My 9yo has been sick for about a week, and is now on the mend. I'm still trying to improve his diet so he doesnt' keep getting sick.

Meanwhile, my 16yo type O daughter is now sick too. She doesn't get sick very often, and frankly I can't even remember the last time she's been as sick as she is right now. It seems she started getting sick around the same time as DS  but didnt' tell me about it.  

She's coughing a lot and has a lot of nasal congestion and a  bit of a sore throat. It does not hurt her when she swallows and she has no fever. Her appetite is down and she's more tired than usual, plus a whole lot crankier. Her coughs sound NASTY, as she's coughing a whole lot of stuff up.

What can I do to help her?

cayenne pepper or hot pepper flakes sprinkled in a cup of hot tea, with lemon.  She's an "O" so cayenne will work well to break up mucus,and congestion.  Also sprinkle, in soup, or on food, if she can tolerate, it.

Plenty of water of course, so it will come out of her system.

No dairy.

There is some nasty contagious bug going around.  People at work and my son’s friends are taking turns being sick.    I’m bombarding myself with every trick in the book to try to prevent myself from getting sick.  Look at the “O” protocols.

There's no money to buy anything from NAP right now, and there won't be until my ex pays some child support- hopefully in the next week or two. Chances are, she'll be better by then. The only NAP product I currently have in the house is proberry liquid

What I want advice on is how to help her with foods and inexpensive home remedies (or home remedies involving expensive-ish items I already own, such as essential oils.) Should she take proberry or avoid it? She's between the ages of 15 and 35, but she doesn't have influenza.

Soak her feet nightly in a large pan of hot tap water with a couple of Tb powdered ginger.  Then vigorously towel-dry feet, massage each toe, put on warm socks.

Brush tongue until clean and gargle with warm salt water.

instead of grabbing a cookie, your kids should grab either veggies or fruit, best

an excess of sugar, translates in low immunity in my book....

Quoted from Victoria

Soak her feet nightly in a large pan of hot tap water with a couple of Tb powdered ginger.  Then vigorously towel-dry feet, massage each toe, put on warm socks.

Brush tongue until clean and gargle with warm salt water.

Excellent!

What essential oils do you currently have in the house and what brand?

I would get her the proberry  
and do you have any herbalteas ?

Things with Thyme, sage etc are very good with colds.
Does she like garlic- lats of garlic in her food- like a good beef broth with parley and garlic.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

My 9yo has been sick for about a week, and is now on the mend. Meanwhile, my 16yo type O daughter is now sick too.

Not for anything ruthie, but get your kid's vitamin D levels checked. Vitamin D is the "immune" vitamin. If it's low, they'll catch everything even though they're eating good.  The doctor laughed at me because I asked to have my 18 year old's D checked.  It was 25.  And my 21 year old's D level was 17 when he was so sick during the holidays. He picked up a bacterial throat/ear infection that went down to a UTI. He was on 2 courses of antibiotics! I've been pumping him with C, 1000mg , a multi with iron (his red blood cell count was 12) an extra plant iron, and 5,000 ius of D day every day. He looks a lot better.  "Now" brand 5,000 ius is good.

What are the numbers suppose to be on Vitamin D?  thanks

What happened to my "O+" blood type avatar, I was looking for the color added, and it's gone, oh no!

I second the vitamin D levels- however I wouldn´t bother to get them tested - just supplement this time of the year.
We supplement from September to May - Emma was low ( when rutine tested -some years ago)
even with her no use of suncreen and D3 in her calcium pills   I think kids in NY will be almost as lacking as kids in DK.

I started her on extra vitamin D a few weeks ago. She won't take any vitamins with gelatin (she's more stringent about kosher vitamins than I am) so I bought a liquid D that comes in a dropper bottle; it's just D3 and olive oil. 1 drop is 2,000 iu. She's been taking about one drop a day- should she increase that? I've also been giving it to my son, but not very consistently.

A few more specific questions:

I read on another thread about using baking soda in water to "alkalenize your body" and improve immunity. Would this work for an O Gatherer? Would this help for somebody who's already sick? Should I suggest she  give this a try?

I'm making a big pot of ginger soup today,and I'll encourage her to add red pepper to her bowl. She's been putting some essential oils (I think peppermint and eucalyptus) into hot water in a bowl and putting a towel over her head and breathing in the steam.

I did buy a small box of "cold medicine" for her- the kind that suppresses symptoms, just so she could get through her midterm exams without coughing too much to focus on the tests. Her last exam is going on right now, and then she'll be off from school for a week and a half.  But Monday night and Tuesday she was on these meds, and last night she just felt AWFUL when the meds wore off.  I'm not sure if the coughing was actually worse than before (body trying to make up for lost time after immunity was suppressed?) or if she was just no longer used to feeling as sick as she really is. But she was so miserable she had trouble falling asleep. I can understand why these drugs are so popular- they make people much less uncomfortable while ill and it's easy for moms to "not see their kids suffer" when they dose them up. It was hard seeing her so ill when the meds wore off.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

I started her on extra vitamin D a few weeks ago. She won't take any vitamins with gelatin (she's more stringent about kosher vitamins than I am) so I bought a liquid D that comes in a dropper bottle; it's just D3 and olive oil. 1 drop is 2,000 iu. She's been taking about one drop a day- should she increase that? I've also been giving it to my son, but not very consistently.

2000 iu sound right  
that is the teen dosage I was adviced... and the dose Emma gets everyday
but IF you think she is really run-down -you could give her more in a few weeks.

A local dr. said to take your weight in 1,000 of IUs when coming down with the flu for a few days to knock it out.  So, I should take about 150,000 IUs. I have a few 50,000 pills. That might be enough.  50,000 a day was also recommended for the flu by the same dr., but he also said the weight deal.  That can get expensive!
There is no Vitamin D coming to us via the sun in the northern climates these days, so we need supps. I upped it to 5,000/day for maintenance even before winter. I may need 10,000, but I'm staying with 5,000.
Being an O, I bet I am not only more succeptible to URIs, but have more trouble shaking them. It's miserable!  I feel bad when so many get sick & don't realize that dairy is a big cause of it!

Wow- that's a lot of vitamin D! I don't think I'd be comfortable giving her that much (um, the whole bottle we have in the house?) without getting her a blood test a few days later. Is that a one-time dosage or does the Dr recomend giving that much over time?

I was  thinking more along the lines of giving her 10,000 iu a day for a few weeks.

She's still sleeping right now. She'd wanted me to wake her up when I got DS to school, so we could do fun stuff together today, but she's been having trouble falling asleep at night and I don't want to disrupt her healing sleep!

My plan is to encourage her to eat several cloves of raw garlic today, keep her well hydrated, and off sugar. I'm still not sure if the elderberry is a good idea or not- there's that whole "don't give elderberry to those 15-35 during active infection" quote from Dr. D, and I'm not sure if that applies to the Swine Flu, any Influenza, or any upper respiratory illness in general.

I'm also debating if I should buy more OTC cough suppressant, to help her sleep at night. The past two nights, she was literally up crying, unable to fall asleep even though she was absolutely exhausted and had gone to bed early. Last night I suggested she take more of the cold medicine and I think she was able to fall asleep after that. (I only bought a tiny package, planning on using it only for her 2 exams.) The cheapest package was a "multi symptom" cold medicine that includes meds she doens't need, (for the planned 2 doses I figured it didn't make much difference so why waste money?)  and I'm wondering if I should buy her something with just the cough supressant to take at bedtime.

Ruthie,
There are times when it is more important to get some sleep than not take an OTC medication.  If you can't find a natural cough suppressant that works and her sleep is adversely affected, I say do what it takes to allow her to sleep so she can heal.  It will probably only be a heavy usage period for a day or two, then she will heal enough to be able to sleep again.

Yup, that's exactly what I was thinking. The question is whether the small package I've already bought is enough, or if I need to spend more money on buying another package- in which case I need to decide if I should buy the same thing again (for $2) or spend more money to get something with a single ingredient and try to avoid nasty additives. Theyr'e predicting snow late tonight and into tomorrow, so I want to do any shopping today and stay in the house tomorrow.

The one thing I am NOT doing today is waking her up! I'll discuss with her  what meds to buy when she gets up, even if that's not until the others are home from school.

She's having an awful time falling asleep, even with a dose of the cold medicine at bedtime. She dozed off, then woke up coughing and couldn't really fall asleep.

What can I do to help her?

I found this site: Natural Decongestants and Expectorants that recommends onions, bromelain, steam, neti pots, and wild oregano oil.

Here's another tip: "For those people that do not like onions, eating them raw may not be the best option, but you can still take advantage of this natural expectorant and decongestant by mixing fresh onions with honey. Keep the mixture in your fridge and take regular doses of this honey mixture throughout the day. You will only need about 2 teaspoons every 4 hours." Natural Expectorant.

Coughing is tough on the body; I hope she feels better soon~

Salt water gargle will help.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

She dozed off, then woke up coughing and couldn't really fall asleep.

What can I do to help her?

Was it a productive cough?  If yes, then it is good for her to cough it up, get rid of it, take any food, drink, and supplements that are needed and go back to sleep...

If it is a non-productive cough, more suppressant, then take food, drink, and/or...

The only recommendation I can make is to follow the Pulmonary, Anti-Bacterial and Anti-Viral Protocols, as indicated, for her to help her lung and related mucus membranes to heal.  I know it is tough to watch them hurt, but sometimes there is really nothing we can do except put the good stuff in and let the body have some time to fight it off and clean up the remains...

The coughs aren't really productive. They SOUND like something's being coughed up,  but she doesn't often have anything to spit out. And taking proberry definitely made her coughs worse.

I have rosehips for vitamin C (not the acerola Dr D recomends) but I don't have any of the other stuff recomended in any of the protocols, and I only have about $20 left in the bank right now. I CANNOT buy anything from NAP right now.

Try ½ capful of hydrogen peroxide in each ear one at a time.  Tilt head and mover jaw.  If flows through ear & nose cavity. Then tilt head other way to drain out what’s left.    I’ve heard it is effective for colds & flu.

I had a bad cold for 1 day on Tuesday, felt like death warmed over.  I bombarded myself with every herb in the house, drank tea, took some elderberry/Echinacea/zinc cough syrup and put peroxide in my ear.  By Wednesday I was 90% better.  Thursday just some residual stuffiness.  My son was sick over the weekend.  I brought him over soup, garlic & onions.  Wednesday he came to my house and made beef in turkey broth with herbs & vegies.   So we both bounced back quickly while his friends and my co-workers suffered longer after taking OTC medicines every day while sick.  He took OTC Saturday night so he could perform a gig with his band.  He’s the lead singer.  He was worse Sunday, but better by Monday.  He only took OTC that one night.

She slept better last night, between taking rescue remedy at night and sleeping on the couch rather than her bed (so she can stay elevated) she's at least in better spirits from not being sick AND sleep-deprived. Her coughing sounds just as bad as before and the skin around her nose is all red and raw from nose blowing.

I feel like I'm coming down with something, so I've been getting extra sleep, taking raw garlic, extra vitamin C, and proberry. It's hard to tell how much of my fatigue/ickiness is from PMS and how much is from possibly getting sick. DD2 is also showing sign of "coming down with something"( ie, extra tiredness and irritability) but she's resistant to taking supplements. DS is overall better than he was, but is still coughing and still has a runny nose.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

I started her on extra vitamin D a few weeks ago. She won't take any vitamins with gelatin (she's more stringent about kosher vitamins than I am) so I bought a liquid D that comes in a dropper bottle; it's just D3 and olive oil. 1 drop is 2,000 iu. She's been taking about one drop a day- should she increase that? I've also been giving it to my son, but not very consistently.

Was with someone this week and he said it is not possible to get a source of Vit D that is vegetarian.

She's no longer a vegetarian- she just wants to avoid gelatin that has not been kosher certified, out of concern that the  gelatin may have come from pigs. The vitamin itself is normally sourced from fish, right?