It's been a rough couple of days in our house. Our 11 month old got a fever and it's been taking up a lot of our time. Between brothers wanting to play with baby, brothers wanting to play loudly while baby is more restless in sleep than usual, baby wanting only Mummy all the time, and trying to do the basic amount of home care to keep things running... It's been necessarily in-tense...
A fever is one of the bodies natural ways of fighting infection. But I find it scary watching my little ones get hot. I'll do anything I can to help them feel comfortable and support them through.
Roll-On Blends during fever
I usually reach for one or two of these every few hours, before sleep or whenever I intuitively feel.
The FLOOT Bomb is a well loved go-to blend in the dōTERRA community for immune system support. (I fell in love with it before the kids Stronger® was around).
I reach for it often when I suspect anything going on and I applied it to my own neck lymph nodes often during this time as well as on my 11 mth old. This is a good one for times the fever had broken and I wanted to keep our guard up.
Seasonal support roll-on blend:
I'd been using this on some insect bites, and since it's mild and has cooling peppermint* I reached for it a few times and applied it on the nape of his neck (we didn't go outside because it was too hot- lemon is photosensitive).
Lil' Lavender Peace is my dilution of dōTERRA's restful blend. It's calming and supportive of the circulatory system so it features at night time in the diffuser but I also applied this blend over bubs heart (front or back) and the soles if his feet whenever it felt appropriate such as when his head was hot but feet were cold.
Rescuer kids blend is cooling and soothing so seemed an obvious pick for bubs hot head (being super cautious around the eyes, of course)
Other Support during fever
Of course my essential oils aren't the only things in my Parent toolkit.
For starters we tried to keep the house as dark and quiet as possible.... I know - fairly impossible with a house of 6 at the moment... Anyway it looked like keeping all the curtains closed & lights off, letting the other kids play video games in other rooms most of the time and having Dad entertaining them the rest of the time. All chores went out the window. (The washing stayed in the machine all day to need another wash the next.)
Skin on skin - temperature regulation by placing bub directly on Mum or Dad's bare skin (I wore lots of easy access clothes).
Liquid kids paracetamol - given late the first night to help get some decent rest (after seeming uncomfortable and super restless with the most minor of noises waking him).
Constant (felt like) breastfeeding - keeping up his fluids and vital nutrition (also offering cups of water) water.
Bone Nutrient complex (vitamin & mineral capsules for Mum.
Professional support - I got in touch with the N.S.W. nurse help line (health direct) and got some really great advice on fever (when to seek extra help etc) which helped eased our anxious parent minds.
Diffuser Blends During Fever
The advantage of diffusing is I can set it and forget it. I run it for 10 hours (5 minutes on 5 minutes off) and it's usually perfect timing to reset in the evening for overnight support.
Bubs fever "broke" overnight so I went back to my "Detox from the Day" blend. ... Unfortunately it came back that afternoon...
It was a long rough ride. I can't write to do it justice. Thankfully the fever then "broke" for good. ...
*Peppermint caution
Peppermint oil should be used with sparcity and care around young babies and children.
I am not making suggestions here- only recording what I felt comfortable with doing in the moment.
Please look into it before deciding for you. Here is a quick resource on cautions around peppermint https://naha.org/naha-blog/peppermint-safety-info