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In honor of my musical theatre roots, I will start with a quote from Adelaide from Guys and Dolls: it starts with the “sneezes and wheezes and a sinus that’s really a pip!” The common cold. It can start off as something small like a sniffle or a runny nose. Who knows, maybe it is a series of sneezes all together and you think nothing of it? Sooner or later your little person starts to get stuffy and that can lead to infection which might eventually lead to antibiotics. I am not (for lack of a better word) “anti”-antibiotics, but I want to save them for when my kids REALLY need them and make sure that they do not develop a resistance at an early age.

As parents, we want our kids to be as healthy as possible all the time but sometimes the gunk in the classroom just gets passed around. So what can you do when the sniffles strike your little person? Well, today was one of those days for me. I was working hard and got THE call. “Your son is sic and needs to go home.” My little boy had a tiny cough the night prior and over the course of a few hours in the morning, it had developed into a gut-busting, lung-hacking cough. He was not sick enough to go to the doctor and he was not well enough to stay at school, even though he had no fever. I had to come up with a plan of action.

When it comes to sickness at our house, we like to get as much vitamin c in the body as possible at the first sign of sickness. There are many ways to do this, but our number one is drinking and eating foods that are high in vitamin c. There is also a powder you can buy that is vitamic c as ascorbic acid, which is just a fancy scientific term for vitamin c. The goal is to get as much “c” in your body as possible. For more on this subject from published author, doctor and one of the experts from Food Matters, Andrew Saul, check out this video.

There are a few other things I did to halt my son’s cold. As promised, here are all five of them:

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  1. Juice It Up – Giving your sick child some organic fruit juice will help kick their vitamin c into high gear. In the video we clearly love Noble Juice. You can get it at Publix. Tangerine is our favorite. There are many reasons that we love this brand…primarily because they are local, organic and there is no sugar added to their drinks! Tangerines are sweet enough already, so no need!

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2. Vicks Vapo-Rub – Using an ointment like this on your child’s chest is just an added bonus to help them breathe a bit easier. There are some that are made with essential oils that are perfect! You can also get a generic brand (like featured in the picture above).

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3. Essential Peppermint Oil – Speaking of essential oils, do you like the smell of peppermint? It’s pretty magical. Topically, it can relieve sore muscles. It can also help with digestion issues if ingested. We use it to clear the respiratory track. Just a few drops in the shower will help make a peppermint steam treatment that will be a huge help for your stuffy nose. Check THIS out for over 25 different uses for peppermint oil!

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4. Cool Mist Humidifier – This is our absolute best weapon in the fight against colds. If your child has a cough, stuffy nose or any other ailment, you must consider putting this by their head when you sleep. You will thank me in the morning. We use the Vicks Cool Mist Humidifier.

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5. Sleep – Okay, this one goes without saying, but come on guys. Make that kid sleep! Don’t let them watch a ton of TV or just sit around playing when they are sick. It is our responsibility to get them to bed on time or make them take a nap. When the body is resting, it is also repairing. You got this!

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These are my five go-to’s, but I am sure there are other things you and your family do to help keep your kids as healthy as possible when “the call” from school comes in. How do you handle dealing with your sick kids? Leave us a comment on facebook so we can spread the love to other busy parents just like you and me!

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*Noble has compensated Real IronDAD to talk about their organic tangerine juice. For more details on what this means, please visit our disclosure page.

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