Food that gets rid of phlegm

My 9 months old baby started the sniffles and I could hear the phlegm building up.

Congestion in a young baby is a mother's nightmare because he only knows how to breathe via the nose. If the nose is blocked, everything comes to an abrupt halt. Can't breastfeed. Can't eat. Can't sleep. What's worse is the phlegm tickling the throat, and triggering the body's natural response to cough it out.

To get rid of phelgm, there are 3 things to keep in mind. 
1) Mucus and phlegm creation needs to be reduced. Dairy products and sugar are the two biggest culprits in phlegm creation. You need to limit or eliminate such food to slow down the creation.

2) Dissolving or thinning the phlegm. Drinking plenty of fluids thin the mucus. Food such as cauliflower, red capsicum, celery, asparagus, onion, garlic, ginger help to dissolve mucus too.These are natural mucalators. There are synthetic ones you can get from pharmacy but not that I will feed that to my children.

3) Dispelling the phlegm. I said earlier the body coughs to get rid of the phlegm. But our children do not how to spit the phlegm out. Instead, they frequently trigger the gag reflex and end up vomiting when coughing.

What I find work best is focus on 1) and 2), then the phlegm is controlled enough for the child to swallow and poop out. I get a lot of satisfaction when my baby poops out mucusy slimy poop. Haha, the avenues a mother derives satisfaction from!

An additional tip for sleeping at night with a phlegm cough is to let the child sleep on an inclined angle. When we sleep at night in a horizontal direction, the backflow of the phlegm and the accumulation of the mucus at the head worsens congestion. Sleeping elevated helps mitigate this. Using a diffuser with a decongestant essential oil such as eucalyptus and lavender help too.


Here's a meal that reduces phlegm and helps combat flu. Cauliflower (50%) rice porridge (15%) in chicken broth (15%) and poached chunky salmon (20%). Salmon contains anti-inflammatory properties and protein, which are essential in the recovery process.

Ingredients:
- Salmon fillet, choose the tail end which is the part of the body which contains least mercury
- Organic cauliflower
- White rice porridge (white rice is easier for digestion when one's body is under the weather. By all means, use other grains)
- Home made chicken broth. Baby friendly with only antibiotics free chicken, no salt

Instructions:
1. Poach salmon fillet. Mine is loosely flaked because my baby likes textured food.
2. Steam cauliflower. Steaming helps retain heat sensitive vitamins. Mash with fork or with a food processor.
3. Heat rice porridge, add in home made chicken stock. Please see separate recipe for my porridge.

Poached Salmon, Cauliflower mash

I fed this for dinner and didn't hear a single throat-tickling cough all night. Thank God.