Yes.
While I believe that “there’s an oil for that” in just about every circumstance, sometimes kids need doctors. I was honestly a little scared about taking my son to the doctor because my crunchy mama friends don’t take their kids to doctors–there’s always a totally natural remedy and no medicine needed. I am all for that; if moms can keep their kids healthy from home, that’s wonderful, and I recognize as well that there are flaws in the medical system to be wary of, but when I heard my son gasping for breath in the middle of another coughing fit, I made the decision: it was time to get it checked out, even if it meant sacrificing my “I’ve never had to take him to the doctor” claim.
We had a great experience at the hospital. It was fairly quick and the doctor was so sweet with little man, assuring us that his upper respiratory infection is simply what has been going around and it’s not anything to worry about. That’s what we expected to hear but since it’s been getting progressively worse every day so we wanted to make sure.
The whole two hours we spent at the hospital, little man played the drums on the window sills, drooled all over the plastic seats, and tried to chew on nurse’s call button. Daddy rushed home from work after a particularly bad coughing fit so we could take little man to the doctor so seeing him play and be his normal crazy self was quite a relief for both of us, and after his busy morning he more or less slept the rest of the day away, threw up all his applesauce in the evening, and then slept some more. Marines deal with all sorts of disgusting hygienic conditions and blood and bodily fluids when they’re in the field, but still somehow my Marine has a very difficult time with baby throw up. One day little man isn’t going to able to hold it in and Daddy will be baptized by puke and perhaps then he’ll get over his aversion, or perhaps maybe he’ll just end up traumatized. Either way I would laugh very, very hard.
But here’s the thing: I work with essential oils and I completely stand behind them to support our family’s health.
#There’sanoilforthat might be an annoying hashtag to my non-oil using friends, but it’s real, ya’ll. There really is an oil for everything. There is an oil for respiratory infections. There are a few, actually, and they’ve helped my son immensely; we just decided we would rather be safe then try to ward off a serious infection. More on that next paragraph.
First, I have to talk about how hard it was for me to give us my son’s never-had-to-go-to-a-doctor status. When I talk to other moms who have perpetually sick kids and I tell them about how essential oils have been so successful in keeping the crud away from our family, I am so proud to say that our oils have kept us all out of hospitals. It’s not to brag, it’s just that I love being a product of my product! But anyway, I didn’t fail because I took my son to a doctor. I stand by that decision like I stand by my product.
On to what essentials oils have done for my son. He started getting sick when we had friends staying at our house last week–our one friend had been very very seriously sick for weeks and spent time in the hospital on antibiotics so we know what he was fighting off was the real deal. Literally within an hour of seeing him, I could tell my son was coming down with something, and if my son has what my friend had, it could have been much much worse–hence our morning visit to the hospital.
And yet, little man’s immune system has held it’s own.
He is sick, but it’s not serious. He has a runny nose, a persistent cough, and he threw up because I tried to get him to eat applesauce for dinner, but he’s been smiley and his normal happy little self. At night, he’s still able to sleep and when a coughing fit hits we rub some oils on his toesies and he feels better in a few minutes.
I’ll let you in on my secret.
Okay, it’s not a secret–it’s my oils. I just love them! I get excited to tell you about the latest awesome thing they’ve done for our family. So here they are–little man’s respiratory support oils:
R.C. stands for respiratory care and it’s one of my absolutely favorites. Due to everyone’s different body compositions, different oils work differently for different people, but this is one that gives me dramatic and immediate results every time I use it. It does just as the name suggests and supports the respiratory system, as does the Breathe Again blend. I love that it’s in a roll-on bottle because I can literally just pull it out of my diaper bag and rub it on my chest or sinuses and I’m better. Plus, since I keep it in my diaper bag, I offer it to anyone I come into contact with who is feeling a little congested. Peace and Calming helps with a pesky cough but my favorite thing about it is how calm it keeps my son and me.
The last few days, I’ve been mixing all the oils with olive oil and rubbing it on his feet and chest. It helps immensely and ends the bad coughing fits. At night we diffuse R.C., Peace and Calming, Thieves (anti-bacterial), and Lavender (relaxing + good for sleep) and it allows my poor baby to get the sleep he needs. I thought he was getting better and I stopped using the oils but in two days the crud had come back even worse so we’re back to our oily routine. I’ve been drinking Young Living’s super antioxidant drink to keep myself healthy and to pass on the immune boosting benefits through my breast milk.
They also gave us one of those horrible bulb syringes and some saline solution to help his congestion at the hospital, but we have that under control.
“He’s going to hate it when you use it,” the nurse warned me.
Well, it’s a darn good thing there is another way!
As you can see, little man is okay. We took him to the doctors and yes, it was a blow to my pride, but the essential oils have kept him as well as he’s been.
To my mom friends, I know everyone is getting sick. It stinks, but at least there is a way to help! Listening to a coughing baby in the middle of the night is the saddest noise ever and I wish we could get together with have a glass of wine (or coffee) and commiserate while cuddling our sick babes, but alas, telling you I love you and that you’re doing great through a blog post will have to do instead.
Soon, spring will be here and instead of fighting off the flu, you’ll be fighting your kids for the dandelions they’re trying to eat. This too shall pass. In the mean time, enjoy the extra cuddles!