Why the “Do Nothing” approach to illness is often the best policy for long-term health, especially in young children with a developing immune system.
You’ve likely heard of unschooling, a homeschooling philosophy where no formal curriculum is typically used and children learn based on what they are motivated to seek out and master on their own as well as natural life experiences.
While I don’t homeschool myself and so cannot attest to the validity of this educational philosophy, I would like to suggest that open-minded parents consider a similar approach to childhood illness.
When a child seems to be coming down with a cold or flu, how about this for a novel idea…DO NOTHING.
I followed the Do Nothing approach to illness for 25 years raising my 3 children (who are all now healthy adults). Â
At first, I did it without even realizing exactly what I was doing.
Then, in 2004, I formally put it into practice after attending a talk at the Wise Traditions Conference by Dr. Tom Cowan MD.
He discussed how illness is actually beneficial to the body.
It is a way for valuable detoxification to occur so that an improved level of vitality and maturity can be experienced by the child once the illness is past. Â
This talk was a light bulb moment for me!
I suddenly realized that my Father, a retired Family Physician, had followed the exact same philosophy while I was growing up.
Old school medicine is to do nothing and let the illness run its course, focusing on rest and nourishment alone. Intervention ONLY occurs if it becomes evident that the patient cannot handle the situation on his/her own.
My Physician Father’s rule of thumb was to wait two full weeks before doing anything therapeutically to facilitate the conclusion of the illness. Â
The result?
He rarely if ever needed to intervene at all as my brothers and sisters and I got well just fine on our own within that span of time.
Even when I got salmonella at a fast food chicken joint when I was 13, Dad did nothing. Â
It was a struggle, but I recovered fully within about 10 days. Â
No trip to the hospital, no saline drip, no antibiotics.
I realize this might seem extreme to some people, but my Dad had his reasons, and he obviously made the correct judgment that I was strong enough to handle it on my own.
Ditto when I had strep throat the summer I turned 15. Â
Do you need antibiotics for strep? In my case, my Dad never even considered antibiotics.
Home remedies for strep throat were not used either, and I still recovered completely with no complications.
Most interesting is that I have never gotten strep throat again despite repeated and close contact exposures (in college dorms, for example).
My children seem to be immune to strep too and have never gotten strep except for one instance where my youngest fell ill, but quickly recovered without meds….the same as when I was 15.
Did my immune system/no meds recovery give me a level of immunity from strep infections that I possibly passed along to my kids?
Anecdotal for sure but possible especially given that I practiced extended breastfeeding with all of them.
Too many parents in my view are far too quick to treat a child’s illness, either by running to the doctor for a prescription or by dashing to the healthfood store to obtain a natural or herbal-based remedy.
Trying to stop a cold in its tracks when it is first coming on and hasn’t quite taken hold yet is not a wise approach in my view.
Now, I don’t want to come off as anti-treatment here. Â
If a child is acutely ill and clearly not handling an illness sufficiently well on his or her own, then by all means seek out assistance from the healing professional of your choice.
As for me, though, my first course of action is to Do Nothing.
Echinacea to boost immunity during cold/flu season?
No.
Elderberry syrup to ward off a cold that you feel is coming on?
Pass.
A “preventative” dose of antibiotics because strep is making the rounds at school?
Absolutely not!
Garlic drops or pills for an early cough?
No thanks.
Ibuprofen or Tylenol to bring down a high fever?
NEVER.
Why? Â
A child with a high fever will get well so amazingly fast if you let the fever do its job and having the child sip diluted fruit juice to provide sufficient blood sugar to fuel that cranked-up metabolism will head off the risk of febrile seizures.
I don’t attempt to squelch symptoms and I don’t want to give my children’s immune system a crutch.
Letting the body go through the natural progression of meeting a pathogenic challenge head-on and resolving it with no outside interference is something that I have observed to improve and elevate a child’s wellness to a whole new level post-illness.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that adopting this approach resulted in children who grew consistently more sturdy as time went on.
The results?
My three children are now healthy adults with no gut issues, in my view, mainly because I never used a single round of antibiotics raising them.
I think that’s a pretty decent track record!
Again, this article is not intended to suggest that antibiotics and medications are always bad.
On the contrary, meds can be life-saving and should absolutely be used if needed in critical emergencies.
However, a healthy child who is simply achy and feverish is not a candidate for meds in my opinion!
Ok, I Want to Do Nothing, But I Need to Do Something!
If the Do Nothing approach strikes a chord with you, congratulations! Â
I think you will be pleasantly surprised and amply rewarded by implementing this approach with children who rarely get sick and when they do, recover quickly with no assistance or complications.
If you are an action-oriented person, however, here are some Do Nothing suggestions that will help your child along the path to quick recovery without in any way hampering or short-circuiting the natural healing and detoxification process that is taking place:
- Rest, rest, rest. Our culture is way too busy and overscheduled. Sometimes illness is just a way for the body to say “slow down and take it easy”. Honor that message and encourage your children to just rest with no stimulation of any kind except perhaps a good book.
- Homemade broth, stocks, and soups. Nourishment is important during illness to provide the body with the ammunition necessary to win the battle and come out on top. There is no food better during illness than soup made with nourishing, mineral-rich, and easy-to-digest broth or stock. If you don’t know how to make homemade soup, you need to learn. Soups from the store are no comparison and should be avoided. Commercial soup will likely hinder the healing process instead of helping it as it contains little to no nourishment with vitality-zapping MSG in large amounts.
- Chiropractic adjustment. Â Some people find that even a minor misalignment of the spine can make illness worse. Getting a gentle adjustment to the spine can free up blockages and facilitate healing in a beneficial way.
- Homeopathy. Â I used homeopathy when my children all had whooping cough (pertussis) at the same time. My youngest was only 15 months old. Homeopathy works with the body, not against it, and does not stifle natural healing mechanisms. A homeopathic remedy can prove useful in certain cases of illness particularly if it is a chronic condition that doesn’t seem to resolve on its own permanently.
- Cleansing baths. Â Soaking in a warm Epsom salt bath to get the elimination routes flowing via the skin and colon can be extremely helpful to natural, med-free recovery. A fever bath can also encourage the body’s natural immune response. These are typically the only things I will do if there is “a cold coming on” as they assist detoxification from the toxins that caused the cold in the first place.
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Well, our idea of “treatment” is generally to boost vitamin D, A, and C intake (these are depleted rapidly when the body is fighting something), but not to do anything else. We’ve never, ever medicated a fever.
Yay!! My favourite approach to illness!! This ‘method’ was passed on to me by my very own mom, a dedicated ignorer of normal-childhood illnesses. Rest, appropriate nutrition and love were her tools of choice. Sometimes, she even threw in some empathy. 😉 I used to joke that, although my dad was actually a fairly high-up employee of a multi-national pharmaceutical drug company, we’d have to have limb fall off for my mom to take us to the doctor or give us a drug of any kind. I am very grateful to both my parents that they did not panic or overtreat illness. They both seemed to have excellent assessment skills, were not afraid of normal-childhood illnesses and were also not so anti-medical that they would never take us in for help if they sensed we needed support.
Unfortunately, I was raised by a single mother on welfare. We were just starting to be covered for all kinds of medical stuff. As soon as I or my siblings had any syptom she rushed us off for our antibiotic, and to boot it was usually only a virus. Back then they gave out lots of antibiotics no matter what the symptoms were.
So now I am dealing with alot of gut problems, as well as getting bronchitis every winter. I almost did not pull thru last winter with the very severe bronchitis. For the first time in my life I ended up on codeine and inhalters for two weeks. Whats neat is that I just had a 10 day bout of bronchitis and I am fully over it, no meds. I started the traditional foods back in June. We shall see. Lots of bone broths for me and my family.
Betty – I would love to know what you would recommend for my just turned 17 year old son, who will not eat his veggies. I seriously worry about his health now but more over a lifetime if he continues. I have done everything I can think of including not buying his favorite foods and not cutting him in on any goodies or snacks.
I wouldn’t worry about it. Vegetables are overrated. Think of the Masai. Some people don’t digest them well because of their high fiber content. Will he eat fruit?
Maybe he feels bad after eating them. What kind of vegetables do you usually make? Do you cook them or eat them raw? Raw vegetables can be very hard to digest for some people. Cabbage and like vegetables can make you gassy. But it is a good idea to stop buying all processed food anyway. Meat is important for a growing man. Does he eat meat? My son loves meat especially organ meat and eats very little vegetables. I am totally fine with it.
hhmm. I was coughed on, in my face, for 3 hours by a ill child with a clueless and careless mother last month. I took 2 rounds of my very effective supplement two hours apart, with an extra Vitamin D each time then sucked on a Zicam, another before bed and another first thing in the morning and a final one the next night before bed. No cold ! lol
I’ve unintentionally followed this health philosophy for awhile now as one I don’t trust “modern” medicine (excepting emergencies) and two I don’t have health insurance. Illness is the body’s way of dealing with toxins and building defenses.
Unfortunately, in our school district, kids are only allowed 10 days of excused absences from school per year and any illness has to be verified with a doctor’s note, or the child is considered truant. Parents do everything to reduce symptoms so their child can attend school and avoid having to pay the doctor every time their child gets sick.
6 of my kids are homeschooled, but one is in public school and I cannot tell you how much this policy enrages me!! Communist Russia anyone!?
Isn’t that policy annoying? My daughter missed 5 days once and I received THREE letters from the district telling me of the importance of daily attendance for “my child’s benefit.” Yeah, sure. Its for THEIR benefit: If my kid is not there then they don’t get paid by the state!
Oh, please — Communist Russia — again. You guys have no idea what it was living that time. You are using stereotypes without checking the source — life style, food , using/manufacturing microwaves (another one highly wrong information all over English-speaking web). People from different cultures and countries are reading it, do you think they please to see so often such terrible comparisons. Why you didn’t compare it with Communist China for a change or I’m sure we can find some other countries to point a finger.
I’m sorry for this post, but it’s my country and I love it, it’s like Mother we always love her, even if she sometimes have problems
You’re right. Russia was different.
The government was honest and blatantly told soviet citizens they could not be exposed to outside influence. The US government, on the other hand, brain washes and manipulates it’s people to believe they are being generously granted the best of everything the world has to offer.
Love your COUNTRY AND IT’S PEOPLE, not the government destroying it.
And by the way, the people from different cultures reading this are not discovering anything new because they are not being manipulated by the FDA and other government agencies like Americans are.
I raised my two sons with no insurance and no vaccinations and they were rarely sick. My oldest saw a medical doctor twice in his life–once because he stuck a q-tip in his ear and broke it off and didn’t tell me when he was about 4, and once when he stepped on a nail and I wanted the doctor to open the puncture wound to irrigate it and give him a tetanus-only shot (before I realized what tetanus really was and that he didn’t need it in this case). This son had an appendicitis attack when he was 11 because he refused to eat his vegies–he only wanted meat. We cured that with an enema, and he really eats his vegies now. He turned 22 yesterday. My youngest (now 19) has never seen an M.D. They have strong immune systems and are very healthy. The only antibiotic we have ever used is colloidal silver which we make ourselves. It has cured our dog of tumors also. Sarah, this was a wonderful article and I agree with you wholeheartedly. We have immune systems–let’s let them do their work. Learn to look at that fever as your body working properly–not illness; the same with sneezes and coughs. And, that’s all I have to say about that :-).
The vast majority of childhood illnesses are viral, which can’t be cured by antibiotics. A trip to the doctor for a cold or moderate flu is a waste of money.
I try to emphasize a good diet and handwashing before eating and after returning home from public places . Even after showering and handwashing, people have a enough germs to elicit an immune response and strengthen the immmune system without getting visibly ill.
My kids can go years without getting any visible illness.
Our children have been exposed to strep several times and not gotten it: however, in our neighborhood, several people have gotten heart valve damage from untreated strep, so I would treat it if we had it.
Also, a person who has a sudden fever with a headache and stiff neck should be checked for meningitis.
My niece had a strep growth on her heart that ruptured and went to her brain, causing a stroke. She barely survived and is now only semi-functional. This happened when she was in her mud-twenties. Although I highly believe in the do nothing approach, you really need to know what you’re doing, which can be hard for the general population to discern. Being a nurse, I feel that I have a good grasp of when something truly needs to be treated or when it should run its course. My kids usually have to just “tough it out”, which fortunately, isn’t often, since they’re rarely sick. And when they are, it’s bone broth bone broth bone broth and extra vitamin D.
Best thing you can do for a stroke is start using magnesium oil NOW. But magnesium is also a well-known and well-used article in most ER’s, too. Doctor’s just try really hard to keep it a secret. There are some good books and videos about the use of magnesium and magnesium oil online. Dr. Carolyn Dean has some helpful information, as does Dr. Mark Sircus. Magnesium is a muscle relaxant and is wonderful for the heart (as it is a muscle). Everyone is low on it but few even know it until it’s too late. It helps to fight the overcalcification of arteries, too.
“Do nothing” really makes sense to me and it’s what I’ve done for myself for most of my adult life (although I did take birth control pills for a while before I was educated about it, we won’t talk about that :), and I was talked into several rounds of previcid to treat GERD which I am still healing my digestive track from). The more I learn the more I see the wisdom of letting the body handle illness.
I’m wondering if you can give me any advice for ‘doing nothing’ with small children? I have a 2 1/2 year old who, fortunately, is rarely sick. He was on antibiotics once for an ear infection last year. I was always told that if something is an infection rather than a virus it needs an antibiotic to knock it out and prevent it from doing further damage. What is your opinion on that? Is that more mainstream medical advice that isn’t exactly true? And with a toddler who can’t fully articulate what is hurting or how badly it’s hurting, how do you determine when they need medical intervention? Any resources you could point me to would be appreciated!
Ear infections are mostly viral. Even my pedi said he wouldn’t prescribe antibiotics for them unless my son was in pain for at least two weeks, which would indicate that that particular time, it was an infection. Let them run their course.
When I was little (I’m 42 now) and I the very occasional ear ache, my parents always gave me medicine. I remember that my ears hurt so bad that I wouldn’t be able to handle the pain. I am so into the no medicine approach, but I can’t even imagine how horrible it would have been to have not gotten medicine. I really didn’t get a lot of ear aches, so I wasn’t on tons of antibiotics. But still. Anyway, I just felt the urge to share my story.
I remember having strep as a kid and I got antibiotics. I think the worst thing my parents did for me was giving me allergy medicine. Occasionally I’ll take a benedryl at night if I can’t breath, but that is very, very occasionally. I’ve only, as an adult, taken antibiotics when I’ve gotten bladder infections. These were not slight. I was peeing blood and in a lot of pain. I have my limits!
On another note, I’ve seen an acupuncturist when I’ve been on the verge of getting sick (I actually think I was getting the H1N1 Virus because my office mate had it). That knocked the sickness out, but I’m wondering if you, Sarah, would think that was too invasive. Maybe? What do you think?
I generally believe in the do-nothing approach as well, but sometimes your immune system just can’t handle it. My daughter had an ear infection for a couple of months one time when we didn’t have health insurance, and it actually damaged her hearing (her hearing recovered after we got insurance and could take her to the doctor). I’ll get coughs for months, and it doesn’t go away until I go in and take steroids for it. Other than that, I generally believe in staying away from the doctor as much as possible.