Ideas for Naturally Strengthening our Kids’ Immunity

I think most kiddos are back in school at this point (though I’m still lamenting the loss of August as part of summer—what happened to starting school after Labor Day?!).  And while we’re all so, so excited for them to be back in person, I’m sure most of us parents are thinking about our kids’ immunity too, especially as cold and flu season is about to merge with covid.  So, aside from masking up, maybe there are additional ways we can support their natural immunity outside of a healthy diet rich in vitamins and nutrients, loads of quality sleep, and basic hygiene.  Enter Bee Keepers Naturals!

Bee Keepers Naturals is a company committed to sustainably sourcing bee products to ensure the health and safety of the bees, and to deliver clean, natural products to us.  Particularly in our country, which lacks ancient traditions like those found in eastern medicine, we tend to load up on chemically-laden medicines, which, over time, take a major toll on our bodies.  And we need to be especially careful what we’re putting in and on our vulnerable kids – their bodies and minds are in a constant developmental state.  Bee Keepers Naturals offers some alternatives—alternatives that I think are particularly helpful during this time of vulnerability and exposure in the school environment.

I recently discovered Bee Keepers Naturals propolis throat spray, which is made from propolis extract and buckwheat honey, and free of artificial colors, preservatives or fillers (which are unfortunately found in most products).  Propolis is pretty amazing.  Bees use propolis—a combination of tree and plant resin—to line their hives to keep germs out, and, since nature is amazing, propolis offers the same immune defense to us!  The throat spray comes in both an adult and kids version (for kids ages 2-12).  It’s a super easy, natural, and effective way to bolster our kiddos’ (and our own) immunity.  Seems like a no brainer!

I’m also really excited about the B. Better Cough Syrup.  I haven’t had to use this yet, but I’m prepared! It’s made with unpasteurized buckwheat honey, elderberry fruit extract, bee propolis extract, chaga mushroom extract, grape seed extract, and olive leaf extract.  There’s so much good stuff in there, it’s crazy.  Elderberry and Chaga deserve their own post.  The great thing about this cough syrup is that it harnesses nature’s finest and ditches the chemicals.  The cough syrups we see on the shelves at CVS have something called dextromethorphan (or DXM) in them.  This chemical “treats” the cough by essentially suppressing the neurological function behind the cough.  But the thing is, the cough is your body’s natural response to ridding itself of whatever pathogen is inside of you.  If we just suppress the cough, we’re not getting at the root of the problem.  Also, DXM, while it has been deemed “safe” at low levels, is widely abused by kids looking to get high, because, again, it affects our neurology.  At high doses it causes hallucinogenic effects, and studies have found that it decreases neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons) in the brain, and can result in depression (check out this pubmed study).  Yes, you would need to consume a lot of DXM to have extreme adverse effects, but it begs the question—do we want to be putting this in our bodies? Our kids’ bodies? Certainly not my first choice.  B. Better Cough Syrup uses the power of nature to soothe (instead of neurologically suppress) a cough and provide immune support.  Yes, please!

And an interesting note for those of you, like me, concerned with buying organic—while Bee Keepers Naturals products are not certified organic, it’s for good reason.  Bees fly and aren’t confined to pollinating only organic crops, so it’s impossible to call a bee byproduct truly organic unless unnatural methods are uses to keep bees.  But, Bee Keepers Naturals sources all of their products from small-scale, remote apiaries that use sustainable sourcing, and, even better, and unlike the vast majority of bee products, they third-party test (that’s important to eliminate bias) all of their products for pesticides and heavy metals.  So we’re essentially getting the organic without the label. 

Bee Keepers Naturals believes (as I do!) that most (all?) of the solutions to our health problems can be found in nature, and that we can harness the power of nature in a sustainable way.  Pretty rad.  That’s a mission I can get behind.

Here’s to keeping our kids and families naturally healthy!