Naturally Healing a Fever

A couple of years ago, I felt a fever coming on. It was challenging – I couldn’t afford to get sick at that time! There were some very important things going on that required my full attention and I didn’t have the time to be sick. This post contains my affiliate links.

I mean, who does? However, I refuse to use over the counter drugs. I believe they only suppress natural immunity and can actually extend your cold, rather than letting your body do the work.

And, recently the kids got sick. This is a good thing! They rarely do, but as they heal from the autoimmune issues that so commonly accompany autism or Down syndrome. This is something I’ve known for years.  Here’s something I wrote in the early days of being a mom:

But wait, no, there’s good news! Firstly, Zoe’s fever IS a good news – they are so rare. Could it be that the autoimmune issues are somehow getting better? Her fever came out of the BLUE but it was really high, considering she woke up well and I got the call from school around 11am. I was determined that Chris and I would NOT have the Tylenol / fever med argument again. (Read about the dangers of acetaminophen here.)

You see, I believe that fevers are the body’s method of healing itself. I did a little research, and found some great information. One site had a guest post from a pediatrician who believed in home remedies, and said to watch your child NOT the temperature. Well, Zoe was suffering. I mean, super suffering. I read some of the home remedy suggestions. One said to soak socks in egg whites – from pastured eggs only – and put on the feet of the patient. Well THAT was not happening! Zoe immediately screamed and kicked them off.

So I went back to the egg whites, soaked a paper towel, gently captured her feet on my legs, and coated her feet bottoms like they were egg bagels. The results?

Within an hour, she was almost back to normal! She even asked for a shower a little later. The next day she was almost fine, but I had to wait out that 24 hour window for fever before sending her back to school. She enjoyed her class Halloween parade and party – not a trace of illness left!

Great right? Just by sitting back, not worrying and caring for her needs the best I could, my girl got healed. I think that’s the Big Lesson for me this week.

To this day, I’m not sure whether or not this was an old wive’s tale that I put my faith in or there is something to this. (I swear I just saw an article about a “cold feet” solution but I can’t find it, so I’ll skip it for now.) And healing was taking place at the time, this post was the first time my girl independently went to the potty:

But wait, there’s more! When I gave up stress over her situation, I never dreamed that things would heal. I’m not saying miracles can’t happen, I just thought I had to manage them. Today, the teachers called me and put Zoe on the phone, who used her ProLoQuo2Go app to tell me that she peed on the potty -twice! It was her first time ever 🙂

And that’s not all! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but Zoe had incredible difficulty writing letters. They just looked like wavy lines. She can manage a few, like an “E” which has the 5 lines in the right direction but not the right places. Today, I reviewed her weekly vocabulary with her. We are filling in blank letter spaces with the correct letter. I was blessed today with a PERFECT “R”, “U” and “p” – all on her own, without me even touching her hand. Yay!

We are still moving ahead with the homeopath, who I met last week and am waiting on recommendations, but this is just wonderful. No food interventions, just straight up communications, redirection, and highly skilled teachers and aides, home support and a very large helping of faith and trust in God.

Naturally Healing a Fever

But back to the near-fever I encountered. I felt terrible. You know when you are CERTAIN that by the time you go to bed you’ll wake up with a fever? Maybe your joints show signs of soreness, or your head feels sort of feverish rather just warm, or you are far more tired than you should be?

I was freaked out at first, especially since I ate crappy food yesterday, pretty much nothing but glutens. I was feeling guilty after we made something for the kids and my husband and I agree on takeout pizza. Knowing my diet the day before was bad, I quickly whipped up a traditional juice. The ingredients (all organic):

• 8 ounces of filtered water
• 1 orange
• 1 handful of kale
• 1 green apple
• 1/2 teaspoon (as per directions) of Organic India Moringa Essential Nutrition Leaf Powder
• 1 packet of NOW Foods Probiotic 10

Before I drank that, I took 1 tube of Boiron® Oscillococcinum®, melted under my tongue, and had another when I woke up.

Guess what? NO FEVER. No nothing. I’m tired, but I don’t feel sick at all.

Vitamin C, calcium, and magnesium are also helpful and that a body with a high fever is depleted in those resources. As long as it’s ok for you to take those vitamins, you may want to try them. Right now, I’m taking Juice Plus regularly since multivitamins tend to make my blood levels out of whack (I’m on blood thinners).  Plus, so easy to get your ALL fruits and veggies in a food-based format every day!!

Giving up control really works, but so does taking minor illnesses into your own hands. Here are the resources I used to research caring for naturally healing a fever for my kids:

• Mommypotamus 5 Ways to Treat a Fever Naturally: Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson advises parents to watch the child, which is what I did. This is where I got the egg white remedy. I read that it acts the same: FAST, in minutes from anecdotes around the web. There is no research on this, but who cares? If it works, it works!
• To learn more about why fevers are good and fever reducers AREN’T, check out “Don’t Fear the Fever.”
• Have sleep issues reared their ugly heads again? (They have here.) A friend who is unable to remove dairy from her son’s diet told me tonight that tart cherry juice has the highest content of melatonin – and she has successfully used it to get him to sleep every night – we’re talking about a child with longtime sleep issues! She just sticks in something chocolate and he’ll eat it 🙂
• I also just wrote about how supplements can help boost immunity and sleep.

What are your tips for healing a fever or cold naturally?