Foundations of Health for Thriving Kids
Helping you Move From Reactive to Proactive About Your Child’s Health
Do you ever wonder what you can do as a parent to prevent your child from getting sick or keep them out of the doctor’s office?
I’ll let you in on a little secret…
You CAN accomplish these goals and raise a thriving, healthy family!
Yes, you can grow in your awareness of your family’s health, feel empowered to make positive changes, and raise thriving children who can positively impact our world.
It all starts by focusing on the foundations of health.
The Foundations of Health for Thriving Wellness
One of the best gifts you can give your child is a lifetime of wellness. And that does not mean just the absence of disease, but truly living in an optimal state of health.
So when a patient comes to see me with eczema, anxiety, digestive issues, food sensitivities, or any issue for that matter, I always start by reviewing their foundations of health:
Nutrition
Movement
Sleep
Mental and emotional well-being
Connection
Detoxification
Time in nature
Why?
Because one of these areas almost always needs some attention.
And when all of the foundations of health are optimized, your child (and you) will be able to exist in a truly optimal state of health and prevent disease.
The Foundations of Health
Let’s break down the seven foundations of health and some small changes you can make today to experience thriving wellness.
Nutrition
Getting your child the essential nutrients they need helps them have the energy to learn, play, move, grow, and experience all that life has to offer. But this can be easier said than done sometimes.
Here are some of my top tips for optimizing your child’s diet:
You provide and the child decides. You get to choose what to offer your child, but they can say yes or no to their choices. So, what you offer matters.
Provide balanced meals. Your goal should be to offer healthy fat, protein, complex carbs, and veggies at each meal.
Shop organic when you can. Eating 100% organic isn’t in many people’s budgets. Instead, focus on the foods that are important to buy organic using the Environmental Working Group’s Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists.
Variety and multiple attempts. Repeated exposure, encouragement, and your attitude towards food make a huge difference in what kids will and won’t eat. If they say no to broccoli, don’t put up a fight. Simply try again tomorrow.
Serve your culture’s food. Research suggests that eating what your direct ancestors ate may resonate better with your body than foods from other cultures.
Movement
Kids have become more stationary than ever, spending more than seven hours per day in sedentary activities. (1) A sedentary lifestyle can negatively affect children’s health by increasing their risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, depression, anxiety, and more. (2)
There are various fun ways for your child to get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity daily, including (3):
Take the dog on a walk
Walking or riding your bikes to school
Signing up for a team sport or activity
Stopping at the playground after dinner
Having a dance party
Sleep
Getting high-quality sleep is just as important for a child as getting enough nutrients in their diet. And aside from the simple fact that kids need sufficient sleep to wake up feeling refreshed, sleep can directly impact a child’s long-term health.
To help your child sleep, here are my top herbal remedies:
Kalmerite Glycerite. This elixir contains a handful of sleep-promoting herbs that calm the nervous system.
Chamomile Tea. This herb lowers the stress hormone cortisol, making it a natural calming agent. (4)
Lavender Essential Oil. Lavender helps calm brain and nervous system activity to help the body and mind relax. (5)
Homeopathic Pulsatilla. This remedy is well-indicated for children who are hyper before bed or wake up restless or crying in the middle of the night.
Powdered Ashwagandha. This powerful evergreen shrub has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It’s also neuroprotective, meaning it helps prevents nerve damage, is immune-modulating, and is sleep-promoting. (6)
Visit my online store to purchase these and other natural remedies for 15% off! Plus, you can read more about why sleep is crucial for your child’s development.
Mental and Emotional Well-Being
Children with balanced and grounded well-being can make healthy choices, express emotion, accept help, manage stress, feel empathy, and relate to others. Helping children find mental and emotional well-being is essential to their health and will create ease for you and your child.
Try these small, intentional daily practices to help build gratitude and enhance your child’s mental and emotional well-being:
Practice prayer
Teach them breathwork
Use the feelings wheel
Make a conscious effort to slow down
Practice giving
Do gratitude activities as a family
Express your own emotions in a healthy way to model this behavior
Click here to learn more about instilling an attitude of gratitude in your child and how it plays a role in their overall health and well-being.
Connection
Connectedness is essential for helping children learn life skills that allow them to build, participate in, and maintain relationships. Through these relationships, children learn how to communicate, identify similarities and differences, build confidence, and establish a sense of belonging.
Support the development of your child’s connection with these tips:
Make mistakes okay
Encourage out-of-the-box thinking
Praise good behavior and acts of kindness
Share meals as a family
Practice faith
Detoxification and Gut Health
When toxins build up in the body and become too much, they can wreak havoc on the body messing with hormone function, damaging cells, altering the brain, causing leaky gut, and irritating the skin. And when left unaddressed, they can turn into chronic health issues.
The good news is that the body has natural detoxification systems that work 24/7 to eliminate harmful toxins! Due to the toxic world we live in today, sometimes our body just needs a little extra support to eliminate them.
Below are a few natural ways for kids to detox:
Epsom salt baths
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate
Increase fiber to ensure regular bowel movements
Play until they sweat
Swap processed foods for whole foods
Read more about how to safely reduce your child’s toxic load and join my membership community, Healthy Families Collective, for a deep dive into my detox protocol for kids.
Time in Nature
Introducing children to the diversity of nature – from differing landscapes and climates to unique animals – encourages an appreciation for the world around them and their place in the world.
In addition, time spent outside can help improve their physical and mental health, often lowering stress and anxiety levels, and it’s positively correlated with a more diverse microbiome. (7)(8)
Try some of these ideas to encourage your child to get outside:
Create your own outdoor adventures on weekends, like riding bikes or going for a hike
Take your kiddo to an open green space or park near you to play after school
Balance screen time with outside time
Life gets busy. You might one day realize your family has barely been outside in days. That’s why it’s so important to set aside intentional time to get out in nature! Remember, there is no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothes. :)
Calling All Holistic Parents
It is my mission to create healthier generations of children.
That’s why I’m gathering like-minded parents wanting to lay a solid foundation for their family’s health, preventing chronic illness and staying out of the doctor’s office.
If this sounds like something you want in on, join my membership community - Healthy Families Collective. This membership app is an accessible way to gain support in raising a naturally healthy family with less stress and more ease! I can’t wait to see you inside!
Resources:
1. PubMed
2. PubMed
3. PubMed
4. PubMed
5. PubMed
6. PubMed
7. National Wildlife Foundation
8. PubMed
