he has a cold every month followed by asthma . would like to give him a suppliment other than his daily vitamin just for immune system. any ideas
I like something I get at the healthfood store - a probiotic powder you mix in drinks. Also has vitamin D and Colostrum. It's called Daycare Defense. I also swear by using a humidifier every night in my children's rooms.
Extra vitamin c, elderberry, echinacea and probiotics. And if he has asthma, make sure you're not using any synthetic perfumes. No Febreeze, plug in scent thingies, or dryer sheets with scent in them. In fact, switching to all natural cleaners and products with no parabens or artificial smell will help.
When my kids are sick, I give them additional C and D along w/ elderberry syrup.
HTH!
Yes! A probiotic would be great too!
One more...I give them Sovereign (colloidal) silver. too.
Vitamin D3 which is available in chewable tablets and a probitotic which helps the immunity in the intestines. This has definitely helped my kids :)
Vitamin A (Batacaratine) and Zinc. They promote healing. When ever my son's or my asthma starts acting up we start poping the A's like they are candy. I have not don't the zinc but get yelled at by my chrio every time I tell them I don't take it. The A has been a life saver for me. We also get regular chiropractic treatments and that helps too. I know that sounds weird and I do it for the kids. I take them in when they first start coming down with somethign adn usually they can keep from going on antibiotics. And will cut down the amount of asthma meds they have to take.
Good luck and God Bless!
Vitamin C, Calcium (Citrate, not carbonate), magnesium, and vitamin D3 derived from Cholecalciferol.
A children's multi will cover some of this, but will not have enough C or D3.
My kids always enjoyed sucking on those vitamin c chewables. They also make chewable echinacea at the health food stores. Raisins are supposed to have anti-viral properties.
Did you clean your house out of all that perfume air freshener? Your sons asthma can not be controlled or get better if he's being bombarded with perfume chemicals.
Extra Vitamin C & D3. The RDA for Vita D is 400 IUs, but this is just the minimum needed to avoid rickets (and it's just for most people, but not all people -- rickets is making a comeback, too!). The amount of D you need depends on how much you can and do make naturally from the sun (or that you get in your diet, but most of us don't eat fish and other foods naturally high in D, so we're usually deficient), and that depends on...
*your skin color (darker people have more melanin that blocks the sun; lighter people have less, so they tend to make more vita D with the same amount of sun),
*your latitude (the further north you go, the poorer the quality of the sunlight you get), the season (winter = bad for sunlight, not just because you tend to stay inside where it's warm and/or cover up when you go outside, but because the angle of the sun's rays are not good for Vita D production -- you could be extremely pale, and stand naked on a sidewalk 24/7 in the northern parts of the US and still not get enough Vita D in winter -- how much worse if you're of average "white" complexion, olive, or darker complexion?)
*how much you're out in the sun (face it, we tend to be "inside people" nowadays -- near the A/C in the summer and near the heater in the winter
*sunscreen (it can limit the amount of D you can make)
*your weight (heavier people need more D than skinnier people)
My kids are 5 & 7, and this winter I've started taking 4000 IUs every day for myself (and sometimes more, depending), and giving them 1000 IUs most days (sometimes it depends on if I remember, some days I just skip it), and sometimes 2000 IUs, if they seem to be coming down with a sniffle, are eating more sweets (Christmas candy, Halloween candy....), or are around people who are or may be sick. So far, we have only had a few sniffles, but no out-and-out sickness.
You can technically get too much Vita D, but most people are so low in blood levels that it's hard to do. You can also get a blood test done to see what his/your actual levels are, or you can just guestimate by how healthy he seems to be (which is what I'm doing, since I know that you *really* have to get a lot of Vita D in order to have negative [though usually mild and limited] side effects from it).
I swear by Nordic dha daily and probiotics. Also crazy neurotic hand washing.
Our 3-1/2 son gets the following and is rarely sick: buffered ascorbate C powder (1/8 tsp/day), probiotic capsule (emptied into milk, it dissolves nicely), multivitamin, liquid D3 (2 drops). He used to get fish oil that was lemon flavored, but he's been complaining about the taste even when we sneak into things, so I'm looking at different options.
We wash our hands often, and I keep baby wipes on me at all times (came in handy for an impromptu visit at a working farm yesterday).
Good luck!
Once it's warm enough outside, set up a sandbox and let him play in it.
There have been studies which determined that playing in dirt can help to stimulate a healthy immune response.
We played outside in a sandbox growing up, and also in dirt piles and mud puddles with Tonka trucks and other toys.
Yeah, sometimes we had to be hosed off before we could come back into the house but making mud pies was loads of fun.
I've always told my son "If you're going to get dirty, you might as well get good and dirty".
At 13 he's a little old for a sandbox now, but he helps me plant/weed in the garden and we still enjoy getting dirty.
Dad joins in it as long as he gets to use the tiller to turn up a garden bed for me.
We get just a cold a couple times a year.
