Give Your Children a Winter Without Getting Sick!
Are you wishing you could for once, keep your child healthy this winter? You can, with all the same herbs and nutritional formulas that you use. In fact, breaking the cycle of passing a cold from one family member to another can be the biggest blessing in this New Year! Many of my clients worry that their children will never take herbs, but in fact, there are a number of ways to get children to accept herbal medicine. And in the winter months, things like Echinacea Purpurea really is best in a liquid form. One trick is to add a second herb that has a sweeter taste to it such as Marshmallow Root, Licorice or Milk Thistle. There are also a number of great foods that can mask the taste of herbs, whether you grind up a tablet, or mix in a liquid extract. Applesauce is one of my favorites, but you can also try honey, a smoothie or yogurt. You can even try just putting the dose in a small amount of warm water, like a tea, which is also very soothing.
When dosing infants that are breast feeding, unless it is something that is going to be rubbed inside the child's mouth like acidophilus, then we generally dose the mother and the baby will receive it in breast milk. This also means that as a mother, you have to be careful what you are taking for yourself, because what you take in, will also make it into your breast milk. Often you may not want to inadvertently dose your baby, nor may your baby enjoy the change in the taste of your breast milk.
My Dosing Guidelines for Children:
0-2 years - 1/8 adult dose
2-6 years - 1/4 adult dose
6-12 years - 1/2 adult dose
12 years and older - Full adult dose
Now if you have a child who is very small or very large for their age, then you may want to try a different formula that is by weight. The formula is 1/5 X (child's weight in pounds / 2.2) + 10 = % of the adult dose to be administered.
But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So take protecting your child through the winter months seriously, and remember that there are numerous natural things that can be given to even the smallest of babies to help keep them healthy.