What is needed to build a strong healthy Immune System

I don't want my child to be strong, healthy and resilient. I'm OK with them getting sick ALL of the time - said no mother ever!

As a mum who suffered with a child that was CONSTANTLY sick I was desperately searching for the answer that was going help me FIX this and I was prepared to do WHATEVER it took. I was relentless in this search, often wanting to give up at times.

I did so many supplements, potions, tests, in and out of doctor and naturopath offices, all of which had very limited or very temporary success.

I intuitively knew the heart of the issue was that he needed to eat better, but if the truth be told, I had no idea how to do this, even after seeing 4 different pediatric dieticians in 5 years.

Completely frustrated, but not deterred I kept searching and finally I understood the root cause of the issue, i.e. his gut needed healing. Without this being addressed, no supplement or potion was going to help.

We used GAPS (Gut & Psychology Syndrome) as the spring board for this process and I can’t even begin to tell you how life changing that was.

Having said that, you don’t NEED to do GAPS, but you definitely need to address the nutritional status and address gut health. This is non negotiable. There are no magic pills or quick fixes.

85% of the body’s immune cells plus genetic material reside in the gut – hence the link between immunity and gut health .

Understanding the other factors that affect gut health and ultimately affects immunity and resilience?

  1. Refined sugar
  2. Processed food
  3. Trans fatty acids
  4. Lack of dietary proteins
  5. Food intolerances
  6. STRESS
  7. All prescription or over the counter medication
  8. Lack of sunshine
  9. Living in a sterile environment
  10. Chemical cleaning products
  11. EMF

Ways to boost the immune system:

  • Wholefood that is plenty full in fat, protein and vegetables
  • Healing foods including broth, fermented foods and drinks
  • If you feel you need to supplement, ensure it’s good quality and wholefood derived. Anything else is still seen as toxic by the body
  • Sunshine
  • A bit of dirt

The aim is not to make our children bullet proof to getting sick, as that is definitely how the immune system learns, but we do want them to be resilient and bounce back quickly. So it’s all about supporting the body with the right nutrients and tonics when they do get sick, rather than give them medication that harms and treats symptomatically. This is such a trap most mum's fall into, and I did this too for a little while.

Today, I only use food as medicine and a few key herbal supplements to boost and support the body during a time of sickness.

To help you start your Natural First Aid kit, I’m gifting you my key DIY Homemade Remedies that will support and build resilience rather than harm. These remedies will be suitable for:

  • Coughs
  • Digestive upsets
  • Colds
  • Building resilience & overall immunity

You only need a few key ingredients to get started, all easily sourced from your garden, supermarket or health food store.

Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach that specialises in helping stressed and overwhelmed mums heal their children with wholefoods using a personalised wholistic step by step approach.

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4 Steps to Fill Up Your Child's Love Tank

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So I am all about the food, but it's not all about the food. Have I confused you on the first sentence??

Let me explain myself. I believe with ALL my being that there is absolutely no substitute for eating a wholefood diet, NOTHING. To me, its job done, non negotiable and so I ask what is next to live a vibrant extraordinary life ?

To be truly healthy as described in this blog, you need the balance of both physical & emotional/mental health, so it’s equally important to be emotionally intelligent and physically healthy. This couldn’t be truer for our children today who are living in such a fast paced technology driven world who are experiencing unacceptable levels of anxiety.

 In my humblest opinion, it’s our job as parents to make our children feel loved, secured, confident and empowered and we primarily do this by filling up their love tank in a language they understand. After all, to feel loved is a primary human emotional need.

So let me introduce you to the concept of the 5 Love Languages.

I first became aware of this concept a number years ago when I started to take an interest in personal development. It was ONE of the BEST books I have ever read and believe that EVERY couple should receive a copy of this at pre-marriage counselling. Anyways, that is a topic for another day :-)

So the 5 love languages are different ways that people or children need to be communicated to in order to feel loved. There are 5 of these love languages and you would typically have 2 dominant ones that you need, a primary and secondary.

Let me tell you from personal experience in relationships with my husband, children and immediate family that this is GOLDEN. When you understand what their love language is and you communicate to them in the way that they WANT you to, you form the most beautiful bond and your relationship just goes to another level.

The Five Love Languages

1.       Words of Affirmation:

This refers to verbal compliments or words of appreciation. These are best expressed in simple sentences and obviously need to be sincere. Here are some examples:

  • I love the effort you put into you that project

  • I love you

  • I really appreciate you helping me fold the washing

  • You are so good at colouring in between the lines

  • I love that you made a good judgment in X situation

  • I love your smile

2.       Quality time:

This is quite self explanatory and literally means to give someone your undivided time and attention for a period of time. This all about being present and even better if you can initiate the time spent together

3.       Receiving Gifts:

A gift is something you hold in your hand and say “here I was thinking of you” It doesn’t have to cost anything. Gifts are just visual symbols of love. Examples of insignificant gifts are:

  • Stickers

  • Reading books

  • Colouring in

  • Their favourite game

  • A T-shirt with their favourite character

  • Stationary with their favourite characters

4.       Acts of Service:

This is all about having things done for them, not because they are lazy or can’t be bothered doing it themselves, but because they enjoy being looked after. Obviously you know when the mick is being taken :-). Examples are:

  • Cooking their favourite food

  • Filling up their water bottle for them when they could have done it themselves

  • Putting the toothpaste on their toothbrush before they ask

5.       Physical Touch:

In the world of psychology, touch is known as a form of expressing emotional love. That may just mean things such as:

  • Touching them whilst talking to them

  • Giving them a back rub

  • Random Hugs

  • Offer to massage

Putting this into practice, I’ll give you examples of my two munchkins:

Son

He has 2 predominant love languages, that is Quality time and Gifts. This was very evident since he was a toddler. He just always wanted to be belly to belly, eyeball to eyeball He just loves spending time together doing exactly what HE wants. We could spend all day together at an outing or event, but within minutes of being home, if his needs were not satisfied, he would request to play a game such as uno, chess, lego etc. That's him expressing that he has not received enough 1:1 time. Sometimes that need is as little as 10 minutes to fill up the tank, it's all about the quality, not quantity...most of the time :-)

He also LOVES receiving gifts. This was and still is an easy one to use in a reward based system.

If I was to shower him with hugs (physical touch), he would get really annoyed, so I learned very quickly not to take this personally.

Daughter:

Her 2 dominant love languages are Physical Touch and Acts of service. As a baby, toddler and even now, she absolutely loved being held and cuddled. In fact, when she did something wrong, coming to give you a hug was the first thing she wanted to do, it was also her way of saying sorry. She adores being stroked and sitting on the couch having a cuddle watching her favourite show together.

She also really enjoys things being done for her such as, in the morning helping her put her gown or slippers on and will actually get quite upset if I forget. She is fiercely independent but loves to have little things done for her of HER choice.

How to do it?

Step 1 – Observe their spoken words and actions to determine their primary and secondary love language. You could even take a quiz here to help you identify their dominant love language.

Step 2 – Communicate to them in their desired love language, not yours. Be careful of this trap.

Step 3 – Watch them thrive emotionally

Step 4 – Repeat. As our needs and desires as adults change overtime, theirs will too, so it’s all about staying observant, flexible and adaptable.

I hope that gives a little insight into the 5 love language. I cannot encourage you enough to identify your loved ones love language and just watch them soar and thrive emotionally.

Chantal XX

If you are wanting to address your health or that of your family using nutrition & wellness principles, do not hesitate schedule your FREE Health Mapping Session here or here

Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach that specialises in helping stressed and overwhelmed mums heal their children with wholefoods using a personalised wholistic step by step approach.

 

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5 Easy Ways to get Healing Foods into your kids without fuss!

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Getting healing foods into you or your child daily does not have to be a struggle.In fact when you re-adjust your mindset to that of wholefoods ONLY, it’s just something you do on a daily basis and then it does not become a “thing”

Many of the types of foods are consumed on a daily basis anyway, so it’s just a matter of thinking how can I make this more nutrient dense and add a healing agent food.

Below,  I’ve given you 5 easy ways of getting healing food into the diet on a daily basis:

1. Smoothie

Who doesn’t love a good smoothie? This is a fabulous food to get extra nutrition into your child without them necessarily knowing the goodness included

Types of extra goodness to that can be added:

  • Use non dairy milk alternatives such as homemade nut, seed or coconut milk varieties

  • Probiotics – they wouldn’t even know! Just make sure it's good quality and broad spectrum

  • Clean protein powders or collagen hydrolysate for gut healing benefits

  • Whey – the liquid strained from yoghurt for probiotic goodness

  • Superfood powders, like these from Nutra Organics

  • Coconut oil or butter for cellular and gut health

There is just so much bang for your buck in a smoothie

2. Blissball

A great way to get awesome extra goodness into them such as protein, fat, fibre, zinc and magnesium by way of ingredients such as nuts, seeds & dates, cacoa and coconut oil or butter

Add extra goodness such as:

  • Hydrolysed gelation

  • A little turmeric

  • Superfood such as nutri organics

  • Soak the dates in some water kefir then you have a probiotic Blissball

3. Soups and casseroles

A wonderfully healing and great way to get veggies, slow cooked meats and broth into them that are tasty. Favourites for us are slow cooked lamb shanks and a root vegetable soup. Funny thing is my little man is not a fan of "eating" pumpkin but will happily have pumpkin soup, go figure! My princess on the other hand is not a fan of soup period, but loves Chicken Noodle Soup.....you just have to work with what you have :-)

4. Jelly or gummies

Who said gut healing food had to be all about broth. You can still get all the great properties of a broth in a jelly or gummy using a quality grass-fed gelatin. It is definitely not a replacement for broth, but an addition to.

Take it a step further add additional goodness such as:

  • Raw honey as a sweetener for amazing immune boosting anti-microbrial properties. It's still a sugar, so go easy :-)

  • Quality broad spectrum probiotic capsules and you have a probiotic gummy

  • Herbal tinctures such as Elderberry syrup for wonderful immune boosting

  • Even use the gelatin to make custards, puddings and panacotta

5. Water

Who would guess water??? Amazingly you can ferment water with the right starter culture and then you have probiotic water, otherwise known as Water Kefir.

Ferment it a second time with a fruit of choice and you a flavoured probiotic tonic.

You can incorporate the above food daily as a guide:

  1. Breakfast: - Smoothie either but itself which is quite satisfying or alongside something like porridge pancakes. Recipe can be found in this blog post in the download

  2. Snack – Blissball – only need 1 depending on how big you make them

  3. Lunch/dinner – soup or casserole with a small probiotic drink

  4. Snack – a few gummies

I've put together the following recipes in an easy downloadable Ebook:

  1. Gummy

  2. Root Vegetable soup

  3. Blissballs

  4. Ginger probiotic tonic

  5. Water/Coconut Water kefir

If you are wanting to address your health or that of your family using nutrition & wellness principles, do not hesitate schedule your FREE Health Mapping Session here or here

Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach that specialises in helping stressed and overwhelmed mums heal their children with wholefoods using a personalised wholistic step by step approach.

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What is "HEALTHY"

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Do you ever ask yourself if you or your child is truly healthy?

Firstly, let’s look at the definition of healthy according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in 1946 it was defined as:

“A state of complete physical, mental & social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”

That is quite an interesting definition of healthy, when you think about, you would often just associate it with a physical wellness but it’s actually a combination of both physical and emotional well-being. Somehow we don’t like talking so much about emotional well-being, but in reality it possibly trumps physical health, but like everything we need balance and cannot focus on one without considering the other. They fit together like a glove.

Sometimes it seems easier to bury our heads in the sand, but our children are far more stressed and anxious today because of this fast paced technology driven world we now live in and their emotional needs are not being adequately addressed. More importantly, I don’t believe parents know HOW to address the emotional needs of their little ones.

What we need to understand as parent, that one of our roles is that of a teacher, which means we need to lead by example. If we are able to address and manage our own emotional well-being successfully, then we are able to do teach our children the same. The sad truth however, is that this is just not being taught anywhere unless it is actively sought out by the individual.

To be truly healthy now and in the future one needs a wholistic approach and address the following:

  1. Physical health through nutrition, this is not negotiable

  2. Emotional well-being through techniques and practices that allows us to live joyfully, in peace and with integrity

  3. Be mindful of external factors in our environment that affect our health & emotional well-being.

Physical health through Nutrition:

  1. Eat food as close possible to it’s natural state

  2. Eat a variety of foods daily within each food group

  3. Remove ALL packaged & processed food - another non negotiable.

  4. Remove refined & processed sugar and greatly reduce even the so called “healthy” sugar

Emotional Well-being:

  1. Practice gratitude daily for EVERYTHING, even the bumps on the road. More than likely there is beautiful gift just over than bump. Start with the small things such as the food on the table, the roof over our heads, the clothing on our body, the beauty of a new day etc

  2. Try to be more present – this is much harder than it sounds, and I get that. But practice makes perfect. Catch a good moment daily and just try to “sit” in it

  3. Do not underestimate the power of deep breathing. Something I’ve resisted for a long time. Just 1 minute of focused deep breathing brings so many benefits and is so easy to teach the kids

Outside factors

  1. Reduce chemical & toxic load in the food you eat and the products you use

  2. Embrace loving relationships

  3. Learn how to deal with stress

I’ve put together a quick checklist of both physical & emotional symptoms that you can refer to for being “healthy”. Accepting anything less for you or your child is just doing a disservice.

Download your checklist here ====>

If you are wanting to address your health or that of your family using nutrition & wellness, do not hesitate schedule your FREE Health Mapping Session here or here

Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach that specialises in helping stressed and overwhelmed mums heal their children with wholefoods using a personalised wholistic step by step approach.