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.