Coughs, Colds and Immune Support

The importance of immune health

After the past few years, we are all more aware of how rapidly coughs and colds can spread, especially in child-based settings like day-care, kinder and schools.

The thing that has changed the most, is the impact a simple sniffle can have on a little ones daily life and that of their care givers.

Cough, cold or something more?

Picture this: Monday morning and your child has awoken with a cough and a sniffle.

What do you do?

A few years ago, you might have given them some cough syrup, sent them on their way and hoped for the best. However, under our current circumstances, the slightest symptom must be treated with extreme suspicion, meaning children are missing school and parents are missing work.

Naturopathy and Nutrition can support children while they are sick with a cough or cold and help to build up their immunity so they’re won’t get sick as often.

We can treat all sorts of immune-based symptoms and conditions, such as:

• Cough
• Cold
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Congestion
• Ear infections/Otitis Media
• Cold Sores
• Sneezing
• Fever
• Fatigue
• Sleeplessness

OUR HOLISTIC TREATMENT STRATEGY for immune support in kids

Generally, when we help children with immune-based illness we break the treatment into two components:

Acute Management and Long Term Prevention

Acute Management

This means getting them feeling better as soon as possible. To resolve their symptoms when they’re sick we use a combination of herbal and nutritional supplements. These are specifically designed for kids. We take all steps necessary to make sure anything we prescribe is palatable and easy to administer (Even going so far to test on our own kids first!) So much so that many of our younger patients now ask mum and dad for their ‘magic potion’ even when they’re not sick!

Long Term Prevention

Once kids are feeling good again, we like to work out if there is anything else we can be doing to keep them that way. This involves things like going through a diet analysis, where we see if there are any nutrients that might be lacking in their daily food intake. Certain macro and micro nutrients are key to providing the building blocks for a strong immune system. Specifically we will look at nutritional components such as protein, zinc, iron, vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin D and selenium. We also have the option of using herbal medicines to strengthen an immune response and support other body systems associated with immune response such as gastrointestinal, lymphatic and nervous systems.

are herbal and nutritional medicines safe for all ages?

Yes! Our herbal and nutritional medicines have excellent safety profiles for all ages because they’re prescribed by an accredited practitioner. We ensure the prescribed dosage given is specific to your child. These medicines are also safe to be used alongside over the counter medications, particularly nurofen and panadol.

In our time practicing, we’ve noticed some parents feel like they have to choose either one ‘type’ of treatment over another. However, we understand getting your child feeling better as soon as possible is the number one priority of every parent. Therefore we encourage our patient’s to trust their instinct and use a mixture of both prescribed complementary and over the counter medicines to help their child feel better, sooner.

What can i do if my child keeps getting sick?

As the old saying goes ‘prevention is better than cure’ and at Living Holistic Health we take that approach in all our treatment plans. In your child’s appointment we will look into the factors that might be contributing to their recurrent infection. Sometimes this can be through the dietary and lifestyle assessments we do in the appointment, however we also have a range of functional testing options available.

These can include:

• Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis- This looks at nutrient and heavy metal levels in your child’s hair, which we assume is representative of the rest of their body. This test is relatively in expensive and can help particularly with those kids who are fussy eaters and possibly low in multiple essential nutrients.
• Gut Function testing- This looks at various factors in the gastrointestinal tract such as the presence of different pathogenic organisms that can drive poor immune health or lack of beneficial bacteria that can improve your child’s immune health.
• Allergy Testing- Food or environmental allergies can indicate an imbalance in the immune system’s level of reactivity and identifying allergens is useful for improving the health and vitality of your child.

health that lasts a lifetime

The benefit of recruiting a naturopath or nutritionist to support your child’s health can be found in one of our guiding principles, which states “Doctor as Teacher”.

As naturopaths we are committed to not only supporting our patients on their health journey, but also teaching them about their health. We find the best results come from empowering patients to make good health choices for themselves.

As parents, teaching your child about healthy eating, exercise and hygiene is something we know is important, but sometimes in the hustle and bustle of daily life, it gets forgotten about. By bringing your child in for an appointment with one of our team, we do the hard work for you. And who knows, you might even learn something about health yourself!

If you would like some more information about our treatment of children’s coughs, colds and recurrent infections please get in contact with us or book an appointment.