Fall Into Health: A Healthy Kids Course for Mamas

When a child feels better, the whole family feels better! Recently we had a cold go through our household, the third of the season so far, and it sunk in a little longer for me. I was so relieved to have just restocked our cold and flu care goodies (whew!) and took this as a reminder that other mamas are looking for this very kind of info right now for their kids. **Illness is a normal part of life, and a necessary part of childhood. Our goal is to support the body’s natural ability to heal itself and reduce the frequency, severity, duration, and chances of long-term term sequelae of colds, flu and viral infections.** Here are a few examples … Read More

Immune-Boosting Elderberry Gummies for Kids

We’re always on the lookout for easy ways to help you help your family prevent illness, and move through them faster if you do get sick. Elderberry is one of our favourite family herbs. Keep some dried berries or a commercially available syrup in your natural medicine cabinet at home so you can reach for it when a cold or flu hits the household. Elderberry has a long history of use in Europe for treating coughs, colds and fevers. It’s the perfect herb for flu season. Elderberry tastes nice, so it’s easy to get into kids as a syrup or warm or iced herbal tea, frozen pops or integrated into smoothies. It helps fight viral infections Gelatin is one of … Read More

“Natural First Aid”: Homeopathic Medicine & Your Child

As your naturopathic doctor, one way I help is to empower you to create the conditions for health in your home and life. This includes giving you tools to help you and your kids recover from and prevent common family health concerns like colds and flus, bumps and bruises, stings and strains, tummy aches, headaches and more. More often than not, minor conditions and symptoms respond to safe and gentle self-care methods and natural remedies you can keep in your kitchen and medicine cabinet. It’s a passion of mine to help make sure all of the families we serve are equipped to do this successfully. My first experiences with “natural first aid” were as a child. By the time I began my formal medical … Read More

Why a Raw Diet May NOT Be Good for You

One of the questions I receive most often from folks doing cleanses is: “Why am I still bloated?” This week, my Fresh Cleanse group is heading into Phase 3 of our 21-Day program. If you’re doing a cleanse, and you’re well into it and still dealing with gas, bloating, indigestion or belching, let’s solve this here and now! It’s quite likely that you need to emphasize less raw, cold food and more warm, cooked food. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we recognize that it takes more energy from the body to digest food when it comes in cold and raw. The digestive system is seen like a fire that needs to be fuelled in order to keep breaking down and dispersing all those … Read More

Can Hallowe’en Be Fun AND Healthy?

Boo! This time of year, parents of kids with foods sensitivities have more to be frightened of than the ghouls and goblins haunting their neighbourhoods. I got a scare myself when I heard on a CBC news report that our American neighbours spend over $4 billion on Hallowe’en candy every year – that’s more than they spend on costumes and decorations! That’s the annual GDP of Prince Edward Island (our country’s smallest province, but still – all the money generated by an entire province in a year!) Considering that candy is dirt-cheap, that’s one creepy, very expensive mountain of high-fructose corn syrup and plastic packaging. We can’t be too proud up here in Canada as we celebrate Hallowe’en in exactly the … Read More

#2 Superfood: Gelatin, The Youthmaker

Gelatin: The Youthmaker The wiggly stuff behind “Jello”, gelatin is a fibrous protein made of amino acids, the building blocks of about a third of the protein in your body. It gives resiliency to our bones, ligaments, joints and muscles. It helps keep our skin wrinkle-free and our hair and nails healthy. Gelatin also heals the gut wall and improves digestion since it naturally binds to water and helps food move more easily. If you’re focusing on anti-aging, gelatin is a great source of collagen. Choose plain, unsweetened gelatin derived from grass-fed beef and use natural fruit and fruit juices to sweeten your gelatin-based treats. Gelatin “jellies” are a great way to serve medicinal herbs and teas to kids, such … Read More

Drink Your Way to Health: The Benefits of Green Tea

It’s tea time! Green tea is one of my favourite superfoods – it’s energizing yet calming – the “zen” option in the caffeinated world – antioxidant, antiaging, and even has antiviral properties. That’s right, regular green tea drinkers are at a lower risk of coming down with seasonal flu and other viral infections. It’s effective for infection prevention in kids, although you may want to choose a decaffeinated option for your little ones. Clinically, we suggest green tea as an affordable health-booster and we also use ECGC (a constituent of green tea) as a detox- and weight loss-support. Recently, we’re experimenting with matcha, a beautiful bright green powder made from grinding green tea on a stone mill. It’s a superfood that adds … Read More