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How To Heal Kids Naturally
Every time I hear about how sick kids are these days, I get so angry. We SHOULD be angry about this. About half of all kids in the US have a chronic illness these days. For some reason, conventional medicine just keeps making new diagnoses and more drugs for kids instead of addressing the actual issues. Unfortunately, kids are inheriting our deficiencies and toxicities which is leading to this increase- it is not technically genetics because these are environmental causes.
Our kids are predicted to have a shorter lifespan than us, and that is unacceptable. Instead of waiting for doctors and the media to wake up, it’s up to us to heal our kids and create better habits for them. I’m not one to wait for a rescuer anymore- I know that we can make enough small changes to start larger change in the future.
I wanted to put together a post to go over some of the most important aspects of healing kids naturally. Technically, my foundational care steps would still apply to kids as well. But in my experience, kids don’t always need as much healing as adults do. They are more resilient than we are and they’ve had less time to accumulate the same amount of toxicities and deficiencies. Once we make small changes for them, they tend to start bouncing back quickly.
How to Heal the Gut for Kids- First Main Step
I almost always start with gut healing for kids with chronic illness. For most kids, healing the gut is going to make the biggest impact for any type of symptom or illness. I have seen kids get better with JUST gut healing too.
The main points to work on with gut healing would be to increase digestive fire, heal/seal the gut lining, and work on rebalancing the microbiome. The most popular options for these would be:
- Switchel is my top choice for kids for stomach acid support as there are so many ways to make it so you can find what your child likes best. I always reference this article from Wellness Mama for those that are very new to Switchel because she outlines all of the main variations on the recipe.
- Collagen and Gelatin: Collagen is super easy to add to smoothies, drinks, or even things like applesauce and rice to help your child some gut healing amino acids. Gelatin is great for making delicious gummy treats, which obviously most kids enjoy! Bone broth is another great option too.
- BioRay CALM and Belly Balance work well together to heal the whole GI tract for kids. CALM helps to open up the liver pathways for better detox, and it also has adrenal support to help mitigate any detox reactions. It is one of the BEST starts for kids and is often the strongest helper. Belly Balance helps to support immunity (IgA), can restore gut integrity (IgM), can push bad bugs out of the gastrointestinal tract and bowel, and especially is great for enhancing speech and communication. You can find both of these here, and save 10% off with the code SASSY at checkout.
Diet Changes and Mineral Balancing- Second Step
I’m going to add these 2 steps together because they are very much interconnected. With mineral balancing, the first step is to do an HTMA which will show what deficiencies your child is dealing with. It’s honestly one of the best tests for kids because it is so much less invasive than blood tests. Plus it gives us so much more information to work with.
Diet
Changing up the diet is perhaps ones of the hardest things to adjust for kids, especially if you have been making the switch over from a Standard American Diet. But it is absolutely one of the most important changes. The SAD is full of dead foods with no nutritional value: processed foods, genetically modified foods, massive amounts of sugar, artificial flavors and sweeteners, food dye, high fructose corn syrup, etc. All of these things have links with illnesses like obesity, cancer, diabetes, ADD/ADHD, and more. Eliminating these “foods” can make a HUGE difference in a short period of time for some kids.
Switching to a nutrient dense, whole foods diet is the ideal, but I know how rough this can be. Schools still tend to offer terrible food choices! I have even heard of teachers that use candy and other sweets in the classroom to keep attention (or for certain activities like math). This is where the phrase “Do your best!” comes into play. We all cannot be 100% perfect, and we cannot control everything. Do your best to control what you can in cases like this. Learn how to pick your battles when it comes to this topic.
One of the best approaches for this issue is to slowly start incorporating nutrient dense foods into your child’s diet. This can be anything from pumpkin seeds (which are *amazing* in this coconut oil chocolate recipe!), fat bombs (snacks that can act almost like desserts, but they pack a punch of healthy fats which are essential for children’s health and development. Please don’t believe the BS about fat and cholesterol being bad! They are extra essential for children’s health.), collagen powder, herbal infusions like nettles, cod liver oil, and desiccated beef liver. One of my favorite mineral replenishment for kids would be mineral baths too. Click here to learn more about the different types of mineral baths and why they are so helpful.
Uncovering Underlying Health Issues- Third Step
The above steps are the most crucial to start with for kids. However, many kids these days are dealing with more in-depth issues like chronic Lyme, EBV, heavy metals, and parasites. If your child is dealing with these then the above steps are STILL crucial. But they might need more specific help depending on what they are dealing with.
Liver healing is going to be the most important step to work on if your child is dealing with ANY underlying issue. The liver pathways have to be open and bowels have to be moving in order to properly eliminate infections or heavy metals. The lymph system is also just as important, especially for infections, and usually overlooked.
Liver and Lymph Support for Kids
- As mentioned above, CALM from BioRay is the best start for overall liver healing, especially because it has added adrenal support. The kids line is designed for kids 1 year and above, and they have a pre-teen line that you can work up to if your child needs stronger support.
- Castor oil is another incredibly helpful tool for both liver and lymph support. You can have your child do full packs if they are up for it, but usually just massaging the oil over their liver is helpful.
- Dandelion root tea is an amazing bile booster and safe for most kids to use. Tea is nice and easy to get in, or you can use a dandelion root tincture.
- Rebounding is a favorite lymph lover for kids! All it entails is jumping on a trampoline. The motion of jumping up and down is actually one of the most helpful tools for manually moving that lymph system.
- BioRay FOCUS is best for heavy metal detox, and HAPPY is best for pathogen control. I highly recommend using CALM with each of these to keep the liver happy! You can read my entire post on using the BioRay products properly here as well.
Healing Infections and Detoxing Heavy Metals for Kids
Ideally, I would go for testing first to determine the exact issues your child is dealing with unless you know for certain that they’ve been exposed to something. For EBV, there are blood panels you can do or a GI Map Test can also show if one is excreting the virus. If you are dealing with Lyme and co-infections, the best test would be DNA ConneXions. For parasites- GI Map is helpful for this as well. And finally for heavy metals, the HTMA is the best place to start. With HTMA, we can determine the strength of your child to see if they need more healing and replenishment before moving onto detoxing.
For more reading just click on the following links:
- EBV
- Lyme and co-infections
- Parasites
- Heavy Metals
- Also, it is always worth looking into mold exposure as well for anyone with a chronic illness. Especially if there is little progress on a healing journey.
The body is a whole and we must treat it as such! I have my Bachelor of Science in Natural Health Sciences, certificates in Herbal Studies from Herbal Academy, and I am constantly learning more about health to help my clients and followers.
My goal is to help you unleash your own inner healer! You already hold the power to heal inside you. My role is as a guide to help you realize this potential.