Two Rivers Health

At Two Rivers Health, we love to meet with you and your baby as soon as you feel up to it following the birth. Usually this is anytime from Day 8 of baby’s life.

Baby’s First Naturopathic Visit includes a chat about your pregnancy and and birth experience and any concerns that may have arisen for you. We care for both of you as a “mother-infant dyad” and we want to make sure you’re receiving what you need. We’ll complete Baby’s first WellChild Checkup including weight and measurements, listen to her heart and lungs, and get a growth chart started. We’ll support you with any breastfeeding concerns, help you identify whether baby blues or postpartum depression are at play, and provide safe and natural strategies if you need treatment options. We’ll discuss special maternal and infant nutrition, sleep, and immune support. We’ll make sure you’re receiving the TLC you need as a new mom and help you align with resources in the community who are also here to help make this year as healthy, joyful and supported for both of you as possible.

Ever wondered if it’s normal for your baby to have crazy stinky stools, colic, gas, spinach-green poops or even no poops at all? Considerable research points to a healthy infant digestive tract playing a critical role in her immune system’s development.

We want your child to THRIVE. Just as with yourself, symptoms don’t come from nothing; they’re signals from the body that something is our of balance. We listen closely to these signals so that we can provide the resources the child needs, or remove the obstacles in the way of, healing and thriving.

Along with the food your baby eats, the bacterial flora in her digestive system is incredibly influential in shaping her overall health. The gut is the interface between the external world and what gets into the body. There are more neurotransmitter receptors in the gut than in the brain, and 75% of the immune system resides in the gut.

Signs of imbalanced gut health are often dismissed by conventional health care providers. Unfortunately, many parents are told that symptoms like colic, rashes, gas, constipation or mucusy stools are “normal” and that they should just wait them out.

As Naturopathic Doctors, our years of clinical experience and hundreds of published studies disagree: symptoms such as these are not only uncomfortable for babies and parents, they’re signs from the body of imbalances that need to be reversed. Left to progress, babies (and the entire family) are not only suffering unnecessarily, but could become predisposed to more severe, chronic conditions like allergies and asthma.

GETTING A GOOD GUT FEELING

Baby’s digestive system develops through her first year of life. This is why we wait to introduce meats, for example – babies don’t have enough stomach acid to break down meats until they’re about 10 months old. The types of bacteria that colonize the baby’s gut in the first few days of life will also influence her ability to digest food including breastmilk or formula and will have a tremendous influence on her immune development. For example, babies born by Cesarean section aren’t exposed to the beneficial bacteria in the birth canal. Their first bacteria is hospital bacteria, so they need plenty of skin-to-skin contact right away to pick up good bacteria from their mother. C-section delivery increases the risk that a child will develop allergies and asthma.

Since bacterial life is so important to your baby’s future health, we suggest the use of infant-specific probiotic supplements to support the types of bacteria that truly belong in their gut. Probiotics are good bacteria that are proven to benefit the infant’s digestive tract – also signal the immune system to develop “tolerance” to the outside world thereby decreasing the risk of allergies. Probiotic bacteria also aid in digestion and breakdown of breastmilk or formula, thereby reducing gas, bloating, abnormal stools, and even reflux.

What is The ALLERGIC TRIAD?

What do allergies, eczema and asthma have in common? They’re known as the “Allergic Triad” and they’re all atopic illnesses, meaning they come from an imbalanced immune system. Probiotics from day one of Baby’s life have been shown to decrease children’s risk of developing eczema and wheezing later in childhood.

We can guide you in the steps needed to train your baby’s immune system to be tolerant of the outside world with no need to “over-respond”, and you can decrease your child’s risk of developing these more serious conditions.

Naturopathic Care in Baby’s First Year

As your child’s Naturopathic Doctors, we can help you:

• Promote breastfeeding in cases of poor latch, low milk supply, failure to thrive, etc.
• Optimize your baby’s nutrition levels
• Relieve colic, reflux or constipation
• Understand which supplements your baby needs and why
• Understand how and when to modify diet to promote healthy digestion
• Recover your mood and energy in the postpartum year
• Prevent colds and viral infections and learn how to manage common illnesses safely at home
• Treat symptoms that seem “off” to you, such as a change in energy, sleep, or digestion (even if your doctor suggests these signs are “normal”)

Naturopathic Medicine is the safest system of health care and offers extraordinary tools to help kids grow up strong and healthy.
We recognize the many influences on your child’s health, and can help your child take personal age-appropriate steps to care for his or her own well-being. We’ll help piece together what’s really going on below the surface that’s creating your child’s stomach aches, constipation, headaches, insomnia, difficult behaviour or even depression or anxiety. We’ll help you understand the various medical and naturopathic treatment choices available to you and make sure you and your child are comfortable with your plan. And we’ll have some fun as we go!
We encourage you and your child to book a Free, 15-minute Meet-and-Greet appointment with your Naturopathic Doctor so they can get a sense for the clinic before getting started. We find this helps alleviate apprehensiveness or worries that children have about “going to see the doctor”, especially if they’ve been through some difficult experiences at other places.

As primary care doctors, we are able to help with many common concerns of childhood & adolescence:

• Allergies
• Eczema and Skin Rashes
• Food Intolerances and Sensitivities
• Failure to Thrive in Babies or Growth Issues in Children
• Introducing Solids to Infants
• Infant & Child Nutrition
• Fevers
• Digestive Problems
• Headaches
• Stress, Anxiety & Fears
• Depression
• Sleep Problems
• ADD/ADHD
• PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders After Strep)

If your child isn’t feeling his or her best, we would love to help him or her feel better. Contact us with any questions or to book a Free meet-and-greet appointment over the phone or in person.

Tools we can use to help your child feel his or her best include:

• Clinical Nutrition
• Food Intolerance Testing
• Nutritional supplementation
• Counselling, Lifestyle Recommendations & Self-Care
• Botanical Medicines
• Homeopathic Remedies
• Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Acupuncture
• Mind-Body Medicine & Meditation
• Stress Reduction Techniques

Recognizing each young person as a unique individual, we strive to respond to the many influences on your child’s health by providing resources the body is “asking for” when it produces symptoms, or removing obstacles to the body’s innate ability to heal and be well.
We’ve helped hundreds of Guelph families experience the freedom and joy of optimal health. We’ve found that improving the health of a child improves the wellbeing of the entire family, and is one of the most rewarding aspects of our work as Naturopathic Doctors in our community. We thank you for the opportunity to help you and your family live your best lives, and we can’t wait to meet with you and your Little Ones!