I’m dying to try out these disgusting, yet nutritious apple bites, probably substituting almond butter for the Sunbutter for our play group.

2. Give out healthier treats on Halloween night

For trick-or-treaters, you can add to their health by giving out non-food items like cute erasers, glow-in the dark bracelets, stickers and such.

Or if you still want to give out candy, consider passing out treats that are organic, lower in sugar, and free of artificial colors and flavors. This fun option that has just 6g of sugar (oops, I swear it wasn’t me who already sampled this open package!)

But for the pulp, I prefer to roast sugar pie pumpkins to make pureé instead. It’s not as challenging as you may think, and can be super fun if you let the kids participate. You can eat pumpkin pureé as it as is, maybe seasoned with a little cinnamon and maple syrup. Or add it to yogurt, oatmeal, soup, or a pancake recipe. And of course, you can make pie!

Here’s some recipes your family with love…

Healthy Pumpkin Recipes

Easy Roasted Pumpkin Pureé based on recipe from Weelicious

Choose a healthy, blemish-free sugar pie pumpkin

1. Heat oven to 400°F.
2. Cut out a hole at the top of the pumpkin and just like you’re going to carve it, go ahead and scoop out the insides, placing the seeds into a bowl of water if choosing to save them for roasting separately.
3. Place pumpkin on baking sheet and cook for 40 minutes.
4. Fit top back on pumpkin and bake for another 20 minutes or until tender.
5. Remove top again and cool until easy to handle.
6. Scoop out the pumpkin and either mash, run it through a food mill, or pureé in a blender/food processor.

Use the  pureé in any of these Healthy Pumpkin Recipes:

Creamy Paleo Pumpkin Soup (dairy-free) by Tessa Domestic Diva

Healthy Pumpkin Pancakes (Gluten-free) by Paleo Grubs

Pumpkin Pie From Scratch by Food Foundation

20 Paleo Pumpkin Recipes by Against All Grain

And here’s a quick and easy recipe to roast pumpkin seeds:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds by Allrecipes

Enjoy!!

Do you like eating pumpkin in season? Are there any recipes you think we should try? Please let us know in the comments!

Maybe you heard it from your grandmother, or maybe from a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, like me: you need to bundle up when it’s cold outside or you’re going to get sick!

Until fairly recently, medical doctors believed this was a folk myth – only microorganisms can get you sick, not the weather. And because people crowd closer together indoors when it’s cold, they are more likely to share germs. But researchers at Yale have confirmed now that colder weather (and a colder body) actually slows our immune response, making rhinovirus and other pathogens more likely to get us sick.

TCM practitioners have known this about cold weather for thousands of years. Here’s a greater explanation of why you should listen to them (and your grandmother) when it comes to preventing illness when the temperatures drop.

How Weather Influences Us From A TCM Perspective

Cold is considered one of the “6 Evils”, along with Wind, Heat/Fire, Summer Heat, Damp, and Dryness. This might sound a little wacky to a modern mind, but if you place yourself in a world thousands of years ago when TCM was first developed, it makes perfect sense.

This is simply the way the Chinese explained how humans can be negatively affected by changes in nature. And what is happening outside of us can influence our inner landscape. For our discussion here about illness during cold weather, we are focusing on Cold and Wind.

Cold

External cold can create inner cold from the TCM perspective. Cold is congealing (think of water forming ice). It stagnates our vital energy and inhibits free movement of blood (slowing our immune response). It can also lead to sluggishness and cause muscles to contract & joints to stiffen.

This is why we TCM practitioners suggest that you stay warm in cold weather!

It’s why we use heat instead of ice to circulate energy around stiff, painful muscles & joints.

It’s why we suggest you limit cold, raw foods to the hottest months of the year and eat well-cooked food as well as inherently warmer foods (like onion and garlic if tolerated), during the rest of the year.

And it’s also why we suggest drinking fluids at room temperature or warmer.

Wind

The ancient Chinese Text Nei Jing says that “100 diseases develop from Wind”.

External Wind carries with it microorganisms and allergens. It’s light, airy, changes quickly, and likes to combine with other influences.

When wind is created in the body by itself, we experience dizziness, gas, tinnitus, tremors, and convulsions, depending on where it shows up in the body. When combined with Cold, a condition called Wind-Cold is created, which presents as initial symptoms of the Common Cold: stiff neck, headache, runny nose, chills, and possibly a fever.

Preventing Wind-Cold

Wind carries Cold into the body (in addition to Heat, but we’re not going there today). Certain areas of the body are more vulnerable than others, particularly the head, neck, and upper back. There is even a point on the upper back called Wind Gate that we use to “release exterior wind” when someone gets a cold. It’s important to stop the “invasion” here before Cold progresses to the Lungs and causes further complications.

But remember, any experience of cold and shivering with any exposed body part can lower your immune response, so these are not the only areas we need to guard.

Staying cooped up indoors is not a healthy option. Getting fresh air is still a good idea.

So how do you prevent Wind-Cold invasion?

Simply…

• Wear a scarf and hat

• Cover up immediately when your pores are open, like after a sweaty gym workout or getting out of a hot bath

• Wear socks or slippers in the house, especially on cold tile floors

• Wear pants and shoes (seriously Californians!)

In Conclusion

Suffering from the wind and cold is not fun, so why don’t we listen to our bodies and just cover up? I know you don’t want to get sick and you certainly don’t want your family members to get sick either.

Hopefully the information I shared here is enough to encourage you to cover up sufficiently (in addition to eating well and avoiding stress) to protect your immune system and prevent colds. Because not everyone exposed to rhinovirus and influenza gets sick – only those who have a weakened immune system.

Next week we’ll look at TCM treatments you can apply at home if you do actually get ill…

Do you cover up sufficiently when it gets cold outside? Is it because you’re trying to prevent a cold or you’re just uncomfortable? As always, I’d love to read your comments and have a discussion about this!

It’s back-to-school time for many kids and Autumn is just a month away! As you start to get more serious about family schedules and such, it’s also a good idea to assess your kid’s health, since the changing season comes with many stressors that can get them sick, like …

• Fluctuating hot-cold Fall weather can be difficult for their bodies to adjust to.

• Being packed in small classrooms with infectious kids (there’s always at least one runny nose in the room, right?!)

• Having compromised gut flora and depressed immune systems from a Summer full of sugar, high exposure to chlorine in pools, and a recent round of vaccinations.

• Low vitamin D stores if they were constantly covered-up with sunscreen outside and were not getting dietary supplements.

I’m sorry to say this, but getting the cold or flu is not the only concern.

Asthma attacks have been shown to spike during the Fall, mostly because for some children cold & flu viruses progress to the lungs and cause irritation, but also due to the colder lung-constricting weather, and mold allergies.

Asthma Statistics, an Increasing Concern

Asthma is a really, really big deal, as parents who have a child with this condition know. Breath is life and heart breaking to watch your child gasping for it. Here’s some statistics that may interest you:

• Asthma is on the rise and children are effected the most, according to CDC statistics (8.4% of children with asthma vs. 7.6% of adults in 2015).

• It accounted for 1.6 million emergency room visits in 2013 alone.

• Asthma attacks result in thousands of deaths each year.

Parents should be concerned about these statistics because asthma can develop at ANY time during adolescence. Just because your child doesn’t have it today doesn’t mean they won’t have it soon, especially if they already have an inflammatory condition like food/seasonal allergies, eczema, and chronic ear & sinus infections.

Also, the standard medicines used to manage asthma are clearly not enough to bring morbidity down. Though the prescribed meds are very effective for calming attacks, there are serious side effects. Bronchodilators are stimulating like caffeine, so they may cause increased heart rate, insomnia, and hyperactivity. Steroids, on the other hand, can cause immune suppression and growth delays.

There is another hope in managing asthma in children that is complementary to the current Western medical approach – an older system from the East that focuses more on the energetic as well as physiological imbalances that makes certain children more susceptible to asthma: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

TCM For Childhood Asthma

What makes TCM most attractive as a complementary approach for asthma is that it is individualized for the patient. Their symptoms and presentation are taken into account, differentiated between acute and chronic illness, and within each category the organ/channel disharmony is defined (it’s often an imbalance involving Lung energy, which is the organ/channel system that relates to Autumn – yet another reason why asthma attacks are greater in the upcoming season!). This input then guides the practitioner to the appropriate treatment.

Through gently-placed needles or non-invasive methods like laser or massage, specific acupoints are stimulated which balance the energy, essentially teaching the body how to heal itself. From a biomedical perspective, stimulation of acupoints helps to reduce inflammation, reduce bronchospasm in the case of asthma, and bolster the immune system.

Chinese herbal remedies aid in the reduction of inflammation and bronchospasm too. But they also address the root energetic imbalance that is present. So for pediatric asthma, herbs that tonify the Lungs, Spleen, and Kidney organs would likely be prescribed.

Most TCM practitioners also advise on whole food nutrition, which sustains the effects of acupuncture and herbs and sets your child up for a lifetime of healthy eating based on their personal constitution.

And skilled practitioners can teach your child relaxation techniques that will keep the airway relaxed when your child feels an attack coming on. They can have their inhaler handy, but may not need to use it!

Here’s a wonderful article with greater detail: Childhood Asthma – The Traditional Chinese Medicine Approach

Asthma sufferers have reported that TCM treatments result in:

• Symptom relief – deeper breathing, less wheezing, greater physical endurance

• A decrease in asthma attacks

• Less dependence on medications

Next Steps For Healing Your Child’s Asthma Naturally

If your child has asthma, getting them in with a TCM practitioner is one of the best things you can do for them! And if your child doesn’t have asthma, but is at risk, they can receive wellness treatments that will keep them strong and prevent asthma from happening in the first place. The time to help them is now.

Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments! If you need personal help, know that I provide free 15 minute consultations where we can discuss your family’s needs or I can help connect you with a TCM Practitioner in your area. Well wishes to you all…

Resources:

Flaws, Bob. A Handbook of TCM Pediatrics. Boulder, CO: Blue Poppy Press, 2006

Neustaedter, Randall. The Holistic Baby Guide. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2010

Sitting still and listening in a classroom is challenging for most kids and is just one of the many reasons why school is not a great fit for my family (we’ve been homeschooling for a year). But for kids with ADHD, time in the classroom can be unbearable. They tend to:

• daydream

• fidget

• talk out of turn

• engage in impulsive behavior

They also tend to get in trouble for these behaviors because they distract the other kids from focusing and make it hard for the teacher to manage the whole group. As a result, these kids can start to dislike school, get lower grades, and they often lose self-esteem. It is a serious issue because if not treated, these kids have a harder time finishing school and can grow into adults who have a greater chance of:

• Experiencing depression

• Abusing drugs & alcohol

• Job failure

• Incarceration

• Obesity

• Divorce

• Alzheimer’s disease

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The CDC reports that as of 2012 approximately 11% of children 4-17 years of age (6.4 million) have been diagnosed with ADHD.

You can use the checklist in this link to determine if your child has a problem with inattention or hyperactivity/impulsivity that would fit their definition of ADHD.

What do I know about ADHD?

I know quite a lot, actually! My brother (who is 15 years younger than me) was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in high school. I tutored him quite often because homework and special projects were always a challenge for him. I was a grounding presence, constantly teaching him how to organize his thoughts and how to focus on the present moment.

He was tested for learning disabilities, but it was clear that was not the problem. Still, tests were hard for him to complete in time, his grades were low and school counselors were urging my mom to medicate him.

We just wanted him to be successful, so my mom did get a prescription filled for Ritalin, the standard medication for ADHD. He refused to take it. So instead, she focused on reducing sweets, managing his screen time, and making other lifestyle changes. It was hard and he barely made through high school, but he did make it. He is now a responsible grown man, doing great at a job he loves, while he supports his wife and 3 kids.

I learned great deal, through my brother’s experience, about how lifestyle choices can affect the brain (though I wish I knew then what I know now about natural remedies).

I also saw how easy it was to succumb to the pressure of school authorities to medicate and dampen the symptoms of the problem just to fit certain standards and make the teacher’s job easier.

Standard Treatment for ADHD

Ritalin and Adderall are the most common medications prescribed for ADHD. They are very effective in helping children focus better, but the side effects are pretty horrible for both:

Common side effects:

• trouble sleeping
• loss of appetite
• dry mouth
• anxiety
• increased heart rate
• irritability
• headache
• dizziness

Serious side effects can include:

• addiction
• heart rhythm problems
• psychosis, hallucinations, or feeling like bugs are crawling on your skin
• Raynaud’s syndrome
• slowed growth in children

Can you imagine a young child dealing with psychosis and addiction? There are dozens of other medications doctors can prescribe too, some of them classified as non-stimulants, but they have a reputation for not working as well. Luckily, there is much you can do before considering medication!

Natural Solutions For ADHD

1. Identify The Cause And Remove Triggers

If your child has signs of developing an attention disorder, determining the triggers and addressing them should be your first step.

Known causes of ADHD include birth trauma, maternal drug use, premature birth, and low birth weight. Environmental toxins definitely have an impact as well though. The CDC cites lead exposure as being a culprit in some cases, though mercury and aluminum exposure have a strong correlation with ADHD too and are way more predominant in our culture these days (through food, dental fillings, and an increasing load of vaccines).

The CDC also states that although they haven’t been proven to cause ADHD, eating too much sugar, eating junk food, watching too much TV, playing video games, and long periods of inactivity can make symptoms worse, so are recognized as triggers.

Avoiding the causes and removing the triggers can help immensely, even if there’s a history of ADHD in the family.

2. Heavy Metal Detoxification

Purging your child’s body of heavy metals is a good idea, even if you don’t think it’s the main cause of his/her symptoms. This is a great article explaining more about the prevalence of metals in our environment, in our bodies, and how we pass on this toxic load through the generations.

Detox can be done through diet, incorporating these foods into a daily smoothie:

• cilantro
• wild blueberries
• celery
• barley grass juice
• spirulina
• Atlantic dulse

You can also give your child a detox bath with these ingredients:

• 1 cup epsom salt
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 10 drops of essential oil, optional (citrus oils like wild orange, mint oils like spearmint, rosemary, clove, and myrrh are well-known for their detoxifying properties)

3. Traditional Chinese Medicine

Many of you may be puzzled as you imagine your hyperactive child laying still for several minutes with a dozen acupuncture needles. Is that even possible?! You may actually be surprised at how receptive your child is to acupuncture once they know how relaxing it can be! And with younger kids, needle retention is very brief.

But even for kids who are needle shy or cannot sit still, there are many other treatment options available: Tuina massage, cupping, cold laser, microcurrent, and shonishin (Japanese acupressure).

Side story here:

I was seeing an 8-year-old patient for his attention disorder and there was no way he would let me use needles. Even though his mom was urging me to assert my authority and do it anyway, I respected his wish and reassured her that other methods of treatment were just as effective as acupuncture.

We did Tuina massage instead. Every time, he would be squirmy and silly for the first 15 minutes and I’d engage him with jokes. But when I’d start working on his back and especially when I would massage his feet, he would fall asleep – every – single – time!

He looked forward to our treatments together and said that he could focus a little better in school, but the problem was that all the triggers for his behaviors were not being addressed.

His parents were divorced and he was constantly shuffled between the two homes. His dad was not supportive of what we were doing and the boy ate junk food, was constantly in front of the TV, and didn’t get enough sleep at his house. But his mom and I were happy that he was getting a much needed break when he was in her care and that he appreciated this natural approach to healing.

4. Balance Blood Sugar Levels

Riding the roller coaster of a sugar high and the subsequent crash can make matters much worse for a child with ADHD. To have the greatest success, decreasing the load of sugar in their diet is very important. Check out my post Have a Sweet Summer Without the Excess Sugar to learn how to balance blood sugar levels and make better choices (not just in the Summer, but for life!)

5. GAPS Diet & Rebuilding Gut Biome

The Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet is something you may want to explore for your child. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride has had a great deal of success healing children and adults with not just A.D.D./A.D.H.D., but also autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia, depression, schizophrenia, and many autoimmune disorders.

GAPS children and adults all have digestive problems – colic, bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, and malnourishment – to different degrees. McBride and many other researchers believe that all disease begins in the gut and these are digestive disorders, not behavior disorders.

The focus of the diet is to eliminate grains (which are abrasive to the intestines, break down to considerable amounts of sugar and contribute to poor gut flora levels) and refined sugar, and then restore gut flora with healing broths, fermented foods, and supplements.

It’s not as hard as it sounds. I’ve done it for myself and did not starve. There are a lot of yummy recipes, including many bread substitutes, that your family will enjoy.

You can Follow my Pinterest GAPS Board for ideas.

If the GAPS diet sounds too daunting, then at least try the other methods of restoring gut health that I’ve outlined here: Improve Your Family’s Gut Health to Increase General Health, Part 2.

I know it’s challenging to eat a basic diet like this when we’re so used to stimulating processed food, large amounts of sugar, and artificial ingredients that make up the Standard American Diet. But this is one of the main reasons why Americans have one of the highest rates of chronic disease in the world and why our children are suffering. It’s important to go against the grain (pun intended) and make your child’s health a priority, even if it’s inconvenient!

6. Behavior Therapies/Mindfulness Practices

Managing ADHD will be easier if your child is aware of his/her behavior and what affects it. Psychologists, licensed counselors, and social workers can all provide behavior therapy that trains both children and their parents on how to control behavior.

The CDC has a directory for behavior therapists, including online resources.

Your family can also engage in mindfulness practices on your own that will help ground your energy, teach body awareness, and to provide insight about behavior and what brings you out of balance and out of control.

Walking meditation is perfect for kids with a lot of pent up energy, and especially for those with ADHD. Here’s a simple, fun, walking mediation practice from Jaclyn Long at Mind Body Moms: