Naturalpath

“The mind body connection in kids is very important. What I see in kids all the time is how their emotions and what they are feeling can really affect their health. Kids who have asthma will have a flare immediately after emotional or traumatic events. Eczema might worsen, flares of Ulcerative Colitis might occur.

“Three tips that I would give you to really enhance the health and well-being of your entire family are to eat whole foods, eat organically, and most importantly spend the time to share with your families - over meals, over weekends, taking walks together – that is one of the best ways for your family to stay healthy together.”

“Wellness for children means that they are functioning as optimally as they can. That does not mean that all kids are going to have the same health. It means that with what they are born with (their constitution) they’re going to be functioning as well as and as happily as they can be.

“That’s different for every child, and the goals for every child are going to be different. And that means really working with parents to identify what the goals of wellness are for each individual child.

"I see a lot of eating patterns in families that don’t optimally benefit the health of the child, and the parents for that matter.

“In America we are very used to having a convenient lifestyle, a fast lifestyle, which means eating a lot of processed and packaged foods that can be, for the most part, lacking in many of the nutrients we need.

“Families should go back to a whole foods diet, cook when they can, eat organically, and use clean, filtered water. These are some of the basic changes that can be a little difficult for families to make, but once they start making them and start feeling so much better and healthier, they are lifelong habits that they’re instilling in their child.”

“There are many ways that we can use nutrition to optimize our performance, no matter what age - whether you’re a young athlete, an elderly grandparent, or a young middle school child.

“The obesity epidemic in children today is linked, I think, to not only what kids are eating, but how they’re eating. It’s not simply a matter of calories in plus calories out equals the weight you have. The kind of calorie really matters.

“Touching on things like the glycemic index (understanding how our blood sugar is affected) is very important for families to understand in helping their children who have problems with obesity – knowing what to eat, how to eat, and how often to eat. “For many kids with obesity, they’re not actually eating too much. They’re just eating the wrong things in the wrong combinations at the wrong times.

“As a member of Defeat Autism Now (a DAN doctor, as it’s called), I do believe that there are many environmental factors that are contributing to the rise in autism that we see in our community. We live in a much more toxic world that we used to. And most of us do just fine. Our bodies are designed to filter and get rid of these toxins - that’s what our liver’s main goal is.

“Personal responsibility is the one thing that I encourage the most in my families and in my parents.

“When you seek integrative holistic care it really does require a lot of education, a lot of advocacy for yourself and for your child, and really thinking about the decisions you’re making for yourself and for your child. It’s not just a matter of taking a pill three times a day for ten days and then forgetting about it. It has to be a daily choice – actually every moment of the day we have decisions to make about whether we want to be well or whether we want to do things that might promote us not being well.

“One of the most important things families can have is a network of peers to share their stories, share what has worked for their children, and what experiences they’ve had with different alternative practices. I find this invaluable for my parents who are really delving into a new territory of healing for their families.

“This network of peers can be so critical in helping you to feel comfortable with the decisions you’re making for your child.

Overview

Dr. Elisa Song MD, is the founder and director of Whole Child Wellness in Redwood City, CA, a clinic that integrates traditional pediatrics with holistic nutrition, herbal medicine, homeopathy, and traditional Chinese Medicine.

Her philosophy is to integrate the best of western and complementary and alternative medicine to meet the unique needs of each individual child. Dr. Song is board-certified in pediatrics and holistic medicine, and is a fellow of the AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics.