Information can improve your life

Sometimes when it comes to health problems, we think of the biggies - major illness, weight problems, diabetes. I know that before starting my business and the fabulous years I've spent expanding my knowledge and understanding of health, I really never gave my long term health much passing thought.

Yet every day we have small health issues, small decisions, basic steps and its the ultimate culmination of all of those things that give us quality of life.

I'm constantly amazed at how simple some solutions can be.

In the early afternoon yesterday my 4 year old slipped on some wet steps and hit his knee and elbow. a few minutes later he started complaining of a severe headache and thought he might have banged his head too. There was no sign of redness or a scratch, but I felt his head and he was burning up with fever. We quickly went home and about an hour later he started vomiting.

Rather than a bump on the head, I suspected a virus was to blame, especially when the vomiting started.

After the first bout of vomiting I immediately started dosing him, myself and our toddler with a charcoal slurry about every half hour. In all, he had 4 bouts of vomiting about three-quarters of an hour apart, but after each one, and each dose of charcoal slurry, his temperature dropped a degree. By 6pm he was starting to brighten up and went to bed as usual at 7pm and slept soundly through the night.

My toddler and I have both been fine today.

The slurry was easy to administer by syringe, even though he was struggling to keep other fluids down. Its pretty much tasteless anyway, and if nothing else was taking away the bitterness in his mouth.

I was thrilled with the results and because I knew what to do I could quickly and confidently handle the situation at home. As a mother, there's nothing worse than dragging sick kids off to a long wait in a Medical Centre where the healthy child could just as well catch something from another patient. And how bad would I feel having a vomiting child near other patients and knowing they could well catch it from him? Let alone cuddling a sick 4 year old and keeping a willful and active 20 month old in check - makes me shudder to think about it. A wonderful relief, then, to have the tools at hand to solve the problem quickly and efficiently.

I have a wonderful book on Charcoal remedies and will have to remember to post some more when I get time.

Be well!

Deidre.