Before you reach for an over-counter medication, you may want to try these natural flu remedies for kids first.
As the cold weather rolls in, many parents start stressing out about the flu. There are a variety of flu viruses, and the CDC warns that they are constantly changing.
This means that scientists must try to determine which strains will spread the most each year, formulating flu vaccinations that can protect against those strains.
Unfortunately, they aren’t always correct, and the vaccines are often far from effective for most people.
Also, many parents don’t want to give their children anymore vaccines than they absolutely need, if they vaccinate at all.
This is where natural flu remedies come into play. If you prefer to keep everything natural for your kids, there are quite a few preventative strategies that you can use, and there are even more natural remedies to relieve flu symptoms if the virus does sneak up on your household.
The simplest and most effective preventative measures come down to behaviors that you can easily teach your children.
Start by instilling positive hand-washing skills. During cold and flu season, it’s not enough to just wash after using the restroom.
Teach your kids to wash throughout the day as well as after handling items that are shared by other kids.
You can also teach your kids to never touch another child’s face or hands if it’s not necessary.
Protecting their personal space if another kid is sneezing and coughing and trying not to share balls and other items may help, but you don’t want to interfere with your child’s ability to socialize and participate in fun activities.
When all else fails, those dedicated hand-washing skills will form a foundation of protection.
In addition to frequent hand washing, there are some natural flu remedies for kids that you can use to lower your child’s risk of bringing home the flu.
1. Vitamin D
Now that most people are spending less time outdoors, especially in the winter, vitamin D deficiencies are on the rise.
Many people suffer from a deficiency for years without knowing it because many doctors don’t test for vitamin D or don’t understand the importance of checking for this deficiency.
Children are even less likely to be tested than adults.
Many medical professionals have believed for many years that vitamin D deficiencies or insufficiencies are at least partially to blame for frequent colds and flus, and there is now some research to back that up.
One analysis of clinical trials in 14 countries found that supplementing with vitamin D daily or weekly significantly lowered the number of upper respiratory infections suffered by patients, including colds and flus.
Participants in the study were deficient in vitamin D before they started the supplementation protocol.
This means that people who aren’t deficient don’t necessarily need to take a daily vitamin D supplement.
If you don’t know your child’s vitamin D level, simply allowing them to spend more time outdoors will provide more of this vitamin naturally.
As a general rule of thumb, make sure that your little one spends at least 30 minutes outdoors in the sunlight each day.
When this isn’t possible or if you believe that your child just isn’t getting enough sunlight for other reasons, there are vitamin D drops and kid-friendly multivitamins that include vitamin D.
You can buy vitamin-fortified products at the grocery store, so start checking labels.
You can also include salmon, tuna and other fatty fish into your child’s diet for the vitamins and the omega-3 fatty acids. It could be one of the best natural flu remedies for kids around.
2. Immunostimulant Essential Oils
There’s an essential oil for most health and wellness concerns, and boosting the immune system to prevent the common cold and flu is no exception.
Research into the use of essential oils for this purpose is limited, but many people have success when using essential oils classified as immunostimulants.
This means that they support the immune system at the hormonal or cellular level and is one of the great natural flu remedies fo