Re: reply to Bonnie health and immunity

[Guest guest]

Maybe; that's a possibility I hadn't thought of.

Bonnie, don't you think there's a possibility that they were reder because they were under the covers because of the heat, and lighter in color because they were out of the covers though? I thought heat can make chicken pox and any inflamation worse when it's heated because it makes the bacteria grow?

Bonnie Juettner wrote: I didn't know about anti-inflammatories being bad for the gut...that's interesting. Re: reiki...well, it sounds like quackery to a lot of people and I can't point to any

scientific research. It's a form of energy healing, which homeopathy is too, actually. But homeopathy (which works very well for us too) sounds much more plausible to people because it involves ingesting something...I just had a short introduction to reiki while watching a real reiki practitioner work on my daughters. It basically involves holding your hands near their body (usually starting over the head and working your way down) while visualizing light pouring out of your hands into their body. (Can also be helpful for pain relief during arduous poops, actually, although sometimes it also stimulates peristalsis, which makes my 4-year-old mad when she's trying to hold it in--she shoos me away and says " stop touching me! " even though I'm not touching her.) What I do for a fever, though, is a little different...I try to feel the heat with my hands (feeling mostly over the head) and scoop it away. I do that for just a few minutes, usually feeling very silly and

quite sure that it won't work...but, so far it always has worked. I find if I use a thermometer to take my kids' temperatures before and after doing this, it usually brings the temperature down at least two degrees. Also, bizarrely, when my 9-year-old had rubella (a disease she had, by the way, been vaccinated for), I used this procedure with her while she was lying in bed, and I stopped at about where the bed covers started. The next morning, we observed that she seemed to have a line across her body right where the covers had ended...all her " spots " from mid-chest up had faded to pink, and all of them from mid-chest down were still bright red. Weird. Though, having said all of that, I should also note that maybe some of this is not true reiki but some other form of energy healing. I asked a reiki practitioner about it once and she said it sounded like something else. But I didn't start doing it until I was introduced to reiki and my practice sort of evolved from

that...so I don't know....it's an interesting area to explore. My husband thinks it's total mumbo-jumbo...and, personally, as someone who makes a living as a science writer, I find it very embarrassing to admit to using this kind of method. All I can say is, I really do believe in the Western scientific method, and, I really think that if Western scientists will take the time to investigate energy healing, they will figure out why it works. And I wish I had time to learn more about it myself. It's possible to take classes and be certified in Reiki, but it takes a solid weekend of coursework (16 or 20 hours, I think) and my 4-year-old isn't ready to be away from me that long yet. So I've just been experimenting on my own. If you explore the archives, I think someone a year or so ago posted about energy healing helping their child to overcome constipation. In fact, I think it was a long-distance energy healing (which will strain your credulity even more).

Ah well. There are many different ways to help our kids...Bonnie On Dec 31, 2007 2:59 PM, littlelief <littlelief@...

> wrote: Agreed! A healthy gut is extremely important for immunity.

I also agree about holding off on the Tylenol. Our pediatricianrecommends this as well. A fever is the body's way of fighting back.The immune cells function better at a slightly elevated bodytemperature. Giving a fever reducer can interfere with the immune

function and prolong the sickness. I think the highest ourpediatrician recommended as o.k. is like Bonnie said, 104. A friendof mine uses the homeopathic remedy Belladonna for fever reduction. Ihaven't tried it yet as we haven't needed to

reduce fever in a longtime. Also, cold compresses and cool baths help reduce fever and keepthem comfortable.I would love to know more about the reiki, Bonnie.Just one additional note on the pain relievers (acetaminophen or

ibuprofen) - aside from all the undesirable additive gunk (corn syrup,dyes, etc, etc) I have always wondered if these are detrimental to ourkids with gut issues. The anti-inflammatory products (like ibuprofen)

are known stomach irritants (and I'm extrapolating that to believethat they can irritate intestines as well). Here's a quote from myson's doctor's website regarding leaky gut/food allergy conditions:

" Avoid anti-inflammatory medicines like Motrin. Use instead, naturalones like MSM, curcumin, boswellia and bromelain. " Does anyone else have thoughts on this?>> It seems like there have been a lot of postings about colds/fluslately. I> was getting ready to share our latest find, which is that it seemsas though

> when we take probiotics and omega-3s regularly, we hardly get sickat all.> Of the three of us who normally get sick all the time (the threekids and> me), my 9-year-old and I haven't gotten sick once since starting the

> probiotics and omega-3s. My 4-year-old has gotten sick twice, butonly with> a very mild stuffy nose that went away quickly. My husband, who eats two> yogurts a day but doesn't take any omega-3s, pretty much never gets

sick.> But maybe it's silly for me to post that here, as many of us on thislist> are already devoted probiotics/omega 3 users...those of you who havebeen> doing this a long time, do you find that you are rarely ever sick? Our

>

chiropractor told me that these two supplements were the most important> thing we could do to avoid catching everything that goes around...> > Incidentally, re: fevers...my policy, now, is that I don't give

Tylenol or> ibuprofen for anything under 104. And actually, I try reiki first iffevers> get that high (not that we've had any fevers this fall...I'mthinking back> to last spring when we were still getting sick sometimes). I know it

sounds> crazy, but I found that reiki techniques will bring a fever down two or> three degrees, which was good enough for me...> > Bonnie>