Kids’ Health – sore tummies, allergies, behavioural problems
Kids today are robust but fragile at the same time. There are higher rates of allergies, asthma and eczema than ever before. There are more and more kids with behavioural or learning disorders, some diagnosed, some not. Some kdis are still wetting the bed at 8 or 9 years of age.
Being a parent to a child who is always sick can be a lonely and frustrating place. What has happened to your beautiful baby, and why aren’t they getting well?
My son Jack was sick from the outset. It was just a bit of reflux, no big deal, except that he wouldn’t sleep during the day and was up a lot at night. Exhausting for him and exhausting for me! Medication fixed that problem, but within months it made other problems, such as crazy unexplained diarrhoea for more than a month and failure to thrive. He became a really bad eater. His immune system was shot and his poor gut health meant that he wasn’t absorbing the nutrients from the food I could get into him. From 15 months of age it was obvious that things were not going to resolve on their own. Jack was diagnosed with severe Autism just before his second birthday.
When you don’t eat because your gut doesn’t work properly you become nutrient deficient, and then your body doesn’t have the raw materials to repair and restore good function. You become prone to further illness.
A child’s immune system isn’t fully developed until they are 2-3 years of age, and any insult (environmental toxins, parasites etc) to the digestive or immune system during this time, especially antibiotic use, can have long lasting ramifications. When you know this you can take steps to help them bounce back, because they simply don’t have the ability on their own.
In kinder or the early school years, other issues become apparent – inability to concentrate or cooperate, challenging behaviour that is more than just a phase, poor eating habits, on-going illness that has you trapsing to the doctor or worse the emergency department! More and more kids are seeing psycholgists, and while this is becoming common, its jsut not normal. What will help the most is building up their gut and immune function, take away the silent pain that makes them act out, and it allows them to better assimilate the key nutrients that normalise their mood and brain function.
You need answers, less talk, more action!
It took over two years to undo the damage and re-build Jack’s gut and immune function. I’m happy to say he is now at the high functioning end of the spectrum, attending mainstream school, slowly making friends and going from strength to strength. He is my perfect angel, and I will leave no stone un-turned to give him the best chances in life.
“My kid won’t eat that”
Getting picky kids to eat healthy food is hard, but often times there is an underlying silent health reason (in the gut where you can’t see, and they can’t tell you about) for why that food tastes wrong or makes them feel off. Food sensitivities can change week to week, and unlike allergies where the symptoms are immediate, symptoms of food intolerance are often delayed. They only occur one a threshold has been breached, sometimes days later. Many food intolerances also overlap making it hard to make the connections.
There are ways to figure this out, and ways to get high doses of therapeutic nutrients into kids so that their pain and aggravation can go away. I’ve been through it with my son, and I’ve helped many other mums figure it out. It is my life’s mission to help these kids feel good, and grow up strong. As a mum that’s what you want for your children
Keep searching for answers, don’t give up! If you’ve tried everything else, maybe its time to try again, or try a different way with food. It can’t hurt them, it can only help!
Some common problems I see and can treat –
- Nutrient deficiencies – Eg. A zinc deficiency can affect our sense of taste and smell, making things taste wrong. Often correcting such a deficiency improves a child’s willingness to sample foods.
- A genuine intolerance to certain food chemicals. eg Amines, salycilates and glutamates. These natural chemicals give foods a very strong taste for young tastebuds. An intolerance means they are not digested properly, causing discomfort or dysfunction that the child can’t explain.
- A lack of stomach Acid – Good digestion and absorption starts in the stomach. IF stomach acid is low, foods are not broken down properly leading to all sorts of digestive complaints.
- Leaky gut or flora imbalance – This means that food molecules can enter the blood stream that are not supposed to be there, leading to an elevated immune response. This can manifest as abdominal pain, foggy brain, behavioural problems, lethargy and a general unwillingness to co-operate.
- Constipation – a common complaint in children. If your child doesn’t have a bowel movement every day they are likely to literally feel clogged up, and the build up of toxins in their system makes them feel bad and act out. Eating might actually make them feel worse, so it is understandable that they refuse food or have no appetite.
