The Fight

Before even starting this post let me begin by saying I know there are times that some intervention is needed and medical professionals are needed. I worked with some of the best Doctors and Nurses in the NICU. And this is in no way medical advice, it is simply my opinion.

Kevin does not like for me to say I am sick or Ayda is sick. He says we are fighting illness or disease and it is a good thing. It helps build our immune system. It makes us stronger in the end. So when Ayda started her fight against what I thought was just a minor cold two weeks ago I was confident she would beat it. However, I started to wonder when after a whole week she was not getting better, in fact, she was showing signs of getting worse. Her cough was deeper, her nose more stuffed up, her energy zapped. I even prayed Monday night that she would just get enough of a fever that it would kill whatever she had. I found myself wondering what mother prays for their child to have a fever? Well the mother that knows medicine will not be given and she wants her baby to feel better sooner. And sure enough, at ten that night, Ayda woke with a 101F fever. She wouldn't go back to bed so I just went with it. She came out in the living room and started watching the Olympics with us. Before long she was turning in circles copying the figure skaters. I could tell the fever didn't have her completely down yet. After about an hour she went back to bed and slept fine till morning. The fever was 100.6 in the morning. We took it easy. Then the fever popped up to 102.5, her heart rate had increase and she was breathing faster than I liked. As a nurse I did a quick assessment on her. She just laid in my lap and watched tv for awhile. Kevin reminded me that her fever was fine and she was fighting the virus/bacteria. We remained confident that her body knew what it was doing. Before long she got up and played some. Then took another nap and woke up feeling better and had a temp of 100.5 again. Long story short, her fever broke through the night (only lasted about 24 hours) and each day since she has been even better. Today she was 100% Ayda again...loads of personality, energy, spunk.

So why do so many people fear a fever? Illness? I know the doctors put so much fear in parent's minds. They say there will be brain damage if the fever is untreated or gets too high. Yes, that is true, if the fever reaches 107 or higher. So why do we start pushing the Tylenol at 100.4 or higher? I had Mastitis when Ayda was 3 weeks old and my temp reached 104.5 at one point. I was miserable, but fully coherent. I was told that if I didn't take antibiotics I could get an absess. I was also told that it could get so bad that my nipple would have to be removed. So much fear. My midwife and Chiropractor stood by me though and I didn't take antibiotics for the Mastitis and within 48 hours of spiking the fever, it broke and about 3 days after that we were smooth sailing with breastfeeding again. Why do we put so much trust in Medicine and not in our bodies? Ayda has been sick three times now, twice with a fever. None of those times did we even take her to see the doctor. I'm a nurse, I know what he would say. I assess her myself to make sure she is not in danger and that she stays hydrated and then we ride out whatever it is. I'm thankful she has only been sick three times and I feel that with each new fight she is stronger to fight the next thing that comes her way. God created us to be good. Trust your body.

Some natural things we did:

Let her fever run, but she got LOTS of extra love and attention since she felt yucky.

Pushed lots of water. She drinks water pretty good on a normal day but we kept sippy cups all over the house so she could just grab it no matter where she was.

Rest. If she was even slightly tired I put her to bed. We definitely threw out any routine we once had.

I am still breastfeeding her twice a day so I loaded myself up on Vit C so she would get some through the breastmilk.

Completely eliminated Dairy (cow's milk) products from her diet. No cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese (her favorite). Eating these products can increase mucous production which we did not need more of.

Ayda does not eat many things with sugar but I significantly decreased her sugar (even natural sugars) from her diet as well. She was on a very bland diet to say the least. Sugar can feed bacteria.

Baby Food Making

I will admit I was a little intimidated when I decided to make Ayda's baby food. I bought a couple books and started trying to figure out where to start and what to do. I am completely lost in the kitchen on a good day. How was I going to make baby food? Well lucky for me it turned out to be SUPER easy! And lucky for me, my best friend was making her son's baby food too. He is exactly 2 months older than Ayda so she had a good head start on me and could lend me some much needed pointers.

Kevin bought me a Beaba babycooker. It is WONDERFUL...and pricey. It steams the food and then you take it out of the steam container and put it in the main compartment to be pureed. It was all in one which made clean up insanely easy. You can also just use a regular steamer and food processor and it does the same thing. Having the Beaba was a luxury, not a necessity. I will say I still use it everyday even though Ayda does not need baby food anymore. I use it to steam just the right amount of veggies at dinner and clean up is easier than using the big steamer.

To get the food to the right consistency for her age I used water that had run off the fruits and veggies or breastmilk. Either worked great to thin out the food a little. Also whenever I was making apples, I bought organic apples and then would let Ayda drink the water from the steam. It had a hint of apple flavor and she absolutely loved it since I didn't let her have juices. It was a special treat!!

Once the food was steamed and pureed it was time to put it all in ice cube trays to be frozen. Easy as that! I froze the food overnight and then transferred it into ziploc bags or ziploc travel containers. Then when it was time to eat, all I had to do was grab a cube or two of the veggie or fruit that was on the menu and thaw them out. We put the food in little containers and put that into the warm water to thaw them out. It didn't take long, but it takes a little more planning than grabbing a jar of ready made food. I had to remember to thaw the food before she was even hungry.

Overall it is super easy and cheaper. I also liked knowing exactly what she was eating. Even the organic jarred baby food made Kevin and I wonder what was in it since it could sit on a shelf for several months at room temperature. I am glad that I dove into the task and I actually had fun when it was baby food making day!