J.34/ Boost your child’s wellbeing
Children can benefit from natural medicine in many ways, Naturopaths can help with insomnia, behavioural changes, immune boosting, gut health and more.
My goal as a Mum and as a Naturopath with my own children and my clients children is prevention. It’s far easier to prevent illness to occur than treating something that has already developed and could have been avoided. This isn’t always possible in every case but I do try to start education about prevention in our first consultation. The main areas of concern I treat with children are gut health, immune health, mood, sleep disturbance, picky eating and allergies. Naturopathic medicine can work well with children but it’s important that the parents and siblings are on board too.
The little things are often over looked but keeping things simple for children is often the best. I like to focus on good quality healthy food choices, daily outdoor time coupled with exercise, getting adequate sleep, filling their cup with your attention, just to name a few. Now sometimes these are easier said than done! As a parent it’s your job to offer healthy food choices to your child and it’s their job to decide how much or what they’d like to eat. I usually aim to make a platter with protein, good fats, vegetables and or fruit and carbohydrates for my kids and I let them decide what they’d like to choose and how much they’d like to eat. This allows autonomy for them but ultimately your still deciding what they eat but they get to choose from your selection.
Time outdoors does children wonders, it allows them to explore with their imagination, test their limits physically and lots more, I like to suggest time outside in the morning and afternoon so my kids can avoid the midday sun and heat. Children also need physical activity and it’s best if you as a parent can model a healthy relationship with exercise, it can as simple as going for a short walk to a playground or going for a bike ride. Allowing your child to get adequate sleep is a priority, sleep is when they absorb information from the day, have quiet time and the body does restorative work. Children need a lot more sleep than adults and I like to suggest 10-12 hours of overnight sleep (depending on the age group).
Giving your child your undivided attention for a small amount of time per day means the world to them, this is done by not looking at your phone or any other device and focusing solely on your child, this could be cooking together, playing, reading a book or talking about your day with them. With these main things in mind you can help improve your child’s wellbeing using these simple things daily.
There is a place for more specific interventions with children, this comes into play if they’re displaying certain symptoms or are having recurrent issues. With kids I always like to keep it simple with my treatment plans, I find children are very receptive to natural medicine, diet and lifestyle adjustments, so it doesn’t take much to put them on the right course again. It comes down to each case what I’ll prescribe as I treat the individual not just what symptoms they’re experiencing, but thinking deeper of how it can all be connected together and what I can do to help bring the body back to balance.
If your child is experiencing any issues with immune health, gut troubles, behavioural changes, insomnia, skin conditions or intolerances I’d highly recommend a consultation as these conditions are more in depth. The lifestyle changes I suggested are great for improving general wellbeing and helping a child who isn’t experiencing anything out of the ordinary. To book your consultation in please book here or if you’d like to ask a question you can email me at info@sarahlisternaturopath.com.au
