From HerbMentor.com, this is Herb Mentor Radio.
You are listening to Herb Mentor Radio on HerbMentor.com. I'm John Gallagher. My guest today is Aviva Romm. Aviva is a certified professional midwife, herbalist, and mom to four kids with her husband, Tracy. Her numerous books, including Naturally Healthy Babies and Children, are now regarded as standards serves on a number of scientific review boards, including the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and recently been invited as an adjunct faculty for the Massachusetts College of pharmacy. Currently, Aviva is pursuing a medical degree at the Yale School of Medicine. Her website is Aviva Rom dot com, which is a v I v v a r o m m dot com.
Aviva, I'm so honored that you have carved out a a time for us to hang out today.
Oh, it's really nice, John. John. Fun to have a chance to chat with a fellow Erbie.
Yay.
Because, you know, when we start talking, I don't like all these things that you've done, it's like, you know, you feel to realize is what a down home person you a fun person you wanna hang out with.
Yep. It was definitely great, when meeting you and hanging out at the American Herbalist Guild, gathering in Redmond a few months ago. That was such a fun That was great. I I guess I didn't because I had no idea what to expect, I I I didn't have any expectations.
So It's funny.
Sometimes I'll show up at, like, a conference where I'm teaching new people I've never met before and peep someone have read my bio and then they meet me. And I've had, like, probably half dozen times in my life, someone will look at me and they'll go, wow, you're a much smaller woman than I imagine. Like, they expect all these giant person or something and I'm actually just like tiny little petite thing and it's really funny. Like, what do people think from that bio? But, yeah, I'm pretty down home.
Yeah. It's I, I wanna encourage folks to to make it to those conferences when they're when they travel to their towns because, I I I think I you know, being a parent and businesses and everything, you know, one of the for me, it was attractive because it was in the next town and only a few blocks from my clinic. So I show up and I'm like, this is great. I met, like it was so great because it was, like, at this conference center at my, at my at my local mall, the Marriott.
So so it was like Mew and Michael Tierra and, you know, David David, I have my one wasn't there, but, you know, Paul Bergner and Christopher Hobbs and all these folks were there.
It's just like, wow. All these, like, herbalists I have on my bookshelf are, like, at my mom.
In your backyard?
It was such a funny place because on the one hand, there was, like, if you walk out the front of the of the hotel, there was that mall. Yeah. But then if you walked around the back, there was that, farmers Barbecue.
I mean, well, this year's conference is actually the planning is underway and it's not gonna be that far from your backyard and it's probably a conference that's gonna be especially, relevant for your your listener community. We are gonna be in, Santa Rosa, California.
So we're right outside San Francisco, right in the heart of wine country this fall, which is, like, the height of wine season. We found this hotel with a great deal for us. And so I think the dates are October twenty second to twenty fourth. We're gonna have stuff up on the AHT website pretty soon.
But Mhmm.
What we're doing is really fun. We're having, what we're calling well, we haven't picked a title, like an exact title yet, but it's basically the Family Herb Conference. And we have four tracks going. People can either do, like, one whole track or they can mix and match however they want.
But we have, it's basically Family Herbal Medicine. We have a track on, have, it's basically family herbal medicine. We have a track on pediatric health. We have a track on women's like gynecology, obstetrics, that kind of women's health stuff.
We have a track on elder health and a track on men's health.
And it's gonna be very intimate, really nice, and kind of cover the basics for people who are just learning herbal medicine and wanna do kind of like family community herbal medicine. And then also it'll, you know, get more advanced for people who have been doing that and wanna add new things to their to their toolkit, if you if you will.
That sounds fantastic. And that's Yeah.
It's gonna be it's gonna be great. And also, it's the twentieth anniversary of the of the guild. So we're also, in addition to that, gonna, invite as guests, the founding members and past presidents and have them kind of just do stories and talk about where herbal medicine has been in their lives, where they've been in herbal medicine and where they're going and where they see herbal medicine going. So it'd be really cool conference.
I'm excited.
That sounds great.
Yeah. Yeah.
And and, that's American Herbalists Guild dot o r g. Correct?
Correct.
Yeah. Okay. So we always throw around acronyms and, you know, folks listening with the a h g.
American herbalist. Yeah.
Dot org.
Oh, I just throw the dot org right there.
Dot com. Aren't we? Or dot com?
Or I can actually, you can well, in any case, you can Yeah.
We're dot com.
Okay. Dot com. Okay. So in any case, you could just Google American Emerald Skills, you'll find it.
Yes. And you'll get it.
Okay. Very good.
So, you know, you're you're, really seem to be making, you know, being a medical school strides and connecting conventional medical communities and herbal medicine and, know, you're in your fourth year of medical school now and and, so what are you what are you noticing in your efforts or or what what are your hopes in that area once you're noticing? Because it's really exciting when I, you know, it's, you know, it's like, yeah. I'm gonna be the I'm gonna be someone who's gonna connect these because you because you know in the future in the future, it's gotta be, you know, some more of a connection. So what are you noticing in this right now?
Well, what I really have noticed mostly is, the receptivity to what I bring has been so much larger than I actually imagined. Like, I get these, at Yale, we don't get grades. We get evaluate well, we get grades, but they're just based on evaluations. They're not based on, exams.
Mhmm. And so my evaluations have consistently been, like, this is the best med student we've ever had. She clearly brings so much experience and compassion as a midwife and her work as an herbalist has been so valuable to the team when patients are taking supplements and we don't know what they are. And what's been really amazing to me is that I think twenty years ago, I wouldn't have heard that if I went to med school.
I would have kind of been seen as a whack dog or something like that. And also, I wouldn't have been able to probably survive and stay intact in that environment either. And maybe a little bit of it is being at Yale because Yale is kind of a progressive med school, but I think that there's been a shift maybe a little, like, maybe the right has come a little toward the middle and maybe those of us on the left have just gotten a little bit older. I don't know.
But there's, like, more of a meeting of the minds. And a lot of people in medicine are much more receptive to kind of a mind body approach if you wanna label it as that or, a patient centered approach or just people who listen to patients and like talking with people and then also a recognition that, like, conventional medicine doesn't have all the answers and that what those of us kind of in this world outside of medicine has to offer is actually very important both in terms of patient care and the actual interaction with patients that those of us who are on the outside of it, who have clients and that, you know, have done the herbal work or the midwifery work know is that what people really need is to be heard, you know, that you can't hear someone in seven minutes.
That sometimes what's going on at home is just as important to what's causing their health or their disruption in their health as what bug they might have. And so it's been really amazing to have that receptivity.
I thought that I would be a little bit more undercover than I've actually had to be in my Kind of in a trench coat in the corner with your echinacea tincture.
Yeah. No. It's really cool. Like, we had this one patient who came in on internal medicine who, had problems with clotting and she decided not to take her conventional medicine and she ended up with really serious medical problems because someone on the Internet said you could take vitamin e, which actually isn't enough in her situation. And so the team was like, Aviva, Aviva, can you go talk to her? Because they knew I'd be able to, like, like, respect where she's at and at the same time, you know, help her to understand why she needed the medicine.
Right.
And on the other hand, there have been times where I'll look at my team and go, you know, this is probably completely reasonable for this patient to try, you know, this antidepressant formula from her naturopath before starting on an antidepressant. And it's so it's been really interesting to be able to do that and kind of be that bridge.
And and so, you know, speak it seeking which, like, you know, being being a bridge, yeah. The thing that got me really starting to use herbs in my life is well, you know, for me in my life, like, I don't seem to not really do much, until I have a need or a practical application, you know, and so I have we had our my son ours when we had our son, it was, hey. He doesn't come with an instruction manual, you know.
I'm gonna have to, like, figure out how to fix him if he Right.
You know, you say in one of your books, modern medicine, more or less paraphrasing, you know, give gives us the feeling that we are not active participants in our own health. And I felt that much because, I I didn't really trust what was out there, but at the same time, I didn't really know, you know, where I should start. I went as a books and I get books and I wouldn't feel confident and then I look for a mentor classes and that can be kinda scary. I I can pick up your books for now and go, oh, is it you know? But at the time for me, like, I it's like you like, needing someone to show me a few tips. Do you find this a common story among people you work with or your past patients?
Yeah. I mean, it's like plunging into deep water or something. And I think it's one thing it's really hard, you know. And I think pediatrics is getting a little more open minded.
But I know when I had my first kids and my oldest turning twenty four this year, so it's been a while. I've watched a real evolution in pediatrics. But, you know, we were fortunate to have, you know, knock on wood, relatively healthy kids. We didn't go to the pediatrician.
I mean, of four kids, we've probably been to the pediatrician's office, you know, less than I can count on one hand. Wow.
But, you know, I can remember people coming to my office and I can remember pediatricians saying things like, you know, if you don't treat this earache with antibiotics, your kid is gonna go deaf. I mean, now Mhmm. The American Academy antibiotic. But when it's yourself, look, if you had a fever or you had a cold or you had an earache, you kind of can feel as an adult what's going on and you're sort of only taking responsibility for yourself.
But when it's your kid, first of all, that's a huge responsibility to be a parent and it's really scary. You don't want something bad to happen to your kid. Mhmm. And you love this person and then you've got this pediatrician telling you, you know, in one way or another, if you don't do this, your kid is gonna die. And so you're stuck between a rock and a hard place of, like, do I give this medication what seems like it could actually be harmful or do I trust these herbs which I don't know if they're really gonna work?
And that's a really hard place to be. So a lot of what I've done as an herbalist with, my my clients when they've faced situations where their kid was sick I mean, first of all, if their kid is sick with a really serious illness, then they should go to the pediatrician. And so sometimes it's just been being a resource to say, okay. You know, from my reading, from what I've done, from being a parent, from being a midwife, this is within the range of what's considered normal for this illness. If you're not comfortable with it, then you should go to the pediatrician.
Making sure that parents have good resources on hand, like a book that they can look up, you know, common pediatric symptoms or, you know, how to know whether something is normal, encouraging them to have a pediatrician if at all possible who's very alternative medicine friendly that they could call up and say, you know, little Kiva has a fever of a hundred and two and no stiff neck and da da da da, and the pediatrician can say, you know, you can watch this for a while. And then also helping parents to kind of set a framework for themselves of their comfort zone. You know, they're comfortable with a fever of a hundred and two, but they're not comfortable with a fever of a hundred and three or a hundred and four, get help.
You know, if they are seeing that their kid is not getting better within a certain amount of hours, and that may be two hours, four hours, or twenty four hours, whatever their comfort zone is, assuming that they're pretty reasonable parents, working with them on that, you know, and saying, alright. We'll call me in two hours if the fever hasn't broken and you're still not comfortable. Let's reevaluate and make another plan. So just trying to be that kind of sounding board, but I think it is really hard when you're on your own and sort of figuring it out, on your own kid.
I was fortunate enough to have been doing herbal medicine for a number of years, before I had kids. And I think back in the day when I started out, the alternatives in the pediatric world were so conservative that just seems sort of better to plunge in and and give it a try.
Exactly. And then people will find too that, you know, luckily, I have a similar story to yours with my kids that they've been healthy overall. But, for those things that have come up, the bumps, bruises, the the spiking hundred and four fevers in the middle of the night, The, the, just various things I've been able to treat them with.
And it's always the middle of the night.
Right?
Yeah. It's always the middle of the night. It's all it is. It still is, you know.
At a clock at night.
It's only been taking the emergency room for, broken wrists and and and holes in the head and fall falling on a bench on the ferry on a on a on a rocking boat when my son rather run around in the middle of a storm on a ferry rather than sit down like he doesn't do.
This is the other thing that I've really discovered being in the medical world. You know, when my kids were little and growing up, we never had to navigate the emergency room. We were just really fortunate.
We either dealt with, you know, the dog bite or the the infection or whatever at home, or they just didn't have those Mhmm.
Incidents. So we were lucky. But what's really amazing to me is how much effort and work it takes if you have a sick child who does need the medical system to get a medical appointment, to sit in the emergency department for four hours waiting. And we actually had an incident recently.
It was one of the first times we actually had to navigate emergency department. My, sixteen year old was coming home from school one day, and she's had some jaw tension before, but she was at the school bus.
We just sent our kids to school this year for the first time. We've always home schooled. She's in an arts program. It was like four thirty in the afternoon and it was, you know, freezing cold here in Connecticut. It was like, you know, this we had a sub zero kind of week. And she got home and her jaw was locked.
Oh my god.
So I called a local physical therapist, but it was like six thirty in the evening already. They couldn't see her. And so I had to take her to the emergency department. But being a Yale med student, all I had to do was call on the phone to the emergency department and say, who's on call tonight?
And it was doctor so and so who I worked with last year and I said, doctor so and so, this is what's going on. He's like, oh, bring her right in, you know. And so so we didn't have to wait. And so, you know, for me, I realized that is such a privilege because it is, you know, when I've worked in the emergency department, it's a lot.
It's a big decision for a parent to take a sick kid out into the cold January evening when they're already not feeling well to know that you're gonna be in this vulnerable environment where you don't really know the language, you don't really know the ropes and you've got a sick kid and now you've got someone telling you you have to do this, and you're now trying to figure out, well, do I really have to do this or not, you know? I had a a a family that came into the emergency department last year when I was on pediatric rotation, And it was a family for a variety of reasons had chosen not to vaccinate their two youngest children who were twin babies, because the kids had a lot of really serious congenital medical problems.
The family was afraid to kind of add to the vaccination load.
Mhmm.
And fortunately for this woman, she got me in the emergency department because I was able to really understand what was going on and sort through the situation. But as soon as I told the team, you know, the residents and the doctors the situation, they launched off. Like, are they crazy? How could she not vaccinate?
This kid probably has a fever for some from some vaccine preventable illness. And I went over the symptoms, and I said it doesn't look like any of those illnesses. And I was like, you guys, if you talk to this woman like this, you're gonna totally alienate her. And the only thing that's gonna happen is she's not gonna tell you what's really going on, and she's not gonna come back next time her kid is sick, you know.
Right. So it's really interesting to, you know, be in that world and try to navigate not just my own experience, but for some of these patients who don't wanna really be there. Nobody wants to be there.
No. Exactly.
So it's interesting. And there does there do need to be people who are willing to walk in and kinda be that bridge.
It's I really see it helps the patients a lot.
Wow.
That's But that's not why you had me on your show.
Oh, well, yeah. It is. It was a couple of my questions that you went about. Thank you.
So, I what I'm gonna what I wanna get to now is because I was like, oh, I could I could ask ask all this question about this or this. And and so, well, you know, what do people wanna know? So I I went on and as I often do on on this show on her mentor dot com is I go on the forum and I say, what what do you wanna know? We're gonna talk about kids and health.
And, and so I got a bunch of questions from numbers, and, there were lots and lots. And I said, okay. Realistically, in a in a radio show, it's a shorter you know what I mean? Like, because there's some of these topics that people give her, like, we could, you know, do a whole day on, you know, you know, which are a little harder to understand, you know, to go real real in-depth, but I got, I have some great questions here and and, helps help some folks out since they have your ear.
So, Helena was wondering here, first question is, what herbs are dangerous for children herbs it's the, the weight to making the remedy. So what what what do you Right.
Right. Okay. So let's take that from the let's kind of like deconstruct that question a little bit. First of all, very few herbs are dangerous. And very few herbs that we're gonna be using as home remedies Mhmm. Are dangerous.
I think that's one thing to keep in mind. And there are very few herbs that you would give, for example, one time as an acute remedy that would be accessible at a health food store or, that you would have, you know, that you would get that would that would cause some kind of imminent danger to your child. Sometimes, some of the herbs that are used in the naturopathic world are a little bit more toxic. So things like gelsemium or belladonna.
But those would not be things that you would just sort of find in your average home remedy herbal book or in your health food store shelves. So kind of like the concept of herbs as dangerous, you'd have to really be fishing for herbs that were dangerous. And then let's also say what are we talking about when we say kids? So I pretty much consider anyone in their kind of like twelve and over in terms of dosage range, unless they're very, very small or have a medical problem.
You could kind of consider those kids more in an adult range of what their systems can tolerate. I would say there's one exception to that and that's herbs with hormonal activity. Unless you have a kid with a hormonal problem, you know, like, some kind of, endocrine disorder, you would you would never really be giving kids hormonal herbs and it's better to avoid them because their endocrine system is still developing.
Boys are coming into puberty at that time. Girls are coming into puberty at that time.
So there's a lot of delicate balance going on. So herbs that have a really strong hormonal activity like Vitex or Hops or, essential oils, which tend to have some estrogenic activity, I would avoid those.
Would would raspberry leaf fall in that?
What's that?
Would raspberry leaf fall in that?
No. Raspberry leaf is not hormonally active. It's really much more of a stringent tonic and a nutritive herb than having much hormonal activity at all. Yeah. So I wouldn't consider. I think any of you're fine with any of the nutritive tonics like nettles and, raspberry leaf, alfalfa, all those are really fine.
With little kids, you have to kind of consider that their metabolism is different than an adult and that their whole system is still developing, so their nervous system, their bone system, their hormonal system is kind of latent and dormant.
So you wouldn't want to use herbs, for example, that would trigger their hormonal system. So any herbs that are very hormonal, again, like hops or vitex or sage, things like that, I would stay away from.
Anything that would be strongly disruptive to the nervous system, I would stay away from. So if you're using nervines to calm an irritable child, for example, I would use more of the gentle common daily nervines like, lavender and lemon balm and chamomile and stay away from the heavy hitters like Mobilia or, again, hops or kava kava. I would stay away from all of those. And then any herbs that have questionable toxicity, even if there's really a question of it, I wouldn't use it.
So herbs like kava kava where there's some question of hepatotoxicity, I wouldn't work with those with young kids unless you have a lot of experience or you're really working within a dosage range for a very, very specific reason for a very short time. So I hope that answers the question. There's not herbs are fairly non toxic for the most part, especially in reasonable doses. Oh, the other category of herbs to be careful with kids is the herbs that contain carolizidine alkaloids.
So like coltsfoot and comfrey are a couple of herbs that you would think about not using petacides is another one, butterbur, which has become more common for upper respiratory problems.
You can use it but you'd want to get products that are PA free, p as in Paul, a as in Alan, paralyzodine alkaloid free because those can be hepatotoxic and you wouldn't see it for years and years, after the administration most likely.
In when I know this, I don't know if if, you know, you because because when you're learning and writing books about herbs and stuff, you're trying different things and all. But I, I noticed that, I just seem to have a handful or a few, like, herbs that I that seem to work for a lot of things with them.
Yeah. Exactly. In fact, in my, kids book, the, which was the I think the second book I did or first book I did. I can't remember anymore.
Naturally Healthy Babies and Children. Yeah. Yeah. Naturally Healthy Babies and Children.
There's a little section in there that has kind of I don't have it in front of me, but, there's a section that has kind of like an herbal, home home herbal chest. You know, what would you keep in your house?
You have, appendix, assembling an herbal first aid kit and and, Yeah.
That's even something separate.
So an herbal first aid kit is kind of like, you know, when we take our kids camping when we were kids, if we were out backpacking and someone got bit by a snake or stung by a something or cut on something or had that fever in the tent in the middle of the night and, you know, you just couldn't get to a hospital in two hours, what would you have on hand in the during the transport?
Or, for the home remedies kit, you know, You know, I can't tell you how many times as an herbalist I would get a phone call. You know, someone in my neighborhood who knew someone whose baby I had midwife or someone whose baby I had midwife since, you know, eleven o'clock at night and you hear this kid screaming in the background because they've got this ear infection and, of course, the health food store is closed. Everything's closed. The co op is closed and they don't have anything in their house and, you know, they're coming over to my house for an ounce of garlic, mullein oil, you know, so, like, what were the things that I would keep at home or tell my clients as they had kids to keep at home that you might need to have on hand?
And so, you know, some of those things, I agree. It's like a handful of things that you kind of use over and over. Like I was thinking about this the other day. I was driving home from somewhere thinking, you know, I'm really actually pretty simple as an herbalist.
I don't use a whole lot of, like, if you ask me about some new fancy herb on the market, I probably wouldn't even know about it, you know. Right. I kind of stick with a repertoire of a narrow range of herbs that I use for a lot of things.
It's like a chamomile, garlic oil, plantain in the yard in the summer for anything that's Yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly. In fact, we moved to this house in, Connecticut three years ago and it's a suburban house. It's on a little over an acre because Connecticut tends to have a lot of, sort of semi suburban areas that used to be rural.
But we've always had comfrey in our yard and I've been, you know, had my head in this medical school hole for three and a half years, and I needed some comfrey the other day. And I looked at my husband, I said, oh my gosh. This is the first time we've been together for twenty five years that we haven't had comfrey in our yard. We always had tons of comfrey everywhere.
And, I'm like, shoot. We need to get some comfrey planted. I didn't have any. And I'm going, okay. What can I substitute, you know, for fresh comfrey? It was kinda funny.
I I used to call grows outside the post office when my son had a broken a broken army as cast on. I'd go get the mail, and then I'd go find take two stalks home and pull it up into a bolt. It's and put it on there. Yeah. It grows up prolifically, like, every, you know, couple of days. It was like there was a new little leaf there or something that I could take.
I know. I know. I need to get, like, right on it this spring. We have a lovely kind of ornamental garden but I realized, okay, this is not good. Herbalist without come free. Identity crisis.
I have it dried. I have it salved. I have it tincture, but I don't have any fat.
Kinda like you're the, you know, whatever without borders, you know, be herbalist without comfort.
Yeah. Exactly. I should write an article.
Catchy title.
So then then, you know, the and, of course, there's so many herbs and and that one could use and, you know, have relationships and different connections with. And and then the book just, you know, ailment by ailment as well as lists in it, you know, really is comprehensive to go into that.
Of course, it's more. I would say what's really helpful for parents is to kind of as opposed to picking, you know, a handful of herbs that are which you can do, kind of take a look at it as, like, what are the most common things that kids in your kids' age ranges are likely to come up with, you know, have something on hand for a fussy, irritable child. So, you know, some chamomile, some lemon balm, maybe a nice passion flower tincture if they're really, you know, unsettled or a chamomile tincture or lemon balm tincture, which may be a little stronger than tea. Have something like, a Calm Child formula or a Children's Compound formula.
And, I don't have any proprietary relationship with any companies, but two products I have just found consistent over my twenty years of, you know, twenty five years of parenting are, Calm Child, which is an incredible formula that, Michael Tiara put together for Planetary Herbs. It's just wonderful. That's a great formula. Like, if you have to take a kid on an airplane and you just wanna help them settle just a little bit, and it's got a combination of Chinese herbs and western herbs. And then the other is, children's Compound, which is an herb farm formula. It's very simple. It's like lemon balm, chamomile.
I think it's got some fennel in it and something else, which I'm forgetting offhand. But, it's a really great combative formula and that's one because it's got those nervines and also Febrifuge kind of herbs you can give if your, you know, if your baby's fussy with a fever.
Oh, okay.
Or if the fever fever starts to get a little bit high and you're getting nervous, you wanna bring it down a little bit.
Right. Right. Okay. Good. Well, thanks for that.
That's a Yeah.
Yeah. So let's see if the, next question here is, is my oh, you know, I would you know, before I get to this next question, you you don't think I just, you know, remembered is, is it a lot of people will wonder, how to administer, alcohol based tinctures to kids because they get really like, oh, no. I don't wanna give them alcohol or something. Is it really an issue? There's not much in, though, in alcohol and, you know, what do you what do you what's your opinion on that? Like, it comes up a lot.
Yeah. Well, with little teeny kids who are breastfed, it's hard to give them, you know, adequate amounts of a liquid, unless you're giving them a bottle. And a lot of breastfeeding moms, we don't give bottles. So that doesn't it's not a real convenient way to give herbs. So for teeny weeny new like, not newborns because if they were sick, you should take them to a pediatrician. But let's say three months and over, you can mom can drink if the if the herbs have a lot of volatile oils in them, like lemon balm and chamomile, mom can drink a lot of tea herself and breastfeed and baby might get a little bit.
But the amount of alcohol in a tincture is really, really small and you can always dilute it. You don't really, you know, there's this kind of myth that if you drop tincture will evaporate, the alcohol will evaporate and it really doesn't. You're still getting it. It's still right in the water for the most part.
Mhmm. Okay.
But it's such a negligible amount and even a lot of, over the counter pharmaceutical remedies have cough systole that has an alcohol in them too, although we're not supposed to give those to kids anymore either.
So, you know, I think the amount is pretty negligible. I think that if a kid is mildly ill, then relying on a glycerin tincture is an alcohol, but it's not an alcohol in the conventional sense that we think of alcohol, take it, get drunk kind of alcohol. So you can give that. But for a pretty sick kid, I just think the alcohol tinctures are a little bit more effective, and they're also concentrated.
So just take the alcohol dropper and kind of slip it in right next to the nipple in the baby's mouth and slowly drop a few drops in the back.
Maybe it'll grimace a little, but they'll suck more milk to get the taste away, and that's a good way to administer them.
You can for little kids, you can put the, you know, like toddlers or or older babies. You can put tea in a sippy cup and they can drink it that way.
Kids under two, you're not supposed to give honey because of infant botulism, which can really happen.
I'm not really big on giving kids juice. In fact, I don't keep juice in the house for kids. I really encourage parents not to give kids juice. I think juice and even, like, soy milk and rice milk, any of those sweetened beverages really increase the likelihood of colds and ear infections. They just they really deplete they just mess with kids' immune system. They're still sugar loaded beverages and kids end up drinking them instead of getting good nutrition. And so you get the double whammy of sugar and you get the, you know, decreased consumption of good quality food.
But when kids are sick and febrile, you know, it's really important to keep them well hydrated because dehydration is really what's gonna make kids land in the hospital, not the infection most of the time. And so keeping them well hydrated. So if you need to give, like, half juice, half tea, that's another good way to get kids to take it down. And especially if the juice is a treat, you know, it's not something they're getting every day. Right. They'll drink that.
Breastfeeding babies, it's important just to keep them on the breast as much as possible. And then older kids, I think it's fine to give them tinctures. I don't think tablets are too easy for kids to swallow, but tinctures are a great way. And you can give them straight with a little water or give them in a little bit of juice.
You can also you can also adjust, you can also, do the drinking game, thing where it's like, you know, what you learned in college. You can apply to your kids. Okay. Yeah. When you're watching this movie, every time somebody says Harry in Harry Potter, you know, you take a sip of this tea.
Exactly.
It's true. I mean, it's better to give kids, like, a couple of tablespoons every fifteen minutes than try to expect them to, you know, drink a lot. And it's tricky, you know. I think that being, an herbal kind of parent also assumes that you're at home, you know, and you're there sitting next to your kid when they're sick and you're giving them sips of tea. And it's a lot harder when people work full time, you know, to take that time off. I think doing herbal medicine sort of assumes a little bit of a certain life style that allows you to be there and watch and monitor and nourish and nurture and change the environment as, you know, as a kid needs it and to give that sip of tea or that broth or whatever.
I I was a little unsure the other day. I have a patient who's pregnant and and and, she didn't wanna drink tea before because she has insomnia situation. And before she went to bed, she didn't wanna wake up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom. So, then I was gonna mention, you know, tinctures, but, you know, because that herbal practicing herbalism in my practice is not like what I usually do in acupuncture. You know, I sometimes I give little tips and little home remedy advice, but I was like, well I don't, you know, I almost said like it take a tincture of this, but I was like is that is it, you know, I I didn't know the alcohol with, you know, people's fears and and fetal alcohol, you know, syndrome. Right.
Is is that just not not an issue with a few It's really it's really not an issue.
Okay.
Just I think that if you think about a typical one ounce tincture.
Right?
Mhmm.
And let's say it's, let's say it's a sixty percent alcohol tincture. So it's sixty percent water. I'm sorry, sixty percent alcohol, forty percent water in that one ounce. Right?
Mhmm. One ounce is about, thirty milliliters. Mhmm. And you figure one dropper is gonna have about forty drops max.
Right? Mhmm. And so the amount of alcohol, let's say you have forty drops and, sixty percent of that is alcohol, I mean, you're getting a fraction, a minimum, you know, kind of like an infinitesimal fraction of an ounce. And so even if you took two droppers Mhmm.
Before bed Mhmm. That you're not gonna you're not gonna take a complete ounce of alcohol even over the course of two weeks.
Oh, okay.
So it's a really small small amount.
Good to know. Thank you for I don't consider it a concern at all.
Okay.
The only issue would be if someone has a problem with past alcohol abuse and they can't tolerate the alcohol and then they can take a glycerin or a tea. But definitely, pregnant women, tea before bed, you will be up three times peeing.
That is not good for insomnia. I, like, I even spell that out in my book.
Good idea.
Yeah. So, Kelly, has grandchildren that seem to be sick all the time. And and what would be a safer to give them a boost their immune systems?
Would echinacea be best or astragalus, which my husband has, much more luck with? Or she just wants any suggestion to help with their immune system.
Right. Well, you know, a couple of things. I would certainly say if Kelly came to me in my practice, I would wanna know, you know, how sick and what kind of illnesses.
There are some rare but they do happen, immunologic inherited disorders. So if her kids are getting serious infections frequently, I would wanna make sure that they've been evaluated.
Also, what's really astonishing is what is considered normal for kids. So eight to ten colds a year is considered normal for the average American kid. I mean, I would be going bonkers if my kid was sick that often. But with kids in daycare and, elementary school and kindergarten, it's actually really common for kids to get sick that often.
So they're getting a lot of exposure. And in that case, there are some things that can be done to boost their immune system. The way I look at it is two things. What can you do to remove things in their diet or lifestyle that are aggravating their immune system?
And then what things what things can you add that would help? So as I mentioned, juice, any sugary beverages, juice, soy milk, rice milk, soda, any like milk, regular milk, all those things should not be a regular part of kids' diets because kids drinking those beverages several times a day, even a couple of cups a day, they're gonna get sick more often. They're gonna have more runny noses, more sore throats, more susceptibility to colds, and more earaches and ear infections. So out with those things.
Kids should be brought up drinking water, you know, maybe a little bit of organic milk if they're, you know, as they're growing, if they're craving it, good dairy in their food, good organic dairy in their food or yogurt to make sure they're getting calcium, but not sweet beverages.
And then, there are some things. So echinacea is definitely an immunostimulating enhancing herb and it can be given. You can give echinacea glycerin tincture on a regular basis and especially for kids like in cold season, you know, if it's getting to be fall and you have a kid that gets cold a lot, you can give them, some echinacea on a daily basis. The jury is out on vitamin C.
I think a lot of the studies have been contradictory come out that are come out that are negative about echinacea saying echinacea doesn't cure the common cold. Well, herbalists really know that already. But what the studies do show is echinacea Echinacea reduces the incidence of recurrence of things like upper respiratory infections. So if you have a kid that's getting those a lot, it's a really good thing to think about.
And usually, I think about anywhere from two to five drops per pound of the child's body weight. So if a child weighs, fifty pounds, then ten drops a day would be or ten drops, I'm sorry, two or three times a day would be a reasonable prophylactic dose. I think most people find echinacea doesn't work when they're not giving large enough doses of it. Another thing that I always did with my kids when they were little was I would make this immune boosting miso soup and we just eat it once or twice a week during fall and winter and maybe into early spring.
And, that would be like just making a pot of miso vegetable soup, you know, the typical way. You can find a recipe online or in a good macrobiotic cookbook.
Oh, we talk about it on our site all the time too. I'm sure there's information on there.
Yeah. In my book, there's a recipe too.
And then to that, I add astragalus.
As Tony mentioned, astragalus is a great herb. So just throw in a couple of astragalus sticks, a little bit maybe a teaspoon or so of little red ginseng pieces, a couple of sticks of Codinopsis and then miso and then some ginger, pieces of fresh ginger and give that, that's a great immune tonic. It tastes a little more bitter than miso soup does. So, you know, just kind of work with the amount of herbs you add to the amount of water to get the flavor that's gonna be palatable for your kids.
And then, another thing that I always did with my kids when they were little is if they seem like they were coming on to a cold or if they were around a lot of kids that were sick. I would give I would make, we just called it garlic lemon honey tea. Mhmm. Or sometimes my kids would call it garlic lemonade.
And you take, like a court mason jar and just chop. Don't press because if you press the garlic, it'll be too strong. But just chop a couple of cloves of garlic, not the bulb, just a little cloves, maybe two to four of those for a mason jar, and then cover that with boiling water, like fill the whole jar with boiling water and let that steep for maybe fifteen, twenty minutes up to a half hour. And then just kind of add enough lemon and honey to make it taste good. And then give one or two cups of that max over the course of a day or two, even a half a cup a couple of times a day for littler kids and, you know, make it taste good, They'll drink it.
And, you just leave it out at the, you know, at room temperature and it'll get cooler throughout the day and they'll still drink it. And that tastes really nice. And that's a great book for adults too.
Oh, great. Well, that's this is this is great stuff. This is this is, something we can we all we all do. And and, that's a good foundation too. You know, I mean, that miso and soup idea and everything and things people don't think of that related to other things.
Exactly. And if kids are little and they come up drinking that stuff, they'll they're used to it.
So Yeah.
I mean, for I could say that's that's true for, I mean, for my own kids too. I mean, for them, they'll they'll do that as as a foundation, and and their taste seem to change from time to time. Like, all of a sudden, they, you know well, a lot of it depends what the what the what the older sibling is doing or not doing. So one day, it's it's my my youngest is drinking her daily infusions just fine, but when my oldest decides, well, I I, you know, I I don't want this anymore.
Then all of a sudden I know.
There's a lot but it's mostly psychology, isn't it?
Yep. Yep.
So, Barb, has, has grandchildren as well that that seem to have eczema problems. So, I I and and I'm kind of, like, prioritizing. There's so many questions mostly by the by the number of people who ask them. So I I noticed a few people asking about eczema.
Also something called goose flesh, which is very tiny bumps on the upper right.
Yeah.
So what do you know about with that?
Well, eczema is kind of like a big kettle of fish to start getting into because we could send two radio shows getting into. But let's say this.
Just generally.
Yeah. Because there are so many reasons that it can happen.
Kids who have atopic conditions like eczema, allergies, asthma, a lot of times there are familial, like, inherited reasons that they have it, complex immunologic reasons.
I'm not anti vaccination, but I can tell you I've seen a lot of families where the kids develop, you know, eczema after they got their first or second series of vaccinations. So I think there's a lot of complex immunologic stuff going on. There are simple things that people can look at like, things that might aggravate or irritate a sensitive immune system. So detergents, food sensitivities like wheat or dairy or peanuts, things that are common, typical allergens or aggravators that sometimes eliminating from the diet or eliminating exposure can help relieve that.
But, there isn't really a simple answer for eczema. I wish there was. I wish I could say to you, oh, you know, take zinc, take echinacea and it'll go away. But it's not like that and it's not that simple.
So what I would say is, you know, find a really good naturopath or, a combination of a naturopath and a good conventional allergist or rheumatologist who can work with the family because often it's not just one kid in the family that has it either. And look at what are some of the common triggers, eliminate those and then learn some of the common things that can be used to, it's actually in that in that situation, not always boosting the immune system, sometimes quieting the immune system because sometimes it's like an overly aggravated immune system. So sometimes herbs like adaptogens like ashwagandha can actually be really helpful for those kids to help quiet an overreactive immune system.
Okay. Okay. So they're looking always looking holistically and, and looking, you know, seems to come back to nourishing and and and immune system nourishment, with a lot of these things.
Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. I was just talking with one of my advisors down at Yale, and he's a specialist in maternal fetal medicine. And he was telling me that he's part of a research study looking at some of the causes of, asthma in young children.
And one of and this is very preliminary research, so I'm not saying that this is a causative thing. But one of the things that and this is like a very conservative conventional medical practitioner, practitioner. There's nothing alternative about what they're looking at. But he was saying that one of their early findings may be that pregnant women who take antibiotics, their babies may be more likely to develop asthma.
And of course, eczema is part of that triad of allergies, eczema, asthma.
Right.
So who knows, like, what are the insults that are causing these things? But they're happening at a time that is kind of foundational and fundamental. And I think that's why they're not as easy or simple to treat as something like an earache or an acute thing like a common cold, you know. Right.
Right. Oh, okay.
They're deeper. Yeah.
And alright.
Okay. So the next question, someone else says, on becoming pregnant, what herbal necessity should I get busy making? What are other things new mom shouldn't be without? What like, what's a good herbal vitamin protocol?
So while you're pregnant, I mean, I think unless you have other extenuating health considerations, really while you're pregnant, the most important thing to do is eat well, get adequate rest and take care of your psychological space, work on your issues, work on your issues about being a mom, about, your own space as a woman and making room for being a mom in your life. Pregnancy is a pretty, pretty evolved process. It knows how to take care of itself.
A woman's body knows how to be pregnant and there's really nothing a pregnant woman needs to take or do beyond really excellent nutrition, a moderate amount of exercise, and everything that it takes to just be in a good headspace space as much as possible.
Some women like to take raspberry leaf tea as a tonic for the uterus. There's nothing wrong with that. There hasn't been any harm shown from doing that. And there have been a couple of studies that have shown that maybe it actually reduces the need for intervention during labor. So drinking raspberry tea one or two cups a day is so formative during that time. So usually waiting till the second trimester is completely fine before taking anything.
If a woman is having problems with threatened miscarriage, there are things that herbalists can do to help, sometimes in some situations reduce that tendency.
And, as the woman gets toward late pregnancy, there's a kind of tendency to wanna take herbs that are gonna make labor easier, but those aren't necessarily safe. So I really recommend pregnant women not take Blue Cohoes or any of the other late pregnancy tonics. Just let your body do what it's going to do and it's going to know how to do it. And if you've kind of taken care of issues, more your inner issues and your fears, that's the best thing you can do and have a really great support person who can help you get through labor if you're wanting to have a more natural birth. That's what it really takes is being prepared for that kind of psychologically, who can help you with that intention and help as long as who can help you with that intention and help, you know, as long as everything's normal, help you stay the course of that.
Our midwife had us, even before I knew what herbal infusions were, I mean, before I even took an herbal course, had Kimberly taking the four hours steeped one ounce and, like, the herbal nourishing infusions of, like, nettle, oat, straw, red raspberry, and alfalfa it was alfalfa. I think it was alfalfa.
Yeah. Exactly. And that's definitely like one of the formulas in my book. I guess what I wanna really convey is that pregnancy is a natural process and there's nothing that you have to do to make it happen naturally.
But if you think about herbs as foods, you know, and definitely like alfalfa and raspberry and nettles, those are excellent and those certainly can be taken, But think of them more as like a nutritional supplement than something to sort of like you have to take to make the pregnancy go okay. But definitely, nettles is one of my favorite nutritional supplements during pregnancy. I kinda think about it as like a daily dose of greens or something like that. You know?
You wanna eat greens when you're pregnant and metals are sort of like greens infusion.
And, definitely, a lot of times when I was pregnant, people would say, what is that green stuff in your jar of tea, Aviva? And it would always be some really dark nettles infused. And, you know, I'd take a big old handful, throw it in a mason jar, steep it overnight, and drink it throughout the next day.
That's what raised my kids in pregnancy and breastfeeding all those years. It was lots and lots of metals.
Yep. Yeah. It's so great. I know. It's so a new trend.
The, actually, this might even be related. A person has a, her best friend teen daughter is having her first baby since February.
Yeah.
Congratulations. And, planning on breastfeeding and great. And, information on increasing maintaining wait. I can help her with informa I can help her with info on how to decrease, maintain, and decrease her milk supply. But I forgotten what to recommend for sore or cracked nipples and what would be safe for the baby.
So, Oh, yeah.
So for sore cracked nipples, I mean, most of the common reasons that it happens are, a, tender nipples that are learning to handle the whatever it is six hundred pounds per square inch pressure that breastfeeding baby puts on them, B, it can be improper positioning of the baby's mouth on the nipple or C, it's very commonly infection with thrush which is just Candida or yeast.
So, just to make sure that, the mom is positioning so like just to crack nipples from learning, like the nipples would just toughen up for the course of the first couple of weeks and so they'll get accustomed to the sensation and the pressure and not heal.
But if there is imposition improper positioning, then working with someone, you know, either the midwife or a breastfeeding consultant can help get the baby in the right place because if the baby's sucking, then no matter what you put on those nipples, if the baby's sucking in the wrong place, it's still going to cause cracking and bleeding. So that has to be attended to. Now if it's just cracking from, you know, the new baby sucking on a breast and the breast is tender, then you can just use a simple any kind of common simple salve. I like to use a salve that has calendula and Saint John's wort in it. Those are very healing.
Mhmm.
And, just a simple beeswax, you know, and olive oil base.
And I have instructions in my book. Lots of her books have instructions for how to make a salve, or you can just buy one in the house food store. But Calendula and St. John's wort are really excellent for sensitive nipple tissue. And what you usually do is just dry the nipple off, you know, pat it dry after the baby has suckled and then put the salve on and usually it's absorbed by the next breastfeeding and there's nothing harmful in that that the baby couldn't ingest.
If there is thrush, then it gets a little bit trickier because Thrush.
Yeah.
Bringing back nightmares.
Yeah. I know.
And I wasn't even the one with the brush. Yeah.
We wanna make sure that you wash the bras really well because they'll harbor. That's rush. They'll wash them in hot hot water and then either dry them in the sun or dry them in a hot temperature. I've actually even known women to microwave their bras if they wanna really kill the yeast. Interesting.
For the woman to go braless as much as possible and get as much sunlight exposure to the breast and the nipple to heal that tissue and to kill this rush. That's really important. And don't wear like those nipple pads that women put in the bra because those actually just kind of absorb the milk and the thrush, the yeast just kind of of thrives in that environment. So as much like air and light exposure as possible throughout the course of the day going braless as possible.
And then, there are a couple of topical things you can do, but usually I'll recommend a dilute tincture of goldenseal or you could use Oregon grape, but I think goldenseal works a little bit better in this case Uh-huh. And calendula stain. They will stain anything that you get them on. So they will stain the bra, they will stain the t shirt, they will stain the nipple a little bit, but it's not permanent.
But that is a really great antimicrobial topical rinse. And so, you know, you have the woman just put the take the tincture and then dilute it in a couple of tablespoons of water and then just apply it either in the shower or leaning over the sink and then pat dry with a washcloth that you don't mind. It's gonna get a little bit stained. And you have to do that after the baby nurses.
It'll be too bitter if you put it on. The baby won't really suckle that, on that nipple because that Golden Seal, if anyone's ever tried Golden Seal, I mean, it's just I think it's horrible tasting.
And then you also need to treat the baby's mouth because that's where the thrush is coming from most likely. And the best way that I found to do that, that's safe for the baby, is to take unsweetened live active culture yogurt and swab that around in the baby's mouth. You can either use a finger, the mom's finger, but once you put your finger in the baby's mouth, don't put the same finger back in the yogurt. So the best way to do it is just to take out a little bit of yogurt, put it in a cup and then apply that and then discard whatever's left in the cup and do that fresh each time and do that two or three times a day. The baby might swallow a little bit of the yogurt. That's actually totally fine and it'll be good for the baby's flora, intestinal flora, to help fight that thrush in the system also.
And that's what I do.
Oh, yeah. And I can attest to the calendula tincture too because when nothing else helped Kimberly with Monroe and, Monroe and had that when he was a baby, the calendula tincture is the only after all even after all the nasty blue stuff.
Yeah. Right?
Remember that? It was that wasn't even working.
Yeah. Talk about staining too.
Oh, gosh. It was horrible.
So, another question is, and and it's a huge challenge. I don't really wanna, you know, obviously, I wanna get into the, like, vaccinations and stuff, because it's a huge thing. But this this, with the time that we have. But, what one per this one person is is traveling.
Lauren is traveling in England, for a month, and she's she, is in a quandary about vaccine, hasn't vaccinated. And just wanna know, is she is it an issue? So just about going to, you know, England and is there anything she should get to? The baby's less than a year old, I should, mention.
So if you were had a one if you had a ten, eight, ten month old baby, let's say, and you were going to England, what would you do?
So the vaccinations issue, and this is what I've always told parents and this is what I talk about in my vaccinations book, it's very circumstantial. And travel is definitely one of those circumstances that changes the equation on vaccination.
And interestingly, right now with the sort of backlash on autism and the MMR vaccine, there has been there's been a significant decrease in, England particularly of parents vaccinating with the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine. And so there has been a significant increase in the rates of MMR in of, I'm sorry, of measles in England. So this is kind of a big public health topic of conversation going on.
What I don't know is what the outcomes have been in those kids who have gotten measles, you know, how serious, how many fatalities and all. But definitely one thing you said Rachel, you said, was the mom's name? One thing she would I'm sorry. Lauren? What was it? Lauren.
Lauren.
One of the things Lauren would definitely wanna consider is that measles in very young children, measles in general can be a very serious illness, but measles in very, very young children can be extremely serious. And so, you know, whether or not she chooses to vaccinate, you know, I can't tell her what to do obviously or help her make that decision, but she would definitely wanna look at something like a CDC website or contact a public health agency in England and see, you know, is it seasonal? When are the outbreaks? Measles tends to be a seasonal illness.
And what are the consequences if her child does contract measles while she's traveling internationally?
What resource would if her child did get sick, what resources would there be for her medically if she needed them? And what would be the issues of coming back into the country with a child with measles? So something interesting to consider. The chances of contracting measles are certainly relatively small, but it's not impossible.
There there's a great, recent episode and you get the podcast on this. Did you hear it on this American life? This American life dot org. I think you can get the download the podcast. I think the episode was one of the last few, like, it was something the title of it was looking like ruining it for the rest of us or something like that. But, anyway, one of the one of the sections of the stories is very, like, story about, this person who, unvaccinated, that came back from so it's your limit measles and this epidemic in California somewhere that, well, starting to spread and having to anyway, the the the title of it sounds worse than it. It's actually a very good piece that it was I I'm just saying because I thought you you would enjoy listening to it, you know, in your Yeah.
There was an interesting episode of a prime time popular television show a few weeks ago also called Private Practice.
Mhmm.
And the premise of this show is that it's an integrative medicine practice in Sheesheville, California somewhere, you know? Mhmm. But, there's a pediatrician and an obstetrician and a general physician and psychiatrist and all. But into the practice, comes in unvaccinated child who's just come back from Switzerland where the family has been living and the child has measles and they really play it out. I mean, they just make it the worst case scenario with the child developing all kinds of complications and dying.
Oh, geez.
Really, they spin it out to the worst. But the way they actually deal with some of the issues was pretty interesting from, you know, understanding, like, how are doctors thinking about this and how is the parent thinking about this and really everybody had a rational argument. It was unfortunate that they made it into the worst possible case scenario. Scenario. Exactly. It's an interesting episode know, too.
Oh, cool. So yeah. It's a lot lot of lot of good. And and for that for that parent as well, prefer to Aviva's, for Lauren and others with vaccine questions. Refer to the book, your vaccination book.
What I would say to parents in general is that, you know, for example, compared to when my kids were little and the only polio vaccine was the live polio and the only pertussis vaccine was the wholesale pertussis, vaccinations right now are probably at their peak of safety that they've ever been historically. You know, they have record low levels of thimerosal.
They're much better than they've ever been. Does that mean that they don't cause some problems? No, it doesn't mean that. But I think that parents are in a better position to it's not quite as much of a rock and a hard place.
I think that, they're in a better position if they choose to vaccinate to have safer vaccines. If they choose to selectively vaccinate, they will likely be able to find a pediatrician who will work with them. So parents have more options, I think, in thinking through the issue now, which is good. And I think that it's not a black and white issue.
It's not like, you know, if you do vaccinate, your kid's gonna die or get autistic. And if you don't vaccinate, your kid's gonna die or, you know, develop measles encephalitis. There's a big gray area in between that still needs to be sorted out. And it's it's a very tough decision for parents.
Yeah. It is. Yeah. But just be informed and feel good about what you do is all. Yeah.
And find someone that you can be honest.
You know, find a a care provider, a family doctor, or a pediatrician that you can really partner with in, you know, in hospital for some reason, you know, so that you have a care provider who is who's got your back.
You know, so that you have a care provider who is who's got your back. Mhmm. You know, so that you're not walking in and being mistreated as some lunatic parent who didn't vaccinate. Right.
So hard. Exactly. I know.
So, you know, Tanya had some various questions, but just one that we kinda didn't touch on here was so far was, her four year old wakes up at night saying her legs, her growing pain. She's tall for her age. She says massage needs a help. She's probably asking this in terms of any herbal, you know, something she can help her with.
A four year old?
Four year old. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm.
Well, I mean, growing pains do happen. They happen more commonly in adolescence. Mhmm. Or young, like, you know, nine, ten years old.
They can happen in a four year old. I would be concerned as to why this is happening. Mhmm. I don't know that an herbal answer would satisfy me in that situation and I don't know if she's seen a pediatrician, but I would be concerned that this child is not getting adequate, dietary nutrition, that there's a calcium or magnesium d efficiency underlying this situation.
So I'd be hesitant to just give an herbal answer for that. I don't think that that for my kids or in my practice, I would not turn to an herbal answer for that.
I'd wanna find out Mhmm.
What's going on, make sure there's, you know, adequate bone density and proper bone growth and nothing else.
I I I remember relying. Recently, you might I mean, there there there have been little times when I I've heard that from my kids, you know, but not chronically, you know, like they're No.
Definitely not chronically and not in a four year old.
That's what they're trying.
Like, you know, oh, my legs are like, oh, okay. Well, we'll chalk that up to keep that in mind and then, you know, a few days later. But that's a good point.
If it's not a Caucasian child, but this is an an African American child, that can be an early onset sign of sickle cell too. So I would really wanna get that checked out.
Okay. That's good and nice.
Make sure they're getting, you know, adequate calcium in the diet. I mean, that's a child that might really benefit from drinking some milk and making sure that there's an adequate, nutrition, either, you know, some kind of supplement going on and and just ruling out something underlying.
Right. Right. Well, we're we're kinda nearing the end of our time here. Maybe we'll just take one more here.
There's so many that I who will I who will be the person I, The lottery winner.
I know. I know.
Gee.
Let's see. Perhaps the, well, how about the person's nephew is slightly autistic and gets severe ear infections and they put tubes in his ears to, drain the fluid And, but he continues to get them. And so there are herbs that can help with, a, the slightly autistic part, and, b, the ear infections.
I also like the idea of knowing let's see. Toxic. Don't ever give this. Okay. Where are you going over that?
So, but I would say the autism one would be a topic for a whole other Exactly.
Yes. Yeah.
It's but the ear infection part.
Yeah. Is the child autistic or does the child have anything in the down spectrum as well?
Because there could be some ear, ear canal placement issues that are causing some of these problems. So if if there's if there's other, not just autistic spectrum spectrum but any Down's related, spectrum, then that could actually just be sort of like a physiologic or anatomic, I should say, consideration in which case, you're going to have to do your best to really boost the immune system. As far as the chronic ear infections go, I think it's a lot of the things that we talked about, boosting the immune system, doing some of the herbs like the echinacea, the garlic earache oil, if there's active acute infection as long as you can't do it if there are tubes currently in. But a lot of the immune boosting protocol that we've talked about would really be the most appropriate and then of course diet. Diet is so important in kids' health.
What is the daily diet and is it is it, you know, kind of sugar based? Is it Yeah. Simple carbohydrate based or is this a whole foods, organic very healthy diet and that's gonna be important. And kids with developmental problems, really need that even more. You know, they really need that protection even more because they have so many insults going on in their in their life that, I think they really need extra attention to nutrition.
And and I and I and either there were some other and this is this is perfect place to finish these questions on because I there were other questions as well, like one about weight loss and this and the person even knew about, you know, along with healthier diet and exercise. And that was a key right there. You know, it's along with a healthier diet. It's like to me and I think what you're saying here is not a healthier diet, a healthy diet and and and and it really in my experience takes a commitment on the whole family.
Whether you're asking this question, it's harder when you're asking the question for somebody else because you can't get, you know. But what if it's about for yourself and and your own family, it's it's it's like no. You know, when I'm at the supermarket, I don't buy I don't buy cookies anymore. I don't buy ice cream anymore.
You know, we have some treats that we make and we have a little bit, you know, it's there's there's so sugar in the house, but it's not like it could be or was, you know. Yeah.
I mean, kids have to live. And I think the more you make things sort of like restrictive for bedding Right. Kids, the more you alienate your relationship.
Exactly.
They're not forbidding but The more you the more you create eating issues for your kid.
Mhmm. But, you know, it's interesting, like, we have always homeschooled our kids until this past year. And I've always worked from home. And for the past, seven or eight years, my husband's also worked from home.
Mhmm. So we've been in a situation until the past year where we pretty much ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. Everything was, like homemade or, you know, we've been organic for twenty eight, thirty years now. So for us, that wasn't really an issue.
But now this year, our two youngest kids who are fourteen and sixteen are in school and it's really a challenge to get up, you know, give them a healthy breakfast at six thirty in the morning Yeah. When they're not even really hungry yet. Mhmm. And then you're having to give them a breakfast that's gonna fortify them until noon when they get their next break.
And then you wanna give them foods that are healthy, but all their classmates aren't gonna laugh at them for.
It's really hard. And to, you know, have healthy whole foods diet when kids are in school is especially challenging. And, you know, you go to the health food store. I mean, Whole Foods has done amazing things for the American health food scene. I mean, everybody knows what organic is now. But you can walk into a health food store and buy just as much junk food as you can walking into Stop and Shop or Walmart.
That's right.
You know, I think people think, oh, well, these are not to diss any company, but, you know, these are Newman's cookies. They're organic. So it's okay if my kid eats six of them. Well, the Newman's cookies have just as much sugar as the as the next cookie.
Do you know what I mean? It may be good sugar. It may be better quality, but it's still, it's still sugar. And those healthy Pop Tarts are still Pop Tarts.
You know, it's not the same as eating brown rice and tofu or salmon or, you know, so it's very hard to give kids that that diet and it's it almost requires a certain amount of privilege to have one parent who can be there to make that food in the morning and not be rushing out the door themselves. And then at the end of the day, you know, a healthy snack and a healthy dinner, it's it's really hard. And, but it it's worth the effort. I mean, that's the thing.
You know, we we spent most of our our, years raising our children without being able to afford or having access to health insurance. And we always kind of felt like the money that we invested in their health in in terms of their diet and their lifestyle was the insurance. And it it for the most part, it actually paid off, you know.
And, exactly. And that's that's and, what was I gonna say?
You know, when you have one of those brain blocks when you it's like and I just had a really good point, I was gonna say.
Yeah. I'm sorry.
But, that's that's that's it. That's it exactly. And and, oh, I know I was gonna say.
And and so folks know that on the forum, on the community forum on Herb Manager is a great place to ask questions if you're especially in the traditional nutrition section, if you're having, some questions about, you know, how how how what foods and how to prepare and different recipes and things. And because that is our approach Honor mentor dot com is is, you know, just just that, is is is nourishment.
So Yeah.
And people, you know, I just important. Right now, just being in med school, it's very hard for me to answer hundreds and hundreds of questions, but I'm always open to trying. And I have my, my addresses on my website too, which I know you mentioned earlier, w w w dot avivarom dot com. And if people have a pressing concern, they are certainly welcome to email me. I don't do consults right now, and I don't, give health advice. But I'm always happy to answer a question here or there if something comes up.
Great. And and, once again, that's vivarom dot com there. I like that that rhymes. Just you it's too much you get like get like a viva dot rom.
Yeah.
It kinda works, doesn't it?
But def thank you so much. That's so much. Not just information but just amazing information. And just to mention your books, you have natural pregnancy book, holistic choices, naturally healthy babies and children, natural health after birth. And I'm not even going into the subtitles. This is just the vaccination which is thoughtful parents guide and, a ADHD alternatives, which is a whole another topic I've got a lot of questions on. So Yeah.
After that And I wrote that one actually with my husband who, is an educator.
So Oh. He so both he actually is a, doctorate in education and he was a high school teacher and principal for, like thirteen years. So we wrote that one together.
He was a principal for wow.
He was a high school principal for three years. Yeah.
Good. That's amazing. Oh, I because I met him this, you know, like, two months ago. I'm like, alright.
You two are amazing.
It's something else.
What a great couple.
And so we'll have after med school is, long past you, we'll have to, have you back when you get things, you know, like, life re recalibrated after med Of course.
And talk maybe talk a little about a d ADHD.
Or maybe we can have Tracy on as a guest and have and we can talk to him about it, you know.
Yeah. It'd be interesting too. Yeah. He had some interesting experiences like, I remember he was interviewing for a principal's job at one particular school when he was first becoming a principal and, they had a nurse on staff at this high school whose sole job, four hours a day, was to dispense ADHD medication.
So he's got some interesting perspectives for sure.
Great to have. And, and for your books, I always I'm always finding the way people can support the herbalists. So, if you go through AvivaRam and look at dot com and go to the book section. You'll see the books listed. You can click through there and not only will you, you know, it's an extra way extra way to support the herbalist as I always try to do here. So, little tip there if anyone wants to go get some of Aviva's books. And, Aviva, Ram, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Thanks for having me on your show.
Well, can't wait to have you back. Alright. Bye bye.
Bye, John.
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