Bo was posterior which placed a huge amount of stress on my lower back. The start of labor was relatively easy, starting at 9pm on a Monday night. My doula warned me to get rest that night. But I was too excited so I stayed up most the night, pacing the house and listening to my Hypnobabies tracks on my iPod. We decided early on that I would labor at home for as long as possible. Then 9 am hit the next day and I was SLAMMED with intense pain, mostly in my lower back shooting into my hips and thighs.. I called my doula and she said I was having back labor. By 10 am, I wanted to get to the hospital ASAP, I didn't think I could do it and threatened Andrew multiple times that I wanted to get to the hospital. But my doula came to the house and we worked our way to 2 pm when contractions were 3 min apart. I finally got to the hospital and was 8 cm dilated. I went another 2 hours of intense pain, throwing up and not being able to walk. I went almost 24 hours with little water or food because I would just throw it back up. During pushing, I had intense cramping from my hips all the way down my legs. It made it very difficult to push, but thankfully it only lasted about 20 min but I truly did not think I would be able to do it. After Bodie was born, I gushed blood (TMI sorry, but its relevant), and doctors were worried I was hemorrhaging. It was not an emergency, but they were concerned I was losing too much blood so I was given pitocin to stop the bleeding. It worked but I was left very light headed and weak. Not to mention I was exhausted from no water, food, or any type of relief for 21 hours of active labor. At the time, I did not think too much about this playing into my recovery because I just assumed I would recover within a few short months. Little did I know.....

I arrived home 2 days later with a healthy baby boy. I was completely exhausted but did not let myself fully rest and refused any help from outside family or friends (mistake #1, lesson learned). Bodie was not a great sleeper from the start and we were left with sleepless nights, and even more exhausting days. The one good thing I did from the start was make sure I always had water by my side, and was constantly eating calorie dense, high fat, high protein foods. I dare not even think about exercise yet. My first bump in my recovery was getting mastitis at only 2 weeks postpartum. Mastitis is due to an infection in the breast most likely from a clogged duct from breast feeding. Woah did this ever slam me to the ground. I would go back and give birth than experience mastitis! High fever, body aches, VERY sore breasts that made breast feeding excruciating, yet I had to bear through it because of a baby that needed to eat every hour. I battled through it and didn't think it would happen again.

A couple weeks go by and I still feel totally drained, exhausted and delirious. I get my second bout of mastitis which left my body totally defeated. Just to give you an idea, think about the worst flu you have ever had, and think of it being 10 times worse. I am not exaggerating in the least. The best thing for a breast infection is rest....well, that was difficult with Bodie waking every 2 hours at night and feeding every hour during the day. I set up shop in our room and barely moved from the bed. I just nursed and stayed in bed- for a couple weeks even because I was just soooo exhausted. Thankfully, my spirits remained high and never did feel even a lick of depression...just pure exhaustion. I give credit to an amazing acupuncturist/herbalist that concocted a formula for me that kept me from feeling any postpartum blues.

Another couple weeks go by, and I go for my 6 week postpartum check up. I am deemed "recovered" by my midwife. All blood work checked out great- thyroid levels were normal (I had been on thyroid meds throughout my pregnancy but I weaned off those and my levels were perfect), my iron level was good as well. Cool! I thought I was good to go and could start picking up speed again. HA! I tried increasing my activity (by this, I mean doing more around the house and going for longer walks). I quickly found out that I was far from recovered. I would walk up a flight of stairs and my legs would SCREAM in pain. I could barely lift my own baby some days because I felt soooo weak still. I tried increasing calories, adding in more protein, fats and carbs. I worked with a lactation nutritionist to help with my diet since I could not eat dairy, eggs, or gluten due to Bodie's potential allergies. I sought out my herbalist and she helped to a degree, but for the next couple of months I was very very weak. She suggested that my birth took sooo much out of me that I was left with a year of recovery. I thought there was NO WAY it would take me a year to recover, I was determined it would take me to 6 months postpartum and I would for sure feel better. I even had very thorough blood work done and everything looked stellar. I was just not convinced that my extreme fatigue and exhaustion was still due giving birth. Especially since even lifting light weights left me in excruciating joint and muscle pain. My entire body felt inflamed and on fire.

At 4 months postpartum, with no relief in sight, I then started seeing a chiropractor because I was having intense migraines along with everything else. Not out of the ordinary for me but they were becoming very frequent. I spent a good amount of time with her, seeing her 3X a week for the next 3 months, and currently still seeing her once a week. I remember sitting in her office crying every week because I felt soooo depleted still. My chiropractor thought all my pain stemmed from Bodie being posterior from birth and pinching nerves in my lower back. Xrays showed my entire spine and neck was pretty out of sorts. Gradually, with lots of patience and trust, I started to feel better, but still had days of whole body exhaustion and joint/muscle pain. But it was a slooooow process and I wanted to give up so badly. I wanted to start working out more, but every time I lifted even light weights, my body would get angry and the next day I would be back in intense pain. I also endured FIVE more cases of mastitis in the span of 4 months. I almost gave up breast feeding but it worth every ounce of pain if it meant Bodie would get superior nutrition from me. Plus, I really loved the bonding it created between us.

Around 9 months postpartum, I found more relief and was able to add in more exercise and I was starting to go more days pain free. Though I was till not in the clear and my body was not fully recovered. I also noticed more fertility signs which gave me a good indication that my body was, in fact, healing. But my energy was still pretty low. It was not until 11 months postpartum that I actually starting having ENERGY that lasted most the day. I was able to start lifting light weights again and my body would not scream in pain the next day because of it. Slowly and cautiously, I added in more weight training and cardio and I was feeling great! About darn time! I was getting to the point where I thought I would never regain energy. I saw my doctor several more times to get thyroid panels completed and my levels were always great so I knew it was nothing hormonally wrong. I just needed to trust that my body really did need nothing but time to recover.

My next go round I will not question everything so much, and trust what every doctor was saying- your body just needs time to deal. Give it love, nutrition and rest and all will be well. But I sure do hope it is not such a painstaking process next time!


Now....when will I be ready to do this all again.....:) LOL

Pondering....

I am thinking about taking this blog in a somewhat different direction..but still keeping up with our adventures. I would like to start incorporating more holistic minded posts that I had originally set this blog up for. So I am thinking of combining the two ideas. My passion is still in living a holistic, natural lifestyle and want so badly to share more of my passion through blog writing. I am very excited and am hopeful I can write more posts in the future.

Andrew and I are also starting to get back into our Young Living business so I will have plenty to post on about the amazing benefits and uses of essential oils. Super exciting!

It sure is difficult sometimes with an active ALMOST one year old! The days seem to fly by sometimes so I am sorry that I have no kept up lately.

That is all for now. I am in the midst of planning little man's birthday party :)

Catching up and my new goal

Wow, I have some catching up to do on here! With the Holiday season and just being busy with an active little man, I have found little time to devote to this blog. I think I will do most of the catching up through pictures since those are more fun anyway.

One other note I wanted to touch on was how I have been feeling. I can sum it up in one word: AMAZING! We have been getting consistent sleep which I think is helping a ton. But I am also devoting more time to myself which is helping me to be better grounded as a mom and wife. I spent most of 2013 completely devoted to Bodie and I put myself to the wayside. I did not have much energy to devote elsewhere, really. It took me a looooong time to recover from giving birth (I mean LONG time where I would get physically exhausted walking up stairs and my joints would just ache after a long walk); and at almost a year later, I am finally feeling back to my physical self. My body is not exhausted all the time and I have energy to put into myself now! What a great feeling!

Here are a couple ways I am taking time for myself:

• back to the gym- starting to work out with weights again and doing more cardio
• Walking more
• Yoga 
• Allowing others to watch Bodie so I can just have a couple hours to myself, outside the home.
• More FUN reading, outside of parenting books
• More husband and wife time with Andrew
• Sleeping MORE :)
• Meditation and prayer either in the morning or after Bodie goes to bed
• Pamper myself on occasion- haircuts, massage, pedicure
• Start to dress less "frumpy"
• Spend quality one on one time with good friends

I always told myself I would not let being a mother consume me, but boy is it easy to do! I found myself wrapped up in Bodie and not taking enough time for ME. In doing so, I was getting irritable, on edge, and frustrated very easily. I could not figure out what was going on, until I realized I never take time out for me anymore. Now I am realizing that I need to take care of me in order to fully take care of my family. So here we go!!

"Helping" put the Christmas lights up!

About to attack mommy with a monster Bodie kiss!

Leaning the stairs. He can now climb up and down with no problem at all!

So happy to climb around

Snuggles with mommy after waking from a nap

LOVE watching the snow fall. This window is the perfect height for my viewing pleasure

Always happy on daddy's shoulders!

Cuddle bug getting sleepy

Morning look- first waking up and a bit grumpy. Thankfully he snaps out of this quickly with full on energy and laughter!

We hosted the Mino Christmas Party at our house this year. Fun times!

White elephant gift exhange

Standing in my new shoes!

Perfect size for me!

I can now open any drawer or door and pull whatever I feel like out of them. Especially mommy's clothes from her dresser :)

 MORE TO COME...... (rest of the pics are on my phone, which is being used for music while Bo naps :)

Dear Bodie- 10 months

Dear Bodie,

You just turned 10 months old! Wow. Why am I so stunned as each month passes by? It just seems like it flies by and you are developing at an astounding rate! Slow down little man! You had a lot of action this past month with lots of new learning and playing.

The best and most fun part of this past month was watching you learn how to throw a ball. You make the cutest noise when you throw the ball and you get sooo excited! You will even throw the ball, crawl to get it, throw it again, crawl to get it and repeat this all over the house. It is sooo fun to watch! Of course, the throwing doesn't stop with a ball either! You love to take daddy's glasses off and throw them. For some reason, you just don't think he needs them. Thankfully, no food throwing yet. But you do like to throw your sippy cup. And it's such a gentle toss, not really throwing it very hard. I love this new discovery.

We started a new class this month at Treehouse Discovery called KinderMusic. You absolutely THRIVE in this class! You keep right up with the older kids and love getting in on the action. Music is something you have always taken too and this class has been something that I think will lead into a passion of yours. You love banging on the drums, shaking the bells, playing with flashlights in the dark, listening to choo choo trains make noises, and dancing around the room. And of course, there is a time where you get to play with balls. I even found you sneaking off to play with a hidden ball the teacher forget the pick up. Silly boy.





You have continued to love going potty in your special potty. You are pretty consistent with going after you wake up from your nap- and you even go poopy in there! I am one proud mama!

You have now discovered how to climb the stairs. One morning as I was cooking breakfast and daddy was in the other room we discovered you were not in the room anymore. Daddy found you half way up the stairs and you had no intention of stopping. Goof ball. We finally came to terms that we needed to put baby gates around the stairs.

My little man, you have the best personality a mama could ask for. You are silly all the time and make us laugh sooo much. You learned how to blow raspberries on mommy's tummy and now you like to wake us up by blowing raspberries on our arms. I can't think of a better way to wake up! You giggle and laugh all day too. You are one chill baby that's for sure!

We have had some great adventures this month and you got to celebrate your first Thanksgiving! We had lunch over at Grandma and Grandpa Woodward's house. You had just cut your 6th tooth the night before so you were not too into eating, but it was fun to see your cousins, Tristan and Brenden.

Grandpa Woodward is just as silly as me!

Grandma Woodward

You love dance parties in the kitchen! Especially in the morning when daddy is making his coffee and I am finishing cleaning up breakfast. We just dance around the kitchen being all goofy. You LOVE to dance!

Silliness

Your favorite perch in mommy's office

We are heading into my favorite time of the year- Christmas! I have some awesome stuff planned for your first Christmas! I feel like a kid again myself :) See what you do to mommy!