Healthy Kids, Happy Kids: An Integrative Pediatrician’s Guide to Whole Child Resilience

By Elisa Song MD
Healthy Kids, Happy Kids is a primer on how the gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the health of children. Elisa Song MD makes understanding how to be a Gut Hero fun and easy from the perspective of a lay parent. This enjoyable read also contains specific information about what to do for common visits to a pediatrician as well as dosing guidelines for select homeopathic remedies, herbal remedies and supplements.

What Is the Microbiome?

The sub-subtitle of this book is “Why your child’s microbiome holds the key to lifelong wellness”. The microbiome in this case and most cases refers to the community of microbes including bacteria, yeast, viruses, parasites and other critters that are hosted in the gastrointestinal tract. Some of these microbes are beneficial; some are not. Microbiome researchers are continuing to discover that people with chronic health conditions almost always have what is known as gut dysbiosis, in which an imbalance of pathogenic microbes derail optimal functioning of the body, brain and immune system. Dr. Song writes: “A resilient gut microbiome is possibly the most important biomarker for health,” and this claim is backed up by peer-reviewed medical research such as this 2020 study from Frontiers in Microbiology.

Be a Gut Hero and Create Microbiome Magic

Dr. Song teaches parents how to be a “Gut Hero” that creates “Microbiome Magic” by doing the five things kids do every day: nourish, breathe, hydrate, move and sleep. Kids don’t have to do all of these perfectly every day, she points out, but it matters that these areas are addressed most of the time.

Nourish

Part of what it means to nourish is to “get your microbiome champions in” by emphasizing Dr. Song’s three F’s: fiber, phytonutrients and fermented foods. Dr. Song notes that “fermented foods may win over fiber in optimizing our gut microbiome” because “a diet high in fermented foods was actually better at increasing gut microbiome diversity and reducing gut and systemic inflammation.” The key to adding in the three F’s is a wide variety of foods, and Dr. Song offers advice for getting your child to eat a greater variety, such as eating the “same yum, different fun”, cooking at home more and teaching kids to cook. Throughout this section of the book are lots of fun callouts about topics such as what is a whole grain, the colors of phytonutrient power, biodiversity, the whole gut rainbow and more. There are also quite a few recipes to get parents started on this journey.

Another part of nourishing your child’s body is to keep out “microbiome mischief makers” such as artificial colors, artificial flavors, natural flavors, added sugar and glyphosate. To do this, she teaches parents how to be a “Gut Hero food label detective” by avoiding the additives mentioned previously as well as others such as emulsifiers, preservatives, highly refined seed and vegetable oils, and sugar substitutes.

Breathe

Breathing in a way that calms the vagus nerve is another way to undo the persistent stress that Dr. Song writes is the “#1 chronic Microbiome Mischief Maker.” A big takeaway here is that “a resilient gut microbiome supports a resilient vagus nerve, and a resilient vagus nerve supports a resilient gut microbiome.” Dr. Song teaches that heart-rate variability (HRV) is a biomarker for vagus nerve function and that poor HRV is “associated with systemic inflammation and predictive of poor health.” In this section of the book, she provides fun breathing exercises such as belly breathing and square breathing that can engage the vagus nerve and improve HRV.

Hydrate

Hydration is one of the keys to better pooping, and Dr. Song provides guidelines for how much water (not juice, just water) your should drink every day plus what the perfect poop looks like. If you’ve been around biomedical practitioners for long enough, you’ll know that the quality of your child’s poop is a great indicator of their overall health.

Move

Because movement and exercise can also help move food through the gastrointestinal tract, Dr. Song recommends that your child get at least 60 minutes a day of movement. This doesn’t have to be 60 minutes all in one go; it can be broken up into chunks that include activities such as walking, cleaning, exercising, jumping, riding bicycles and more.

Sleep

A good night’s sleep is the last piece of Dr. Song’s puzzle for creating Microbiome Magic. Because fragmented or poor-quality sleep stresses the microbiome, vagus nerve and the rest of the body, poor sleep can contribute to a leaky gut that is a symptom of gut dysbiosis.

Come for the Microbiome Magic; Stay for the Integrative Pediatrician’s Advice

Even kids who follow Dr. Song’s advice for Microbiome Magic will occassionally get sick. In the second half of this book, Dr. Song guides parents with advice about what to do and what not to do when your child is temporarily sick. She unpacks her toolkit for addressing the top 25 acute pediatric concerns that her patients see her for. The toolkit includes:

What’s really helpful in Dr. Song’s integrative approach to the top 25 acute concerns is that she details the inside scoop for each condition from her perspective as well as diet, lifestyle, supplements, herbs, homeopathic remedies, acupressure points and essential oils that can help alleviate symptoms. The occassional “take your pick” sections help parents understand which particular remedies are helpful for subtypes of conditions such as coughs, earaches, fever and more. This section of the book by itself is an excellent reference for parents who wish to educate themselves on a less-harsh, more-integrative approach to their child’s health.

In Conclusion

Healthy Kids, Happy Kids is a top-drawer choice for parents wanting to know how best to support the health of their child. It’s a fun, inviting read that parents can use as a reference guide for addressing symptoms of acute health conditions as well as the microbiome healing that needs to happen for healing chronic health conditions. This book would also make a great baby-shower gift for holistic-minded parents-to-be.

About Elisa Song MD

Elisa Song MD is a Stanford-, NYU-, UCSF-trained integrative pediatrician, pediatric functional-medicine expert, and mom to two thriving children, and she is on a mission to revolutionize the future of children’s health. Dr. Song is the author of the national bestseller Healthy Kids, Happy Kids: An Integrative Pediatrician’s Guide to Whole Child Resilience.She will be the keynote speaker at the 2024 Documenting Hope Conference.

Dr. Song created Healthy Kids Happy Kids (www.healthykidshappykids.com) as an online holistic pediatric resource to help practitioners and parents bridge the gap between conventional and integrative pediatrics with an evidence-based, pediatrician-backed, mom-approved approach.

In her integrative pediatric practice, she’s helped 1000’s of kids get to the root causes of their health concerns and empowered parents to help their children thrive by integrating conventional pediatrics with functional medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and essential oils.

Dr. Song is chair of A4M’s pediatric education and has lectured around the world at leading integrative and functional-medicine conferences and premier parenting events. She has also been featured in hundreds of top podcasts, print and online media outlets, including the Wellness Mama podcast, BloomTV, Forbes, Healthline, MindBodyGreen, National Geographic, PopSugar, Parents, Motherly, Parade, Verywell Health, and the New York Post.

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