Warming Socks: Mom's Best Friend
Uh Oh.
The toddler hasn’t moved in 10 minutes. Shadows under the eyes. Every noise comes out whiny.
You’ve read the signs—She’s sick.
This is my 3-year-old daughter when she came down with chicken pox. She spent about four hours like this before coming around to her normal self.
When my kids feel crummy, there’s a safe, easy home remedy I always come back to. It’s so great, I use it myself and recommend it to anyone with a sniffle.
You should know, this will sound crazy. But it’s actually genius.
No Cure for the Common Cold
Warming socks is a brilliant way to treat people with colds and other viral illnesses. These conditions are pesky because—honestly—there’s not a ton we can do to make you better faster. Antibiotics aren’t useful for viral illnesses, and most over-the-counter drugs don’t do much for symptoms, especially in kiddos.
This cheap, accessible therapy relieves congestion and puts you to sleep. There are thoughts among naturopathic doctors and other lovers of hydrotherapy that warming socks helps you get better faster by stimulating the immune system. The idea is that your body becomes very warm in the process of warming up the socks. This acts like a fever, stimulating faster production and activity of immune cells.
I can’t promise you’ll cut days off your cold, but I will tell you I feel much better waking up the morning after using this therapy, and my kids seem to as well.
How to do a Warming Socks Treatment
Instructions for a Bedtime Treatment
Prepare Your Socks
You will need two pairs: one lightweight (cotton) and one heavy (preferably wool).
Wet the lightweight socks with cold water. Wring them out very well until they are just damp.
**Warming socks is all about contrast—get a better treatment by putting the wet socks in the fridge or freezer at this point.**
Take a steamy shower
The goal is to warm up your body, especially the feet. Take a good 5-10 minutes to get very warm. This is crucial!
Another option is to use a hot foot bath the same way.
Dry off, put on warm pajamas
Make this step move quickly—you want to stay warm.
Put on your socks
Sitting on the edge of your bed, slip on your cold, damp socks first. Then pull on the dry wool socks over them.
YES! PUT COLD WET SOCKS ON YOUR FEET!
They will feel cold for a moment and chilly for a few minutes.
Go to Bed
That’s it!
What to Expect
Since your body is very warm, it doesn’t take long for you to warm up the socks. If they stay cold for a prolonged time—meaning, you can’t fall asleep because your feet are too cold—consider the following:
Your socks may be too wet
Your body may not be warm enough
You may have low vitality
As your feet warm up the socks, you will start to feel drowsy and hopefully will enjoy the best sleep since your nose got stuffy.
Your socks will be dry from your body heat within a couple of hours. It’s normal to become very warm in the night; you can take the dry socks off to even out your temperature, or you can wet them with cold water and repeat the treatment.
It’s very important not to get chilled, as this will make you feel much worse. If your socks don’t warm up within 5-10 minutes, take them off.
When I have used this therapy with my kids, they fall asleep faster with less fussing and wake up less stuffy. Even as babies the cold application didn’t bother them too much, although they complain a bit more now they’re older :)
Who Can Safely Use Warming Socks?
Almost everyone!
Children and infants are particularly responsive to warming socks.
For babies, consider using a Wet Onesie technique.
Carry baby into a steamy shower for the warming part.
Use a light cotton onesie in place of the lightweight socks and a footed fleece sleeper in place of the heavy wool socks.
Once you get them bundled up, check inside the sleeper after about 5 minutes to make sure they’re starting to warm up.
Take special care if you have a medical condition that causes poor sensation in your feet, like peripheral vessel disease or diabetes.
If you feel that you followed the instructions correctly but were still unable to warm up your socks, you may have what the old-school hydropaths called “low vitality”. Don’t attempt the treatment again (you don’t want to get chilled). Instead, make an appointment with a naturopathic doctor to work on building your vitality and resilience.
It’s worth noting that some people simply hate this treatment. I have good friends who are excellent naturopathic doctors who can’t stand it! And that’s fine, it doesn’t have to be for everyone. BUT I hope you will give it a try. Let me know how it goes!