# Strep throat & Children+Natural Remedies



## chellemarie (Jan 17, 2003)

I have two issues:

1. My 9yo son gets strep throat a few times a year. I've had him tested to see if he is a strep carrier, and the test was negative. He is once again complaining that his throat hurts today and it feels like strep. We have well-baby visit for his brother in the morning and I'll have him checked while we're there.

2. I dislike very much giving him antibiotics so frequently but am uncomfortable treating him without them when he has strep. I'm also overwhelmed by natural remedies and how much and when and if it's safe for this person or that person and if it's okay to take this pill if you're taking that pill.

I have two questions:

1. Does anyone have any suggestions for preventing and/or treating strep?

2. I want to become more educated about the use of more natural remedies. Where do I start? Is there a reliable reference guide I can purchase? Anything with a simple format is appreciated. I don't have time for memorization.

I'm currently treating baby for oral thrush with GSE and acidophilus. It took me forever to gather the info on that and then each website or article or "expert" said to give it to baby in a different way or dosage or schedule. Argh! It's overwhelming. (But the thrush is getting under control. Whew.)

Also, keep in mind I live in the sticks as far as NFL is concerned. There is no naturopath or homeopath for me to consult.

Thanks so much for your help.


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## malamamama (May 13, 2003)

I was just given a copy of "Shopper's Guide to Plastics and Food", in "The Green Guide~Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet" issue #88/89. www.mothers.org
According to this article, no studies to date show any adverse health links with plastics except for #3, #6 and #7 plastics which leach questionable chemicals.
Most water bottles are #1 and #2.
It goes on to say that some plastics in contact with fats when heated will leach and others will leach with just storage alone.
And the big problem, the article states, "Of growing concern is the role of these chemicals as "hormone disruptors"."
#1, #2, #4, & #5 may leak chemicals into food, but no studies suggest that these chemicals are hormone disruptors, or that they cause cancer or other ill health effects.
I am not sure what info is on the website, but this article goes into much greater detail than what I have offered here.


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## Quirky (Jun 18, 2002)

malamamama, I think you posted your reply to the wrong thread! A mod could cut and paste for you.









chellemarie, I feel for your ds on the strep throats. I finally got my tonsils removed in my early 20s because I was getting 4 or 5 strep throats a year. I don't recommend that you go get his tonsils out right away, but I have not had a strep throat since then.

Is he getting cultured for the strep throat each time, so that you know it's strep and not a virus? Is he finishing the course of antibiotics when he gets prescribed them, and is he taking probiotics and eating yogurt to reestablish gut flora?

Personally if it is strep and my child was getting repeat infections, I'd do the antibiotics but try to boost his immune system overall to help him ward them off in the first place.

Have you tried salt water gargles three or four times a day? Maybe even as a preventative in between strep throats twice a day?

What is his diet like? Lots of fruits and veggies, not a lot of processed foods? What about vitamins - does he take a multivitamin? I think Vitamin C and echinacea as general immune boosters couldn't hurt.

Plenty of sleep at night and fresh air and exercise during the day will go a long way towards maintaining good health and helping him fight off the bugs. I know I would always get strep throats during exam time, or heavy study times when I wasn't sleeping enough.

Aviva Jill Romm has a book about natural health care for kids and families that is really good. She is an herbalist and has lots of recommendations.

see also: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/t083900.asp

http://www.drjaygordon.com/faqs/virusbact.htm

http://www.wholehealthmd.com/print/v..._learn,00.html

HTH!


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## gwen (Aug 1, 2003)

We had a hard time with strep throat and in the end I chose to stop the antibiotic usage by having her tonsils removed. Strep is a serious bacteria that I wouldn't mess around with by not giving antibiotics.
I agree with the above of trying to boost immune systems but from what I learned about strep are some people are more susceptible to it and there isn't much you can do to avoid it.
Strep brought my daughters immune system down to the point were she was never able to get healthy. When we had her tonsils removed (and adenoids) the doctor was in shock! Although she was on antibiotic they were still full of infection.
Good luck!


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## sagewinna (Nov 19, 2001)

Make sure he gets rid of anything that comes in contact with his mouth. Toothbrush, water bottles, etc.

We had strep last summer, when we had friends living with us. We passed it around and around! What finally helped was : everyone had their own cup, we tossed the old toothbrushes and got new ones, I tossed all my lip balm/ lip stick and got new, etc.


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## chellemarie (Jan 17, 2003)

Thanks, everyone, for your replies. I agree strep isn't something I want to attempt to treat without antibiotics. It's just so frustrating to see him taking them so often for the same thing.

With everything you've all said, it looks like I'm now doing everything I possibly can. We went to the HFS this morning and got Vit C and echinacea. (spent $58. Dh is going to have a heart attack. Guess I should have picked up something to relax him, eh?







) Everyone is taking it easy this afternoon.

Jane...I have him swabbed every time. This morning the rapid test came back negative. They always grow it out and see what happens. Often, the rapid test is neg and the long test is positive. That is VERY frustrating. Ugh.

Thanks for the references and links, too. You mamas are an incredible resource.


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## malamamama (May 13, 2003)

Oooooppppssss! That's what happens when I am on the boards and jumping up and down.
I did intend to reply to your post, chellemarie!
I would recommend vit C in the form of sodium ascorbate. It is sold in powder form and very potent. You can't OD on it as the body will flush out what is not needed. Increased too quickly it will cause diarrhea, so you just let up and then gradually increase.

There is lots of info over on the vaccine board about this. Just type in "strep throat" in the search button.

It could keep his immune system boosted. Some believe that vitamin C is one of the best anti-biotics there is. One mama gives her kids 250-500 mg a day and then when illness comes on boosts it up. When you are fighting something, you could do 250-500 mg every hour. Also probiotics is something else that you might want to look into for helping his immune system.


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## myrrhmaid (Aug 20, 2002)

i have a cousin who got strep every year from 6 yrs old on until she was in her late 20's. when we got into herbs and supplement therapy, she was determined to heal it without another round of antibiotics after dealing with systemic candidasis. we did what we called 'bombardment' therapy! you have to dose many things often because herbs & supps can work more subtle. we used
bee propolis throat spray as directed on bottle directly on back of tongue/throat and let sit there as long as possible. when my son had strep I dosed him this in straight tincture form-it is strong and very warming, and he said he knows it was the propolis that cured his strep. (do not use propolis if known bee allergy)
take 6-10 cloves lightly crushed garlic and put into a pint of rice or soy milk. give it a shake everytime you open the fridge. let sit overnight. Dose in a wineglass with 1/2 macerated garlic milk and then top off with plain soy/rice milk. Dose this 2-4 x a day. It sounds yucky but really it isn't bad at all!
Also mega doses of vit.c/ascorbic acid. You can use the emergen C kind or some health food stores carry it in bulk. You can dose 10,000 mg a day and decrease dose if diarrhea results til bowel tolerance.
multi vitamins are recomended and mineral supplements.
She also used st. john's wort herb-it is anti viral.
vaporub Rub on throat and neck & behind the ears.
And juices! She drank carrot, beet, parsley juice daily. If you don't have a juicer or juice store you can use grated carrots & raw grated beets & finely chopped parsley in a salad with a little lemon or Italian dressing. This is very cleansing & healing. raw food is key to building immunity.
ditto changing the toothbrushes.
Consider using listerine gargles too for it has thymol, eucalyptus oils.
zinc lozenges- a must have for the medicine cabinet.
eucalyptus steams
GSE-in capsules
Hopefully you will not be bothered by this awful illness again! Strep is one of the worst most painful illness!! It isn't easy to take care of on your own but worth the effort! Take care! Laura


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## saturnine25 (Mar 26, 2002)

I'm not a big fan of antibiotics, but I think they have their place. I had strep throat as a child which went untreated, and as a result I came down with scarletina (a milder form of scarlet fever). My body was covered in a bright red rash and I was very sick for 2 weeks. If I hadn't been given antibiotics at that time, the illness could have caused more serious complications. That said, if you don't want to use antibiotics, I think myrhhmaid's suggestions for treating strep throat are excellent, and worth trying. In my case, there had been no treatment at all, because my parents did not realize how sick I was . Also, the signs of scarletina are VERY obvious, so if the strep throat progressed into it, you would know.


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## Indigomama (Dec 26, 2001)

I feel for you and your ds. As a child I had strep several times over the course of 4 years. I actually broke a record for missed days in Wisconsin and still moving on to the next level! My parents would have me tested, test positive (ALWAYs using the Long test... never the short), I'd do round of antibiotics, go in for a test, test negative, three days later I'd be back in the doctors office.

First, are you confirming that he ever tests negative for strep? That would rule out that his strep isn't antibiotic resistant.

Second, anything you can do to improve overal immune health (vit c, zinc!!!!!, acidifilius (sp?), echinacea, and all of the above ideas) won't hurt. If he is testing negative in between illnesses, even if his immune health isn't the best, he's being exposed somewhere. He may be around somebody else who's a carrier and doesn't know it.... For me, we ended up moving cause my dad's job, and bam... didn't have strep anymore. I'd ask his teacher or any parents/playmates.....

The scary part of strep is that once you start getting it repeatedly, you more easily catch it and it progresses faster. I ended up have scarletina twice cause my parents delayed treatment a day (this had been after several successive times of getting it... I'm sure they were just plain sick of going into the dr's office). I wonder if this can be in part to the antibiotic use/weakened immune system???? Though because of the seriousness, it makes going down that path a lot more scary. However, it may be your best option.

Good Luck and be brave!


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## MamaMonica (Sep 22, 2002)

My 18-month old just had strep- he had 104.5 fever- took him to the doctor and she said he just had a virus. The next day his fever broke (after 4 or 5 days) and he was covered in an all-body bright red rash. I didn't take him in right away because I didn't know - but it was strep and he took a long time to recover on the antibiotics- about 12 days and the rash remained on his arm for another week. His face got a red almost sunburned look, too. He had peeling red skin on his toes and fingers and creases- I thought the antibiotics were making his eczema worse, but it was the strep because after it peeled it began to slowly heal. Strep is not to be messed with IMO- I have a naturopath, but she put him on antibiotics right away.


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## comet (Aug 22, 2002)

"...I have him swabbed every time. This morning the rapid test came back negative. They always grow it out and see what happens. Often, the rapid test is neg and the long test is positive. That is VERY frustrating. Ugh."

Interesting. This suggests to me that he is not producing antibodies on his own to fight the strep. This is how you get a negative rapid test, but positive culture. The fact that it's happened several times to him, suggests this conclusion to me. I don't know how you "permanently" get rid of strep throat. If removing the tonsils does the trick, then I'd consider it.

I have to point out that the scarletina rash does not always happen. A person can go from having strep throat to direly ill in a few days w/o the rash. This happened to someone in my family (32 yrs old, otherwise healthy).

He had a sore throat on Weds, got rapid test on Thurs (negative), no culture was done, diagnosed with pneumonia on Sunday, was diagnosed as going into septic shock on Monday and died two hours later. He never had the rash along the way and in fact, no one knew he was *that* sick until right before he died. Please be careful, esp if your son appears to not be developing his own antibodies to this disease.


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## malamamama (May 13, 2003)

Quote:

_Originally posted by comet_
*"....I don't know how you "permanently" get rid of strep throat. If removing the tonsils does the trick, then I'd consider it.
*
Having read a lot about the benefits of sodium ascorbate powder and probiotics.....if I were dealing with reoccurring strep, I would consider both of these on a regular basis. Maybe you already use these????


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## GFCookieMom (Aug 15, 2014)

*Don't get your tonsils out!*

I had my tonsils out when I was 19 (I'm 28 now)and I still get strep at least once a year. They're actually trying to grow back! The weird thing no one ever tells you about is there are these pockets behind your tonsils. And when your tonsils aren't there these pockets can get food in them (which really hurts!) and all sorts of other yucky stuff! And then they become the perfect breading ground for all sorts of infections - not just strep. If I want to feel health (in my throat) I have to gargle with raw apple cider vinegar & cayenne pepper everyday. That's the only thing that works for me. And I have VERY little sugar and consume a organic/grass fed/full fat/gluten & soy free diet. I hope this helps some of you.


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