In this episode of Whole-Body Health©, I chat with Dr. Gabriella Safdieh, founder of Nabella Health (formerly at Parsley Health) and integrative medicine physician. As the mother of three children, one with food allergies, Dr. Safdieh gives her advice on what we can do to optimize our children's immune and gut health.
In this episode...
(2:00) - Dr. Safdieh gives her advice on what we can do to best optimize our child’s health.
(4:30) - Dr. Safdieh reveals what she does to cultivate her children’s gut health and boost their immune systems.
(6:00) - We learn what foods Dr. Safdieh encourages minimizing in a child’s diet and how we can test our children’s gut health.
(7:30) - Children with food allergies and sensitivities and dysbiosis.
(9:00) - Dr. Safdieh explains what to be careful about in the functional medicine world.
(9:45) - Dr. Safdieh circles back on foods and additives to minimize to promote optimal health.
(10:40) - Avoid the restrictive mindset of “What we can’t eat”, especially for children. It ends up being more traumatic. Instead, we can highlight, “What can we eat?”
(13:00) - Dr. Safdieh discusses functional health and our school systems. She gives us a list of questions to ask our children’s school to keep it a healthy environment.
(15:30) - Dr. Safdieh and Emily talk about what children should be doing for mindfulness, like yoga and meditation, chewing their food, and taking deep breaths before meals. We also discuss why this is important to switch on the restful state of our autonomous nervous system. Our goal should be to bring stress levels down.
(19:15) - Emily shares a story about teaching her son to practice “his brave muscle” and why that’s important in overriding stressors like fear of food and environmental allergies.
(21:15) - Emily asks Dr. Safdieh about probiotics, prebiotics, and maintaining a healthy gut. She asks, “What do we really need to give our kids, and what’s too much?”
(24:00) - What about a Vitamin D supplement for children with food and environmental allergies? How do we test our children’s vitamin D levels?
(30:15) - Dr. Safdieh shares her cold and flu prevention ideas for children.
(31:50) - We learn about how acupuncture can boost our immunity–including children.
(35:00) - Unhealthy relationships and codependency with food and trying to find a balance in the modern world.
(36:30) - Can we do anything as pregnant mamas to encourage health in our child in utero? Yes! Dr. Safdieh shares a personal story about minimizing stress and high-intensity exercise. She also talks about the different ways to birth a baby and how that affects our children’s immune systems. She adds information about antibiotics all while reassuring us that some of these things are just out of our control.
(39:40) - Our microbiomes are completely shifting. They can look different from one year to the next.
(41:00) - We learn from Dr. Safdieh about vaginal seeding for children born via c-section.
(42:30) - Dr. Safieh suggests taking the approach of listening to all doctors’ opinions to some degree, educating ourselves constantly, and then applying what works for us.
(46:00) - Is it too late to begin healing our immune system and gut health today?
Resources:
Pediatric Food Allergy Essentials
005 - Food Allergies and Functional Medicine with Dr. Gaby Safdieh