Raising Healthy Children
by Warren King, L.Ac.
I love working with children. They have so much life force and vitality, it usually doesn’t take much to stimulate the body to heal itself. Of course being healthy before and during pregnancy is an added boost to the child. It is good to cleanse the mother of toxins before conception and make sure their are no deficiencies of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids during pregnancy.
Just last week I saw a pregnant woman whose baby was breach. I had her hold a quartz crystal pointed down over her abdomen and visualize the baby’s head going downward, she called the next day to report that the baby had turned. That shows how baby’s are so sensitive, so the environment of a child must be protected, whether is be from TV or words that are not comforting and uplifting.
The birth experience should be protected as well. Childbirth should be a high and holy experience for all and is not a disease. Often in hospitals the child is taken from the mother, instead of being placed to her breast immediately and washed with chemical shampoos, and eyes doused with antibiotics. Breast feeding is so important for the baby, physically and emotionally, it should really be required in almost all cases when possible.
Babies are often giving a hepatitis B vaccination at birth. That is a disease you may get as an IV drug user or prostitute, but why give a newborn, whose immune system isn’t even developed a shot like that before they have even been properly introduced to the earth. The child will likely get another 48 different vaccines by the time they are 6. This is a grand experiment and nobody knows what kind of chronic or autoimmune diseases may manifest from these injections. Why do we need a chickenpox vaccine? Just so parents don’t have to miss a few days of work. Fortunately mercury is being removed from most vaccines, but now aluminum, a know neurotoxin, is replacing it.
The first foods given after 6 months should be organic and easy to digest, and free of common allergens. Strained squash, peas, carrots and brown rice are often good first foods. Sometimes I have the mother add some seaweed, like nori, to the baby food for minerals. Wheat, corn, milk products, peanuts, oranges, sugar and meat are not good to add in infancy. Formulas often have sugar and low quality fats like palm oil and a base like milk or soy that is not a good source of nutrition for a baby. Young children should get used to drinking water, but not tap water which often has chemicals added such as chlorine and fluoride as well as unintentional chemicals such as prescription drugs. Even toothpaste has a warning saying to use only a pea sized dose and call poison control is swallowed. What child doesn’t swallow any toothpaste and chemicals are readily absorbable in the mucous membranes of the mouth.
Children’s immune system need challenges to develop. That is why young children get infections regularly. A fever is not illness, it is the body’s healthy immune response to an attack. The body is learning what is me and what is not me. If you take tylenol or other drugs to lower a 102 fever, when the body wants 104, then you stop a natural process and may trade in an acute illness with something more chronic.
Children don’t often need to take much besides proper nutrition. A good chewable multi, some calcium magnesium, often some acidophilus and fish oil is all that many children need for healing. Homeopathy works wonderfully in children and can be added for colds, flu, rashes, ear infections, stomach aches, etc… Of course there are other healing modalities such as acupressure, laser acupuncture, reflexology, herbology, and chiropractic. Flower essences are amazing for working on emotional issues and conflicts.
I saw a child last week that needed herbs that are usually reserved for adults with adrenal exhaustion. The child looked depleted and needed many remedies, some for detoxing. Finally the mother admitted taking a drug to abort the baby. The doctors had never seen a baby born after taking that drugs, but then they said it probably didn’t do any harm.
I have seen children who were very sick from poisoning from having a mercury amalgam filling placed in the teeth. Occasionally I’ll see a child with headaches that shows up having lead poisoning. But these cases are rare. I’m working with a child with ADHD and temper issues that is related to yeast and food allergies. The mother has seen results rather quickly but is wondering if she should just try the drugs as avoiding wheat, corn, soy, red meat and milk products is just too hard for him. All I could do is assure her that these foods will eventually come back with time and just try her best with the diet.
Probably more important that all of this physical healing is the emotions, the mind and the soul. A child that feels that she is a victim will have issues, physically and emotionally and relationshipwise her whole life. We tell small children not to cry. That is the beginning of blocking natural emotions and will eventually dam up the energy and create disease. Children should learn that they attract to themselves what they put out. Children shouldn’t be told that they are bad, that is their essence, they may make mistakes, which is expected, but at their core they are loveable.
Children don’t often do what we say, the become what we are. So let us not partake of the toxins of the world, physical or emotional. Let us do our own inner work on our own inner child so we don’t have to foist our unresolved issues onto the next generation. And let us have faith in a higher power that can heals us and open up our intuition so that we can make right choices for ourselves and our children.
