Better Everyday #42: Tools For Integrative Pediatric Care With Dr Elisa Song

Attention all mamas: we had integrative board certified pediatrician and mama herself, Dr Elisa Song, MD on the show! She shared with us her best evidence based tips for common childhood troubles ranging from fevers to earaches to sniffles. Dr Song gave us some great tips for products you can easily find over the counter to have on hand. As well as some hands on stuff like acupressure and essential oils to use when kiddos are sick and want to be held. So much power in actively helping them feel better!

We also touched on more chronic childhood issues like eczema, ADHD, autism and discussed the alarming rise in autoimmunity in children and what we can do about it. And perhaps our favorite part of the show was talking about how to help kids manage their stress - tough huh? Dr Song had some great tips and some excellent book suggestions:

1. Maureen Garth’s series of meditation books for young children called Starbright, Moonbeam, Earthlight, and Sunshine are wonderful stories that teach relaxation through metaphor and visualization.
2. The Goodnight Caterpillar: A children’s relaxation story by Lori Lite is a beautiful story of a girl who teaches a very anxious caterpillar how to slowly relax and unwind his legs, arms, body and mind, and teaches progressive relaxation to kids in a simple yet very effective way.
3. Dreaming of Ponies by Lori Lite is available as an audio CD or MP3. Lori guides kids through meditations to learn progressive relaxation, breathing, and calming techniques for bedtime and everyday stress.
4. Still Quiet Place: Mindfulness for young children and Still Quiet Place: Mindfulness for teens by Dr. Amy Saltzman, are available as audio CDs or MP3. Dr. Saltzman guides kids of all ages through various, short mindfulness exercises that are calming and easy to implement.
5. What To Do When You Worry too Much by Dr. Dawn Huebner is a must read for any child to learn cognitive-behavioral techniques to use his brain to manage his worries.
6. Julie Lythcott-Haims’ How to Raise an Adult and Jessica Lahey’s The Gift of Failure are must-reads for all parents raising today’s generation of children. 

Learn more about the lovely Dr Elisa Song here and grab her ebook on fevers (the thing that gets all us moms freaking out) here. 

As always, keep those questions coming to [e-mail]!  Follow us on Facebook  together or keep up with Dr Brooke here and Sarah here. Learn more about working with Dr Brooke at betterbydrbrooke.com and with Sarah at sarahfragoso.com (obviously). Oh and you can find Dr Brooke and Sarah on Instagram as well.

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