347 | Fevers, Eczema and Poop with Naturopathic Pediatric Doctor, Dr. Elana Roumell

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Optimal Body Podcast. I'm Dr. Jen. And I'm Dr. Dom and we are doctors of

[00:00:10] physical therapy bringing you the body tips and physical therapy pearls of wisdom to

[00:00:14] help you begin to understand your body, relieve your pains and restrictions, and answer

[00:00:18] your questions. Along with expert guests, our goal of the Optimal Body Podcast is really

[00:00:23] to help you discover what optimal means within your own body. Let's dive in!

[00:00:29] As we're going to talk into children's health, I think one thing that is often neglected

[00:00:33] is talking about the health of the feet. Now we think that we're maybe giving a lot

[00:00:38] of help and support as a child ages by giving looking for good, large support and having

[00:00:45] the proper support of the feet but truly helping the feet is giving them the environment

[00:00:52] to do the work themselves from the earliest age to into adulthood. So this is why I love

[00:01:00] vivo barefoot shoes and we talk about it all the time because now they are supporting

[00:01:04] anywhere from one year old to until you pass. Everyone can benefit from vivo barefoot

[00:01:11] shoes because it's going to set the environment for your foot to be able to display and rest

[00:01:17] the way that it naturally should without squishing in the toes and allow the arch to be supported

[00:01:22] on its own by doing the work of the foot not having external support to press into. And I know

[00:01:29] this can seem very foreign if you've been told you need support. I grew up knowing that if I'm

[00:01:36] looking for a shoe, I'm feeling the inside and I'm seeing if it has a good arch support like this

[00:01:40] was what was drilled into me. But now I understand the value of having the foot find pronation and

[00:01:47] supination on its own so that the arch can build the proper strength that it needs without

[00:01:54] relying on something else. And that's how we make the foot stronger and there was actually a study I

[00:02:00] recently did a post on this just seeing that the transverse metatarsal arch this is what crosses

[00:02:06] right before the toes. This arch support makes up 40% of the stability needed longitudinally meaning

[00:02:14] the arch that we typically think about the regular arch along the foot that support really comes

[00:02:20] from the spread of the toes and the ability and control and strength to be able to spread the

[00:02:28] toes. So if we're having that control and strength but then stuffing it into shoes that aren't

[00:02:33] providing that support, it just doesn't make sense. We're not actually supporting the foot that

[00:02:39] so if you have not yet I just recommend going and getting some vivo barefoot shoes. Use code TOB

[00:02:45] at checkout, you get 15% off make sure they're not already shoes that are previously discounted

[00:02:50] but use code TOB at checkout and you're gonna get 15% off of your vivo barefoot shoes

[00:02:56] something we highly recommend and we love having Dante in them as well.

[00:03:01] Well Dr. Alana we're just so grateful to have you and have you take time to talk with us there

[00:03:07] I have definitely gleamed a lot of information from your page on Instagram alone and your free

[00:03:13] guides. I've definitely used them for my little guy so I just really appreciate the information,

[00:03:20] the education and I know you have an incredible community where you're continuing to educate

[00:03:25] mom so thank you for all you're doing. Oh thank you for having me. I absolutely love hearing that

[00:03:31] feedback. If I can just continue to educate for free all day long I would probably still

[00:03:37] be happy. You know this is my mission and my goal so thank you. I love it and it really comes

[00:03:42] through in the content that you put out and I mean as Jen and I are on the doorstep of having our

[00:03:47] little guy make it to 13 months I mean you just really don't understand what this world of

[00:03:54] parenthood is like until you're in it until you're in the thick of it until you have your kid

[00:03:59] and start being told all of these things that you need to do to them medically or you need to

[00:04:05] have done with them and it can just really be overwhelming so I think that having somebody

[00:04:10] like you a trusted source that you can follow to help dice through this a little bit is so valuable

[00:04:17] and I just want to start really by asking what made you so passionate about this area

[00:04:23] and made you decide to go into naturopathic pediatric medicine. So I always love to be a guest on

[00:04:29] others podcasts because I get to revisit my why. I love this question. I ask all of my guests on

[00:04:36] my podcast as well and I think it's such an important question for the work that we do and just

[00:04:40] for obviously your listeners to get to know me so I'm happy to share. I'll try to keep it short

[00:04:44] because it's a good good answer. So I'm a naturopathic doctor and I and I very mindfully chose this path

[00:04:52] and what a naturopathic doctor is is someone who can integrate both conventional medicine with

[00:04:57] natural therapies. I wanted to know all of the different options and this all started spurring my

[00:05:04] interest when I was a very young child. I had a brother who suddenly died of asthma. This is not

[00:05:11] a common occurrence. It's rare so if a listener is listening with the child with asthma,

[00:05:15] please do not be all that concern. My brother had head to toe eczema starting at six weeks. He

[00:05:22] had multiple food, anaphylactic shock reactions. He had multiple ear infections. He was a very sick

[00:05:29] child and he was on all of the conventional medicines. I just thought as a child, gosh,

[00:05:35] why aren't these medicines helping my brother? Why isn't he getting better? What's happening here?

[00:05:40] And when he did pass away at the age of seven, I was only nine years old. It obviously rocked

[00:05:45] all of our worlds. It wasn't just me being a sibling seeing my brother pass away but it was also

[00:05:50] me witnessing my parents just completely fall apart. Now as parents, yourself, you can really understand

[00:05:55] and imagine how hard and how it's just a lifetime of grieving. How it occurred to me was two

[00:06:03] folds. One was I felt like there had to be other options. How could conventional medicine just

[00:06:08] fail my brother? But the more actually striking thing that happened to me was I witnessed my parents go

[00:06:14] from very calm and collected individuals to very anxious and overly protective of us existing

[00:06:23] children. We left with three other girls. So there was four of us in my family, three girls

[00:06:28] and the one boy who passed. So there was a big impact on me seeing my parents very anxious

[00:06:36] and very anxious from the littlest bit of a fever or a cough or a common cold that one of us

[00:06:41] girls would have gotten kind of feeling like there was so much unnecessary worry going on with

[00:06:47] them. But understandably so because this is how they were just trying to grieve and adapt to the

[00:06:51] loss of their child. So then as I grew up and as I decided to go into whatever career I wanted to

[00:06:58] choose, I knew that I wanted to help kids because I had such a soft space in my heart for kids

[00:07:04] in medicine. I wanted to offer multiple options so that parents felt like they had full informed

[00:07:10] in consent and that they knew what they could do for their little ones. But most importantly,

[00:07:15] what I realized as I started practicing medicine is I gravitated towards the most anxious parents

[00:07:21] towards the parents who just would worry unnecessarily. They would come into my office with maybe a child

[00:07:27] with a common cold but they were panicking and they were overwhelmed with what was going on and

[00:07:33] I just had such a special place in my heart for these parents. And so years of practicing,

[00:07:38] I was practicing for 10 years at that point. I just saw so many parents feeling overwhelmed and

[00:07:43] confused that I realized I needed to share my knowledge with them, what I learned in medical school,

[00:07:49] how I would go about even now having my own children, feeling calm and collected and confident

[00:07:55] about how to go about helping their kids from home. And it just, it just short, you know, I saw

[00:08:01] moms just and dads. And so I shouldn't just exclude dads. I apologize for them. So used to

[00:08:07] so many moms coming to me and asking for help but moms and dads wanting to put on their doctor mom

[00:08:12] or doctor hat on and really helped their kids from home using natural medicine, but also appreciating

[00:08:18] when conventional medicine is warranted and just integrating the two. And so that's where I just

[00:08:24] decided to go online and just share all my protocols and all my wisdom and all the years of training

[00:08:28] that I have. And I'm so happy to be able to do it because whether I'm saving a child's life or

[00:08:34] I'm just helping parents feel less anxious about their child being sick to me that is such a win

[00:08:40] and we're moving in the right direction of helping parents feel more empowered and feel like they

[00:08:44] can really help their child with their own tools at home. Wow, it's such a powerful story and give

[00:08:50] me so many chills as you are going through because definitely being a parent myself relating to

[00:08:56] what your parents had to go through and what you have seen growing up, it's it's unbelievable. So

[00:09:03] I just greatly appreciate you know taking that story, taking that journey and turning it into what

[00:09:10] you have. And definitely there could be a lot of anxiety even you know without losing a child and

[00:09:17] just the overwhelm of information that you get to even from your pediatrician. Sometimes there's

[00:09:23] you know information we get and we question well you know is can I do a little bit more research

[00:09:28] into this and what do I think what is best and it's it could be really difficult and overwhelming.

[00:09:34] So I just want to talk about a couple of those points and at least touch on a few things that

[00:09:39] might help mitigate some of those stressors. And one of the top ones being you know fevers and when

[00:09:45] is that really a concern and when is it something that the body is just naturally kind of working through

[00:09:51] when we should let it do its thing? When do we intervene? When do we give Tylenol like what are some

[00:09:56] of like the highlights of fevers? Great I love this question because again it's such an anxiety

[00:10:02] provoking topic. So there is something called fever phobia. This is a actual a term that has been

[00:10:09] designated to illustrate the amount of fear and phobia associated with fever so this is a very

[00:10:16] very common concern which is why I have a free fever protocol guide I decided just to give the

[00:10:20] entire protocol away because I want to get I want to parents not feel so anxious. So let's just

[00:10:25] go back to the basics. Why does what do fevers happen in the first place? So the fever happens when

[00:10:31] the body is exposed to whether it's a virus, a bacteria something that the body looks as s-4 and

[00:10:38] okay and it doesn't like. The beautiful thing about the body is that it raises its internal temperature

[00:10:45] because these kind of bugs don't like to live in this type of environment. It doesn't survive in hot

[00:10:50] temperatures. What a beautiful thing that the body does in order to help eradicate something that the

[00:10:55] body doesn't want. Now as the temperature rises there's different inflammatory molecules that come

[00:11:01] out cytokines, TNF have all this great stuff that the body is just like giving an alarm saying okay

[00:11:08] we've got to now grab our immune systems, all those soldiers, all those great things to just try

[00:11:12] to help eradicate that bug or that virus. So that's a great thing and we want to harness the body's

[00:11:19] natural ability to help fight infection. Now the issue is that some kiddos don't like to feel overheated

[00:11:25] right? They feel uncomfortable, they feel lethargic. They you know they don't like being too hot

[00:11:30] and so this is whereas us as parents we just kind of need to observe our children. Is the fever alone

[00:11:37] the thing that's scaring us or is it the discomfort of the child that's scaring us? And this is where

[00:11:41] we just get to navigate and start picking this apart. And so I'm going to help you do that right now

[00:11:45] but before we go into that what I do want to just mention and I want to be very clear is that

[00:11:51] the number of the temperature, the degrees or the Celsius, the Fahrenheit of the Celsius,

[00:11:57] whatever the degrees is that's not what should be the most alarming to parents and that's a very

[00:12:04] big confusion because I oftentimes hear from parents but it's 102 it's 103 I'm so worried.

[00:12:10] That number alone doesn't make me concerned. What I'm more concerned about and what I teach my

[00:12:16] parents to be concerned about is what I call the accompanying symptoms. Is there a fever with

[00:12:21] ear pain? Is it a fever with stomach pain? Is it the fever with the sore throat? What is it

[00:12:27] accompanying the fever that I'm actually more concerned with and that's what I kind of go down

[00:12:32] the avenue with okay how how alarm should I be with this? So if it's just a fever alone with no

[00:12:39] other symptoms and the child is doing okay, there is no reason to be concerned. There's an article

[00:12:46] by the Seattle Children's Hospital. I love it's like myths versus facts with fever and one of the

[00:12:52] statements that they have here is that brain damage can only happen over 108 degrees Fahrenheit,

[00:12:59] 108.0 now 100.8 but 108.0 is the first signs that even any brain damage can happen in my

[00:13:08] clinical experience I've never even had a kid even close to that. I think the highest was 106

[00:13:13] that I've seen so I just want to give that as like maybe like a big just deeper out of fresh air

[00:13:18] and just to know that the temperature alone is not what we worry about it's really the accompanying

[00:13:26] symptoms now with that said the one time that I will say that I care about any type of temperature

[00:13:33] and a fever in a child less than two months if you have a newborn in it's a child less than two

[00:13:38] months and there's a fever which is considered 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or above so 100.4 and above

[00:13:46] that's when it warrants a visit to a doctor or a call to the doctor or to urgent care in an infant

[00:13:52] that age we do not want to see any type of fever but if your child's above the age of two months

[00:13:57] with a fever that doesn't warrant any visit unless that there's accompanying symptoms that may warrant

[00:14:02] it is that clear I just want to make sure that I was very specific about that yeah that makes sense

[00:14:07] definitely okay great so when it comes to accompanying symptoms depending on the severity that

[00:14:13] would then warrant a visit so if it's severe ear pain that just won't go away you may want to get

[00:14:18] that ear looked at severe throat pain you may want to get a streptest right through a throat culture

[00:14:23] if it's stiff neck accompanying with the fever then yes you would want to go and rule out something

[00:14:29] like meningitis but these are not common symptoms you know it's mostly the discomfort from

[00:14:35] the fever that gives parents a little bit more of a paranoia or a worry and if it's a discomfort

[00:14:42] that's when I say you guys go to all the natural medicines go to the tools go to either homeopathy

[00:14:47] there's cold wet socks there's herbal medicine there's nutrient therapy there's so many different

[00:14:52] things that we can do to help just provide some comfort to our child and if that doesn't provide

[00:14:59] the comfort it's never a harm to just give Tylenol here and there or ibuprofen here and there but

[00:15:05] it's not something that I would like to see ongoing because there could be some side effects to that

[00:15:10] and so I just like to always always give options to parents to know that there's natural medicines

[00:15:15] that can come first. I think that's a fantastic answer and one of my favorite parts about it it kind

[00:15:20] of reminded me of how you started kind of reminded me of how Jen and I will educate people

[00:15:26] about pain sometimes you talk about the fever that the body creates is such a beautiful and magnificent

[00:15:33] process when it comes down to the physiology of it it's this protective mechanism that is

[00:15:37] actually helping us protect the body from these foreign invaders whether they're viruses and

[00:15:45] similarly we talk about pain that way as this messaging system that's telling us that

[00:15:49] we should do something different or telling us that we need to change something we need to avoid

[00:15:55] and so at the end there you mentioned different homeopathic methods versus ibuprofen Tylenol

[00:16:05] and when those may be appropriate can you I know you have a full guide and hopefully we can maybe

[00:16:09] get a link to that to put it down in the show notes of the episode if people are interested as they

[00:16:13] listen but can you give us some of just the initial go-to's if we're not noticing a lot of those

[00:16:19] accompanying symptoms that you mentioned and just want to address bringing that fever down or

[00:16:25] getting it back to normal what would be some of the initial go-to's that you would recommend

[00:16:31] to parents and when may ibuprofen or Tylenol be something that you would say okay now seems

[00:16:38] like an appropriate time to use this great and I do I love how you guys teach about pain being a

[00:16:43] signal to the body that's something underlying is an issue and if we just need to correct it that

[00:16:49] when the pain goes away I fully believe that our bodies give us so much information and that

[00:16:54] symptoms are just guides to help us uncover what are some of the root causes of some ailments

[00:17:01] a fever is just the body saying hey guess what there's a foreign invader something's going on

[00:17:07] so what can I do to help fight this I love really tuning into the wisdom of the body and not

[00:17:13] suppressing it and this is where even some natural medicines the goal is not to suppress the fever

[00:17:19] so much where then the body can't actually help find that homeostasis that balance right so

[00:17:25] we want to lower the temperature enough to find to provide comfort for the child but we don't

[00:17:31] want to lower it so much that there's no more fever because then the body doesn't have those

[00:17:37] symptoms to help heal the body okay so when we talk about natural medicines the goal of that is

[00:17:44] solely providing comfort boosting immune production right so we can help speed the healing

[00:17:50] with the goal of just shortening the duration of the illness and decreasing the intensity of the

[00:17:56] symptoms I don't want it to be the measure of getting rid of the fever completely that would not

[00:18:01] actually be the goal although Tylenol and ibuprofen would do a very quick job at that my concern is

[00:18:08] that then it doesn't actually really help harness the body in what the body really does which in

[00:18:13] my mind is a beautiful way of speeding healing so the natural medicines that I absolutely love

[00:18:18] especially for kids under six months is homeopathy homeopathy are these tiny little vials you can

[00:18:25] find in health food stores they're little pellets that you could put directly inside the child's mouth

[00:18:30] and the reason why these are so safe for children under six months is because they have very

[00:18:36] very low amounts of the actual remedy it's usually a plant or type of mineral or whatnot

[00:18:42] it's I put it in the category more of like an energetic medicine just like I do acupuncture

[00:18:48] acupuncture is just little needles in the body that are kind of stimulating the body to heal

[00:18:53] lots of great evidence lots of great studies to show its effectiveness so is homeopathy instead

[00:18:59] of putting needles in the body you just choose the homeopathic remedy that helps to stimulate the

[00:19:03] body to heal you give that remedy children are incredibly resilient to these and it helps on an

[00:19:09] energetic level and not all herbal medicines or health food supplements are safe for kiddos less

[00:19:17] than six months which is why I love having this tool of homeopathy two of my favorite homeopathic

[00:19:23] remedies for fivers are called belladonna and acanitam and these are indicated for sudden fivers

[00:19:31] that come on could be in the middle of the night high fivers the child is just so distraught they're very

[00:19:38] you know they're crying they're red in the face they're just very inconsolable uncomfortable

[00:19:43] and it's something so simple to just be able to put these little pellets inside the child's mouth

[00:19:48] and just observe and wait and see if the body can heal and just help bring comfort to the body

[00:19:55] so those are my two favorites when it comes to infants under six months

[00:19:59] when the infant gets a little bit older so six months and above we can start implementing

[00:20:04] something called herbal medicine these are just plant medicines one of my favorites for

[00:20:09] fivers in particular is a plant called lemon balm and lemon balm is so calming to the nervous

[00:20:15] system it helps to support the nervous system during this heightened time okay and it also helps

[00:20:21] as an antiviral so more times than not it's a virus that's stimulating a fever eight out of ten

[00:20:28] chilled common pediatric concerns are viral related not bacteria although there are some bacteria

[00:20:34] related illnesses of course but as an antiviral it's so nice because it helps to stimulate the

[00:20:39] immune system it helps to bring like support the nervous system and then that can help cool and

[00:20:44] calm the body so that's a beautiful herb that we use for fever and then there's home remedies

[00:20:51] that really any age can use but one thing that I feel like has gone a lot of traction on social

[00:20:56] media and I'm so happy it has because it's such a great therapy are what we call cold wet socks

[00:21:01] and this is where you could just take a pair of wool socks and a pair of cotton socks and what we do

[00:21:06] is we actually really truly provide the body with an ability to help heal from the inside by moving

[00:21:14] the blood and moving the lymph and so the way that we go about this is we would take cotton socks

[00:21:20] you submerge them in either ice cold water or for very young infants I just do cold water

[00:21:25] just from the faucet I ring them out I put them on warm feet so you don't want the feet to be too cold

[00:21:32] you could put the feet if they're cold in like a nice little warm bath or if the feet are warm

[00:21:36] already you don't need to do anything with them but you take these cold wet socks you put them

[00:21:41] on the warm feet you then take wool socks and you put those over the cold wet socks those cotton

[00:21:49] wet socks and you put the kit to sleep and what that's doing is during sleep is that it's moving

[00:21:55] lymph and blood flow from the feet and it's pushing it up and then it's going from the

[00:22:02] legs to the head and then the head down back to the legs it's increasing those immune cells in the

[00:22:07] body because our bodies don't want to stay cold very long so our bodies are gonna push blood

[00:22:13] push lymph to try to warm up those cold socks and it's this beautiful movement a blood and lift

[00:22:19] throughout the body all night long and that's what's gonna help decrease the fever because we're

[00:22:24] bringing out all these immune cells and building lymph and blood and it's this like really old time

[00:22:29] old school therapy that is just incredible for fevers but not only fevers it can help with coughs

[00:22:35] respiratory disorders or congestion headaches it's a really great therapy that I feel like is

[00:22:41] kind of getting back to popularity and I love teaching about that and I would say this is probably

[00:22:45] safe for kiddos maybe over three months or four months of age and then as they get older absolutely

[00:22:51] go ahead and you could start this even for us adults it's a great therapy. You guys probably

[00:22:55] would geek out on it because you guys are such movement people but can imagine being able to lie

[00:23:00] there and have your body work for you yeah it's funny I actually had been told to do this like a few

[00:23:06] years ago from one of our friends who was an anthropathic doctor and when I heard you talking about it

[00:23:12] I was like oh yeah let's do this for Dante. I've done it for myself. I've done it for myself. I

[00:23:17] exposed the physiology works the same and I it's funny coming into this interview I was totally

[00:23:22] gonna ask about that because I figured my mind had kind of put together it had something to do with

[00:23:26] circulation and but that that totally makes sense it seems similar to the pneumatic type boots

[00:23:33] where the purpose is just get the circulation moving and that allows the body to do its magic.

[00:23:40] And I did want to ask just real quick too like is there any concern when a fever starts to go

[00:23:45] high quick you know I've heard especially after some common vaccines you know there's a fear of

[00:23:52] febrile seizures and and is there any fear with like I guess the anxiety of like seeing the

[00:23:58] number start to rise could that be a concern that we're looking at or not usually great so I'm

[00:24:07] so happy you asked about this febrile seizures definitely happened they're very scary they're very

[00:24:12] worrisome so I really understand and if a parent is listening who has had one or observed one in

[00:24:18] the past I understand then the than that's where the fear really comes into place. So a few things

[00:24:24] about that febrile seizures occur when there's a rapid change of temperature so it's not about

[00:24:31] the degree or how high the temperature is it's how fast it goes from let's say zero to 100 okay

[00:24:38] now unfortunately it's very hard to catch that because for one child going from 100.4 to 101

[00:24:48] rapidly could trigger that febrile seizure for another child it could be going from 102 to 103

[00:24:55] so it doesn't actually matter again the degree it depends on again that child susceptibility to

[00:25:03] how they react to this the quick change and unfortunately we can't always catch that so soon right

[00:25:09] or in that moment what I do tell my parents who have that history of febrile seizures is there's

[00:25:15] this is the perfect time to really try to hone in on a particular homeopathic remedy that the

[00:25:21] earliest signs of any type of illness that may come on that you go ahead and support your child

[00:25:27] with that homeopathic and it will take some time and some experimentation to find that one

[00:25:33] that oftentimes that child will react to I brought up the homeopathic beladon or acanitam these

[00:25:38] are just two of many fever remedies that could be indicated for your child and what I love about

[00:25:44] homeopathy specifically is that you really have to be very specific to the individual symptoms so how

[00:25:50] one child presents with a fever could look very different to the other child for example you may

[00:25:55] have a child that their fever comes on suddenly it goes very high fast and it always comes in the middle

[00:26:01] of the night where you may have another child whose fever is usually low grade it actually happens

[00:26:07] just right before bed and it doesn't really cause that much concern those are two different

[00:26:11] presentations and those would want two different types of homeopathic remedies now that's a little

[00:26:17] bit more work for a parent to have to then navigate but once you start observing your child

[00:26:22] and understanding how they uniquely present you usually can find that homeopathic remedy that will

[00:26:28] then just do wonders and what I love about homeopathy is not only safe but it works really quickly so

[00:26:33] you will know within minutes if that child is going to react to that remedy with that said if

[00:26:38] your child susceptible for febrile seizures you will then have that remedy knowingly on hand and

[00:26:44] the earliest signs of symptoms you want to go ahead and give it to them so you can kind of catch

[00:26:49] it before that change in degrees the change of the escalating temperature changes you can catch it

[00:26:56] then now with that said if that gives you peace of mind to give Tylenol preemptively that is going

[00:27:03] to be something that you have to tune in really to know if that's going to help you the literature

[00:27:08] states that there's actually no change or prevention in febrile seizures just to jump to Tylenol

[00:27:13] or ibiprofen but if again that gives you peace of mind that's going to be something that I think

[00:27:18] is very important you ask when Tylenol ibiprofen would be indicated the only time I would say it

[00:27:25] would be indicated for fever specifically is in the middle of night if you're trying all your

[00:27:30] home remedies nothing is working your child so uncomfortable no one is sleeping in the house

[00:27:36] to me that would be a great time where you would then pull out the ibiprofen or the Tylenol and

[00:27:41] we need to all get some rest we need to have something to reliably know that this child is just

[00:27:46] going to have some comfort because we know that it does work and there's the beauty you know there's

[00:27:50] a beauty of having those options and again doing it once in a balloon is not going to pose a lot of

[00:27:55] harm if I may just insert a little bit about Tylenol when I do feel it's appropriate to say please

[00:28:02] try to withdraw or abstain from using it would be before or after giving a vaccine and the reason

[00:28:09] there is that one of the things that Tylenol does is that it depletes our storage of what we call

[00:28:15] glutathione and glutathione is a natural antioxidant that is made in the liver to help detoxify chemicals

[00:28:23] you know waste products all of these things and so because we know that that's what happens it's just

[00:28:28] one of the side effects of Tylenol when we're giving something like a vaccine that we know has

[00:28:34] some ingredients in it that is could be harmful to the body we want to help the detox capacity we

[00:28:40] want to help our kids be able to clear any of those chemicals that we don't want to stay in the body

[00:28:46] we want our glutathione levels to be a peak amount we want to make sure that our children can detox

[00:28:52] and we can also take that immune insult from the vaccine in an intelligible way in a way that the

[00:28:58] body really has everything in its favor so that the vaccine does what it does and the body can

[00:29:04] help eliminate what it doesn't need and by giving Tylenol before a vaccine or even shortly after a

[00:29:11] vaccine it will increase the potential of an adverse reaction because the body's glutathione levels

[00:29:17] are not at its peak so if we can just try to avoid Tylenol during those times if you absolutely need it

[00:29:24] I would then choose ibuprofen because we don't see the same glutathione levels being

[00:29:28] affected with ibuprofen that would be my strong consideration in that situation

[00:29:34] I think those last two are such great takeaways things that people are told a lot

[00:29:39] I love the point where you gave on if it's needed to get sleep especially for the kid to get

[00:29:44] sleep and I think that as you know it's talked talked about often sleep can be one of the greatest

[00:29:50] healers so if you're if your little one has a fever and is not getting sleep that can only compound

[00:29:57] things because the body is just not going to be operating as normal or as it best could we've

[00:30:03] covered fever a ton and I know that you could probably fill hours more of lecture on discussion

[00:30:10] on fever I want to move into something actually that I dealt with a lot when I was a young kid

[00:30:17] you mentioned that your brother was dealing a ton with eczema and I know that many parents

[00:30:22] and many little ones have skin issues eczema you know patches of whatever it is cradle cap or

[00:30:30] different skin issues what you know what are some suggestions for parents who are dealing with

[00:30:40] skin issues not sure what to put on it they're being told to use this cream or that cream or

[00:30:45] cortisol and a banardral cream whatever it is what are some of the things that you recommend for

[00:30:49] people wonderful I love talking about eczema because it kind of goes a little bit of against

[00:30:55] conventional treatments and so I love to give some like a ha moment since I openers to some

[00:31:01] other options so again let's go back to there's a time in a place for a steroid cream and I'm

[00:31:07] going to go into when that may be but the biggest key takeaway I love to share with parents is

[00:31:13] that when you see something occurring on the skin the best thing to do is focus your attention

[00:31:18] on internal healing it's the same thing that we were talking about with pain in your community

[00:31:23] when you talk about pain it's a sign that something is off balance inside when we could correct it

[00:31:28] the pain will go away it's the exact same thing with skin reactions when you start noticing something

[00:31:34] on the skin with your child to me I feel like this is like such a gift it's the body telling us

[00:31:41] that something is off internally and we have to kind of find that balance what's off what's

[00:31:47] what needs a little bit of refinement so that the skin would clear up and now we have answers to this

[00:31:53] so I think these are all great signs and I think that I know can cause a lot of concern and anxiety

[00:31:58] I'm actually currently I'm working through eczema with my baby here she's 18 months as we're

[00:32:04] recording where my other two children had no eczema flares and so again this gives me signs that

[00:32:10] something's going on in her body and I need to now be the investigator so I love talking about

[00:32:15] this because this happens to so many children and there's nothing as a parent that you did wrong

[00:32:21] every child is unique and every child even if they have the same genetic makeup which again

[00:32:26] every child even in your same family will have different genetics makeup slightly but what we're

[00:32:32] doing in our environment that will help one may not help another and that's the beauty of being

[00:32:37] unique so let's first work on some nutritional things that I would love every child who has

[00:32:42] eczema to focus on these kiddos they have a more susceptibility of having low vitamin D levels

[00:32:50] low zinc levels low omega-3 levels and also gut dysbiosis which is what probiotics really help with

[00:33:00] these four remedies are foundational support for any child who may present with eczema and the

[00:33:07] beautiful thing about that is these four nutrients would be a great addition to someone's daily

[00:33:12] essential wellness plan some kids may need this more than others some kids can get away with only

[00:33:18] taking this kind of stuff a couple days a week or maybe once a week why the kids who have eczema

[00:33:23] as parents you just want to be a little bit more on top of these nutrients specifically because we

[00:33:28] know these kids are more prone to some of these deficiency so again vitamin D and I like to pair

[00:33:33] that with vitamin D and K2 they work very well together zinc omega-3s which you can find in fish oils

[00:33:40] and then probiotics and more times than not when a child's taking these nutrients let's say for two

[00:33:46] to three months you're going to see majority of eczema cases clear and if you don't see eczema clear

[00:33:53] during that time that's a sign that we need to dig a little bit deeper and that there could be

[00:33:57] other associated disorders that are going on and the list goes on here it could be leaky guy

[00:34:03] it could be a toxic exposure something like mold toxicity that we need to really look into

[00:34:09] it could be a myriad of things and this is where this is when I would want you to talk to a

[00:34:14] functional medicine doctor a natural pathogen doctor because this is where lap testing can really

[00:34:18] help us understand the root cause but what again I just I'm hoping to give some peace of mind and

[00:34:25] knowing that this is not necessarily a condition that will last a lifetime but it is something that's

[00:34:31] going to give us information about a child's immune system how their immune system is reacting

[00:34:37] to different things and how we can best support them in their young years so as they grow up into

[00:34:43] their adult life we can actually help prevent some chronic diseases so similar to my brother if I

[00:34:48] would have had the tools that I would have known now seeing I mean he had angry really angry eczema

[00:34:53] we could have gone to the root cause of what was going on we probably could have prevented his

[00:34:59] recurrent urinfections his asthma and all this like later stage chronic disease so I actually love

[00:35:05] working with with that and giving this knowledge to parents that do not give up if you're putting

[00:35:10] the steroid cream on that is almost just a bandaid because now we're not able to listen to the body

[00:35:16] to see those symptoms to work on different therapies to see what's working what's not so we can

[00:35:22] really understand and cure it. Cometral medicine wouldn't ever claim that you can cure eczema but I

[00:35:28] would actually say otherwise I do believe you can but you got to go in internal and into the root

[00:35:34] cause the other question you had was when is it appropriate to use steroids and I think that

[00:35:39] steroid creams are appropriate to use when there's so much scratching that wounds are now opening up

[00:35:47] and now we're having susceptibility to infections which then would lead to an antibiotic prescription.

[00:35:53] Now having these little kids now add antibiotics now can then have some disruption in their

[00:35:58] gut and now this can lead to even more issues so this is an absolute time that I would say if you're

[00:36:04] seeing any potential for an infection then that is a great time to use a topical steroid as we

[00:36:11] are then working on the internal gut healing or internal healing that's needed that is so incredibly

[00:36:17] essential. I love that you bring up really getting to the root cause because even what I've seen

[00:36:23] with being married to Dom, depending on what he's eating and how your diet is then...

[00:36:29] I am the poster child for something like this because I had asthma growing up, I had really bad

[00:36:33] skin stuff and my father notably is in he's a traditional MD, he works in family medicine and

[00:36:41] one of our jokes growing up was whatever you have going on, rub try and synolomon it or take

[00:36:48] some ibuprofen because that was the blanket answer. I don't even think you would mind me saying

[00:36:54] that because we always joke with him now about it but when I eat a certain way I have patches of

[00:37:01] eczema or psoriatic type skin patches pop up on my body and I know what all comes from internally

[00:37:07] and from what I eat. Yeah, so it's so it's so interesting and fascinating to see it. I guess it was

[00:37:13] hard and they're changing so much but especially like zero to three months it's like there is so many

[00:37:18] different skin issues that would happen with Dante and seeing different things but it was

[00:37:24] it's interesting to say okay what am I having in my diet and what am I because if he's getting

[00:37:29] breast milk for me then what is it that I'm delivering to him that could be causing different skin

[00:37:35] things? Are there creams in general that you can recommend to just moisturize the body,

[00:37:41] putting kind of like lotion on preventing dryness like are there specific natural type creams

[00:37:48] that you recommend for babies? Yes and I do want to just add if I may. There are a lot of what we

[00:37:53] call post viral rashes that is very common and that's actually not something that I would have any

[00:38:00] alarming feel to this happens when a child is sick maybe a cold a resp a cough and then after

[00:38:06] they're sick, bam a full body wide rash and it goes away in a couple days it doesn't bother them

[00:38:12] it doesn't do that is actually a very normal immune process I wouldn't even put that in the category

[00:38:17] of oh no dig deeper what's the root cause? The root cause is just that they had a viral infection

[00:38:22] and now they have a viral post viral rash so I want to also separate that from the topic of

[00:38:28] eczema because that is very normal and very different and nothing to be concerned about I just

[00:38:32] wanted to put that as a little bit of a side note oh and I should smash it because you said

[00:38:37] Dante zero to three months, even like something like baby acne could be very normal and that will go

[00:38:42] away and there's nothing that is alarming or wrong that's just the mother's hormones pass through

[00:38:49] to child that will all go away on its own it's really these type of rashes that are kind of more stubborn

[00:38:55] where they're not going away right and they're more of these ongoing concerns but for the most

[00:39:01] part if a child has a rash and it goes away in a couple of days that's great just let the body do

[00:39:06] its work but if it's this ongoing persistent complaint that either comes and goes and it just

[00:39:12] continues to record or just never goes away then we want to dig more deep so let me just

[00:39:16] prep us that okay now as far as moisturizers go we are so fortunate I feel like we have so many

[00:39:23] amazing options these days when I first started practicing medicine there were so many few

[00:39:28] organic gluten free options or healthy sunscreens or healthy lotions are you know with with a clean

[00:39:35] label so I just want to mention there are so many different brands I don't want to exclusively say

[00:39:40] one because there are so many but the way that I would like parents to go about it is look on a

[00:39:46] website called skin deep it sponsored by their environmental working group and what I love about

[00:39:51] is that you can input any skincare product be it lotion sunscreen even for us adults make up

[00:39:57] or body wash all of this stuff and they give ratings and the lower the ratings the less toxins

[00:40:03] are involved and toxins can irritate the skin it could be a carcinogenic which means that it has

[00:40:09] some cancer promoting compounds there's so many different things that we want to just try to avoid

[00:40:14] in our environment and so when it comes to ex-maprohn children we want its clean ingredients

[00:40:19] as possible since they really reacted like so many irritants so there are so many different brands

[00:40:26] so many different great moisturizer out there that now has these low toxin profiles so yes

[00:40:32] moisturizing is a very important part of the process not overbeating the child because hot water

[00:40:39] warm water can dry out the skin we see ex-mapflares a lot in winter time when the weather is more dry

[00:40:46] but really what we're trying to do is build from the inside out a healthier skin barrier because

[00:40:53] these kiddos they're barrier in their skin it is very dry and they're not as healthy as what we

[00:41:00] want but again so much of that yes you could put a moisturizer on and those are helpful but so

[00:41:06] much of the work starts from the inside out to get that skin barrier to be healthy to be moisturized

[00:41:12] a lot of that is those omega-3s because those fatty acids are so integral in healthy skin and

[00:41:18] healthy cellular composition so all of that is good but again just go to skin deep look for moisturizers

[00:41:24] that are low levels non-toxic and you've got a whole long list to choose from amazing the environmental

[00:41:29] working group is amazing the work that they do and we'll definitely link up skin deep down below

[00:41:34] one last topic that I want to touch on before we let you go here I don't think it's appropriate to

[00:41:39] have a talk about babies if we don't talk about poop at least a little bit great so

[00:41:46] Jen and I will often hear and we have a lot of friends and family going through early stages of

[00:41:51] being parents right now that oh yeah my kid just will go a week without pooping and then they'll

[00:41:58] just start pooping again and like almost like it's becoming this normal thing that your kid might

[00:42:03] go through a stage where they don't poop for a week or more or three or four days yeah especially

[00:42:08] during stages when they're in their infancy or in their first year um is that normal is there any

[00:42:14] concern if our if our kid especially in the newborn or the first year goes multiple days or a week

[00:42:20] without pooping excellent question I'm so happy to talk about this so interestingly enough as a

[00:42:26] natural product doctor we really really care about pooping and we care about pooping daily it is the

[00:42:32] number one thing we'll ask patients it's very important to gauge overall health now I was surprised

[00:42:39] that when I was doing my natural pathological school that when I was really studying for pediatrics

[00:42:45] even my naturopathic doctor professors will say in an infant less than 12 months especially

[00:42:53] one who is breastfed it is not abnormal to see seven to ten days of not pooping and that could be

[00:42:59] okay and healthy as long as the child has no symptoms of discomfort or calic or reflex or any of

[00:43:08] that if the child's happy and fine continue on so for the first number of years of my practice

[00:43:14] that is what I believed but I actually really questioned that and it took a few years of doing more

[00:43:20] research and more studies came out and just you know more clinical practice to realize that

[00:43:26] I really changed my mind about that I truly do believe that you may not see a daily poop with an

[00:43:33] exclusively breastfed baby but as you're getting into days three or four or five I would encourage

[00:43:41] helping to stimulate a good bowel movement but also looking at why is this child having such a

[00:43:48] delay again remember I'm really big into root cause not just band-a but just root cause now some

[00:43:53] kids have no problem while others have some issue so I would say that if you see your child less

[00:43:59] than one who's exclusively breastfed have some susceptibility to not going daily I would start

[00:44:04] looking into a good pre and or probiotic type of regimen for them just to give some support to the

[00:44:13] body to understand what may be going on if you want to take it to another step further you can

[00:44:18] always test their stools and see you know really get their gut profile and see what may be going on

[00:44:24] but I do think that after days three or four we should start trying to help encourage that

[00:44:30] the other thing is again if a child on formula and showing signs of constipation this is by

[00:44:36] indication that that formula may not be the best formula fit for that child and we may want to

[00:44:42] switch to a different type of formula goat formula seems to be a much easier to digest I see a lot

[00:44:48] of kids doing much better on it than cow based formulas so just keeping that in mind and then as

[00:44:53] the child's older so now we're talking about over one we're doing a lot more solid foods and especially

[00:44:59] around I would actually like backup around nine months when solid food intake is getting a little bit

[00:45:05] more frequent right nine months we're starting to see like three meals a day and maybe a couple

[00:45:09] snacks if we're not serving enough water to a child we're going to start seeing more constipation

[00:45:16] so again we sometimes forget oh my gosh our kit can have water you know like you go from

[00:45:20] breast milk or go from formula but if your child starting solid you always want to then serve it

[00:45:25] with some water to really help move the bowels along as well and then when we get into more taller

[00:45:31] age than I've got so many other protocols and so many other things that we could do for constipation

[00:45:35] but yes by that point we definitely want to see one good solid bowel movement every day

[00:45:41] it's a great sign of good health because we want our waste products out of our body

[00:45:46] we don't want them to recirculate and so that's such a big key for optimal gut health for

[00:45:52] for detox capacity and so for overall health so I absolutely love talking about poop

[00:45:56] and it really does mean a lot to me so we just have a little bit of support and a little goes

[00:46:01] a long way and the kids start pooping again that's great great information because I always kind of

[00:46:06] question it as well and luckily we didn't we don't have to I mean he poops all the time.

[00:46:10] Yes there is there a top end like is there too much poop that can be happening because sometimes

[00:46:15] I wonder with this kid but I just you are an incredible wealth of information I know we can keep

[00:46:23] talking for like hours but I think that's where you know you provide an incredible Dr. mom

[00:46:28] community where people can get involved get these answers get protocols get real support to

[00:46:34] really feel empowered and less anxious about all of these things and all these questions like

[00:46:40] we just tapped on some very top surface stuff but there's so much more that I know you know parents

[00:46:47] want questions and answers to and I know that you provide that so where can people get involved

[00:46:53] well thank you and I do love compiling it all because it really ends up being in the middle

[00:46:57] the night where the the concern ends up being in the middle of the night and what are you going to

[00:47:02] do and so what I love about this community and and what I've provided is you can literally just

[00:47:07] open up your phone or open up your computer and I have a list of all of my naturopathic protocols

[00:47:13] and so I make it as simple as possible I always offer for each condition three lifestyle changes

[00:47:20] whether it's diet or home remedies that you could just do right away and three my top natural

[00:47:25] medicines for each condition and we have dozens of conditions now the library just continues to grow

[00:47:31] every month I highlight a new condition I often will invite an expert in the field worldwide really now

[00:47:38] a pediatric holistic provider to help us understand the condition I'll interview them so if you

[00:47:44] have the time and you want to dig deep understand let's say hand foot mouth or understand RSV or

[00:47:49] understand the warning signs of asthma all of these conditions that are just calming that we see

[00:47:55] in our in our kiddos so you can really feel like you can master it okay I want you to feel

[00:47:59] confident when to see the doctor or when you can help your kiddo from home and I love just

[00:48:04] sharing I love I want this accessible to everyone I feel like seeing a naturopathic doctor can get

[00:48:08] very pricey it was one of the things that when I would see patients I just never felt aligned for

[00:48:13] me it was always like a conflict for me and I just I want this information accessible to all so

[00:48:18] my membership is a subscription base you can cancel anytime it's as low as $27 a month it's even

[00:48:25] cheaper if you if you join quarterly I've sales off and to so I just I really I love making this

[00:48:31] information accessible you can go to the doctor mom membership.com or I should say doctor mom

[00:48:36] membership so not that we'll put the link here yeah I also include vaccine information and education

[00:48:42] inside the membership it's another thing that is probably one of the most anxiety provoking topics

[00:48:47] that I work with with parents and I never wanted to become the vaccine expert it's not something that

[00:48:52] brings me necessarily joy it's it's very complex it's very controversial but what brings me joy

[00:48:58] seeing an anxious parent go from feeling overwhelmed scared and uninformed to someone feeling confident

[00:49:06] about their vaccine plan and I support a parent who chooses to vaccinate and or who chooses no

[00:49:12] vaccines at all I just want parents to feel informed and empowered and so that's what I really love

[00:49:18] to do that education and I love seeing that transformation go from anxious to confident so that's

[00:49:23] all in the doctor mom membership I really I love doing this kind of work it it it brings me so much

[00:49:30] joy and if I can just help any kid or family feel a little bit less anxious about you know being sick

[00:49:36] because it's inevitable it's inevitably going to happen I know I've done my work so thank you for

[00:49:40] having me on thank you for letting me share the work that I do I love sharing more I I suppose I

[00:49:46] can also share the link to my main website which is med school for moms where you can find all my

[00:49:51] offerings there and all my free guides as well amazing yeah so good doctor Lana thank you so much I

[00:49:57] just I love everything I love your passion and your mission I love hearing you say you just want

[00:50:02] to empower people because that aligns so much with what we want to do we want to empower people

[00:50:07] to feel like they have independence and confidence in the decisions they make about their health

[00:50:12] and it's so aligned with us so we're so happy we we're able to have you on and thank you so much

[00:50:17] for your time thanks so much for sticking around for that interview with doctor Lana such valuable

[00:50:23] information Jenna and I could literally just talk to her all day if we had the opportunity to

[00:50:28] she was also kind enough to give us a discount code for people who might be interested in joining

[00:50:33] her membership so if you use code optimal at checkout when you're signing up for her membership you'll

[00:50:38] get a little extra discount and she has a workshop coming up on allergies on March 15th so if you

[00:50:44] decide to join the membership make sure you use code optimal and you will have access to that free

[00:50:49] workshop for her members only thank you for joining us on the ultimate body podcast if you've

[00:50:54] been listening and enjoying please consider leaving us a rating and review on your favorite

[00:50:58] podcasting platform and of course we will see you next time