Dealing with Fever

I can never remember if you are supposed to starve a cold and feed a fever or feed a cold and starve a fever.  I do know that when fever strikes it is very important to consume lots of fluids to replace what is lost from the fever and perspiration.  It is time to cook up some hearty chicken broth or home-made onion soup.

When cooking meals and soups for the fever patient, use lots of garlic, onion, ginger, turmeric, parsley and black pepper.  Each of these common ingredients has medicinal properties.  They make food tastier and more appealing to finicky appetites and convey some healing benefits.  Ginger and parsley also can be used in herbal teas.

Some popular commercial formulas of sports drinks can be helpful to replace liquid and electrolytes lost during a fever.  Special formulas are available for infants, too.  Fruit and vegetable juices supply nutrition and rehydration.

Fever and Chills

Chills or shivering indicates that your body is trying to warm itself up.  Cooperate by dressing warmly or snuggling into bed with a nice hot drink.  Herbal teas brewed with catnip or peppermint, elder flowers and yarrow flowers can be sipped for comforting relief.  Make a tea using about two teaspoons of herb in a cup of boiling water and add honey and lemon if desired.  When the shivering stops and sweating begins, the fever has broken.

Headache and Body Ache

An herbal tea remedy for the aching that comes along with a fever is black haw tea.  The bark of this tree or shrub has been used in Native American medicine.  Use two teaspoons of the dried bark in a cup of boiling water to make a pain-relieving tea.  The black haw is very bitter and should be sweetened with honey.  Don’t give black haw tea to children or pregnant women due to possible side effects.
Get lots of rest to help recover from a fever and the underlying infection.  To help get comfortable for sleep, you can take a short lukewarm bath or sponge bath.  Use a few drops of lavender oil in your bath to encourage sleep and drink a cup of chamomile tea.