As parents, there is nothing more debilitating than seeing our kids succumb to illness. Not only does it upset them, but it makes life very difficult for us. If we work full-time jobs, or we have a million things to do in the home, we’ve got to put everything to a halt to ensure that our kids feel looked after and that we’re doing everything for them. But, when we address the issue of illness in our kids, especially if they have chest complaints, colds, and flu-like symptoms all of the time, have you given thought to the reasons behind this? It seems that now, allergies are more prevalent than ever, in us as well as our kids, so when addressing why our kids get ill so often, allergies may prove to be the big reason. So how can we get to the root of it, but also ensure that we and our children live a life free of allergies and illness?
Starting In The Home
The best place to begin when making sure you are allergy free is your immediate home environment. After all, this is where we spend most of our time, and when we are raising our kids, we can learn how to nip certain issues in the bud before they get worse. Predominantly, as far as allergies are concerned, it boils down to one simple thing, dust! How do you get rid of more than your fair share of dust in the home? Having a proper cleaning regime! Having an effective cleaning regime isn’t just about ensuring you have good habits, and cleaning on a regular basis, especially if you have pets, where the amount of dander and the hair they molt will have a bearing on your chest, not to mention your children’s predilection towards allergies. Allergies become a major problem early on in life, and to ensure that we are doing everything we can for our kids in the home, on top of a decent cleaning habit, it’s about making sure that our home is breathable. This could mean ensuring your AC repair schedule is up-to-date, as well as your HVAC systems, but also making sure that there is enough “good quality” air in the house. This means checking your house from top to bottom for mold, damp, and other issues that can cause breathing problems. The effects of mold, especially the low-lying types like toxic mold, and undetectable allergens in the air need addressing, and can be fixed with an air purifier, but also by repairing any cracks that allow moisture to seep in.
Looking At Our Diet
Our diet is another aspect of allergies that need addressing. With a lot more focus now on allergies to gluten as well as lactose and nuts, which has resulted in a more diverse range of products in our supermarkets, a lot of us have, not necessarily an allergy, but an intolerance. These result in minor symptoms of allergies. And this is something that we should all look at. The fact is, a low-lying intolerance to something like gluten doesn’t just make us sneeze and sleep a little bit longer, it actually makes us miserable. You may know people that are constantly sniffy, and while you might dismiss them as being ill all of the time, very simply, they may have an intolerance to something. If your children have constant runny noses, or they tend to sleep in, or generally feel run down, an intolerance might be the root cause behind this. Making the necessary changes to their diet isn’t too difficult, once you get the hang of it, especially as there are numerous alternatives to wheat and dairy in the store nowadays. But if you suspect yourself or your child of having an intolerance to something, the best approach is to eliminate that item from your diet for at least 4 weeks and keep track of the symptoms as you go. You can then reintroduce the item, and see if it makes any difference. This can be a long-winded approach to identify any specific intolerance, but if it’s making you or your child miserable, you will see a big difference in their disposition. For example, an intolerance to wheat has been linked to depression and anxiety, primarily due to the impact gluten has on the gut-brain axis.
Keeping On Top Of Illness
Sometimes, when we’re allergic to something, and we’ve tried every single option, we have to learn how to minimize the symptoms. This can be done in numerous ways. Naturally, over the counter medications will work for allergies like hay fever, but if you are struggling to allocate the source, having a few handy potions and recipes will help you when you are really struggling. While there’s a lot of talk about gut bacteria at the moment, drinks like kefir and kombucha have been shown to increase probiotics and good gut bacteria, which will naturally help you to combat illness. In addition to this, there are some approaches that you may find a little unorthodox, cold showers being one idea that many will find difficult to cope with. But cold showers have been shown to increase your white blood cell count. White blood cells help you to fight infection, and there have been various stories about people who have cured their allergies with cold showers. In fact, there’s one story about a girl who had chronic migraines, and found that the one cure was to go swimming in the freezing cold sea. While we’ve covered gut bacteria, white blood cells, the food part of tackling allergies is about knowing which foods fight infection. It depends on your own specific intolerances, but garlic and onions, as smelly as they are, can form a very potent defense against colds and flu. But in addition to these, you need to consider what state your immune system is currently in. An allergy is, in essence, a symptom of a compromised immune system. This means that we need to work at building up our immunity in specific ways. While you can address your diet directly, especially if you’re focusing on foods that deplete your immune system, like sugar, and food you are unable to tolerate, but by constantly working at improving your immune system through other approaches, like exercise, you can build up a strong immunity, and hopefully emerge allergy free.
Ultimately, working at removing allergies is about exerting control over the environment we spend most of our time in. In the home, we can minimize exposure to certain foods, dust mites, and mold, but when we are venturing into an environment that we have no control over, such as in work, or the school, we need to implement the best practices at minimizing these symptoms. And while our kids are going to be exposed to many different toxins, via wheat, a bad AC system, or other numerous factors, it’s about giving us and our kids the necessary tools to minimize the fallout. For example, if you have a child intolerant to gluten, and they accidentally eat some, a supplement like activated charcoal, when taken early enough, will reduce a lot of the fogginess and other negative symptoms. Coping with modern allergies isn’t easy, because it seems that there are more than ever. And while we can’t control the environment outside of our home, it’s about making sure we know the triggers in us and our children, but also, making sure that we don’t live with these allergies so much that it makes us miserable.
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