Raising Healthy Children in Today’s Toxic World
Fall 2016IJPHA ~ Raising Healthy Children.pdf
IJPHAVol. 5Issue 2Fall 2016
Raising children naturally in today's world can be difficult with the impact of the fast action pace of a modern technological society. There are many things we, as parents, can do to bring a sense of balance and wellness to our overstressed and over scheduled children and families. With a few basic tools and guidelines, one can approach raising healthy, balanced children in the midst of a somewhat toxic environment of sprayed foods, chlorinated water, polluted air and multiple electronic devises. In addition to more obvious lifestyle changes outlined below, incorporating essential oils and Aromatherapy can also play an enormous role to support a healthy home environment.
When we analyze all of life with the knowledge that everything that happens within and around us is a chemical reaction, it becomes very clear that we need the purest food, water and air to “grow” healthy children. These basics building blocks also need to be balanced with a healthy lifestyle of exercise, rest and emotional stability. Each person’s state of health is based on the interaction of these variables including one’s own unique genetic makeup (DNA).
From the moment a women finds out she is pregnant, she can be on the road to supporting a healthy child. Yet, the obvious choices of not drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes aren’t enough these days. Women need to be proactive in avoiding an array of toxins that are ever present in our day-to-day products to help ensure a healthier body, mind and emotional state, for both parent and child.
Christopher Gavigan, in his book Healthy Child Healthy World, poignantly points out that tens of millions of Americans, overwhelmingly children, now face chronic diseases and illnesses including cancer, autism, asthma, allergies, birth defects, ADD/ADHD, obesity/diabetes, and learning and developmental disabilities. These numbers are constantly growing with more and more scientific evidence finding that it is the chemicals in our food, our everyday cleaning supplies, beauty care, cosmetics, home furnishings, plastics, and even our children’s toys that contribute to these ailments.
The good news is that we can do something to protect our children and ourselves with a few simple changes! Diet is the most important defense that we, and our children, have against disease. In the early years, women can breast feed their babies, providing them with one of the most nourishing liquids, breast milk. Offering healthy blended fresh steamed vegetables and fruits and blended fresh lean meats will always be far superior then store bought baby formula and jarred foods. The easiest rule to follow is to buy your foods closest to the source. This means freshly picked items at the local market, whole grains and lean meats. Of course making sure your produce, dairy and meats are organic, unsprayed and have no GMO’s is equally important.
Most store bought cereals and breads are highly refined and don’t provide the nutrients your children need to start their day. These types of empty calorie carbohydrates end up giving the big sugar drop a couple of hours after eating and can affect children’s ability to sit still and stay focused for long periods of time, thus an additional issue for ADHD children. Not only are fresh foods better for us, but when we avoid canned and processed foods, we are avoiding the leaking of carcinogenic PET’s from the plastic containers and canned foods’ inner coatings.
In addition to healthy foods, we also need lots of fresh water to keep the body hydrated and the systems of the body functioning optimally. Sodas and other prepackaged drinks actually dehydrate the body with their sugary syrups and the added chemicals that act as preservatives and artificial coloring. Even fruit juices, while providing healthy enzymes and natural sugars, should be as fresh as possible and kept to a minimum due their high sugar content. The NRDC (Natural Resource Defense Council) report “What's On Tap?” recommends you ask your water utility company that sends you your water bill for a copy of their annual water quality report. No matter the results, using a charcoal filter before water enters the house, coupled with a quality filter for drinking water will remove the heavy metals and many toxic substances that still filter through municipal facilities to our home faucets. There are numerous good water filtration systems on the market, and it is recommended to review a few to see which one suits your needs and situation. Using your own glass water bottle instead of buying water in plastic also helps prevent additional PBC exposure on a daily basis.
While one might think these changes are hard to incorporate with young children exposed to commercials of fun cereals, chips, cookies and sodas, it’s not hard for a five year old to understand that their body will grow healthier if fed fresh vegetables and fresh fruit juice vs. Oreo cookies and soda. Save the “treats” for special occasions like birthday parties or the movies once in a while, so it’s best not to keep these items in the house! Providing cut up vegetables and other healthy options when the family comes home from a busy day is imperative, since everyone’s usually ravenous and will eat anything placed before them.
Having a small garden patch or herbs in pots in the widow sill help children realize that food doesn’t just come from the grocery store and they take a pride in gathering the “fruits of their labor” and eating these items readily! Making food fun to eat by creating smiley faces and animal figures help children enjoy the experience of eating vegetables. Adding a variety of fresh herbs and spices add flavor and provide valuable phyto-nutrients, essential oils, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals not found in your typical fruits and vegetables.
For even more information on what’s healthy in your grocery store, Environmental Working Group (http://www.ewg.org/) is a fountain of information. Their website shows you how to read the PLU#, to tell you if your produce is conventional, organic, or genetically modified, as well as a host of other consumer information for making the change over to a healthier lifestyle.
Remember, too, that it’s not just the food you eat, but how you prepare it. Another modern culprit that is demise to our health is the Microwave. Microwaves drastically change the chemical structure of food, loosing the nutrients and stimulating vibrational energy that is not normal for ingestion. It is always best to steam your vegetables or sauté with olive oil or an oil that has a high heat index so its chemistry doesn’t change during the cooking process.
With our families on a healthy diet, with fresh air and exercise built in, there’s still the external part of our world with cleaning supplies and body care products. The David Suzuki Foundation’s survey of 12,500 everyday products discovered that four out of five contained at least one toxic substance belonging to a list the environmental group has dubbed "the dirty dozen."
U.S. researchers have identified 10,500 industrial chemicals used as cosmetic ingredients, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxics, endocrine disruptors, plasticizers, degreasers and surfactants, and triclosan in hand soaps, as well as flame retardants in household furniture and even hormone disrupting phthalates in toys.( http://www.davidsuzuki.org/)
These chemicals include things like bisphenol-A in food containers and baby bottles (recently added to the federal government's official list of toxic substances); parabens, which are linked to breast cancer; and sodium laureth sulfate, a chemical foaming agent that may be contaminated with ethylene oxide and 1,4-dioxane, both of which have been shown to cause cancer.
The compounds on which most concerns have focused are Bisphenol A (known as BPA), which is used in tough polycarbonate products and epoxy resins that line tin cans, and a group of plastic softeners called phthalates. Unfortunately, if you want to avoid BPA and phthalates, the problem is that you probably can’t. They are all around us, in compact discs, car parts, carpets, floor tiles, cosmetics - the list is endless.
Fortunately, today there are ever growing selections of pure and natural brands than there used to be for everyday household products. There are also numerous DIY recipes using simple, natural ingredients, which are cost effective and easy enough to add to your basic shopping list. And using a refillable glass container is safer and saves on your carbon footprint.
Clean air is also a necessity to help with optimal health. Today, 6.5 million children under the age of 18 have asthma, an increase of 200% since 1980. One in 11 school aged children suffers allergies from dust mites, mold, pet dander, but insecticides, and chemicals in plastics, especially Formaldehyde. (http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/publications/books/housing/cha05.htm)
Saturating a cotton ball with either Lemon or Pine, or an essential oil high in limonene and/or pinenes and putting it in your air filter can help eradicate mold, mildew or other unwelcomes microbes in the air. This is a great preventative measure to keeping your home germ free, as well as providing antioxidants for ridding free radicals in the air and body when inhaled.
Even though exercise is vitally important to the overall picture of health and wellness for our families, we tend to be over booked with school sports teams and travel leagues after school, so it is vitally important to give everyone the space to turn everything off.
However, gaming and television are not the down time they need. These devises warp children’s minds with violence and do not necessarily offer healthy moral compasses, as well as the problem that TV and electronics (EMW) emit EMF electro magnetic fields and other unseen energetics. It’s especially important that children’s computers and plugs are far from their beds so at night they aren’t bombarded by EMFs.
After reviewing the above, it can seem helplessly overwhelming to raise healthy families in todays world. But, this is where the use of pure, therapeutic essential oils in our daily lives can prove to be lifesavers in this toxic, fast paced world we live in. Not only can essential oils act as natural antioxidants that swoop up harmful free radicals caused by these toxins, but each essential oil’s own unique chemistry has profound effects on our physical, emotional and mental well being.
There are numerous simple recipes for common issues concerning pregnancy, childbirth and post delivery for both the mother’s concerns and additionally supporting the immune system and remedies for common childhood ailments.
While there are many aromatherapy sites and books that offer simple solutions for day to day concerns, make sure to do as much research as possible before implementing said recipes. Proper dilution of essential oils in a safe carrier oil or lotion is paramount. EO’s applied directly on the skin (neat) can cause irritation, but worse, over time, cause sensitization if not used carefully. Certain EO’s react with sunlight (Bergamot, Lemon, Opopanax) so make sure to read all safety precautions for each oil you decide to use. Some oils should not be used with very young children and some are contra-indicated for pregnancy and those with other compromising medical situations.
Even when we feel we do everything “right”, our children still become sick. When this happens, it is usually a sign that there is some type of stress in their lives. Getting sick is the body’s way of telling us that things are out of balance. The best practice when a child gets a fever is to help them cool off and keep them comfortable, but not to reduce the fever so much that their immune system doesn’t burn off the foreign bodies. Of course one needs to monitor the fever temperature and not allow it to go above 102, nor last for more than a day or two. It’s equally important to remember that when a child gets a cold, they are ridding the body of excess mucus developed as a response to the infection. This, too, is an important part of the immune process of ridding the bacteria and harmful pathogens from the lungs and sinuses.
The vital point to note about over the counter and prescribed“DRUGS” is that they do not eliminate the causes of the vast majority of health problems, but only suppress or mask the symptoms that can sometimes drive disease and illness even deeper, frequently causing other side effects and not addressing the source of ones imbalance.
While it isn’t always easy to implement these suggestions, it is much better to be proactive in encouraging a healthy lifestyle than treating what could eventually be the resulting acute symptoms of toxic living. In helping to bring the family to a healthier, more balanced way of living, keeping a natural Pharmacy at home is recommended.
The below list are some gentle and safe essential oils that are easily attained and extremely useful for everyday ailments and for more general use to strengthen systems of the body.
Roman Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) is overall calming to the nervous system with its high ester content, and is also good for easing stomach upset.
Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) is extremely disinfecting in its actions, helping keep germs at bay and aiding with bronchial congestion, due to its high 1,8-cinelole content. .
Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) is balancing to the emotions and helps in detoxifying the body by supporting lymphatic actions. Its diverse profile of active chemical components makes it useful for regulating the body’s hormones and many other concerns, such as lethargy, tension, swelling and bloating, infections and skin health.
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) has great antiseptic properties with it’s high linalool content , as well as being relaxing with its high ester content. Its diverse profile makes it very versatile for numerous complaints, such as skin concerns, burns, bites, inflammation, infections, tension and cramping.
Lemon (Citrus limon) is both brightening, refreshing and uplifting to the emotional self while exhibiting antioxidant and liver tonifying properties with its high concentration of d-limonene.
Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) is cooling and refreshing and great for nausea and stomach upset as well as being a good choice for topical pain relief with its high menthol and methone content.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis ct.) has both awakening and clarifying properties for mental acuity and is also good for increasing circulation, and clearing respiratory congestion. Rosemary’s camphor content, alongside its high monoterpenes and esters, make it a gentle yet effective decongestant and analgesic.
A few drops of any of these essential oils saturated on a cotton ball and kept in an air tight container allows the oil’s vapors to be inhaled when opened and have a direct effect on the olfactory sense, which in turn, effects their corresponding systems directly.
One can create a large variety of treatments utilizing these healing essential oils, from creams, lotions, massage oils, salves, mists, gels, cleansing products, etc., Just about ever product in your home can be substituted with home made recipes of all natural ingredients, with the added benefits that they smell good and have positive side effects.
In today’s world we need an arsenal of products and ways of living naturally to combat the ever-growing bombardment of chemical warfare entering our system on a daily basis. By incorporating more essential oils and natural organic products, we have a fighting chance!
Read more:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad381.pdf
http://www.healthychild.org/issues
http://www.Healthyparenting.net
http://www.healthychild.org/live-healthy/
http://www.nrdc.org/health/safe-drinking-water.asp