Whooping Cough -Natural Remedy Thursday

As a teenager, I was vaccinated for Pertussis (Whooping Cough). I contracted it 4 years later. I was misdiagnosed at first because of my vaccination record. If I had a proper diagnosis earlier, I could have treated and possibly eliminated the worst part of the virus.*** The only upside in having the virus was that I will never get it again because I now have the natural antibodies against it.
I will not talk more about vaccines today. I've already done that HERE. But I do want to reiterate a few things that every parent should know, regardless of if you choose to vaccinate or not, regardless of if you believe they are effective or not. If you vaccinate your child for a disease, contracting that disease is still possible. Please be aware that in outbreaks, up to 90% of the affected persons have been vaccinated. Many times, a disease will be wrongly ruled out by the doctors because a person has been vaccinated (as in my case). Everyone needs to have a plan and know of options if you or your child contract a disease.

WHOOPING COUGH (Pertussis) SYMPTOMS—
A week or two after exposure, the catarrhal stage begins. The eyes may be red, and the child seems to have a cold in the head. There is sneezing and watering of the eyes. Then a persistent cough develops, especially bad at night. This coughing continues a week, and keeps getting worse—and is the most significant indication that the problem may be whooping cough. If the cough is not treated, in about 2 weeks, the typical whoop begins. At first, only 1-2 times a day, it degrades to every time there is coughing. It is a deep breath at the end of a series of deep coughs. The child's face may be reddish or bluish from the effort and lack of air. Vomiting may also occur. This whooping stage lasts 3-6 weeks, and the cough may not entirely disappear for several months.

CAUSES—
Whooping cough is a contagious bacterial disease, which usually attacks children between 6 months and 5 years of age. But newborns and adults can also be affected. The disease is not highly contagious after the first few weeks. The most contagious phase is before a definite diagnosis is possible. Whooping cough occurs more frequently, and seriously, in overcrowded and unhygienic quarters and cold weather. Vaccine?--You should weigh the fact that pertussis vaccine is one of the most dangerous of the shots in its occasional side effects.

TREATMENT—
• Treat the cough! When a cough first develops, treat the cough. If you do so, the whooping cough phase can be entirely prevented.
• Wild cherry bark tea is excellent. Here are other herbs useful for coughs; select from those you have on hand or can most easily obtain. They can be mixed: black cohosh, flaxseed, rosemary, comfrey, horehound, hyssop, myrrh, white pine, bloodroot, red sage, blue violet, ginseng, coltsfoot. Prepare a tea and give a teaspoonful every hour until the cough is better.
• Be sure and include other worthwhile practices, such as partial or complete fasting on fruit and vegetable juices until the cough is past.
• When the cough is severe, as in whooping cough, drinking warm water, one cup after another, followed by induced vomiting can expectorate sputum (mucus or phlegm).
• A light diet is essential. Overfeeding during the whooping cough prolongs the disease and leads to complications. In case it is a breast-fed infant, do not overfeed either. The child is thirsty, not hungry.
• As soon as it is perceived that the problem is whooping cough, place him on a full fruit juice fast. First, give citrus juices. This can be followed by other fruit juices; then carrot and other vegetable juices, and clear vegetable broth soup. Later still, fruit can be added.
• Give vitamins A and C in large doses.
• It is good to soak the feet in hot water, with a little mustard and salt added to it.
• Steam inhalations are often very helpful. They can be given every 2-4 hours, according to the severity of the case.
• Thick slippery elm tea is very good in whooping cough; mix in a little lemon juice and drink it freely.
• Keep him isolated from other children.
• If the weather is warm, sunny, and not too damp or dusty, keep him out of doors most of the day. But he should not exert himself in play.
• Air and sun his bedding every day, if there is sunshine.
• Sodium Ascorbat Powder (pure, filler free). You can get it in your health food store. 375 mg / per kg body weight or until they have one lose stool. Then cut it back but just a little bit. Put into some diluted juice and let the child sip it all day long.

***"The disease [Pertussis] is difficult to diagnose. Currently,to be completely sure of the diagnosis of pertussis, you have to take a culture, which is a catch-22 because the cultures are only positive at the very beginning of the illness in the first week or two. At this time, the cough is very mild and neither the patient nor the doctor is thinking about the diagnosis. By the time they do think of pertussis because the cough has become more severe or lasted for a couple of weeks, the culture—which is taken from the nose—is often negative."
-Dr. Pichichero at PulmonaryReviews.com