Natural Alternatives to Ginger Ale and Pedialite
Got this question from a reader recently:
My young daughter has the flu. My doctor recommends saltine crackers, Pedialite, and ginger ale, but I’d like to find Paleo or natural alternatives. Can you help?
This is a great question.
In particular, I love her desire to stay as natural as possible.
Natural Alternatives to Ginger Ale and Pedialite
As it turns out, recreating Ginger Ale and Pedialite is actually quite simple.
The primary benefit of ginger ale is mostly from the ginger (even though most store-bought ginger ales no longer contain real ginger).
And as for Pedialite, it’s the water, sugar, sodium, and potassium.
All of those are things that you can recreate in more natural ways.
First of all, here is a good post that Chris Kresser wrote a while back: http://chriskresser.com/how-to-prevent-colds-and-flus-naturally. He recommends ginger with honey and lemon tea at the bottom of the post. That’s pretty common, and should be safe for kids over 1 (honey should not be given to kids under 1).
Lisa also wrote this good post on re-creating Pedialyte: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/01/31/homemade-pedialyte/. This version has very few ingredients, but the salt is important, since that’s where many of the elctrolytes come from. You can also substitue palm sugar for the sugar.
In general, those 2 concoctions will achieve the same effects as ginger ale and pedialite (rehydration, calming of stomach, etc.), plus the honey and ginger have the added benefit of being anti-microbial.
I Don’t Know How to Re-Create Saltines
The one catch is that I don’t know how to make anything close to saltines.
But really, you don’t need to. They don’t do anything other than irritate the stomach to begin with.
Apart from the suggestions above, all other basic suggestions would still apply. In particular, more sleep and nutritious foods like bone broth.
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