Winter is upon us and I’ve been focusing back in on some of our family’s favorite immunity-boosting supplements and routines in order to keep us as healthy as possible during a year when I feel like sickness is proving to be worse than it’s been in recent years. After a winter last year where there was practically no sickness, I think we’re paying the price this year and making up for lost time.
Remember: When you’re reading this post, we are NOT perfect in following this routine. We forget for days at a time, sometimes we do better than other times. It’s OK and normal to not always follow a perfect supplement routine – but implementing even a few of these things and doing them 75% of the time is better than nothing!
I remember being a young mom with just toddler Ainsley and feeling SO incredibly discouraged about how sick she was so frequently. I wish I had known some of these tips when I was a young mom, as I think they could have helped us tremendously. However, part of it was just the natural immunity-building process, too. She was our first, hence she wasn’t exposed to as many germs via siblings, daycare, etc. early on and so every single bug seemed to take her down. Now Truett is hardly EVER sick. He has the best immune system in our family, probably because he is exposed to so many things from his siblings.
LIFESTYLE
Sleep: We have always been pretty good about sleep schedules for our kiddos, but if your kids are getting sick frequently and you don’t have a good sleep routine/nap routine for young kids, I would highly recommend implementing one. Quality sleep is SO important for immune health.
Chiropractic: This is something we did for Truett and Collins that I wish we would have done for Ainsley. We implemented chiropractic for both of them from a young age – going to the chiro was actually the first trip out of the house for both of them after they were born. There are SO many benefits to chiro in kids – from helping with fussy newborns, preventing torticollis, and helping with proper drainage of the ears from fluid build-up. Now, when we know our kids have a cold coming on, I’m quick to take them to the chiro if I’m worried about their ears.
Outside Time: Truett has been good for me in this regard. He has a natural desire to be outside ALL THE TIME and in ALL THE WEATHER. So our family has become much more of an outside family in the winter. If you need some reasons to get outside in the winter, here are reasons why it’s so good for your kids.
Hand Washing: Maybe this sounds bad, but I think I truly underestimated the importance of hand washing. COVID really opened my eyes to how much more often we could incorporate hand washing into our family’s personal hygiene routine. It’s simple but it’s SO important. If you need a great non-toxic hand sanitizer to use when out and about, I love this one from Beautycounter and this one is great, too!
SUPPLEMENTS
We don’t follow a super elaborate and expensive supplement routine, but there are a few key items we like to have on hand for keeping our immune systems strong throughout the cold weather months. I just placed a refill order one some of my favorites below!
Smarty Pants Kids Vitamin: This one is my personal favorite because my kids love to take it (sometimes they want more and it’s a battle) and it contains bio-available vitamins (including methylated folate) which is hard to find in a kids vitamin on most store shelves.
Flourish Probiotic: This one is for the whole family! I personally prefer the Junior version because I think the taste is better, but they have both a kids and adult version. We buy a bottle each month and have it set up for auto ship – one of the few items we have on auto ship in our house. Collins and Truett LOVE the taste and ask for it every day. Ainsley is a bit more reluctant but knowing they are addressing gut health in a powerful way is very important to me.
I love Flourish because it contains 11 different strains from 5 genera and it’s resilient when traveling through the stomach and digestive tract.
Mary Ruths Organic Vitamin C Drops: Another vitamin the kids ask for by name. My daughter calls this “the sweet one” and I like that the liquid format allows us to cater dosages to kids based on age/need. (Adults: I personally use the Megadose Vitamin C Liposomal)
Mary Ruths Organic Liquid Nighttime Multimineral: This is for me and Collins! I love it because it helps me get into a good, restful sleep and gear down at night. And the same is true for Collins. It also contains magnesium, which is great for immune system health.
BONUS: Get 15% off your first Mary Ruths order of $23.95+ using this link and the code MARYRUTH.
NASAL HEALTH
Kids Xlear Nasal Spray with Xylitol
Hands down THE thing I wish I had known about six years ago. This was recommended to Collins by our speech therapist and it’s been such a game changer for her stuffiness and nasal health. Our speech therapist talked a lot about the importance of “nasal hygiene” similar to dental hygiene or hand washing. For some kids – who are frequently stuffy (whether it be because of allergies, the make up of their sinuses, etc.) keeping up with great nasal hygiene is so important – and we have seen firsthand what a difference this spray has made for Collins within just a week of use. She is clear – and consistently clear – for the first time ever. It’s amazing! The xylitol has specific anti-bacterial properties which makes this spray so incredibly effective.
Home Air Quality
Air Doctor
We have an Air Doctor in our home in our main living area and I’ve noticed a major difference in the way our home smells – specifically when we return home from a trip. I typically noticed that our older home smelled a little musty when we walked in the door after being gone for a few days, but this has made a huge difference! Knowing Collins was allergic to many indoor air pollutants gave us the extra nudge we needed to make the investment in the Air Doctor and I’m glad we did!
If the air doctor isn’t in your budget (it’s certainly NOT in our budget for every room in the house – so we put ours in our largest and most used living area) we got smaller and more inexpensive air purifiers for the kids rooms. Maybe eventually we can purchase Air Doctors for every room in our house but for now, these are working well for us!
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