Those fragile immune systems

A few days ago, I read an article called "Pass Not Thy Germs: Do's and Don'ts of the Flu-Spreading Season" in the latest Beeyoutiful catalog. (Hopefully it will soon be posted to their articles page on their website.) Even though Lilly is no longer with us, I still find myself reading every article I come across on ways to not spread germs.

Bella Santorum is back in the hospital. The family has not released details yet as to what Bella is sick from this time. One newspaper article I saw reasoned it was "due to Trisomy 18."


I'd say "yes" and "no" to that. Trisomy 18 doesn't send these kids to the hospital. However, Trisomy 18 does cause problems within their bodies with one of the results being a very weak immune system.

In the article I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the author wrote that whenever her family went out, she carried her baby in her Ergo or Mobi. (Baby carriers that you wear on your body.) She wrote: "Studies have shown that natural immunity is passed from skin to skin contact from mom to baby, so having her next to me boosts her immunities." I had never heard that one before, but I did "wear" Lilly a lot in baby carriers. We both enjoyed the snuggle time and I like knowing I was boosting her immune system too!

In photo one, Lilly is in a "ring sling". Look how tiny she was! She was 3 months old. In photo two I'm wearing Lilly (11 months) in a water wrap by Gypsy Mama. She loved being in this and being in deeper water. I also had a regular Gypsy Mama wrap that I carried Lilly in. It was my very favorite. But when Lilly got older, about 15 months, she began protesting about the closeness of the wrap. So I dragged out the Snuggli (photo 3), my least favorite carrier (it pulls on my shoulders and back) and found Lilly LOVED that one.

I finally decided that Lilly must have liked that Snuggli so much because it held her out a big farther from me so she could see around much better. After all, she may have been physically and mentally delayed, but she was getting to be a big girl and she was so interested in the world around her. Plus it helped hold her head up. (Her neck never got strong enough for her to hold her head up for very long.)

I wrote about the various supplements that I used to help boost Lilly's immune system in this blog post from January. Two things that I didn't mention in that article that we started doing during Lilly's life was to for each family member to use a different hand towels to dry their hands. So that means in our two biggest hand washing areas of the house - the kitchen and the privy (powder room) we each have designated hand towels. Another thing I do is run an essential oil diffuser most of the day. These are wonderful for killing airborne germs and help in healing. You can read a number of different articles, and see a video, on the Beeyoutiful website here. My current favorite blend is to add these essential oils to the water in my diffuser: (several drops each of) Eucalyptus, Sweet Orange, Lemon, and (a drop or two) peppermint. (I did a lot of research to select what I do use.)

I hope these ideas might help someone else out there! We still use many in our family.

Oh - I can't neglect mentioning one more HUGE immune booster. PRAYER!!! And lots of it!

"Pray without ceasing." - 1 Thessalonians 5:17

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." - Mark 11:24