Monday, February 24, 2014

Remedies for my 2 year olds' Cough & Cold

My tiny tot hardly fell sick till he turned 1.5 y.o. But after that he has been plagued by cold & cough! Three things had changed all of a sudden:

(1) We shifted from Jakarta to Pune: I hate the heat and my husband hates the cold, and so Jakarta was the perfect middle ground! This tropical, almost one season all year round, not too humid, drizzly coastal city was comfortable for all three of us. Pune has four distinct seasons (with usually cool evenings and very hot days) and get very dry and dusty. Statistically the pollution levels in Jakarta are a tad higher than Pune, (both have a very high bike population) yet in terms of sanitation Pune loses hands down.

(2) He started pre-school: The school is squeaky clean, before entering each child needs to rub hand sanitizer & do a quick temperature check and they do keep a look out for symptoms. Once they took a day off to sanitize the classrooms since they noticed a few kids with hand foot & mouth disease. Once they even called me when they noticed my kid had 100 degrees fever, by the time I got there he was nice and cosy fast asleep! Although infections are controlled they can't be avoided altogether, by the time the parent/ teacher realises the child is sick to take him off school, it would have most likely contacted others.


(3) I stopped breastfeeding, so keeping aside the long term benefits, the immediate safety blanket was removed once and for all!

After a lot of deliberations, trials and errors I have the following remedies that I follow to the T. They didn't completely prevent / cure colds but definitely nipped it in the bud.

1. Thermal wear (full sleeves, cotton) to be worn 24/7 the entire winter. This counters his occasional aversion to jackets and he thinks it's cool to copy dad wearing a vest!

2. Rubbing few drops of traditional oil on chest and back: for daytime I use Indonesia's "minyak telon" oil which contains Citronella and Chamomile- very popular there to prevent babies from catching cold (although I don't really know the extent of its unique benefits here owing to climate difference, but WTH I use it anyways). This particular one is also effective in keeping mosquitoes at bay so I apply liberally on his legs and hands when we are in playgrounds and parks.

At nights I rub a homemade oil given by a friend, which I'm told consists of 32 spice ingredients (from turmeric to fenugreek) tempered in mustard oil.

3. Dabur's Madhuvaani (a mixture of Sitopaladi churn and honey): it's an Ayurvedic medicine that beats any allopathic treatment or home remedy (honey mixed with ground sauf/ turmeric mixed in warm milk etc) esp for dry cough. I.e. This is THE cure when at 12 am your kid turns into a coughing Tyrannosaurus!

It is spicy and unappealing in taste because of which it lay idle in the cabinet for a long time (not really because I'm a kind and understanding mommy but because it was far easier to feed him the other sugary cough syrup - he would BEG for more!). But finally I decided to 'cut the bullshit' and force it. NOT easy to force as he is a champion in spitting out or even vomiting what he doesn't like. So had to literally pin him down on the floor and smear the medicine on his tongue and keep him down till he swallowed! After the first few spitting out and vomiting tries, he finally started swallowing (albeit LOUD protests!). Mean mommy I know! But two days of these worked like a charm! And he slept like a LOG with no stupid coughs or tyrannosauruses interrupting him (or us!) thereafter!


4. Other small details: moving his bath timing from morning to 5 pm during peak winters, shutting all windows and balcony doors post 4 pm to keep the house warm, etc.

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