Welcome to the latest Multiples Matter Spotlight article!
This time, we hear from Andrea Ong, a Singaporean mum of triplets who is now based in Switzerland. Andrea and her husband raised her triplets without any paid help, and along the way she picked up plenty of hard-earned lessons on keeping little ones healthy. In this article, she shares what she has learned about preventing colds and helping children recover faster when they do fall sick, drawn from her own experience at home. Whether you’re a parent of multiples or simply a parent (or grandparent) who wants a few more tricks up your sleeve with regards to boosting immunity for children, there’s a lot to take away.
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Healing and Prevention: What Worked for My Family
My mum once told me: "The worst thing about looking after babies is when they get sick, because they can't tell you what's wrong."
The fear of my infant triplets falling ill led me to take the following precautions.
When I had babies up to 2 years old
- I asked visitors to wash their hands prior to contact with the children.
- I aired the house naturally after visitors left.
When my children were babies and toddlers, I couldn't give them vitamin C, which has been protecting me from full-blown influenza for the longest time. I usually don't catch influenza, and when I do, it is usually very mild. Prior to taking vitamin C, I experienced being ill frequently and often took long to recover.
I asked a friend whether there was a vitamin C product for toddlers, and she told me to wait until they were 2 years old. I started to wonder, why hadn't my babies gotten sick during their first year, even though we parents, their grandmother, and our visitors had? As a new mum to triplets, I honestly didn't know very much. I remember asking my mother-in-law, who replied that babies usually don't get sick.
When I joined a chat group for parents of triplets in Singapore, I realised this wasn't true. I learnt about the high frequency of babies falling ill, some of whom needed hospitalisation. This led me to check the formula milk my children drank, which the hospital where they were born had recommended prior to discharge. After some research, I discovered that this brand had the highest amount of vitamin C. No wonder!
After the triplets' first year of infancy in Switzerland, sponsorship of formula milk ended. Because our initial formula milk brand was relatively expensive, my husband started buying other brands whenever they were on a discount. Looking back, I realised that this was when my children started getting sick.
Our first trip to Singapore
When the children were slightly over 2, they went on their maiden flight to Singapore to meet family. On that trip, a friend recommended Sambucol liquid vitamin C.
It was a relief, because I could finally give them something I took myself whenever I was sick or about to fall sick. I took either Redoxon Vitamin C Retard (sadly no longer available) or Cetebe Vitamin C Retard. Both are slow-release capsules that give immune protection for 6–8 hours.
My children still got sick, but only mildly each time.
How sleep helped my triplets recover from a cough
When the children were 4, they had a cough before our second trip to Singapore. It was healing, but not quickly enough, and we left for a visit to my homeland before it cleared. They coughed for the entire two months we were there, and the cough worsened because they weren't getting enough sleep.
For coughs, children their age need 12–13 hours of sleep three days in a row to heal, and they weren't getting that. The cough became so bad that it woke the adults up at wee hours of the morning. My dad was afraid they might have whooping cough and urged us to take them to a doctor, which I had never done except for vaccinations. The prescribed cough syrups didn't help them though.
I was coughing too and took prescribed boiled Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbs. They worked well initially, but the coughing episodes came back. My thoughtful sister bought over-the-counter TCM cough drinks for me a few times, but they didn't heal my cough either.
Then she told me something that gave me a breakthrough. Her doctor had told her, "Cough recovery requires sleep," meaning that when you have a cough, you must sleep in order to recover fully. The doctor didn't say how long, though. Her doctor had given her this advice because she is allergic to common cold medicines, such as penicillin and aspirin.
When we returned to Switzerland, my four-year-old son, exhausted from the lack of sleep on the plane, slept for ~12-13 hours for three consecutive days. Guess what? His cough healed by about 98%!
My four-year-old daughter also slept approximately 12 hours for 3 days after our long-haul flight, and she healed too. The youngest triplet took a little longer because she slept for a shorter duration of 10-11 hours daily for those three days, but she was eventually well in less than a week. All of this was without medicine or specially cooked fruits or foods, just pure sleep and liquid vitamin C. The fight against the cough-causing bacteria was finally won the natural way!
How much sleep do kids need to heal from a cough?
When I looked back at the National Sleep Foundation's sleep chart, I realised that children aged 3–5 need 12–13 hours of sleep for about three days in a row to heal, especially from a cough. Adults aged 26–64 need an average of 8–9 hours, similarly ideally for three days in a row, for their immune cells to do their job.
From talking to people who had bad coughs or influenza, I also learned that sleep alone is not enough. Some of them had slept enough but their symptoms lasted for weeks. I found out that the reason is that immune cells can't do their job well without the support of vitamin C.
Vitamin C supports our immune system by forming a shield around our cells, so pathogens (such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and cancer cells) can't penetrate them and multiply, which would make the condition worse. When we take vitamin C at the onset of sickness, the illness stays mild and we heal faster. The pathogen that has entered us can't multiply because of the shield, so our immune cells can kill and clear it very quickly.
To summarize:
- At the first sign of a cold (sore throat, body aches, etc.), take vitamin C.
- If you haven't had enough sleep, take vitamin C to avoid falling sick.If you have had enough sleep and are not sick, you probably don't need vitamin C.
- For healing, the number of sleep hours you need depends on your age group (see the National Sleep Foundation chart).
- For quick healing, vitamin C (the defence strategy) and sleep (the attack strategy) must work hand in hand.
- Vitamin C defends by shielding our cells. Sleep attacks because it lets our natural killer (NK) cells go after pathogens. It works like an army, but an internal one.
How to achieve quick healing
- Get enough total sleep (night sleep plus naps) for three days in a row. See the sleep chart above.
- Take vitamin C as follows:
- Liquid vitamin C, gummies, tablets, or effervescent tablets: every 3–4 hours.
- Retard (slow-release) vitamin C, which lasts longer in the body: every 6–8 hours.
Take vitamin C back to back and on time. Do not leave a gap between doses, because the protective layer around the cells wears off after 3–4 hours, giving pathogens a chance to multiply.
Extra tips for when your kids are sick
- Air the room regularly. Let the stale air out and fresh air in.
- Choose sugar-free vitamin C tablets (for example, Redoxon) and give them every 4 hours. Follow the dose on the label. Your body takes what it needs and excretes the excess in urine, though very large amounts can cause an upset stomach or loose stools.
- Protect the kids who aren't sick yet. If one child is sick, or the children have been exposed to sick people or are short on sleep, give vitamin C to the healthy ones as well to help prevent illness.
- Drink plenty of water. It helps vitamin C and immune cells travel quickly and efficiently to the places that need them for healing.
- Give multivitamins no more than once a day. They may contain nutrients that children don't need in large amounts, so extra doses can add up to too much.
"Sleep is the foundation of the immune system, with just one night of 4–5 hours of sleep reducing critical natural killer cells by up to 70%."
– Matthew Walker, neuroscientist and author of "Why We Sleep"
From my experience, this method is more effective than a yearly flu jab because it is a "one method for all" approach that applies to almost all types of pathogens. But of course, prevention is better than cure.
Because these healing and preventive methods require daily effort, I recommend the yearly influenza vaccination for anyone who can't follow them. It protects against four to five newly identified virus strains. Note, however, that sleep affects vaccine effectiveness: limiting sleep to 4 hours for six nights reduces the antibody response to vaccines by over 50%.
This is what I did to heal my children and prevent sickness using minimal resources. It worked well for my family each time, and I hope it works well for you too!
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Thank you, Andrea, for generously sharing your family’s experiences with our Multiples Matter community. We hope your sharing helps other parents of little ones feel a little more prepared when the flu season comes around.
Whether you're raising multiples or multiple children, finding a supportive parenting community makes all the difference. Join the conversation and share your experience with us! Follow us on Instagram or head over to our virtual village on WhatsApp for more updates!
Read also:
Easy "AGO" Home Remedy for Cough and Flu (Safe for babies!)
How To Boost Your Child's Immunity
