Tittle Tales

Waking up to hear my younger son clear his throat several times a few days ago, I questioned if his throat felt scratchy or sore. He had no other signs of sickness and his overall demeanor seemed normal, (well normal for him anyway).
He said “No, I’m fine.” Not very satisfied with his quick answer, I inquired again to see if it was hopefully not the start of a cold.
He responded a second time with “I’m okay Mom, I think I have a hairball.”
It never ceases to amaze me the answers and thoughts this kid shares with me. After explaining that only certain animals have hairballs, I gathered by his blank and surprised facial expression that he was taking several moments to download and store the new learned information. After a few moments of thinking, we retreated to the kitchen to see if some juice would remedy his clogged throat. The juice worked and he is currently well and thankfully so far no signs of sickness.
This called to my mind my family’s flu shots this year. After all five of us suffered a severe case of the flu last year, I have decided to vaccinate myself and the kids this year. My husband will also be receiving the vaccination.
I always have and plan to continue to approach my kid’s health and treat their illnesses with herbal and homeopathic remedies. My kids were under the care of a natural, homeopathic pediatrician when we lived in Florida, who practiced modern medicine but would always offer a natural solution first. She encourages daily probiotics, vitamins, minerals and other supplements for maintaining great health and growth with our kids. We have seen benefits from the very beginning and continue to see them today from these supplements.
If my kids are sick, they know the herbs and remedies we have that they can take to feel better, from tinctures to herbal nose and throat sprays or oils for the body or oils to put in a cool mist vaporizer. So with the little amount of history just mentioned on my personal choice for natural approaches to illness, you can imagine I would much rather treat herbal or homeopathic when given a choice.
As strong as I am with my reasoning on natural treatments to illness, my mind was changed about the flu shot. Last December, two weeks after we moved from Florida to Mississippi, our whole family caught the flu. This was the first time my kids had any type of the flu  or a flu vaccination. Their immune systems were hit extremely hard. So after watching the kids symptoms quickly strengthen with no relief from all my natural remedies, we hightailed it to a clinic in Oxford.
We all tested positive for type A flu, and were all prescribed Tamiflu. I have to say, those two months of being body-slammed by the flu virus while trying to care for my very sick family was enough to change my mind about the flu shot very quickly. We all finally recovered about six to eight weeks later, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget those exhausting weeks.
The flu season is here and I am waiting on the flu spray mist for my kids and have already scheduled shots for my husband and me. We are happy to be proactively participating in this step to our wellness and health. So, if you haven’t already, go get your flu shot so you can stay well and be able to enjoy this wonderful cool weather.