Raising Healthy Children

As a parent, there are so many choices out there about how to raise a healthy child. It even starts prior to birth, with the many choices about how to give birth. I am not a parent yet, however I am hoping to be one day, so I have been researching and thinking long and hard about how my husband and I want to raise our children.
Lately, some of the topics we’ve been discussing and researching have brought heated discussions among others, such as the choice of vaccination, whereas other topics, such as what foods to feed your child aren’t quite so heated. This got me thinking a little, where do parents turn when they are looking for more information? When they are looking for like-minded support as some of their own peers are shunning their decisions?
Since I am a chiropractor, and am surrounded by other like-minded people, I feel I have the support, however there are many parents out there who may not have the support they need, for our world is unfortunately embedded in the more medical ways. Natural health and wellness is gaining ground, don’t get me wrong, but when it comes to decisions for a child, it’s still a tricky path to navigate in our society on certain topics.
Everyone can pretty much agree that it’s better to feed your child healthy, organic foods over foods laden with sugar, high fructose corn syrup and fast foods. Majority of people also agree that it’s best for children to get outside and play, to be involved in physical activities instead of sitting their days away in front of computers, tv screens and video-games. Healthy foods and physical activity breed health, it’s pretty much a no-brainer.
Having your child checked by a chiropractor, to make sure their brain and body is communicating 100% via their central nerve system is also very important to your child growing up healthy. Sometimes this raises debate with people who don’t yet understand what chiropractic truly is; which is allowing your body to function at it’s best by making sure there is no interference in your central nerve system. If you want more information about chiropractic care for children, a good website devoted to the topic is www.icpa4kids.org.
One heated area of debate among our society is the choice of vaccination. I saw first hand how heated this can get, even up to the political level, and it got me wondering if people who are grappling with the decision even know where to turn for information on both sides so they can make an informed decision about it. It seems, unfortunately, that we are not always told the whole package of information by those who are advocating for vaccines, and I’ve had many people ask me where to get more information on the topic. A good website to begin with that has lots of information is www.nvic.org. This website is dedicated to having the most up to date information available to allow parents to be informed about all sides of the decision to vaccinate or not. For those of you reading this that are either practice members or live locally, we are holding a workshop about vaccinations on Monday April 11th at 6:15pm in our Pembroke office, just call us at 224-4281 to reserve a seat!
For any parents out there that may be seeking support while grappling with some tough decisions about how to raise your child, finding a Holistic Moms chapter near you is a good start (www.holisticmoms.org). Again, if you are in our area, there is a chapter that meets on Tuesday evenings at our Pembroke location.
Being a parent is never easy, and making decisions about your childs health and wellness is also not an easy feat, especially if your decisions seem like they are going against the grain of the majority; however, by being as informed as you can, and surrounding yourself with like-minded parents will help you to stay strong in your convictions for your child’s health.