staying hydrated naturally while ill :: and a fun announcement!

Well January proved to be one CRAZY month in our house!

The week after Christmas break, my 3 ½ year old headed back to school, half the kids were out with the flu 2 days later, and our house started dropping like flies over the course of 2 weeks. I don’t have to tell you how difficult it is to see your 3 year old and 1 year old feeling so awful…except maybe when you add in there a hubby and then a mama with the same awful virus.

We haven’t been that sick in ages and to top it off, mama was double whammied with…morning sickness 😉

Oh yes! Baby #3 made his or her presence known with full on, all day sickness for mama on top of trying to fight off the flu!(We are extremely excited to be expecting #3 this summer! And I’m looking forward to being able to share some tips and tricks for nourishing baby both inside and out along the way 😉 )

While we are ill, I try as hard as possible to just listen to our bodies and do what they are asking for. Typically you want to starve a fever so I’m not huge on pushing food into the girls when they are sick. I try to give their bodies as much of their energy to fight off the bugs as possible instead of digesting food. So if they aren’t hungry we just sip on hydrating drinks.

I have a few hydrating drink options I wanted to share with you that have worked for us.

I’m not a huge fan of the sports drinks or baby hydrating drinks that you find in the store. Not only are there unnecessary sugars or fake sweeteners, but added toxic food colorings and other very dangerous additives that just don’t need to be there.

I want to mention that I am not a doctor – this is what I have found works for us as my goal is avoiding sports drinks and such. I will say that based on how ill and unable to keep food down as I have been with this baby, I for sure would have ended up in the hospital with IV fluids had it not been for being able to just take little sips on these drinks throughout the day and night. This is not new to me – I have been this way with each of my pregnancies and I am very used to how to keep it under control.

Here is my top 5 choices for staying hydrated while ill (or while stricken with fabulous morning sickness (all day!)).

Adding mineral salt (sea salt) to the drinks helps your body absorb the hydration and adds some vital minerals your body needs. HERE, HERE, and HERE are good brands to get – I’m linking in Amazon so you can see what they look like but you may be able to get them cheaper at your local store – I know it usually is cheaper at our local store for me.

COCONUT WATER:

• This is a naturally hydrating water that is found when you crack open a coconut! The electrolytes are balanced perfectly and naturally.
• Stay away from the flavored ones with added sugar. Just get plain coconut water. Blend it up with some pear or banana if they kids aren’t a fan of the taste. You can freeze them into popsicle molds that way too.
• One or two drinks per day is how I would serve this. I didn’t do more than 6-8oz with the girls while they were ill.
• I also use coconut water while nursing to stay hydrated for keeping supply up.
• I am linking up to Amazon so you can see what it looks like but it is cheaper for me at Costco. Amazon’s price is pretty good though. HERE, HERE, and HERE are good brands of coconut water.

BONE BROTH/STOCK:

• Get the recipe HERE. I promise it is worth the time.
• The minerals and protein from gelatin alone is worth it. Adding sea salt for electrolytes is helpful too.
• I was unable to keep down broth for a period of time while I was double whammied with the flu and morning sickness. I was able to make some simple soups or just put the broth in a sippy for my girls. There are some simple soup recipes linked up at the bottom of the stock recipe! As I’ve come out of the first trimester sickness I’ve been nourishing my strength back with veggie soup purees often.

LEMON AND RAW HONEY WATER:

• Warm a mug full of water. Squeeze ½ lemon into the water. Add a small pinch of sea salt, and 1 tsp-ish of raw honey. Stir to combine.
• You can double/triple this and keep in the fridge if you prefer a cold drink. It’s freezing here and I loved having something warm to sip on! My girls prefer it at room temp.
• Not only will this hydrate you, lemons are extremely healing and balancing to acidity in the body.
• This is pretty much what I have lived on while nauseated with morning sickness 😉
• You can freeze this into popsicle molds as well.

FRUIT KVASS:

• Get the recipe HERE. Since strawberries aren’t in season, I used one pear and a handful of raspberries from the freezer left from our summer berry picking. You could even go with just lemons.
• Keeping your gut health in check with lots of probiotics is half the battle while sick. If you can sip on at least one small glass of this per day while ill that is great!
• I did give this to the girls to drink as well fyi. You don’t need to do more than 4-6  oz to get the benefits for them. You can freeze this drink into popsicle molds as well.

HOMEMADE SPORTS DRINK:

• Fill a glass ½ full of filtered water, and the other ½ full of organic 100% apple juice. Sprinkle in a pinch of sea salt and stir.
• We don’t normally ever have juice in the house. We, including the girls, drink milk and water and that’s it. While ill, I pretty much had them on coconut water, bone broth, or milk, depending on what they wanted because they weren’t eating very much. This sports drink I made for myself since a good majority of the time I couldn’t stomach or even think about bone broth, and financially I was saving the coconut water for the girls. I drank a lot of the lemon honey water as well.

YOUR TURN!

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions!