Tuesday morning, Maddy woke up with a cough. It wasn't alarming at first. I thought it may be just a morning cough, but throughout the day, she would keep coughing intermittently.
By evening, she developed a low-grade fever, around 37.5 C.
Wednesday
By Wednesday, she had a runny nose already and we went to see the pedia.
There was no fluid in her lungs, so the pedia suspects it's just the common cold or some viral infection.
He prescribed Muconase nasal spray, to clear out the lining of her nose and thin out the mucus, 2x in each nostril, sprayed 4-5x a day. He also prescribed that she keep take Allerkids (cetirizine).
The two kids of a couple of mommy friends I have in Cebu just also had coughs and colds. Tin said that Lexie was on meds for 5-6 days without improvement. She finally got hold of oregano leaves, prepared them for Lexie, and saw significant improvements in Lexie's breathing, congestion and cough!
Being a believer in herbal medicines, I quickly found a way to buy 2 pots of oregano from a yoga teacher somewhere. I brought them home and set them by the balcony. The pots were Php100 each.
Thursday
There are 2 ways that oregano leaves can more or less be prepared. In both cases, the leaves have to be rinsed thoroughly, with water and vinegar first, then rinsed again for 2 more times in water.
(the leaves are covered with a light white fuzz, which you should remove as you rinse)
First, you only let around 5-7 leaves rest in hot drinking water or over cooked rice for 3-5 minutes, so that the leaves become softer. You then squeeze the leaves to get the oregano extract/juice. You can feed it to your baby by dropper or syringe (sans needle) 3x a day, which is what I did.
(oregano extract)
Second, you can also boil the leaves for 10-15min in 2-3 cups of water, allowing the oregano's juice to seep to the water. You can take 1/2 cup of the oregano water throughout the day.
(oregano water)
Wednesday her fever increased, and she was so restless in her sleep. She couldn't breathe properly and her head must hurt. I put on the Euky Bear vaporizer to help.
Thursday, when we gave the oregano, we saw some improvement and her fever went down. But her nose was still running.
Friday & Saturday
As we kept giving her oregano, her runny nose decreased, but her cough worsened. This could be expected though, as per pedia. Since I kept on spraying her nose as much as I can, the mucus thinned and kept dripping to her throat, causing it irritation. The coughing is an effect of the mucus being cleaned out.
But she had no more fever on both days. I kept on the Euky Bear still for the evening.
Sunday
By Sunday morning, *pwera usog*, she has no more runny nose, and a couple of rattling, looser coughs. Not like the hard hacking coughs she had yesterday and Friday!
I will keep at it with this oregano until she gets better. I don't think oregano works overnight, but seeing improvement in less than 5 days is certainly a relief for this worried momma.
