Download The Seven Things Every Child Needs to be Healthy

Dr. Kimberly Hindman
Naturopathic Physician ~ Licensed Acupuncturist
1820 SW Vermont, Suite C
Portland, OR 97219
(503) 784-1027
The Seven Things Every Child Needs to be Healthy
Every disease in adulthood can trace its roots back to childhood health, habits, and events. Poor childhood
health has been shown to increase lung and cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, obesity and
increases the number of deaths from these and other diseases.
There are many simple things parents can do to set their children up on a healthy path and support the
development of the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems, which are the keys to childhood health and
setting the stage for good health into adulthood.
1. Lots of tender, loving touch
Children are particularly susceptible to stress because so much of their lives is dependent on others. Children
often can’t verbalize feelings of stress but over-stressed children have greater trouble with obesity,
infections, conduct disorders, mood disorders, and socialization. Loving touch substantially reduces stress in
children and skin-to-skin contact improves immune functioning. Children who have a stable family life, are
cuddled a lot, and are told often that they are loved will grow into adults with less stress and better stress
management skills.
2. Routine
Children thrive on routine. Our bodies have many internal rhythms, from our obvious heartbeat to our subtle
hormone releases and sleep-wake cycle. All of our hormones are released in cycles, and the endocrine
system is one of the primary systems developing during childhood. Having routine in the way we live our
lives helps those internal cycles function more optimally, and children need routine to help these internal
rhythms get established from the very start. Routine also helps children identify boundaries and to get a
sense of how they fit into the world and day around them.
Routine is exceptionally important when it comes to sleep. Children with less sleep don’t function at the
same level as children who get enough sleep on a regular basis. Sleep-deprived children will have greater
difficulty with focus, controlling emotions, and irritability, will have a lower threshold for frustration, and be
more prone to injuries. Sleep-deprivation can also set children up for respiratory disorders, cardiac disorders,
and obesity in adulthood due to the behaviors learned. Parents can also lose up to 200 hours of sleep per year
due to their children’s sleep habits!
Children need different amounts of sleep at different ages. Infants need a minimum of 14 hours per night,
and children 12 to 36 months old need 12 to 14 hours per night. Preschoolers need only slightly less (11 to13
hours per night) and children up to 11 years old need at least 9 hours per night.
3. Probiotics
Having the correct types and balance of good intestinal bacteria helps reduce the incidence of respiratory and
food allergies, helps keep the immune system functioning in a non-allergic/non-inflammatory mode, reduces
inflammation in the gastro-intestinal system, improves digestion, and provides protection against colon
cancer later in life. Breast feeding gets the proper balance started, but it needs to be supported through
childhood with supplementation of beneficial bacteria. This is especially important if babies were not breastfed.
4. Essential Fatty Acids
Essential fatty acids (EFAs) reduce the incidence of allergies, help keep the immune system functioning in a
non-allergic/non-inflammatory mode, reduces development of auto-immune diseases, reduces colic,
improves learning, supports healthy nerve and brain development, and reduces anxiety and depression.
EFAs are found in particularly high amounts in fish, nuts, and seeds, and the EFAs in fish oil are particularly
good for a child’s developing brain.
5. Bioavailable Magnesium
Magnesium plays an essential role in a wide range of activities in the body. It is required for the integrity of
bones and teeth, regulates the absorption of calcium, regulates the contraction of all muscles (including the
heart), is used in the stomach to produce the acid required to digest protein and absorb minerals, and is
involved in at least 300 different enzyme reactions.
Most people are magnesium deficient, and high levels of calcium can block magnesium absorption.
Magnesium also works only when it actually gets into the cell, so using a source of magnesium that the cells
can absorb and hold is essential. Magnesium is in the center of the chlorophyll molecule in plants, so green
vegetables are one of the best food sources for magnesium.
6. B Vitamins
B vitamins are used as cofactors for many enzyme reactions in the body, and function in many processes,
including blood sugar regulation, lipid metabolism, neurotransmitter synthesis and nervous system
functioning, building DNA and blood cells, immune system functioning, hormone regulation, amino
acid/protein metabolism, and antioxidant effects. Food sources of B vitamins include seeds, legumes, meat,
eggs, many dark green vegetables, yeast, many whole grains. Supplementation is best done as a B-complex
to ensure the correct balance among all the individual B vitamins.
7. Blue-Green Algae
Blue-green algae has the highest concentration of easily absorbable protein of any food source, are high in
bioavailable magnesium, and provide all the elements necessary for life, especially minerals, at doses close
to physiological levels. Algae are also what fish eat to produce the EFAs found in fish oil.
(based on the ideas of Dr. Dickson Thom, DDS, ND)