Last year I wrote a blog on immune health, Supporting Your Immune System Naturally, which covered the ear infection epidemic, as well as the role of dairy contributing to mucous and phlegm and how to use food-as-medicine (roasted garlic, bone broth, elderberry, and tea) to support your immune health. Check that out to learn more especially if you have little ones.

In this blog I want to go deeper into immune support for you and your whole household during cold and flu season touching on foundational areas of weak points and how to support them with food-as-medicine as well as a list of best immune supporting supplements. Here are my recommendations on diet support for your little ones (and YOU) to stay resilient and well this cold/flu season.

1. Protect your gut lining! Your immune system resides predominantly in the GALT (gut associated lymphatic tissue) that lines your intestines! During times of immune stress it is important to limit dietary irritants and inflammatory foods which could reduce GALT function or create damage.

As always beyond avoidance, food-as-medicine is also about abundance! Using bone broth in family soups and stews, to sip on, or cook veggies in is a great way to support the immune system and reduce reactivity to foods protecting your GALT. See more content on how bone broth heals and my best chicken bone broth recipe here.

Beyond bone broth, I like use gelatin as a more child-friendly gut supporter. Especially as a proactive transition from Halloween and all the candy that hits in the fall, gummies can be a great swap out and you can use molds that your kiddos will love. To get an additional wellness boost, try my Elderberry Gelatin Gummies which are an awesome after school snack and child favorite that also provide anti-viral and immune boosting properties.

2. Fuel your gut microbiome with probiotic-rich foods! Our microbiome is impacted by the exposure to virus and bacteria and can be hit by respiratory (via nose, mouth-throat) and digestive influence. The microbiome composition can be favorable working in a symbiotic state or unfavorable in a dysbiotic state. Supporting symbiosis with consumption of live-active cultures will enhance nutrient absorption, digestive function, mood stability, and will favorably impact our immune system by modulating our innate immune response and up regulating the army of immune system fighters at a time of need!

Beyond this I also recommend a quality probiotic supplement, you can start with my Restore: Baseline Probiotic for little ones and open capsule and mix in a bite of food such as nut butter, avocado, apple sauce, or yogurt. I often make a simple nut butter ball for Stella which incorporates my grassfed whey which is non-denatured in its process so it retains active immunoglobulins to further boost immune system!

3. Ensure ample protein and keep sugar out! Yep! You heard it here…it maybe doesn’t come as a surprise if you know my passion for the ketogenic diet and use of healthy fats and ample protein to support a low-glycemic nutrition approach for kids…but did you know that sugar puts your immune system in a coma? This study, looked at the phagocytic function of neutrophils when exposed to glucose and carbohydrates. It discovered that when immune system responding white blood cells (neutrophils) are exposed to sugar in the body that they reduce their ability to destroy or eat up and excrete (phagocytic) harmful bacteria in the body. Also interesting, they found that fasting for 36 or 60 hours greatly enhanced the phagocytosis of the immune system so the white blood cells were more able to attack and destroy bacteria when fasted.

4. Run a diffuser in the household with combination anti-viral, antimicrobial, and immune supporting essential oils! Essential oils smell amazing and they don’t have the chemical endocrine disruptor influence that many fragrances do. The airborne essential oils boost the immunity of those breathing them, neutralize bacteria and germs, reduce viral activity and freshen the air to really enhance the immunity of those who are breathing the aroma of the oils. Some great essential oils to use for this include eucalyptus, clove, orange, lavender, and thieves oil. My favorite diffusors and essential oils can be found in the Wellness Essentials tab of my Amazon store. 

Supplements to support your Immune System:

Quality Multivitamin this is key! Look for one with chelated minerals and methylated B’s such as my MultiAvail Kids, Multidefense, and MultiAvail Mama! Ensuring you have a solid foundation of immune nutrients such as zinc, B-vitamins, selenium, A, E, K to name a few, will be the best way to support your body’s needs.

Rebuild Spectrum Probiotic: Beyond the daily probiotic, Restore Baseline mentioned above, Rebuild Spectrum is essential post antibiotics and to rev up your immune system when under stress or exposure. I always have a bottle in the house. If on antibiotics start right away 1 at bed, then take 1 at rise and 1 at bed for 30 days post-antibiotic.

Vitamin D a baseline of 2k-5k IU for adults daily and if under immune distress can pulse up to 10k IU for 5 days. 800-2000 IU is appropriate for toddlers and children in cold/flu season and may even be pulsed upwards to double dosage for 3-5 days in times of acute need, always talk to your pediatrician.

Vitamin C can be consumed in diet with healthy intake of berries, citrus, greens, but when under the weather 1-3g can be added to boost immune health as a baseline. Then you can dose to bowel tolerance in which your body will let you know (through loose stool) when it is repleted. I like choosing a buffered form of vitamin C like the one linked above which is more gentle of the GI tract.

Elderberry is one of the top antiviral herbs on the planet and can aid in symptom reduction for colds and flu as well as nerve pain, inflammation, allergies and sinus issues. I highly recommend this brand on my Amazon store as so many are too low to do anything, you need 1-2g to have an influence. They all have one form of sugar or another but this is common with herbal syrups and is a part of the process as a carrier. The benefit well overrides and I don’t get worried about at the dosage it is at any impact unfavorably on blood sugar or ketones.

I do 1/2 tsp for Stella daily (1g) about 4-5x/wk in immune support season and then 1 tsp.