A Holistic Approach to Kids Immunity, Allergies, Antibiotic Use, and Behavioral Issues with Dr. Elisa Song

You are now listening to well Fed Women, the show that's been radically changing the way women perceive health, fitness and their bodies since 2015. I'm your host, Noelle Tarr. Submit your questions to wellfedwomenmail.com and you can keep up with the show on Instagram elfedwomen. Welcome to the well Fed Women Podcast. This is episode number 429. I am your host and I am so happy that you are here. Today I get to interview Dr. Eliza Song. If you've known me for any amount of time, you know that I am a Super fan of Dr. Song. I have followed her for quite some time and her advice has been so helpful in just being a mom and raising my kids in a very crazy world and a crazy time. So I was so thankful when I reached out to her and asked if I could interview her about everything. Kids, immunity, allergies, behavioral issues, antibiotic use. Like all the things she said. Yes. And she stayed a long time with me and we got to so many of your questions. So I hope that this interview is going to be really helpful for all of you out there who are just like, I don't know, I. I don't know what to do. The conventional wisdom says this. The functional advice says this. How do we marry the two? And I think that that's one of the most beautiful things that Dr. Song does. So before we jump in next week, I am launching more Chill magnesium which is magnesium lysinate glycinate with L theanine. This is specifically for those of you who struggle with a racing mind or being just feeling overwhelmed. You struggle with sleep. You can take this in the morning, you can take it at night. It contains 200 milligrams of highly absorbable magnesium and 200 milligrams of L theanine. This is actually the evidenced based dose that has a lot of incredible benefits when it comes to supporting the stress response and helping reduce stress related symptoms. So that is launching May 31st WellMinerals US is the website we are launching with a pretty big discount and I'm going to be launching it to my email list. You can jump that. It's coconutsandcuttlebells.com minerals. I'm also working on the kids magnesium and the adults magnesium. The kids magnesium in particular. I'm pretty in order for it to taste good and to be available in drop form, pretty sure I'm going to go with mostly magnesium glycinate. That is because it is tasteless and it's been used in research and and it's evidence based when it comes to helping kids with focus and attention issues. It also helps kids calm kids down, which I think is really important. So it's going to be something that I'm going to be using regularly and I know all of you are just really hoping for it and been asking me a lot of questions so that I've just had a phone call, we're finalizing the formulation and we are going to be coming out with Magnesium Lysinate glycinate. Just pure magnesium lysinate glycinate for adults too. But more chill comes May 31st. I'm so excited for a lot of you guys to try it and give me your feedback. I think it's going to be so helpful. Now let's get to Dr. Song. Dr. Eliza Song. She's an integrative pediatrician, pediatric functional medicine expert and mom to two thriving children in her integrative pediatric practice, Whole Family Wellness. She's helped thousands of kids get to the root cause of their health concerns and helped their parents understand how to help their children thrive body, mind and spirit. By integrating conventional pediatric with functional medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine and essential oils. Dr. Song created healthy Kids Happy Kids as an online holistic pediatric resource to help practitioners and parents like me bridge the gap between conventional and integrative pediatrics with an evidence based pediatrician backed approach. I just love her so much. I'm so appreciative for the work that she is doing. Her website is healthykidshappykids.com she's got a lot of blogs there and then she does have a full blown pediatric practice. Wholefamilywellness.org now let's get to the interview. Welcome Dr. Song. I'm so happy to have you here. You were just talking a little bit earlier about all that you have going on. You're a mom, you're a business owner, you are a doctor with a full blown practice. So I'm so thankful that you are here and we get to go over all these topics. This is really a dream come true for me.

Oh thanks. So I'm honored to be here and share whatever I can with all the mamas listening.

Yes, you are the queen of comprehensive answers. I have taken your your master classes. I bought your supplements. I feel so much more empowered to make good decisions for my kids health after listening to you speak about a lot of these topics. So I'm really excited. We have a lot to dive into today. I know a lot of Moms are listening and a lot of moms are excited about this podcast. So first, before we kind of get into these hot topics, when it comes to kids immunity and health and all the things, as a holistic pediatrician, how are you guiding parents and your patients in their care that may be different from these more conventional medicine models, which, honestly, I feel like 99% of parents have to typically interact with?

Yeah, so that's a great question.

As pediatricians, all pediatricians should really be holistic in the sense that they should all look at the child in front of them in the context, holistically, with their family, their community, their school life. That, you know, this child is not a single individual in isolation, in the way I'm different, is that as a holistic pediatrician and really moving more towards calling myself an integrated pediatrician, is that I can integrate the foundations of conventional pediatrics that I learned, you know, at amazing centers like NYU Medical School, UCSF Pediatric Residency, and integrate the best of that with different modalities like functional medicine, holistic nutrition, homeopathy, acupressure, herbs, essential oils. And the reason that is so important is because we want to take the benefits of conventional medicine. We know that many medications like antibiotics are life saving, right? They can be. However, we also know that antibiotics are so overused and inappropriately prescribed in many, many cases. And in fact, in some studies, up to 70% of kids were inappropriately prescribed antibiotics for things like viral infections or prescribed antibiotics that were too strong for the simple thing that was going on. So while I would say, yes, we want to use those needed medications, there are so many concerns with that. First, there's a growing incidence of antibiotic resistance. And by 2050, experts are concerned that antibiotic resistance are going to be a leading cause of death in the world. That is so scary, right? A simple ear infection, a simple, a simple skin infection could become life threatening. I mean, it throws us way back into, I mean, the dark ages where we didn't have antibiotics and these were, you know, life threatening illnesses. The other major, major concern that I have as a pediatrician is, I mean, many of our listeners know all health starts in the gut. Hippocrates is credited with saying, all disease starts in the gut. We need to flip that around and understand that for children, infants and children, they're developing gut microbiome shapes how their immune system functions, how their brain functions, even how their genes function. Our gut microbiome can affect our epigenetic potential. And the medications we often use in kids, antibiotics, antacid medications, Even ibuprofen are major, major acute gut disruptors completely disrupt the gut microbiome. And so we want those benefits of using antibiotics. At the same time, we don't want to trade that acute strep throat or that acute ear infection, and we treat that and then trade that for potentially future risk for eczema, asthma, anxiety, autoimmune illnesses. So we need to know how to balance that and. But we need to do that with a functional medicine or root cause, integrative approach.

You touched on so many things, and I already have so many questions in my head, but.

I was like, oh, that was a good one. Okay, let's. Let's first just start with building immunity and resilience year round for our kids. How can we.

Support our kids immune function so that they are not getting sick every five seconds from whatever's going around? Because it is the year 2023. And I feel currently, as we're recording, and I feel like in the last year, something has happened where kids are just sick all the time.

Yeah.

And it has been a really hard year. I've had a lot of moms be like, what am I doing wrong? How? Why is my kid not able to handle these sicknesses? And I'm like, girl, I'm right there with you because my kids are going through it too. So what are those things that we can do year round to really support our kids so that we're not, you know, struggling?

Yeah. Well, and, you know, as we record it, it is such a unique time because we're coming out of the pandemic. And for many of our, many of us mamas who have younger kids, you know, kids who are toddlers during the pandemic, kids who are largely sheltered from all of the circulating viruses that they would typically be exposed to in infancy, from being at the park with other kids, going to preschool, you know, going to elementary school in person, kids were not exposed to that early on. And so now immune systems that haven't had a lot of experience were suddenly faced this past winter with rsv, influenza, norovirus, you know, strep throat. I mean, you name it, and it is true. I mean, for some families, it just felt like one after the other, I just getting better, and then I just got another thing. So the first thing we need to understand is taking a step back. And the pandemic has done a disservice.

To many, many parents, and in fact, I will say conventional medicine as well, in that we now have culturally this idea that every single infection is, quote, bad and dangerous that we want to live in a sterile bubble and never, ever, ever get sick. Now, I'm not saying that we want to get really sick, but our immune system, every time it takes a hit, whether it, you know, an infection or an environmental toxin or a psychological stressor, right, all of those things create inflammation. In fact, psychological stress can create even more inflammation than a physiologic stress. But every time we have the tools to be able to overcome those stressors efficiently, our immune system actually learns how to do it even better the next time. And that's a beautiful thing about our immune system. And I love that you said building resilience year round, because resilience does not mean never getting sick. Resilience means that we have this foundation that when we do get sick, we don't look at it as a failure. Oh my gosh, why did my kid get sick? We look at it as, okay, this is an opportunity now to help my child get even stronger for the next time. Now we want our kids to recover quickly, completely. And so that really, it really does start with having a healthy gut microbiome. And many, many of you listening are already using food as medicine. But what's fascinating is that, you know, there particular probiotic strains that have been found to reduce the frequency of colds and flus during the wintertime have been found to reduce the number of missed days from school. And so there may be a place for probiotic supplementation that are, you know, specific strains of probiotics. But in supporting our gut, it's the same thing that we're doing as adults, but we really want to be mindful of it. There is a huge fiber gap in what is recommended and required in children and adults. There's a huge phytonutrient gap, you know, what I call the rainbow gap of the colors that we should be eating. All of these serve our gut. And of course, most kids are not eating fermented foods just yet. And so, you know, fermented foods and fiber have been shown to have so many benefits. We think of them as gut foods, but fermented foods, fiber, these foods and phytonutrients have been found to support healthy focus and attention, healthy mood, healthy skin, healthy immune system. So we can't just think of them as good for our gut. It's because of the intimate connection between the gut immune system connection, the gut brain connection, and our gut everything connection that starting with the gut's really important. And when we think about how else to support the gut, of course there's a diet in the life. I mean, the lifestyle pieces with sleep and exercise we need that. Most kids are chronically sleep deprived. But we can't discount the power of psychological stress resilience to support immune resilience. This is really, really key with the gut brain connection. We know that optimizing the vagus nerve, that information superhighway between the gut and the brain is so important. And it's a two way street of communication. Having stress resilience, having those mindfulness tools, overcoming psychological stress effectively helps support a healthy gut microbiome. And a healthy gut microbiome also supports a healthy stress response. In fact, our gut microbiome is responsible for producing the vast majority of our neurotransmitters, which are not brain chemicals, they're gut chemicals. Right. Our serotonin, which helps us fall asleep and stay relaxed and manage stress, and dopamine, which helps us stay focused and pay attention and stay on task. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that often we think about when we're concerned about add in kids.

You mentioned the probiotic. Okay, so certain strains are actually helpful for helping our kids get over colds and flus and sicknesses faster. So what are those strains and do you recommend. I get this question all the time. Do you recommend that kids, all kids, be on a probiotic daily?

Okay, so great, great questions. There are now when we take probiotics. So I tell folks that, you know, if your gut has been disruptive for whatever reason, you know, there's antibiotics. You know, many, many kids and adults have had antibiotics sometime in the past. You know, even, even while you're pregnant, if you had antibiotics or sinus infection, that does count as antibiotic exposure for your child too. But then there's all of the ultra processed foods and the food additives, colors, the emulsifiers like mono and diglycerides that directly disrupt the gut microbiome too. Yeah, glyphosate, you know, pesticides Roundup in non organic foods was actually patented as an antibiotic. So that directly causes gut disruption as well, something called gut dysbiosis. So just the way that many of us are living and kids are living these days, I mean, almost virtually every day, we have forces that are acting to disrupt a healthy gut microbiome. So, you know, would kids benefit from a daily probiotic? Probably. Right. I would love it if they got it in the form of fermented foods. Because I mean, fermented foods pack so much more than a probiotic punch. They also have something called postbiotics, which are the product of the probiotic eating fiber to create these amazing beneficial compounds like butyrate. Now, if your gut has been disrupted, like I would say most of us have right now.

It'S not just a matter of taking a probiotic. You know, taking a probiotic and thinking that you're going to recede and repopulate a healthy gut microbiome is like, you know, is like thinking they're like Jack's magic beans, right? That you can just throw them on the ground and poof, all of a sudden you have this amazing beanstalk, right? Doesn't work that way. Think about, you know, planting seeds in your garden. For a tomato plant, you have to have the right soil with the right nutrients. You have to feed that soil with the right vitamins and the right complement of bacteria and yeast that nourish the soil. And then you need to give it the right amount of sunshine and water and love. You can talk to your tomato plants. So all of that creates the healthiest, juiciest, reddest tomato plant possible. Same thing with your gut. It's not just microbiome is. Your microbiome is an ecosystem, right? The microbiota are the probiotics that live in your gut. Hopefully not. Not just the bad ones, but you need to feed those probiotics with good fiber, right? Prebiotics, which can be from food. There are some amazing prebiotics that now are on the market available. I am just in love with this, you know, hmo. Human milk oligosaccharides. They're found in breast milk. These are the prebiotics that make breast milk so nourishing. But now there are human milk oligosaccharide analogs that are found in some prebiotics and then.

Postbiotics, I mean, there are some. We want to increase butyrate levels. There are some postbiotics that you can put in, but then which probiotic, right? There are a gazillion, gazillion different kinds of probiotics out there. There are trillions of bacteria in our gut, and it doesn't make sense to choose a probiotic that's just one or two strains. We want to have multiple strains in a daily probiotic, something called, I call it broad spectrum probiotic. And best yet, if you're looking for a specific outcome, you want to use the specific strain that supports the outcome that you want. So, for instance, we know that, let's say, you know, Lactobacillus acidophilus in general, right? Can help with Immune support. Great. There's many, many different strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus. The one strain that was sending kids to reduce colds and flus and reduce misses of school was Lactobacillus acidophilus ncfm. So you know, I'm putting together, you know, in my book that's coming out next year of all these different strains are in. I'm on the hunt for the perfect probiotic for kids. But guess what? There's not one perfect probiotic. Right. Because there's not one, one perfect match for what you want for your kids. But getting a broad spectrum and then looking for for instance the immune probiotic I mentioned, if you look at their. We have an immune probiotic that has the two strains that were studied in this particular study for kids. There's also another spore based probiotic called bacillus subtilis de 111 that also I'm really interested in bringing into the healthy kids happy kids line because that also is good studies for kids supporting immune function. And then there are specific strains that are called psychobiotics meaning that they help produce optimal levels of serotonin and dopamine and other neurotransmitters in our gut. So if you have a kid who has anxiety or attention and focus issues or sleep issues, you bet I'm going to want to look for a probiotic that has a psychobiotics in it and that might be looking for a more specific specific probiotic. And there are many different psychobiotic strains. And so it's just doing a little bit of research and honestly there's not a lot of great probiotics out there on the market specifically for kids, which is that, I mean that, that's my mission right now in life is to really.

Figure out how to support gut microbiomes in kids optimally. And most often supplements are needed. And so that, that is my, my quest right now because I really, you know, if we can optimize kids gut microbiomes, we will have a much healthier world overall.

Okay, I'm gonna go back and listen re listen to this and type up the notes so they'll be in the show notes of the strain names. If you're like I have no idea what you just said. And then on your website you have a probiotic right now that's specifically immune supportive for kids.

Yes, it's called the immune probiotic chewable capsule and it has the two strains that were in the study. I'm all about what was studied in infants and children because gut microbiomes are different for kids than they are for adults. Now once your kids reach about three years of age, three and a half years of age, your child's gut microbiome takes on a nutrition, adult like pattern. So yes, they can have, they can take very similar probiotics as an adult. For kids under 2, you really want to have a more infant specific probiotic for them. And you know, ideally we have evidence based strains that have been studied specifically in kids. So there's some evidence out there. Kids get, you know, they're on the kind of the bottom of the barrel for research priorities under unfortunately. But there is some good research out.

There for fermented foods like a plain yogurt, like a Greek yogurt. Does that count? Does kombucha count?

Yeah, it does count. I mean, there's lots of different fermented foods and just like, you know, with probiotic strains, it's good to have some variety in there. It's, it's ideal to have a variety of different fermented foods because they, they will have different fermented, different probiotic strains in, in each kind of fermented food, there are going to be different kinds of postbiotics. But there's miso, there's kombucha, there's kefir, there's yogurt. If your kids are sensitive to dairy, which a lot of kids are, if they have any kind of persistent health concern, then there's cashew yogurts that are out there. There's coconut yogurt, almond yogurts. I mean, there's different yogurts that you can get.

You know, sauerkraut pickles. Now with pickles, I just want a little sidebar. Not all pickles are fermented, okay? Pickle. I mean, there are pickles that are pickled. A pickled pickle is one that you add vinegar to it to kill all the bacteria and preserve it longer. Which. Great, right. We don't necessarily want bad bacteria in there, but pickles, pickled pickles with vinegar. If you turn around, the label says pickles, you know, cucumbers and vinegar and water and spices. There's no probiotics in there, so you need to look for a lack of fermented pickle. And what you'll see then when you turn around the label, you'll see cucumbers, water, salt and maybe some herbs and spices. Okay, so those are fermented pickles. And there are a few brands out there that you can, you can pretty easily find Now.

Hot mom Tip or quick mom tip? Not a hot mom tip. Quick mom tip for you. I have. I always mix my yogurts because my kids don't like the plain Greek yogurt. So I mix it with a coconut yogurt that's like naturally, you know, got some other nice vanilla or something in it. And then we also do watermelon kombucha. And I typically have them drink that as like a night cap, even though it's, you know, I know it's tea, but I have them drink just like an ounce at night. And I'll usually mix in some sort of powder, like vitamin C, the whole foods vitamin C powder. That's like a little tangy. I'll mix that in there so that it gets some of that too.

I'd love it. You know, kombucha, you can easily. It's actually fairly easy to make kombucha too. And it is so fun. I mean that's one of the most fun things I did. I taught like a six week gut health and you class for, for my kids third and fourth grade class. And part of that was, I mean we, they learned all about the buddies in their gut and how to nourish them. And we made fermented foods, we made sauerkraut. But the most fun thing was making the kombucha with the scoby.

And yeah, it's, it's fun.

I encourage you guys. If you haven't done it, it's really not as daunting as it sounds. And I'm not, I mean, I'm not a diy, you know, kind of person, you know, that is, I, I'm not artsy. I don't have that, that in me. But kombucha I can do.

Love it. If you want free electrolytes, I have plenty for you, so stick with me. If you are active and follow a whole foods diet, you likely need to replace your A electrolytes. This is because we lose them when we sweat and go to the bathroom. And they have to be replaced through diet and supplementation. And when you are dehydrated, you need more than just water. Your body also needs minerals. Water absorption in your cells is dependent upon electrolytes like sodium, magnesium and potassium. In fact, during strenuous activity, you can lose between 400 and 1200 milligrams of sodium per per hour. And kids lose electrolytes too. Deficiencies can show up as dizziness, muscle cramps, headache, fatigue and sleep disturbances. One of my favorite ways to replenish minerals is with Element. I started supplementing with Element after workouts and it made a huge difference in my energy and the dizziness I used to experience. I even drink a pack on non workout days. Now when I'm feeling rundown, which is often Element makes grab and go electrolyte replacement with no sugar, gluten fillers or artificial ingredients. You just tear open a pack, pour and stir into water. I have now actually been mixing up half a packet for my kids when they're playing outside on hot days and when my daughter is at her gymnastics team practice. Right now, everyone, including new and current customers can get a free eight pack of Element with every order. Element comes in boxes of 30. There is free shipping on all orders and now, now all orders will get a free eight pack which has all the flavors of Element. To get it, go to drinklmnt.com forward/well fed and make sure to use the code well fed for your free sample eight pack. That's DrinkElementlm nt.com forward/well fed.

Okay, so cold and flu season has arrived. What should we be giving our kids to help support their immune systems? I've seen a lot of herbs, I've seen a lot of like immune fortifier blends where it has echinacea and this and that. You know, we've seen recommendations to give our kids more vitamin C or zinc every day. Should we be doing things, we'll also get to what are we doing when they get sick? But should we be doing things for our healthy kids in terms of supplements once we're, you know, we're in the thick of cold and flu season?

Yes. Yeah. So I mentioned the immune specific supporting probiotics, vitamin D, hands down, I would say that is the supplement that I'm the most regular about during the wintertime that I recommend for virtually all kids. I mean, most kids and adults don't have enough vitamin D. Even if their vitamin D levels are in the, quote, normal range, they're usually on the way low end of normal. And vitamin D, I mean, it's so important. I actually wrote an article titled why all kids need Vitamin D. So vitamin D is really important for a healthy immune response. Right. We don't want too little of an immune response to a cold or flu. We don't want too much of an immune response to a cold or flu and we want rapid recovery. So vitamin D is really important.

I mentioned the probiotics, omega 3s. Right. Most kids are also deficient in omega 3 fatty acids which are found in fatty fish and fish oils in fact, the omega 3 index, really, you know how the, the relative quantities of various omegas in your blood has been correlated with worse or better outcomes, even with COVID or other viruses. So fish oils, probiotics and vitamin D are sort of my foundational supplements. And then depending on what's going on, or if you have a kid who really maybe needs a little bit more support, they've just gotten over a cold and you're like, oh my gosh, there's now there's RSV going around in school. How can I even up level a little bit more? That's when I would add more. Zinc has been really shown to help with reduce risks of colds and flus. But extra vitamin C and glutathione is one of my favorite supplements too. Glutathione can be safely given to kids. It's a natural compound that is made in our body and it's called our master antioxidant. We can enhance glutathione with foods, all those sulfury, stinky foods like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts. We can also enhance glutathione levels with Epsom salt baths, which are also very safe to do in babies and toddlers and children. Epsom glutathione is a sulfur containing compound, which is why it's a little stinky. It kind of smells a little like rotten eggs, which is why the vegetables that support glutathione also kind of can get a little stinky. But Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate. So when you sit and relax in an Epsom salt bath, your pores are wide open. It's our, one of our, it's our largest organ. We absorb everything through our skin so that the magnesium sulfate is absorbed. A couple of things that that does. Magnesium is also usually needed for many, many kids and adults. Helps us relax, helps us sleep, helps with muscle cramps, helps with headaches. And then that sulfate helps us make more glutathione. And the reason why glutathione is really important is one thing for parents to understand is when you or your child get sick with a virus or any infection, it is not the bug that is making you feel sick, right? It infected you, but it's your own immune response that makes you have symptoms and feel sick, right? So when you look at our family, same cold viruses going around, you know, maybe, maybe your son is laid out on the couch, you know, high fever, feeling miserable, runny nose, snotty, congested. Your daughter is like nothing, right? But she, she's a tiny little sniffle. Right? You have a scratchy throat and maybe, you know, plugged ears, and your husband maybe has a fever and body aches. Right. It's the very same virus. Why would you have different symptoms? Right. And why would one have milder symptoms, one more serious? Well, when we. When we get sick, our body produces food free radicals, and something creates something called oxidative stress. The faster we can mop up those free radicals with antioxidants, the milder the symptoms, the faster we get better. And so when we're feeling really sick, those antioxidants like glutathione are really, really important.

Interesting. Okay. I love the Epsom salt bath tip because it's so easy to just add it to your kid's bath at night. I find it to be something that's really helpful. Like when my kid is dysregulated, I'm like, we're taking a bath. You're just going to get in the bath and I'm putting up some salt. Like, I don't care. It's. If it's three in the afternoon, absolutely. You need to chill.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I love that tip. Omega threes. This is actually something that I have been on top of, that's been on top of my mind lately, because you mentioned it. I saw it on Instagram and I was like, wow, my kids don't eat fish. I have very.

I don't want to, like, project this on her, so I don't ever say, like, oh, you're so picky, or whatever. But she just. She's particular about her food and textures, and she does not. She will not go near a fish, even though she used to eat fish eggs and fish and stuff when she was a baby. So that's something that I know they're not getting in their diet. You some. One of the questions, actually, that we got, Dr. Song, was like, hey, can you ask her to do her omega 3 fatty acid discount again? Because I didn't get to get it when she did, and I knew exactly what she was talking about. But the one with. The one that you have on your website, I know some moms like to use cod liver oil. However, there's a lot of Junky Omega 3 fatty acid supplements on the market because it's a very unstable fat and it's hard to get from quality sources because fish are just so raised. Not in the best way. So what is the one that you have on your website?

Yeah, so it is. It's called Omega 3 Synergy. It's it's a liquid form. I will, I will say, and this is not, it's not because it's my brand, but I, I mean I have tried many, many, many, many official oil and my kids have tried many, many, many fish oil. And this one is really the least vicious. I mean, I don't even taste any fish in it. And it has, I mean, to me it almost is like a cherry flavor, but my kids pick up orange flavor in it. But it has three different omega 3s in it, which a lot of supplements only have two different omega 3s. So this has EPA and DHA, which are found in most fish oils. And then it has dpa, which is, it's sort of the little stepsister, I guess. Right. But it's now becoming recognized as an important omega 3 for overall health. So three omegas, and they're in what's called a triglyceride form because some fish oils, when they're extracted in a certain way, they're not as easily absorbable. And so this is in the triglyceride form which is much more easily absorbable.

We keep it in a liquid just because the capsules, if you want the dose, for instance, if you have any, let's say eczema going on or.

Anxiety or attention and focus concerns going on, we might dose it higher than what's indicated on the bottle. And so if you're taking fish oil pills, it gets to be a lot of pills, so it's just easier dosage. Now there are other forms for kids to try that might be also acceptable. Nordic naturals and Barleens, they have a swirl form. It's almost like not an Orange Julius. That's a custardy kind of consistency. And they're really good. I mean they come in lemon or.

Mango is actually my kids favorite. So there's different ones that you can try. You just have to take more of it because that custard form takes space. And so instead of a teaspoon, it might be a tablespoon or two tablespoons.

Got it. Okay. The inevitable happens. Our kids get sick. Usually it's one kid getting sick, then the next one getting sick, and then you wait a few weeks and it happens all over again. The moment that we start, like first signs of sickness. What can we do to help? Because I'm always like, is this it? Are we feeling something like, you know, your kids start sneezing and you're like, here it is. What do I get? Like go. You know, and you start, you start picking up and you're going to the cabinet and you're getting all the things, and all of a sudden your kids getting, you know, homeopathics, vitamin C, you know, you're shooting everything at it because you don't want it to progress.

Yeah.

And I've learned from you. I did the homeopathics. I've, you know, I have all the things now I have different things that I do. So what is it that you do and you recommend? Like, your kid gets sick, what are the first things that you're giving them? And what do you recommend in general that moms do to help our kids get over it faster?

Yeah. Well, and so to your point, what is so important is the sooner you start with natural medicines, the faster your kids are going to nip whatever's going on in the bud. Right? And this is something that if we're used to a more conventional pediatric approach, we have to relearn. Because in conventional pediatrics, if your kids have sniffles, cough, fever, and you call your pediatrician's office more often than not, you'll be told, okay, well, you know, just keep them hydrated, give them a little Tylenol if they have a fever, you know, maybe some, you know, Dextromethorphan if they have a cough. And then let's just wait and watch and see. And if they still have a fever on day five, then come back because maybe it's bacterial and now they need antibiotics. Right? So it's a, you know, waiting and watching approach. But there's not much conventional medicine can offer that is, is actually going to do anything to help your kids fight that infection.

Right.

It's called, quote, supportive care. Right. Is the mainstay of viral illnesses until things get worse. Right. And so we don't want to do that. Now if your kids get sick and you can start immediately, I mean, like your mama spidey senses going off and you're like, okay. They have that glassy eyed look and cheeks are low red and you're like, something's going on. I mean, I dose my kids right then and I, you know, and oftentimes by the next morning, they're totally fine. Or maybe they have a little tiny, you know, runny nose and then they're done. Right? So I always start with a vial of homeopathic oscillococcinum. Okay? This, if you go to whole Foods, you will find it during cold and flu season. It's, it's at the register. It's oscillococcinum. It's a homeopathic flu remedy. It is good for any viral illness and it can really help, help speed the, the resolution. So in that moment, I'll do one vial. Also coccineum. Okay. I will taste.

They taste great, by the way. My daughter, My daughter loves them. Like, I just stick it right down her tongue and I'm like, don't chew it, don't chew it. And she's like, I'm fine, I'm good. Like, that's the one, the easiest thing to give.

Yeah, absolutely. As far as supplements go, if you haven't, you know, I give them. If you have been giving vitamins regularly, give them an extra dose. If you haven't, give them some vitamin D. I'll give some vitamin C and zinc at that time. Right. Just to kind of give their immune system a little boost. And then I give them a dose of something called an herb called Pelargonium sidoides. Okay, Long word, but you'll find it on our, on our store. It's called V Clear. Okay. Like virus clear, V Clear. It's also easily found at, you know, cvs, Walgreens, Whole Foods, as Oomka U M C K A Umka Cold Care Cherry Syrup. Now, it says on there, I think, you know, not for use under or ask your doctor if your kids are under six. I mean, I've used it for infants and for, and for toddlers just at lower dosages. But this herb in there, Pelargonium pseudoides. The research is fascinating. It's found to have activity against many different kinds of common cold viruses like adenoviruses or rhinoviruses. It has activity against certain human coronaviruses. Not going to say that it has activity against SARS COV2, but there is some speculation, right? Activity against RSV. Activity against Coxsackie, which is a hand, foot and mouth causing virus. Activity against different herpes viruses. I mean, amazing, Amazing. And even against some bacteria, including possibly the bacteria that causes stress. Right. Strep pyogenes. So when your kids are starting to get sick, you have no idea what they're going to get sick with. It's probably a virus, but there's a gazillion viruses circulating. So that's my go to a spoonful of pelargonium sedoities. And then depending on what's going on, if they're starting to get a little fever.

I do use acupuncture on my kids, but you can use acupressure. And there's one point called large intestine 4, which is in that web Space between your thumb and your index finger. You can easily, I think on.

Wiki know how is that what it's called? Wiki how. There's a diagram showing where large intestine 4 is. But you just push firmly. You can make little circles or just hold pressure. On large intestine 4. That is a space that's shown to reduce fevers, help with congestion, help with headaches. And then also, I mean, better yet, you can rub some lavender essential oil into that point because lavender has also been shown to reduce inflammation and help support fevers and headaches and of course anxiety too. Because when you're starting to feel sick, I mean your kid, and you can start to feel anxious. Right? So those are sort of my like immediate go tos and then I kind of see what's going on to see what my next steps should be the next day. And hopefully things are, are either much better or gone.

What do you think about. There are a few drop herb blends that I've experimented with. Gaia herbs had something that was called immune defense and it was like a first signs thing they still have or it's quick defense. So it was like a just a western herbs blend of echinacea and reishi and a few things. And then there's also pretty popular like I'm sure you've heard of like Gentle Warriors. It's called Windbreaker. It's like a, an Asian herb blend. Right. Of just some like, you know, we have the Chinese, we have the western.

Absolutely.

Different herb blends. You kind of. My functional doctor was like, you know, just pick, pick the one you want, pick the, pick which herb blend you want and, and see if that helps. Do you find that that helps or is that, you know, is that for maybe just specific symptoms?

No, I, I'm so glad you brought that up because the reason I mentioned Umca pelargonium is because it's so. It's very tasty and you know, most kids have no problem taking it. But honestly, I mean, what, what I also do for my own kids, I love, love, love the Con Herbs Gentle Warriors Chinese herbal line. And that's what I also use. You know, for many of my patients in the practice, they grew up with Windbreaker. My kids grew up with Windbreaker. Windbreaker. The reason why it's called Windbreaker, which is kind of a funny term, is because in Chinese medicine, when you have a viral infection or a fever, the. In Chinese medicine, you've been attacked by the wind. Okay. And so you're breaking that wind, which Is we have a different connotation for that in, in the English language. But with Windbreaker, it is so amazing. So we carry, I mean, I'll tell you when we travel now on vacation or wherever we are, I mean, I would duffel bag just with supplements, just in case, right? Because the worst thing in the world is to be somewhere else out of your home and you start to get sick and then your whole vacation's ruined and you don't have anything to help you. So I always carry them and knock on wood. I mean, it's rare that we get sick on our trips, but you know, when you don't have it is when you're going to need it. So we carry our RV clear with us and we bring with us and an eight ounce bottle of Windbreaker. Okay, big bottle, right. Just in case. Windbreaker is amazing. And that too at the first sign of illness, if you can, you know, give your kids a dose of Windbreaker or adults can take Windbreaker too. It's not just for kids. It's very, very helpful. Now there are like, Gaia has combination herbs. There's Wish Garden, I think has an immune formula. I think all of those are great. And you know, like your doc told you, it really is finding the one that first, your kids will take, right. And second, the one that you find through experience works for you because everyone's different. You know, Pelargonium and Windbreaker really are my family's go to's and the ones that I recommend for my patients. But yeah, Gaia is a very, very reputable herbal company. And so now some families ask me, well, should we take, you know, echinacea or elderberry all winter long? I don't usually do that. I might do it maybe, you know, if you, if you wanted to do that, I might do once a week or twice a week to give your immune system a little boost or if there's a known exposure, right. Your, your kid comes home and they're like, oh, I was sitting next to Johnny and they were coughing and sneezing on me all, you know, all class long that then you can give them some. But, but I would reserve those herbs not for, not for daily use, but really kind of when needed after exposures or when your kids are sick.

And Windbreaker, just as a personal question, you're giving that like a dose because it tells you the dose to use depending on the size of your kid. You're giving a dose two to three times a day during, like throughout the sickness.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, The, The. The V clear or Umka and the windbreaker I'm doing at least three times a day. You know, while kids are sick.

Talk fevers.

This is the thing we all hate to deal with. And the conventional approach to fevers, let's be honest, is very different than the holistic view of fevers. You said you typically, your kid gets sick, you call the doctor and what are they telling you? Take Tylenol, reduce the fever. Talk to me about how we can feel empowered, how we can feel calm and confident to let our kids take the fever on and ride it out. If it's the right decision for you or how do we know? Okay, this is the time we give a fever reducer and our child needs medication. Like, what, what are, what are the pros and cons?

So, you know, I think that the, the most important thing is to arm yourself with. With knowledge. Right. You know, fear comes about when we have uncertainty and doubt. And so it's really understanding the. The facts about fever. And in fact, the first ebook that I wrote, which I'll give you the link, it's called the top mistakes parents make when their kids have a fever and what you can do instead, because it's so important to understand the facts. The one thing that is rampant, not just among parents and grandparents, but among doctors, nurses, practitioners, is fever phobia. We have learned to become afraid of fever. And if you were to bring your child to urgent care, to the emergency room, and they have a fever, I guarantee you, most of the time what happens is before any doctor lays an eye on your child.

The triage nurse will give your child a dose of Tylenol. Doesn't matter what your child looks like, doesn't matter how they're acting. They just give the Tylenol. And so we want to understand several facts about fever. One of the most important facts to understand is that fever is your body's natural response to fighting something. And it's a very helpful response. In fact, reducing fever artificially with things like Tylenol, Motrin have been found to keep your child sicker for longer. Right. And prolong viral shedding in certain viral illnesses like chickenpox, or even increase the amount of viral shedding of the cold or flu virus from your nose. What does that mean? Keeps your kid sicker for longer, makes it more contagious. Right. The trade off is maybe they feel better temporarily. Right. But here's the thing. When we're sick, there is something that our body does called, quote, sickness behavior. It is our body's response that we need to slow it down, right? We need to lay on the couch, we need to feel, feel grumpy, be irritable, whatever it is, right? Maybe we don't want to drink too much. But that sickness behavior is telling your body, hey look, you need to just slow down and rest to get well. What parents? A lot of parents want the goal for them when they reduce fevers is for their kids to feel, quote, normal, right? To bring the temperature down to normal, have them run around, they're back to their normal self, they're jumping on the trampoline, you know, they want to have that donut. They want to. No, I don't want them acting, quote, normal. I don't want them acting super sick, but I want them to be couch potatoes, right? So fever is very helpful in supporting your child to fight the infection in the way that your body is meant to. The other thing that parents. The biggest question I get from parents is, isn't fever dangerous? I mean, can't it get too high? What if it causes brain damage? Or what if, you know, don't we have to give Tylenol or Motrin to prevent febrile seizures? Now in a child who doesn't have a brain problem, right, A neurologic problem or isn't over bundled so that they can sweat when they have a fever, there really is, I mean, it's virtually impossible for the fever to get, quote, too high. The height of the fever in order to get brain damage really needs to be over 107.6. I believe it is. That is true hyperpyrexia. Now your brain has a hypothalamus, an internal thermostat that as soon as your fever gets to a certain point, there are mechanisms to keep it under that quote, dangerous level. And unfortunately, when it comes to febrile seizures, there's no study that has been shown to prove that giving Tylenol or Motrin can prevent your child from having a febrile seizure. Unless, I mean, one study found that if your kid already had a seizure during that one fever episode, that maybe in that illness that, that current illness giving Tylenol motor might prevent it. Now I'm going to step back and say seizures when your kids have a fever. Super super scary. I mean my twin sister had them when, when we were babies. Fortunately, they're self limited meaning, you know, they, they typically occur, you know, in that young infancy stage. Kids grow out of them and they do not lead to later brain problems, later developmental problems, later, later seizure disorders. So when we understand that fever can have benefits, reducing fever artificially can have some harm, right? Then we want to think, well, all right, what if my kid's miserable? Right? When do I give fever reducers? It is not to reduce the fever. It is to help kids feel comfortable enough so that they can sleep well, because that's really important for healing and that they can drink enough to stay hydrated. Okay? So it's really more for that comfort. So bringing that fever down to a level where your kids can be comfortable, but not necessarily good enough to run around the yard and drink well enough.

Did you know that stress can actually deplete minerals, including magnesium? Many people understand that magnesium helps sleep, but the body needs magnesium for so much more than that, including supporting the stress response. Response. So when you're chronically stressed, you burn through magnesium, which can leave you in a deficiency. Magnesium is involved in 80% of the body's metabolic reactions and more than 50% of adults and kids are deficient, especially women, because pregnancy also depletes magnesium stores. One critical thing you can do today to support your adrenals, hormones and mental health is to take a magnesium supplement like Magnesium Breakthrough. By supplementing with Magnesium Breakthrough, you can break that cycle. It has seven unique forms of full spectrum magnesium for stress relief and better sleep, all in one bottle. For our exclusive offer, go to MagBreakthrough. That's M A G B R E a k t h r o u g h.com wellfed10 and use code wellfed10 to save 10%. When you try Magnesium Breakthrough for any reason you don't love it, you can get a full refund for up to one year after your purchase, no questions asked. Again, that's magbreakthrough.com forward/wellfed10 and use code well Fed10 to get your exclusive 10% discount.

I love that. And since I'm so glad that I heard that advice from you early on, because I don't think I've ever called the doctor for a fever, even through the, I don't know, 50 plus that we've had in the last two years. Yeah, it's never gotten to the point where I feel like I need medical attention because of the things that you've taught. And I also have, I have used fever reducers. I have used, you know, ibuprofen in the, in a, in a handful of times. And it was usually right before bed to help them sleep really well. And it, it does the job. It worked. It ended up, you know, working when it needs to work it works beautifully.

I want to know from you before we jump into some listener questions and we'll touch on a few other few other topics quickly. There's a lot of chatter about Tylenol's effect on our detoxification processes. Is that something we should be concerned about or is that evidence based?

So, yes, there are some concerns there.

And I'm not saying that there's nothing you can do for your kids fevers, you know, besides waiting and watching and just, you know, until they're really uncomfortable. I mean, there are so many natural medicines that can help with fever. There's homeopathy, there's, there's acupressure points. Even these herbs like Windbreaker will really help with fevers, too. But the difference is that it's not. These natural medicines aren't suppressing the fever. What they're doing is helping your body do what it's trying to do with this infection more efficiently. So helping, helping your body compress the time that they're ill and supporting them to get better faster. So.

With Tylenol, Tylenol maybe, which is acetaminophen or paracetamol, in other countries, Tylenol may be especially problematic because Tylenol specifically depletes glutathione. Right. Remember, we just spoke about glutathione, which is our master antioxidant. So if you use Tylenol, I would recommend give a little extra glutathione as a supplement. Take an Epsom salt bath so that you can get the fever reducing benefits if you need that, without depleting glutathione, which is going to then make it harder for your kid to fight that infection. Now, I used to give ibuprofen more of a free pass. That's motion or Advil. But one of the studies that I looked at recently compared lots of different medications and to see their effect on your gut microbiome. We know that antibiotics are the single biggest disruptor, right? Because antibiotics don't care which bacteria they kill. They'll kill the good stuff right along with the bad stuff. But ibuprofen was found in this one particular study to disrupt the gut microbiome as much as some antibiotics. And so if you're going to give ibuprofen, I also would recommend, you know, make sure that you're, if your kids like fermented foods, give that, make sure that, you know, you give a probiotic while your kids are sick and taking the ibuprofen. So that way we, again, we can have the benefits Also Know, from an integrative standpoint, what are some of the unintended unwanted consequences and how do we mop that up?

Okay, I'm going to do it. So the antibiotic question, okay, we, it's over prescribed. We're prescribing it for everything.

Ear infections, strep. Are there times when we, like, how do we know, how do we know when this is a time where we give the antibiotic versus let's wait and see. Because ear infections are a big reason that so many kids go through so many rounds of antibiotics. Should we be giving our kids antibiotics in all of these cases?

Well, so, you know, like I said at the very beginning, integrated pediatrics means that we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. That, you know, we acknowledge that antibiotics absolutely have a time and a place. And when antibiotics are needed, what I tell, you know, my, my patients and you know, the mamas who follow me, when they're necessary, you give them, you complete the course and you give them confidently. Right. Knowing that we have the tools to mop up your child's gut microbiome. Right. Because, you know, when you're on this more holistic journey, there's a tendency in the earlier stages, I would say maybe even the later stage, to then not want anything that has to do with conventional medicine, because maybe that is what got your kids into the situation they're in in the first place. Right. But we want to know how to use antibiotics judiciously and understand when they're necessary. But that's keyword. How do you know when they're necessary? Right. If your child has a diagnosed strep throat or they have whooping cough or, you know, a pneumonia. I mean, some pneumonias can be viral, but I do use antibiotics then. Right? Ear infections, that's a kind of ear infections, the vast majority don't need antibiotics. Okay. Even bacterial ones. Okay. I'm going to repeat that. Even ear infections caused by bacteria that don't necessarily need antibiotics, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that waiting and watching approach. You know, waiting for two to three days and then if kids are still. For most kids, Right. For most healthy kids, if they are not improving, then you start the antibiotics. Well, guess what? Now you mamas know, okay? You can, there are many, many natural things you can do in that two or three days while you're waiting and watching to try to avoid the need for those antibiotics. And they work really, really well. In fact, one, one study looked at a group of kids with ear infections given Homeopathy. The group of kids that were given placebo.

Some of the kids in the placebo group did end up needing antibiotics. None in the homeopathy group ended up needing antibiotics. Wow. And garlic ear drops. Amazing, right? Pain, they kill infections. The amazing thing about garlic is that garlic kills viruses and bacteria, which we know a lot of ear infections are actually a combination of viruses and bact. So most urinary tract infections, especially when you're young, I mean, the younger you are, the lower the threshold. I have to treat with antibiotics. If you're a teenager, we might get away with, you know, D mannose and some natural treatments. But again, there is a time and a place for antibiotics. But how do we know, right? That's. That was the initial question. How do we know when they're really necessary? I would really hope that, you know, all. All of you as mamas, have the ability to have an open dialogue with your pediatrician and the ability to ask questions. Because when you ask questions to your doctor about antibiotics, it's not questioning them or their judgment. This is where hopefully that can be really clear. You're not questioning them. You're questioning, hey, does my kid really need this antibiotic? There are a handful of questions that I think are really helpful to ask, whether it's your pediatrician who's prescribing or, you know, if you're in urgent care or the emergency room. So the first question you got to ask it, is this antibiotic really necessary? You have to ask it, right? Not in a combative way, but because research has shown that physicians are much more likely to prescribe an antibiotic if they think that you want a prescription, even if they don't believe that an antibiotic is necessary. Right? So just by you asking, hey, doc, is this really necessary for my kids? You're just opening that dialogue to let them know, you know, you're not one of those parents who are gung ho, just want a prescription and get out the door, right? So just ask it.

Right?

The second question that I would ask is, look, are you prescribing these antibiotics, quote, just in case the infection is bacterial, or do you really know? I mean, is there a way to really know that it's bacteria? Can we do a swab, a culture for strep? Can we do a culture of my child's skin for impetigo? Just to know, to confirm that it's bacterial? Because a lot of times there's a wiggle room as pediatricians, we can't tell just by looking in a child's throat. Is that bacterial or viral? Okay, if, if a doc tells you just by looking, there's pus on the tonsils. Tonsils are bigger, Brennan. I know that. Strep. So here's the amount. Zero way. Zero way. You can tell because Epstein Barr virus, the monovirus, other viruses, can cause a sore throat of pharyngitis that looks identical to strep. The only way to know if it's strep is to do a rapid strep and a throat culture. Okay, third question to ask. Are there any options besides antibiotics that can help my child get better? Now, they may not have other options, right, but they might, they might say, well, yeah, you know, why don't you just go home and, you know, just, you know, maybe give them some warm fluids and some rest and just we can kind of wait and see. Right. And in fact, you know, chicken soup, there are some studies around chicken soup and bone broth that have been found to improve immune response and thin nasal secretions. Right. So that there really is is a medicine to that. The next question to ask is what would happen if I waited to see if my kid got better without antibiotics? Right. Like what, what would be the problem of waiting a day or two or three? Is that okay? Now there are going to be certain times where I will tell you, you know. Yeah, I wouldn't wait. I really think your kid needs us now. Right. But most of the time there is that wiggle room. Right. And in that meantime, you're buying yourself some time to try some natural medicines that could really be effective. Right. And then also ask, okay, if they say no, they really need this antibiotic. Okay, well, if antibiotics are really necessary, what is the shortest course that I could take? Do I really need a 10 day course? Can my kid get away with 5 or 70s? And are we using the most narrow spectrum antibiotic that can work? Right. Narrow structure meaning the least, I don't want to say strong, but the one that really targets the infection that my kid has as opposed to really, really broad antibiotic that's going to kill a ton of different bacteria. So if you have that dialogue, hopefully you'll get some answers that can buy your kids some time and prevent the need for antibiotics. Because again, most of most infections that kids have are going to be viral and that's such a thing for them.

I feel so calm and empowered after you say that. It makes sense. And it feels like, okay, the decision is back in my hands or the parents hands versus feeling like things are happening to you or decisions are being made to you. So I appreciate that. I want to quickly touch on two other topics, and one is these seasonal allergies. We got a lot of questions. Ashley, Liz. And everybody was saying, look, my kid, you know, springtime kid starts getting sniffly. I'm doing some things. Maybe I have my kid, you know, I'm trying to support my kid's diet. Maybe I'm using. Somebody had mentioned they use a nasal spray. They're using manuka honey or a local honey. What else can we do to help with our kids? Help our kids, like, naturally support them get over these seasonal allergies or at least have an easier time with it.

Yeah, so the. I think the mechanical, you know, reducing the pollen on you and in you is really important. So the nasal spray. Yes, nasal irrigation. I had this one kiddo who, you know, was a soccer player, and, you know, he had really, really bad grass and tree allergies. And every time he played or practiced, he would just have this huge allergy attack. And so he told me a trick his mom did. They start putting a vaseline type ointment under and around the nostrils to trap the pollen before it got kind of inhaled into his nose. That made a huge difference. If your kids do have pot, tree grass allergies, and when you're at the park or it's a windy day, then have water wipes or saline wipes in your bag. Have them carry in the backpack, have them wipe down their eyebrows, eyelashes, and even wet down their hair periodically throughout the day so that every time they're shaking their head, they're not shaking pollen down into their eyes and into their noses. So that's one thing, right? Yes. And take your jacket off at the door, Take your shoes off at the door. Change your clothes. You know, if they don't have a jacket on, have your kids change your clothes immediately when they get in, before they hop into bed or on the couch, where now they've just shaken all that pollen off onto where they're laying. Right. And then, you know, we want to think. So there are supplements that I use. The number one supplement is quercetin. Quercetin is a natural mast cell stabilizer. It reduces the release of histamine. And so often I'll layer that in with. If your kids have really bad allergies, I'll use something like a Zyrtec or a Claritin to mop up the histamine that's floating around while I'm using the Quercetin to keep more histamine from being released. And eventually taper off the antihistamine, the Claritin or the Zyrtec. Now, there are lots of foods that are rich in quercetin. You can look, I have an article on, you know, on allergy season. It's like it's a two part article on natural approaches to allergies. And there are some foods that are high in quercetin, like apples with the apple peel on, raw onions, spinach. We want to lower the foods that either trigger histamine release or have a lot of histamine in them. Deli meats, cold cuts, some cheeses, even sometimes fermented foods can be hard to tolerate because they have histamine in them when kids have allergy season. Strawberries. If your kids are eating bushels and bushels of strawberries, those little seeds on the strawberries can trigger histamine release. So cutting back on that. So at a supplement scale, quercetin, vitamin C has been found to reduce histamine release. Zinc has been found to reduce histamine Release. And your omega 3s and probiotics also have been found to support a healthy immune response during allergy season. So these are all, I mean, very. We've spoken about these before, except for quercetin, so that's a new one. And then homeopathics. Homeopathy works best if you can choose one that's really individualized to how your child is experiencing their allergies. Because some kids get really itchy, itchy eyes, some kids get scratchy sore throats. But there's a combination homeopathic pellet called Allergy Calm that has a combination of homeopathic medicines to treat the most common symptoms of allergies. And then that's by Boiron B O I R O M. And then Boron also has Optique eye drops, which are great if you have allergies where your eyes are itchy. WATERY singing so those are a great combination and definitely ones to consider adding on if you haven't already. Because this is a doozy of an allergy season. I mean, here in California, when with all the rains that we've had and I'm just so ready to be moving on to the spring and the summer. However, with those rains, we have what's called a super bloom year, which is, I mean, just masses and masses of wildflowers growing everywhere. Gorgeous. In fact, yesterday I saw a satellite picture where they could see the super blooms. These wildflowers fracture from space. I mean, it's gorgeous, right? Purple and yellow and orange. But for allergy Sufferers is not so great. Right?

Yeah. Okay. Quercetin. I take a couple cab and taking a. I don't get allergies, and I'm like, I'm taking the quercetin because I've been feeling in the back of my throat because it's just felt so thick for kids. Are we adding that? Do you have something on your website that's specifically for, like, a dose for kids, or are we just kind of taking. Okay, I do.

I do. So I have a chewable quercetin energy that. And I give it to all the supplements. When you buy the first, we have a handy, like, little cheat sheet with all the dosages suggested for kids. Because a lot of times it says, you know, ask your. Ask your physician, but your physician might not know. So we have the doses, but the quercetin synergy is great because it has quercetin, it has vitamin C, it has bromelain, which is an enzyme that can help break up mucus. This as well.

Okay. I'm looking at all these questions, and I want to summarize it, basically. So I have a lot of questions about attention and focus for kids. Lindsay asks a really great question, which is, how do we tell the difference between behavioral difficulties that can be worked on through good parenting and therapy and just, you know, being a child in the modern world? That's my addition there. Or their behavioral difficulties that are actually caused by toxic overload or oxidative stress or these underlying chronic health issues that aren't necessarily easily changeable until that health condition improves.

It's a complicated question.

Yeah. So here's the thing. You can't really know until you try. Right.

When kids are having behavioral concerns, sensory concerns, whatever concerns you're going through, I do think that.

Traditional therapies can be really helpful. I mean, they're very important, whether it's working with a parent, coach or working with an occupational therapist, or working with the behaviors, depending on what's going on. When you're not making progress with those, though, right? If you're kind of stuck and you're like, well, my kid's not progressing, that's when we want to think, is there something else that could be going on? Right. Is there mold exposure? Are there maybe infections that are causing this? Could it be a nutritional deficiency issue? The other thing that I look at is the timeline. Did your kid go from being a calm, mellow, happy kid all of a sudden? Anxious, OCD tics, you know, tantrums? If there's a point in time where you're like, wow, something's changed then. I do want to dig in. What happened? Was there a water spill in the laundry? Did your kid get strep throat? Now they have something called pandas. Was there a huge psychological stressor that maybe affected how their gut brain connection is working? So it just, I mean, that requires really looking to the history a little more. But I would say, you know, big tip off again, sudden change, or doesn't have to be sudden, but a change, right, that, that, you know, you might have chalked it up to, oh, well, baby sister was born or well, they started a new kindergarten. Kindergarten, or you know, we're getting a divorce. I mean, whatever. I mean, yes, those things can disrupt your child. It can rock your child's world. But, but it shouldn't then be long lasting, right? You might be thinking it's just a phase, it's just a phase. Well, a year later, two years later, it's not just a phase. Right. So. And then also if whatever you're trying is really not helping and you know, other people are saying, well, it should, right?

Yeah, yeah. Focus and attention will round out with that. Because I feel like this is a really hard question in our modern world, which is how do we help our kids improve their focus and attention both with, you know, because a lot of people said my daughter gets easily distracted, my daughter cannot stay focused in school, my son is struggling in school. Are there things, supplements, nutrient deficiencies we should be looking into specifically for that? Let's, you know, put aside the whole they're in school all day and that may be too long. And like our system is set up in a way that unfortunately our kids aren't playing in all the things, you know, you know, there's, there's ways we can work on that, I'm sure at home. But also like, are there nutrient deficiencies? Are there things that we can give our kids to help improve their focus? Like here and now or in the short term?

Yeah, 100%. So we always want to go back to food as medicine. And by the same token, food can also not be medicine and can be really harmful. So you know, when your kids are having focus and attention concerns, the number and your mamas, the mamas listening. Right now you're not in the typical boat of kids eating ultra processed foods. But for kids who have attention and focus issues, Those artificial colors, Red 40, Blue, Lake 6, whatever it is, artificial dyes and preservatives and food additives are literally poison for your kids brains. Some studies have shown that one in three kids with ADD could be improved, you know, if they just take out the artificial dyes. So really moving away from those ultra processed foods is very important. And then just watch. I mean, your kids are really clean, but then at the soccer game, they have a blue, you know, fluorescent blue Gatorade, and they are, you know, just a different kid. Like yelling, screaming, can't focus, you know, for that day or the next day. I mean, it's the dyes in there. We want to watch a sugar roller coaster. So. So breakfast has to be really well balanced. Healthy proteins, healthy fats, okay? So if your kids are eating cereal or maybe a blueberry muffin that you got at Costco, look. Or even that yummy strawberry Greek yogurt that you bought for them. Look at the label. I did this inadvertently with my kids where I thought, oh, vanilla Greek yogurt, great protein probiotics. Turned around the label one day, right? And I'm like, oh, my gosh. It was like 31 grams of sugar in a serving, right? So there. I mean, it is shocking, you know, even like, Dave's not. It's not Dave's Killer bread, but it's something similar. I looked. One slice of bread had 5 grams of sugar. That's a teaspoon of sugar. Bread doesn't need that, right? So just look. Because you may inadvertently in the morning, if you're giving your kids a glass of orange juice, that. That. That's liquid sugar, right? So cut out the juice if you are. If you're doing, you know, muffin, anything out of the package, just look to see how much added sugar there is. Because if you start your day, your kid's day, with a load of sugar, their insulin, which is trying to keep their blood sugar under control, can often overshoot, have their blood sugar come crashing down. And they're wiggling, not focused, and, you know, having a really hard time right before lunch, you pack them maybe an apple sauce squeezy, and then maybe a couple crackers and whatever, then they get another little sugar load. They're okay, you know, for a little bit, and then they're wiggly, screaming, you know, can't focus by the end of the day, then you're ready with them, ready for that food in your car, you know, okay, your kids are on a sugar roller coaster. If you are the parent who does not leave anywhere without a snack, and you're terrified when you don't have a bar or something in your bag, right? Which, I mean, used to be my kids, right? I'd be like, oh, my gosh I don't have food. Right. Because. Because those are the kids. When they're hangry, they are angry and it's because of the sugar low. So that's really important. Now in terms of nutritional deficiencies, yes. Kids with attention and focus issues have been found to have more commonly have lower levels of iron and magnesium. In fact, the most common deficiencies in children are vitamin D, zinc, magnesium and iron. And so optimizing all of those, if you have the opportunity to get blood work done, I would check because it can be shocking how much kids might need to optimize their levels. Kids with attention and focus issues, absolutely. You know, try to get in those omega 3s. Find a way to do it. Okay. Omega 3s, your, your brain.

I think, you know, like 60% maybe of all the cholesterol in our body is in our brain. The primary fatty acid found in your brain is, is DHA docohexaenoic acid found in omega 3 fatty acid, fish oils and breast milk. And then also there are certain probiotics or psychobiotics that can help to enhance dopamine levels that help with focus and attention. And there's one herb, a great antioxidant, a phytonutrient called Pycnogenol, P Y C N O G E N O L Pycnogenol, that is from pine bark extract that has some really good studies on it for supporting healthy focus and attention. So there's so much we can do, guys, for focus and attention. Whether or not your kid is outright diagnosed with add, it doesn't matter. We just want to support optimal focus and attention. So this is just kind of the tip of the iceberg. But some really, you know, good things to get you guys started.

Do you have psychobiotics on your website?

Not yet. Those are, you know, actually we might. So Klair Labs, K L A I R E Claire Labs. They have a probiotic powder. It's called Target gbx. So Gut Brain access Target gbx. It comes in a individual serving size powders and I do give those to kids as well. And those, those specifically have psycho. Psycho. I mean they're many psychobiotics, but they have certain psychobiotics that can help with healthy serotonin dopamine levels. So yes, that's OBI want to try for sure.

Thank you, Dr. Song, for all of your knowledge and wisdom. I know you stayed late with us to really dive into again, give you the queen of comprehensive answers. I feel so much more empowered and I feel like so many moms are listening and dads hopefully do, too. So thank you so much for being here. And we'll link to all of your links in the show notes. Healthy kids, happy kids dot com. You've got an amazing I cannot wait for your book you're coming back on when you're doing your book tour stuff. I, I, I'm so excited for it.

I'll let you guys know.

That'll be my, my book. I'll have it on my nightstand. And, and you are healthy kids, happy kids on Instagram, is that correct?

That's right.

Okay. So follow her all the places. So thank you so much for being here.

You're welcome, Noel.

All right, for more from me, Coconuts and Kettlebells.com, thanks so much for being here, guys. We will talk to you next week.

Sam.