I have posted before about my two youngest, who have chronic medical condition, and it was nearly a year ago on Halloween that my then, one year old caught a cold trick-or-treating and ended up intubated and on her death bed two hours away in Savannah, Georgia. Her condition still baffles her doctors and her every day medications are troubling to me as I can't fathom how it can be good for her to be on a twice a day inhaled steroids and a once a day dose of Singulair. The six year old is on Keppra for Benign Rolandic Epilepsy.
Both incurred the onset of these conditions in June of 2008 within two week's of one another so I've learned a lot about both conditions and in pursuit of finding out how to stop my littlest one from crashing everytime she got a cold, we kept up with our routine doctor visits and followed all advice. One of the important orders he prescribed was Vitamin D exposure. He told me to take BOTH of them outside for 15 minutes a day. He told me how Americans are in a deficit for Vitamin D and especially children which can lead to all sorts of health implications.
He explained with all the scares behind skin cancer and the use of sunblock and our growing inactive lives, we stay indoors more which makes sense as I remember being brown all summer long from the hours of play outside. Unfortunately due to the fear of bad people, I never let them play outside alone and I certainly don't have the time to do so which 15 minutes minimally is a great compromise.
I think this exposure to the sun has helped as we have had no trips to the ER or hospitalizations. This has been a GREAT relief because in the past year, we had well over 10 visits to the ER or were hospitalized between the two. Vitamin D is a great defense against colds and boosts the body to ward off things or harsher symptoms with the flu or H1N1.
