Brave Parent: Raising Healthy, Happy Kids Against All Odds in Today’s World

Dr. Maples shares collective wisdom from her decades as a total health dentist and the latest scientific research to guide us to raise happy, healthy kids in conscious families. She says: “Medicine has been on a quest to treat one problem at a time, prescribing drugs only to quell the symptoms, not the disease itself. The system is broken! Imagine instead, all health care professionals taking time to identify the underlying root causes of disease and learn to effectively facilitate behaviour change. Talk about a revolution. To do that we must learn to see the human body as a whole – and learn what to do to care for it. What do we eat? How do we nourish and nurture our brains? How do we improve our gut/mouth microbiome?” How do we breathe? What’s the quality and quantity of our sleep? How do we effectively move our bodies? How do we respond to stress, both acute and chronic?” I would also add: How do we overcome fear and trauma?

It is estimated that 75% of America’s health care expenditure is for lifestyle diseases that are preventable. Also, their health care system doesn’t pay for prevention, only treatment. They need medical coverage for all aspects of teaching people how to live a healthy lifestyle and reform the processed food supply by replacing dangerous foods with healthy ones. Processed foods are the root cause of many diseases, disorders, and dysfunctions. The prevalence of overweight or obesity in the United States has increased to 55% of adults and 30% of children. The biggest culprit is the processed industrialized food supply. Our responsibility as parents is to provide our children with healthy and appetizing foods. Their job is to eat them when they’re hungry. We are preoccupied and super confused about what to eat, what not to eat, and when to eat in order to lose weight. This reflects a culture that has developed a highly unhealthy relationship with food. We need to help our children develop a positive healthy relationship with food. Our children’s relationship with food is influenced by witnessing our beliefs, behaviours, and patterns, and understanding that food is for nourishing the body and mind.

We are born with an amazing innate ability to balance and regulate our food energy intake to serve our bodies well on any given day. That’s how our bodies are designed, but our intake of processed food has broken that feedback loop. Now many of us eat unhealthy, addictive food because it is available and heavily marketed, and stop eating when it’s all gone, with no ability to self-regulate. That’s when we get in trouble with metabolic disease and weight gain. Losing our innate ability to regulate our body’s ideal caloric intake happens gradually. How our hunger-feeding circuitry becomes increasingly muted is multifaceted and complicated – and the fix isn’t easy either because it has become our cultural norm.

Dr. Maples offers 8 pillars for healthy eating in our families:
Never force or restrict food. Children’s bodies function exquisitely to regulate their intake until we as adults wreak havoc with that. Starting from infancy, babies eat according to their own variable energy needs – as they should. As they grow older, we start to condition them to override their hunger signals, and eat what we ask of them and when we want them to. We train them into eating “regular meals” of our choosing, routinizing their food intake at specific times of day, no matter what their energy needs are. Two key hormones play a role in regulating hunger and satiety, primarily through their influence on the hypothalamus of the brain. Leptin, produced by adipose (fat) tissue, signals satiety and promotes weight loss by suppressing appetite and increasing metabolic rate. Ghrelin, secreted by the stomach, acts as an appetite stimulant, increasing hunger. Their opposing actions within the hypothalamus maintain energy balance. If you trust that the brain and responding hormones are much more astute at food regulation than you are, you’ll be less concerned by your child’s variable food consumption.
Don’t use food as reward, punishment, or bribery. Keep in mind that it is up to you to convey the purpose of food – to nourish our bodies and our minds, not to earn extrinsic rewards or garnish penalties because this just confuses the child. Dr. Maples talks about how, in her dental office, she often hears parents bribing their kids to go through with a filling for a cavity caused by a high sugar diet using the promise that they’ll take them for an ice cream or Slurpee after. This is confusing and sends the wrong message. She suggests that if you do resort to bribery then try not to glorify unhealthy foods or drinks, but rather offer rewards other than food, such as storytelling time, a nature hike, a craft project, playing a favourite game, or a back rub.
Encourage kids to try new healthy foods. Our brains have an amazing way of adopting preference around the foods we habitually eat. It’s the gift of neuroplasticity: the ability of the brain to reorganize and change activity in response to changing experiences. Offering kids new healthy foods can expand their palate and provide them with a broader nutritional range. It is important to be encouraging and not forceful, otherwise experimentation can be traumatizing. If they really don’t like it, gently see if they can swallow the bite anyways, but if not or if they are gagging, it’s okay to spit it out.
Look at the ingredients list on packaged food and educate your child. If there are food additives, it’s best to look elsewhere. If there are ingredients you do not recognize, look them up on your phone and educate your child. It is important to explain why you can’t purchase a certain processed food with a colourful package and a cartoon figure – because the food additives are toxic to their body and mind.
Eliminate all sugary beverages from your home. This includes fruit juice, soda pop, sports drinks, sweat tea, energy drinks, sweetened water, or any beverage with added sugar. Sugar is highly addictive and highly inflammatory. Research shows that this increases your child’s risk of dental caries (cavities), obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cancer, cognitive decline, and mental illness dramatically. It’s the amount, the kind of sugar, and how fast it gets into the bloodstream that has the potential to drive disease. In excess, sugar is dangerous. High fructose corn syrup, common in sugar-sweetened beverages and candy, is by far the worst. All US medical and dental associations have issued warnings to eliminate liquid sugar from your children’s diets. So, clean out your fridge and cupboards to eliminate all sugary beverages and set a healthy example for your children.
Eliminate all sugary cereals from your home. Starting your child’s day with an inflammatory bomb of sugar and wheat sets them up for a host of diseases and disorders for life. Consider eggs with meat and vegetables, or whole grain porridge or unsweetened wheat-free cereals with fruit for breakfast. If your children are already addicted to sugar, don’t worry. Their tastes buds and their physiology will adjust in a few weeks with healthy food choices. If your kids complain, explain. Don’t give in. Tell them how much you love them and how much their health and happiness mean to you. We can always count on the brain to rewire our preference around what we habitually eat through neuroplasticity – healthy eating will eventually become their new normal.
Eat whole foods from nature. This means real food grown on farms – fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and sustainable protein, like free-range eggs, chicken, beef, lamb, pork, and fish (salmon is the best). Ideally, produce would be organic to avoid all the chemicals on them. Ideally, the meat would be grass-fed from regenerative farms, and the fish wild-caught. Ensure these products are all unprocessed and raised humanely and without added drugs or chemicals. Meat from factory farms is dangerous to the consumer and the animals – they are injected with antibiotics and hormones, fed grains to fatten them up, and kept in confined stressful, infectious conditions. These are not healthy animals, yet they make up most of our mass consumed food supply. Uncured bacon is okay in moderation, but cured bacon, pepperoni, processed deli meats, and hot dogs are considered a carcinogen (ie –causes cancer) by the World Health Organization and should be avoided, especially in our children’s developing bodies.
Eat mostly plants, especially plants with colour. The vast majority of health experts consider a plant-based diet the healthiest choice for combating systemic inflammation. The majority of people live on the opposite end of the spectrum, consuming mostly meats, cheese, and processed carbs. Fiber in plants significantly slows the absorption of sugar into our bloodstream, thereby controlling the insulin release and protecting us from insulin sensitivity and thus metabolic disease (eg – type 2 diabetes). A high fiber diet is important for weight control, gut health, and regular elimination. We need both soluble fiber and insoluble fiber, which we get from vegetables, fruits, legumes, and nuts. Plants also contain vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory chemicals that boost our metabolic health. Organic is important to avoid toxic herbicides and pesticides, but are more expensive. The “Clean Fifteen” is a list of plants that are safe to eat without being organically grown because they don’t absorb as many of the toxins, and the “Dirty Dozen” is a list of plants that aren’t safe to eat if not organic. Plants should make up 50% of your plate, with the rest sustainable protein, nuts, seeds, and legumes, with occasionally whole grains. Fruits and veggies can be cut up into finger foods for the kids, which also makes a great healthy snack. Note that potatoes are a vegetable, but mostly carbohydrates so should be kept to a minimum.

The literature on the role of inflammation on health and illness has grown exponentially over the past few decades. Acute inflammation is a good thing. It helps keep us alive. In response to injury or infection, our immune system signals an immediate response, sending immune cells to clean up and repair the site. This brings redness, swelling, and heat as part of the inflammatory responses for healing. Acute means it is relatively short-lived, days to weeks, and then the inflammation goes away once healing is complete. Chronic inflammation causes the lining of all your blood vessels, the endothelium, to erode – the endothelium is only ten to sixteen cell layers thick and is in constant repair. Defects in eroding endothelium allow bacteria and small dense fatty droplets (low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol; aka “bad cholesterol”) to enter and aggregate inside the broken blood vessel walls. This is called “plaque”, which is the root cause of cardiovascular disease, including heart disease.

Chronic systemic inflammation has many possible causes, like the smoldering infection of gum disease and non-infectious conditions, such as obesity, insulin resistance, arthritis, and inflammatory foods – especially processed foods. Food, like wheat, dairy, sugar, fried foods, vegetable and seed oils, as well as preservatives, flavour enhancers, sweeteners, thickeners, colouring agents, and other added toxins, are highly inflammatory. All of these food additives are unnatural, are a lot of work for the body to clean up, and increase blood inflammatory biomarkers (IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, and hs-CRP). Chronic systemic inflammation may cause cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, gut dysbiosis (a bacterial imbalance in the gut), irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and many more.

There is sanctity in eating nutritious delicious meals and enjoying them together. This is something to be valued as a family. Teaching our children to value the effort it takes to properly feed the body and mind takes as much training as learning to shop for and prepare nutritious foods. Talk to your kids about the foods you’ve selected and why they are important for health and happiness. Try creating a dinnertime ritual where the family eats together without interruption from cell phones, tablets, video games, computers, and television. Consider inviting the kids to help in the kitchen preparing fresh foods, herbs, and spices to their taste. At mealtime, ask them to try to taste the individual elements and comment on their preferences. Does the dish need more or less, or something else? If dinnertime without technology is boring, try using fun card decks that offer conversation starters to stimulate humorous, educational, brave, and vulnerable dialogue. Remind each other to eat slowly and mindfully until it becomes a habit. This not only regulates satiation-appetite balance, but it helps you savour the flavour and appreciate your time with loved ones.

As a parent, it’s crucial to be aware of warning signs that stray from having a healthy relationship with nutritious food. Eating disorders describe illnesses that are characterized by irregular eating habits and severe distress or concern about body weight or shape. These may include inadequate or excessive food intake that can damage a child’s well-being. Eating pathologies, such as anorexia and bulimia, are both ways to control food. Anorexia affects girls more than boys, but boys represent one in every four children diagnosed with anorexia. These disorders can be overlayed with intense emotions, confusions, and stress. Unless you can adopt a healthy relationship to food, to grow better preferences as a lifestyle habit rather than a diet plan or disordered eating, dieting and food avoidance will not work long-term. The diet culture is fueling pathological eating. Many of us engage in stress eating – reaching for a favourite comfort food to help manage anxiety or depression. Comfort foods are rarely healthy foods. They are often highly inflammatory and contribute to mental illness. If you see this pattern in yourself or your child, try to identify what is causing the emotional trigger for stress eating or disordered eating and address that, perhaps with a trusted therapist.

Food addictions are also a concern – sugar, fat, and/or salt; however, the addiction comes as an attempt to manage unresolved emotions or an unmet need. The root causes need to be addressed to resolve the addiction. Sugar is a bit different because it acts on the dopamine reward pathway in the brain just like addictive drugs do, so a physiological dependence is also a concern that needs to be broken by completely removing sugar for a while. Our cells are signaling our bodies and minds to provide them with the right nutrient building blocks for their metabolism, however, they can get confused when we routinely feed them the wrong stuff, so can our minds. This becomes habitual, but the cells can only take so much and then diseases become the next warning sign. Long before that, if we listen to our bodies, we can pick up on the subtle signs that tell us what the body really needs – real food from nature, nearly all of the time. Your child’s health depends on daily choices, day-to-day conversations around food and health, and grocery store decisions. As with so much of parenting, we each get a short window of opportunity to influence our children for a lifetime – patterns and habits instilled within us as children will be carried with us into adulthood and either fuel disease or support health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) sugar consumptions guidelines are: no more than 5% of a person’s total energy intake. That means that the US would need to reduce their sugar consumption by about 75%, which is completely ignored by mainstream media. The soda industry profits enormously on the declining health of their consumers. Soda has been shown by extensive research to be toxic to a person’s health. How is it possible to use soda as a “treat” for a child when it is toxic to their body and their mind? Beyond all the chemical flavourings and colourings, caffeine, and acidity, soda is laden with high-fructose corn syrup, one of the most dangerous threats on the planet to our children’s health. With corn subsidized by the government, cheap corn is turned into cheap corn-sweetener – high-fructose corn syrup – and has taken over the soda industry. As people learned of its dangers, the industry designed several ways to obscure your ability to recognize this toxic ingredient: by relabeling it as glucose-fructose, maize syrup, high-fructose maize syrup, isoglucose, glucose isolate, and corn syrup. Portion size has increased dramatically from a 7 ounces serving in the 1950s to 20 or 32 ounces or larger that are available now. Teens and adults don’t wake up one day and decide to guzzle a gallon of soda. This is learned behaviour that has serious consequences. And it involves caffeine and sugar addictions, which are difficult to quit without having withdrawal symptoms. Shockingly, these toxic beverages are available in schools and in hospitals. Studies report that the acidity in soda even promotes osteoporosis and kidney stones. Skipping the soda and reaching for popular sports drinks or vitamin waters may seem like a healthy choice, but they’re not much better than soda when it comes to sugar. A 32 oz sports drink contains between 56 g and 76 g of sugar – about fourteen to nineteen teaspoons. That’s four to five times more sugar than your child should be consuming in the entire day.

The problem with fruit juice is that the fiber and most of the micronutrients from the fruit are removed. Fiber is kids’ number one nutrient deficiency. What is left is basically flavoured sugar water. Juice has lots of the worst kind of sugar – fructose, which is processed in the liver. Without the fiber to slow absorption and mitigate the insulin release, we are setting kids up for weight gain and other serious metabolic challenges, such as insulin resistance, diabetes, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Science shows that liquid calories fail to trigger the same hunger satisfaction in the brain that solid foods do. This, combined with the addictive nature of sugar, leads to overconsumption of juice and ill health, while limiting their appetite for healthy foods. This leads to micronutrient malnutrition. A child may look underweight, but their inadequate intake of vitamins and minerals interrupts the body’s ability to produce enzymes, hormones, and other essential elements for proper growth and development. In 2021, the WHO stated that at least half of children under five in the world have micronutrient malnutrition. It should be noted that, for constipation, three juices can be helpful: prune, apple, and pear. It seems juice can be given safely to babies four-months-old for constipation but should be limited to two to three ounces of 100% fruit juice (no added sugar) per day, temporarily. For infants 8 to 12 months, only six ounces should be given for constipation. These juices should only be given to them for about a week to relieve constipation, not for on-going daily consumption. To help protect their precious baby teeth, juices should not be given to them before bed.

“Sugar” is an umbrella term for caloric sweeteners: high-fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, honey, beet sugar, fruit juice concentrates, maple syrup, agave, and more. There are now fifty-six common names for sugar. Likewise, “sugar-free” is the umbrella term for noncaloric sweeteners. The scientific term is nonnutritive sweeteners, and these include sucralose (Splenda), aspartame (NutraSweet and Equal), acesulfame-K (Sweet One), neotame (Newtame), and saccharin (Sweet’N Low). There are now seventy-six names for nonnutritive sweeteners. Pumping our food and beverage supply with artificial chemical sweeteners doesn’t make sense at all. Several epidemiological studies show that the consumption of nonnutritive sweeteners, mostly in diet sodas and processed foods, increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome (a large waist, increased blood pressure, high triglyceride level, risky blood cholesterol ratio, and elevated fasting blood sugar). These chemicals promote metabolic dysregulation through three mechanisms: (1) they interfere with our learned responses that contribute to our glucose-insulin control; (2) they interfere with our gut microbiome and stimulate glucose intolerance; and (3) they interact with the sweet taste receptors that are distributed throughout our digestive tract that play a role in glucose absorption and insulin secretion.

Xylitol is a naturally found sweetener (a sugar alcohol) extracted from the bark of the birchwood tree. In the mouth, it has the opposite effect of sugar on the oral bacteria that cause cavities. While the bacteria that cause cavities consume sugar and release acid to cause tooth decay, the xylitol they consume prevents them from releasing acid. Finland was way ahead of the US in using xylitol to help control dental caries (tooth decay), and with huge success. Their dental health promotion efforts began in 1991 with the use of xylitol chewing gum, which was effective in dropping their cavity rates. Currently, more than half of all Finnish schoolchildren benefit from it. Xylitol is reported to not contribute to metabolic dysregulation and early studies show it may even be beneficial in reducing the progression of insulin resistance to type 2 diabetes. Xylitol can be helpful with preventing cavities and managing dry mouth; however, it should be noted that it is toxic to dogs. Even small amounts of xylitol can cause low blood sugar, seizures, liver failure, or even death in dogs, so it has to be stored out of reach of children and dogs. Xylitol studies are showing its benefits in reducing inflammation of mucous and sinus membranes, relieving constipation, improving bone mineral density, and fortifying the gut microbiome. Studies on erythritol, another sugar alcohol used as a low calorie sweetener, show that it might also work well in reducing dental caries without causing metabolic dysregulation.

Cow’s milk has sugar (lactose), but is also a natural source of protein, calcium, potassium, and vitamin B12, and is often fortified with vitamin D (meaning it is added during processing). Vitamin D is one of the top nutrient deficiencies in the US. Cow’s milk is inflammatory and should be avoided, or at the very least only offered to children with caution and in small doses. Whole milk is a little better because it has more fat, which is essential for your child’s developing brain; however, it comes at an inflammatory cost. Ideally, if you are going to give your kids cow’s milk, it should be grass-fed, antibiotic-free, and hormone-free to avoid added health risks. There are several safe and somewhat helpful milks on the market today – almond milk and other nut milks, soy milk, and oat milk. Though none of these milks offer the protein content of cow’s milk, they are less inflammatory, have lower calories, and have plenty of nutritional value. Some of these milk alternatives are flavoured; meaning they have chemical additives and added sugar, which are not healthy for anyone. Natural nut milks can be easily made at home in a blender, which can be a good way to get kids involved in making healthy products from scratch.

We are a caffeine-addicted culture, and our children are little addicts in training. Caffeine is an addictive, psychoactive, stimulant drug. We’re so good at training our kids to be addicted that by the time they advance to college age, 93% of them drink this drug daily. That’s because 73% of us buy and serve our five- to twelve-year-olds caffeine in our homes. The American Academy of Pediatrics say that children under twelve should avoid caffeine completely. Caffeine is a white alkaloid powder, derived from coffee beans and some tea leaves, and sprinkled into anything drinkable. Caffeine has its merits. It will increase your alertness, especially if you only use it once and while. Caffeine blocks the sleep hormone (adenosine) receptors in your brain to keep you from feeling sleepy. However, it is associated with some negative health consequences when you consume too much, including increased heart rate, palpitations, insomnia, anxiety, increased blood pressure, bladder instability, gastrointestinal distress (diarrhea), and pregnancy complications. Taking a break from a coffee addiction may result in headaches as part of the withdrawal process. Many over-the-counter headache remedies contain a bit of caffeine, which may help a bit during the first couple of days. Talk to your kids about how unnecessary caffeine is for a healthy person to consume and warn them about the possible dangers of addiction and consuming too much.

About 42% of adolescents and young adults are consuming energy drinks. These are toxic beverages and kids are watching your habits. With brightly coloured packaging and youthful advertising, energy drink marketing efforts target children and teens. These toxic drinks can contain 2 to 3 times as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, and lead to caffeine addiction and intoxication. Caffeine intoxication is a caffeine overdose that can cause jitters, rapid heart rate, nausea, anxiety, heart arrhythmia, sweating, or vomiting, and may even lead to death via cardiac arrest. Energy drinks are linked to increased substance abuse and risk-taking behaviours. The WHO warns that “increased consumption of energy drinks may pose a serious danger to public health, especially among young people”. Keep energy drinks out of your body, out of your house, and completely out of the realm of possibilities for your children. For an energy boost, foster habits of good nutrition, lots of high-quality sleep, and plenty of water and exercise.

Our body is about 60% water. Most people don’t drink nearly enough water and are chronically dehydrated. Water helps us regulate body temperature, lubricate and cushion our joints, protect our spinal cord and other sensitive tissues, get rid of wastes through urination, perspiration, and bowel movements, and feel better. Adequate hydration helps our body do what it needs to do every day. If you keep your fridge and cupboards clean, starting your kids on plain water and whole fruits (rather than fruit juices), they will grow up to prefer water to sweet drinks. A good rule, and an easy one to remember, is kids need one 8 ounce glass of water per day, for each year of life, up to 64 ounces around age 8, which continues into adulthood. Consider having your home tap water tested for contamination and pH, and, if needed, use a home filtration system, such as reverse osmosis to purify your water, and consider alkaline water for additional health benefits, such as with a Kangen machine.

Many people now perceived bottled water as the cleanest form of potable water without knowing anything about its origins. Keep in mind, when you buy bottled water, the source of the water is most likely unclear. There are health concerns regarding bottled water. Acidifying consumable liquids is the easiest way to keep bacterial counts down and extend their shelf life, since the liquids sit still in warehouses and stores. Many bottled waters have a pH of around 4 – which is 1000 times more acidic than tap water and has health implications. Some of the most popular brands of bottled water are the most acidic, and not a healthy go-to beverage. The acid-base pH scale spans from 1 (like battery acid), which is very acidic, to 14 (bleach), which is very alkaline. The middle number, 7, is neutral; that’s where our body (blood and saliva) like to be. Tap water is typically neutral. The pH scale runs up and down from 7 with a geometric progression, meaning each number is a multiplier of 10. So, a pH of 6 is ten times more acidic than neutral. A pH of 5 is one hundred times more acidic than neutral. It’s shocking to learn that the most popular sodas have a pH of 3, which is ten thousand times more acidic than our neutral tap water or the body. To buffer the acid that we consume, we release calcium from our teeth causing acid erosion of our teeth. The same thing happens to our bones to buffer the blood, causing osteoporosis. It also increases the likelihood of developing calcium-based kidney stones. Drinking alkaline water, such as around pH 9, can help offset acidity in the body caused by an acidic and inflammatory diet.

Single-use water bottles are made of plastic polymers that allow chemicals to leach out into the water contaminating our bodies. For example, bisphenol A (BPA), which has been linked to breast cancer, endocrine dysfunctions in fetuses and children, obesity, and organ damage. High temperature storage enhances the chemical release from the bottle into the water, like when you leave a bottle of water in your hot car and return to it later. Thinner plastic bottles release more chemicals into the water than thicker ones; however, thicker plastic bottles have a greater environmental impact as it takes an average of 450 years to degrade a single plastic bottle. Single-use plastic bottles have become a catastrophic contributor to ocean and land pollution. Bottled water is also ridiculously expensive. Where tap water costs about three dollars per 1000 liters, bottled water costs about three dollars a single liter. That covers the cost to advertise, produce, distribute, store, discard, and profit from each of these components. As it is, the entire life cycle of bottled water uses more than seventeen million barrels of oil a year to produce enough plastic water bottles to meet America’s demand. In addition, the US spends about $70 million a year in clean up and maintenance of water bottles in landfills. Boycott single-use plastics wherever you can, especially water bottles. Instead, have fun with your kids shopping for personalized refillable water bottles that they can take with them wherever they go. Make sure they are BPA-free, easy to clean, and appealing to use. Many companies are using safe, environmentally friendly materials such as stainless steel, recyclable bamboo, and food-grade silicone. Fun patterns or stickers can make it more attractive and personalized. A carabiner clip can be helpful to hook the water bottle onto a school backpack.

There is no scientific evidence suggesting that carbonated water can damage teeth, your bones, or your body, unless it is acidic. Bubly has a pH of 4, which is 1000 times more acidic than tap water and the body, however, San Pellegrino (unflavoured) has a pH of around 7, mirroring the neutrality of tap water and the body. Consider getting inexpensive pH paper (aka litmus paper) to test your beverages with your kids at home and choose neutral, or alkaline pH products for better health. Consider getting a device, like SodaStream, that puts carbonation into your filtered tap water or alkaline water for a fun healthier option for your kids. In some studies, carbonated water improved satiety, or the feeling of fullness, which can help people who constantly feel hungry. For the same reason, sparkling water may not be the best way to increase your water consumption. As you’re making significant changes in your household drinking habits, turn water drinking into a fun challenge. Find creative ways to track intake and offer rewards. Include the adults too – that helps keep everyone accountable and sets a good example for the kids. Consider infusing your tap water, carbonated or not, with real fruits, herbs, and vegetables for a healthy option. Experiment with your kids to see what their favourite combinations are. Perhaps watermelon, blackberries and mint. Or cucumber, orange, and basil. Or strawberry, kiwi, and lime. Infused water like this provides vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and functions as a healthy flavoured option to sugary beverages.

If you drink alcohol, drink in moderation, and drink responsibly. Don’t drink and drive. Kids are watching your every move. Be careful not to get too excited about your favourite alcoholic beverages because it will entice your kids to try it before they are of age. Set a good example and educate your children on the dangerous aspects of alcohol at any age. If your alcohol consumption seems out of control at times or your parenting personality changes, or you become reliant on it for a daily numb-out, consider getting help. Alcohol is toxic to children’s brain and body development, and should be avoided completely. Don’t give your children alcohol until they are of legal age. This promotes unhealthy coping and partying behaviours, and sets them up for addiction.

A number of gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunctions have increased in prevalence and become a huge focus in science and medicine these days. Acid reflux, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, leaky gut syndrome, and other digestive disorders are hotspots in gut microbiome research. The science shows that processed foods (especially fast foods, junk foods, fried foods, wheat, dairy, and sugar) are bad for gut health. There are other culprits as well: the overuse of antibiotics, increasing prevalence of C-section delivery, over-sanitizing our living environment, reduced time in nature, less agricultural diversity, and stress. It is astounding how many people suffer silently from chronic GI distress, such as reflux, burping, bloating, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, gut pain, and bloody stools.

Think of your digestive tract as a super long inner tube, with a surface area of about 2,700 square feet – about the size of a tennis court. It extends from the mouth to the anus. Much of the surface area is a permeable barrier that keeps the gut microflora within the tube while absorbing water and nutrients along the way, and eliminating the rest. There is a mountain of evidence showing that microbial diversity within the gut microbiome is the key to digestive and overall health. In other words, the more helpful bacteria and the more different types of helpful bacteria, the better our digestion and mental health, and thus overall wellbeing. Unfortunately, our Western processed food diet is associated with low microbial diversity. The microbiome of children who eat a processed food diet, high is wheat, dairy, sugar, and fried foods, have lower microbial diversity than those eating real food from nature. Increasing the variety of plants kids consume is emerging as the most critical factor in restoring microbial diversity and providing more micronutrients, like vitamins and minerals.

We sometimes forget the mouth is the upper part of the digestive tract. Chewing food and mixing it with saliva, containing all its electrolytes and enzymes, begins the digestive process. The microbiome of the mouth differs from the gut, the vagina, the nose, and the skin. All have a unique combination of bacterial species with specific purposes. In the mouth alone, we’ve currently identified between 750 and 1,500 strains of bacteria, depending on the diet, age, and geographic location. Incidentally, current genome sequencing research suggests there are thousands more still unidentified.

Gut microbiome diversity is similar to forests, lakes, oceans, and other wildlife habits that flourish when there is a wide diversity of life-forms supporting each other. When there is a lack of diversity, the ecology suffers. There is a lot of good research suggesting that the big rise in allergies, asthma, autoimmune disorders, inflammatory bowel diseases, autism, diabetes, certain types of cancers, and obesity are associated with a gut microbiome diversity deficit. Genetics isn’t believed to play a significant role because our genetic makeup certainly hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years where we’ve seen the rise in chronic noncommunicable diseases. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there has been a 50% increase in food allergies between 1997 and 2011. Now, one in twenty kids has a food allergy. The most common food allergens for children are wheat, eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, strawberries, sesame, and soy. It’s hard for doctors to keep up with the changing recommendations for allergy prevention and treatment. They are often challenged to give advice on how to safely introduce these foods. In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics agreed that we should delay the introduction of cow’s milk until age one, eggs until age two, and shellfish, fish, peanuts, and tree nuts until age three. But in 2008, the pendulum began to swing the other way. It was determined that the current guidelines were ineffective, and maybe even contributing to the worsening pediatric allergy crisis. Hence, the newest recommendations by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, Canadian Pediatric Society, and Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology all agree that allergenic foods should be introduced like other whole foods. Present them one at a time, gradually, in small quantities, starting at age four to six months (soon after vegetables and meats), and ideally before they are seven months old. Today, it’s a better known concept that the increase in food allergies also has to do with a lack of exposure to early-life microbes.

Before birth, your baby has a relatively sterile gut. The newest research suggests they have some bacteria populating their digestive tract even while they are in the womb but nothing like the rich population of bacteria they collect if they’re fortunate enough to be born through their mom’s vaginal canal. Entering the world facedown, mouth-open, they get an inoculation of mom’s vaginal secretions and feces in their mouths and on their skin. Next, as they nuzzle up to suckle on mom’s breast, they’re exposed to mom’s skin. These three of mom’s microbiomes enrich a child’s early gut and skin, and ready the baby’s digestive tract to process breast milk properly.

A baby who is delivered through a cesarean section bypasses mom’s natural vaginal microflora. As a result, many C-section babies are slower to acquire the microbiome diversity indicative of health as their mouth and gut microbiome becomes populated haphazardly overtime depending on what they are fed. Consequently, they are associated with a higher incidence of digestive dysfunction that can last well into adulthood. Other studies have linked cesarean babies with an increased risk of childhood asthma and eczema. There has been an increase in C-section deliveries in recent decades due to the declining health of our population. Our rates of obesity, heart disease, and additional comorbidities have significantly increased the risk of complications during pregnancy and delivery. If we became healthier as a population, it would have a positive impact on our modes of delivery, infant mortality rate, and child health outcomes. There is also a list of speculative reasons for the rise in C-sections including a desire for scheduling convenience, financial gain for the doctors and medical facilities, a culture of impatience, and risk of litigation from possible negative outcomes of a difficult delivery. In your personal effort to avoid C-section, unless truly medically necessary, you’ll want to have that discussion with your doctor ahead of time.

When human babies are born their gut is immature and can handle only breast milk. Mom’s milk has the perfect combination of 10% proteins, 30% fat, and 60% carbohydrates. Along with micronutrients and some of mom’s microbiota, this is the perfect recipe for the first four to six months while the baby’s intestines are maturing enough to process some solid food. Meanwhile, the baby is developing trillions of microbial cells to colonize the entire surface of their gut lining, including the mouth. Breast milk is also the best source of nutrition for the baby’s developing gut microbiota. Numerous studies document better health outcomes for breast milk-fed babies, including reduced rates of infections, asthma, and obesity. The act of breastfeeding is also beneficial. Sucking directly from a breast (versus a bottle) builds strong tongue and facial muscles, which is crucial for developing proper oral cavity, jaw, and face structure. Breastfeeding is also important for mother-baby bonding.

Breastfeeding correctly can be very natural for some mothers, but it can be challenging for others. Be patient for the first few weeks and consult a lactation consultant if needed. Make sure the consultant evaluates your baby’s tongue and lips for tethered oral tissues. Breastfeeding restrictions can be caused by an anterior or posterior tongue-tie or an upper lip-tie that might need to be released. If you are committed to breastfeeding, try to avoid giving bottles in the first few weeks to avoid nipple confusion.

Because mom’s milk helps diversify the baby’s gut microbiota, the recommendation is for babies to enjoy at least four months of breastmilk, but if it’s possible, keep it going as you introduce whole foods. There is sound evidence that baby’s gut bacteria benefit from breastfeeding up to two years. If you decide to feed your baby formula instead of breastmilk, you might want to supplement good gut bacteria that the baby is missing. Complementing baby formula with pediatric probiotics is proving to be a good idea, but the supplement needs to be of high quality and adequate bacterial diversity. To find the best quality probiotics or probiotic-fortified formula, consult your pediatrician or nutritionist.

At about four to six months, you will start to introduce solid foods. Look for signs of readiness, including interest and their ability to swallow while sitting up. It helps to have a highchair that allows your baby to sit up straight. That posture also gives them better control over their arms and hands if you should try baby-led weaning. With the introduction of solid foods, we see a big change in the baby’s gut microbiota. New strains of bacteria are continually introduced with different natural foods. Plant fiber (called prebiotics) feed the gut bacteria, and within a few months the baby’s gut bacteria starts to acquire more diversity and resemble the microbiota of an adult. Studies show that a one-year-old’s gut is supporting about 60% more bacterial species than at age 3 months. In adults, we have somewhere between 300 and 1000 identified bacterial strains with 99% coming from thirty to forty species. The more diverse the better. Eating a wide variety of foods will increase diversity, and it’s especially important in the first two to three years. Introduce one food at a time and in small amounts. You’re aiming for a wholesome, varied diet, rich in fiber and low in animal fat and sugar – real food from nature. Stay away from inflammatory grains, like wheat and corn. Introduce legumes, such as lentils, beans, and peas, which are high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and can easily be mashed with a fork. Include vegetables in all meals, including nontraditional root vegetables, like sweet potatoes and parsnips. A little bit of plain yogurt is okay, but avoid sweetened processed yogurt because of the excessive sugar. At age six months, iron levels start to decrease. To prevent iron deficiency anemia (associated with brain development problems), you’ll want to introduce foods that contain iron, such as meat or meat alternatives (eg – occasionally eggs, tofu, legumes, or iron-fortified foods). Throughout your child’s life, nothing will influence their healthy gut microbiota more than the foods they eat. Make diversity a central theme of your kitchen strategy, focusing on real food from nature, and avoiding processed and inflammatory foods as much as possible.

Baby-led weaning is an alternative method of adding complementary whole foods to your baby’s diet of breast milk or formula. Instead of spoon-feeding a puree of food, you can introduce easy-to-grasp finger foods that are soft enough to be easily squished between your fingers. Your baby’s independent exploration will include seeing, smelling, licking, sucking, and feeling the texture of the food before continuing to eat it. Baby-led weaning helps the development of age-appropriate oral motor control while enhancing the eating experience to be more positive and interactive. It also supports the development of self-feeding because your baby gets to be in charge of what goes in their mouth, of what consistency, and when. The oral motor patterns necessary for eating solid foods are learned, not reflexive. These include tongue lateralization, tongue elevation, and chewing. Swallowing pureed foods is much like swallowing another liquid, however, baby-led weaning helps develop the oral motor patterns required for mature chewing and swallowing. If you are already eating a balanced diet of whole foods, you can easily modify your foods to share with your baby. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests it’s time to start baby-led weaning while: they’ve doubled their birth weight; they can hold their head up well and are starting to sit up unsupported; they show signs of interest in food (watching you eat, reaching for food when you’re eating); and when you feed them, they can move the food around in their mouths, rather than spit it out.

Antibiotics transformed the way we treat infectious diseases. However, we need to be cautious about the overuse of antibiotics, on a personal level and global health level. There are two major problems. First, is antibiotic resistance as bacteria are mutating and developing genetic resistance to the antibiotics we have and the new ones we are creating. The second is that antibiotics kills both the bad bacteria as well as the protective bacteria in the gut. This reduces gut microbial diversity and increases the possibly of developing a potentially deadly C. diff infection. There are other individual health risks from antibiotic use, especially in the first few years of life. For example, developing an allergy to antibiotics, increasing the risk of asthma, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, and reducing nutrient uptake. About 75% of kids develop ear infections (otitis media) and the recommendation is to wait 48 – 72 hours, especially if the child is older than six months, otherwise healthy, and has mild symptoms, before prescribing antibiotics. About two-thirds of mild ear infections resolve without antibiotics. For a sore throat, your doctor may ask you to wait for the results of a strep test before prescribing antibiotics. There are many viral infections that can cause a sore throat and antibiotics are ineffective against viruses. As parents, it’s important to keep your child’s health in mind and finding trusted doctors who are actually health-focused and not just driven to cover up symptoms with medications. Don’t push them to prescribe antibiotics against their better judgement. When your doctor does prescribe your child antibiotics, you can talk to the doctor about pediatric probiotics to replenish the good bacteria in the gut that are destroyed from taking oral antibiotics. These pediatric probiotics are usually in liquid form and should be taken one to two hours after taking the antibiotics. Pediatric probiotics should include a diversity of microbial species, including Saccharomyces boulardii (a yeast probiotic) and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG to avoid diarrhea and risk of C. diff infection. It should be noted that 80% of the antibiotics prescribed in the US today are for animals in feed lots and dairy farms, which are consumed by us in contaminated meat and dairy products. Initially, antibiotics were given to these animals to prevent infections in concentrated conditions, however, the side effect was that it caused them to fatten up quickly, which is more profitable and thus became common practice despite the shocking health risks for the consumers. Pediatric obesity and premature breast development in girls and boys have now been linked with a steady consumption of antibiotics in milk and meat.

A toothache deserves your immediate attention. Dental caries (cavities) is the most prevalent disease among children worldwide. The trauma from tooth decay (or a filling to treat the decay) can lead all the way to tooth death, excruciating pain, abscess, and facial swelling. In that case, it usually results in your child’s dentist removing the tooth right away in order to avoid the need for antibiotics. Unless there is significant facial swelling, a localized infection will resolve soon after the infected tooth is removed. It might be up to you as the parent to advocate for immediate removal rather than an antibiotic prescription to reduce the swelling before the extraction. This is because the dental profession is lagging in their response to the antibiotic crisis. Physician prescribing of antibiotics has decreased in response to the crisis, but dentist prescribing of antibiotics has increased. This needs to change. Most of the unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions are around medicating for toothaches and dental abscesses to buy time while delaying extraction or referring to a specialist.

Prevailing over our obsession to sanitize, especially after the COVID pandemic, it’s important to explain to your children that their bodies are home to trillions of microorganisms that are helpful, protective, and healing for the body. Staying clean is important, however, we can be too clean. Sanitizing everything, especially our bodies, is not necessary and not healthy. Killing the majority of our microorganisms on our skin leads to skin disorders. They are there for a reason, and we need to let them be. Playing in nature and getting dirty, as well as interacting with animals is good for the mind, body, and soul. It’s good for our microbiome and immune system. Healthy touch with other children and safe adults is essential: handshakes, hugs, kisses, and handholding is important for human connection, love, and belonging. The sooner your baby interacts with animals, the better. There is good evidence that mom’s exposure to animals during pregnancy and baby’s exposure to animals in early life decreases allergies and eczema by 30% and asthma by 20%. After playing outside, if they are dirty, use water and mild soap (not antibacterial soap) to clean up. Avoid sanitizing products that are too harsh for the skin because of the alcohol and chemicals in it. If soap and water is not available, hand sanitizer is okay on rare occasions, if really needed. Beyond microbial diversity, being connected to nature and animals is good for social and emotional restoration. For most people, natural environments are spiritually grounding. Intermingling with other living communities reminds your children that they are part of a larger universe. It offers you as a parent the opportunity to educate your children on environmental responsibility – protecting our earth and natural habitats. Living with pets in your household helps kids learn responsibility for caring for another living being. Dogs bring the outside environment in, which diversifies our microbiome, whereas cats tend to live indoors and poop in a litter box. A cat’s feces often carry parasites, so remember to keep the litter box somewhere safe to avoid your child playing in it until they learn to avoid it. Both dogs and cats offer companionship and sometimes protection, but when your dog snuggles up with your child and gives a lick on the face, appreciate the moment. It actually helps with microbial diversity and immunity.

Good breathing and good sleep are essential for optimal health, and the lack of either or both are much more common in children than we ever realized. The historic literature reports that only 5% of children have obstructive sleep apnea, but today’s experts in airway and sleep medicine know that number doesn’t tell the whole story. Sleep-disordered breathing in children is estimated to be 30-35% if you also count mouth breathing, flow limitations, such as snoring, upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), chronic congestion from allergies, chronic upper respiratory infections (including tonsilitis), and nasal disuse (congestion cause by habitual mouth breathing). Every person (child and adult) lives somewhere on a spectrum that spans from healthy breathing to severe OSA. Because the fragmented breathing progression is sneaky-slow, the changes in your child are often so subtle that they are not recognized until there are significant health ramifications.

Our contemporary ancestors, only 300 – 500 years ago, had wider, noses, straight teeth, and broad, flat palates – in the shape of their flattened tongues. They had bigger mouths complete with plenty of room for their wisdom teeth to erupt and chew. Deviations from that are so common today that we have come to accept them as normal. In fact, the majority of children in industrialized nations have early childhood malocclusion, typified by abnormal jaw growth, misalignment of teeth, and bite. This develops long before puberty and has health consequences beyond what meets the eye. There have been many contributing factors to this shift, and they involve early childhood development. These factors are primarily environmental, not hereditary. They involve: lack of prolonged breastfeeding; diet of soft, processed, inflammatory foods rather than chewing real firmer food from nature; habitual mouth breathing; airway obstruction (enlargement of tonsils and adenoids; nasal congestion and obstruction); soft tissue restrictions (lip and tongue ties); improper oral resting posture; oral habits (pacifiers, fingers, thumbs); incorrect swallowing patterns; and uncoordinated, under-functioning, or over-functioning orofacial muscles (called oral myofunctional disorder).

Our external face is intimately connected to the internal face by way of the breathing complex. Collectively, we now refer to the internal face as the craniofacial-respiratory complex (CFRC). The CFRC is responsible for breathing, verbal and vocal communication, smelling, chewing, and swallowing. While there is a hereditary component to CFRC development, the science points to the profound environmental face-shaping influences that have an even greater role in modeling the CFRC and ensuring the face is developed to its full genetic potential. These are the early childhood habits of nasal breathing, sucking, swallowing, chewing, and resting tongue posture. The habitual muscle functions of the tongue and face actually form the shape of the adult CFRC starting at five weeks in utero and extending to about six years old. Muscles create competing forces. The cheek muscles push inward, and if left unopposed by the tongue pushing outward, the cheek muscles will create a narrow upper jaw (maxilla) and a narrow lower jaw (mandible) follows. The tongue, if resting properly on the palate and pressed against the palate when swallowing, will cause outward and forward forces on the upper jaw allowing proper jaw development and the lower jaw will follow. With proper jaw development, the arches are broad and U-shaped (instead of narrow and V-shaped), allowing adequate space for the tongue, as well as all the 32 teeth. With a broad properly developed upper jaw, the base of the nose is also properly developed allowing healthy nasal breathing. With adequate tongue space, the tongue can rest comfortably on the palate allowing proper oropharyngeal airway space at the back of the throat.

The mouth is for eating and the nose is for breathing. Newborns are “obligate nasal breathers”. That means that in order to survive without medical intervention, the baby must be able to exclusively breathe through their nose while simultaneously using their mouth to suck and swallow. If the baby develops a sucking problem, it can last for life if not intervened with orofacial myofunctional therapy. Improper swallowing during facial development can create collapsed narrow arches and therefore a narrow CFRC. In today’s world, most parents leave the hospital with their newborn without a breathe-suck-swallow evaluation and without any kind of feeding follow-up. This can be a frustrating, scary, and depressing time, for moms especially. It is important to get help from a board-certified lactation consultant if you suspect any concerns with feeding. Bodywork can also be very helpful for a newborn, such as from a pediatric osteopathic manipulation physician or pediatric chiropractor, because coming through the birth canal can be traumatic for the craniofacial complex causing distortions that can last a lifetime. Often minor corrections are necessary to set the baby up for life in terms of proper craniofacial development. Between feedings the baby’s resting mouth should have the lips together, tongue resting on the palate, and the nose doing all the breathing. At rest, your mouth should be the same: lips closed, tongue on palate, teeth slightly apart, and jaw relaxed. Gradually, the nasal breathing obligation subsides, as your baby discovers that the mouth can also be used for breathing. By then, hopefully nasal breathing will be habitual. Sometimes mouth breathing becomes habitual, such as from an inability to passively close the mouth, tongue-tie, chronic allergy, viral nasal congestion, or inflammatory processed foods. The nose will warm and humidify the air, filter it from particulate matter, and release nitric oxide gas to purify it and improve breathing. Nitric oxide production is clearly linked to reduction of inflammation, improved sleep, improved memory, and boosting your child’s immune system. Breathing through the mouth lacks these abilities of the nose. Mouth breathing requires the lymph tissue in the tonsils and adenoids to filter and purify the air. That leads to enlargement of your child’s tonsils and/or adenoids, which can crowd the pharynx and cause further breathing issues.

Breastfeeding has positive psychological benefits of mother-baby bonding and immune-protective benefits of breast milk. Nutrient-rich breast milk is better than every factory-made formula. The complex act of breastfeeding exercises a baby’s orofacial muscles. Through breastfeeding, the tongue muscles must work up to sixty times harder to extract milk than it would from a bottle. This means that the tongue gets stronger, rests properly on the palate if not tongue-tied, and has more influence over shaping the CFRC. Breastfeeding continues to be developmentally beneficial until the baby is weaned onto whole foods. Conversely, a bottle-fed baby is more likely to develop a weak lazy tongue that rests low in the mouth and does not stimulate proper jaw development. A low tongue posture means that the cheek muscles provide inward pressure on the jaws creating a narrow upper jaw and thus narrow base of the nose, resulting in lifelong breathing issues. If you choose bottle-feeding, select a slow flow nipple, and don’t automatically increase the aperture as the child grows. Just as breastfed babies never get to move up a nipple size, bottle-fed babies should build healthy oral musculature as they work harder for more milk. If your baby is destroying the nipple or you’re getting frustrated with the time it takes to empty a bottle (more than fifteen or twenty minutes), you can try increasing to a medium flow. You can also go straight to cup-feeding, which helps develop oral motor function without the introduction of a fake nipple. Advanced feeding specialists consider cup-feeding the next best thing to breastfeeding.

Pacifiers are problematic for orofacial development because for extended periods of time, with every suck, the tongue pushes up on an artificial rubber bulb, influencing a high arch palate and small nasal space, and the lip guard puts pressure on the front of the dental arches pushing them back. Pacifier use has been associated with reduced risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) before age one; however, increased risk of SIDS has more to do with being born premature, mothers who smoke during pregnancy, second-hand smoke, overheating, tummy sleeping, and sleeping on too-soft surfaces with fluffy blankets or toys. If you still prefer a pacifier, note that SIDS risk peaks at two to four months and drops significantly after six months. If you are choosing to use a pacifier, it is important to discontinue pacifier use by age one. Pacifiers are more about pacifying the parents, than the babies.

If your baby has a tongue or upper lip with fascia that is too tightly bound to their mouth, it is called a tethered oral tissue. Either of these can restrict mobility enough to wreak havoc with baby’s ability to latch and suck. A tongue tied down to the floor of the mouth also prevents proper resting tongue posture on the palate and can create issues with speech and swallowing, as well as craniofacial development deficiencies, cervical neck and whole body posture and pain issues, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problems, chronic headaches, sleep disorders, and associated complications. It is estimated that neonatal ankyloglossia (tongue-tie) commonly affects 20% of babies, so, in many cases, even when mom or baby are having difficulty latching, it’s frequently down-played as “normal” by pediatric health professionals to the detriment of the entire family. Long before modern medical practices existed, midwives kept one long fingernail to detach a baby’s tethered oral tissues at birth. Without this, the newborn may not survive. This unsophisticated practice dates back to the Middle Ages, but by the eighteen century there are several sources referencing the need to liberate the tongue to facilitate breastfeeding.

Today it’s more customary for the delivering physician or lactation consultant to identify these at birth, but they seem to only address the super obvious ones. Sometimes the doctor may snip a tethered anterior frenum (front tongue-tie) in the hospital with scissors. Unfortunately, a customary scissor-snip of an anterior tie often results in an incomplete release, while a posterior (back of tongue) tie requires a deeper release of the genioglossus muscle, beyond the skin and fascia, that are ignored. Usual symptoms of lip- or tongue-tie in a breastfeeding infant include: weak latch; falling asleep while nursing; reflux; spitting up; gassy/bloating/gut pain; clicking/smacking while feeding; and long and frequent nursing needs. Mom’s usual experiences with this include: painful nursing; cracked, blistered, bleeding nipples; thrush/mastitis; inability to empty breasts; and compromised milk supply.

To physically evaluate whether your baby has tethered oral tissues, use your index finger to sweep side to side under the tongue. If there is a web-like structure, you’ll want further evaluation. Do the same to the upper lip. Next, lift the upper lip to the nose and see if it causes blanching (whitening) on the attached gum tissue from tension – if it does, the fascia is too tight. The good news is that releasing these tethered tissues is a relatively non-invasive procedure with an extremely low risk of infection. Today, soft tissue lasers make these procedures precise, complete, fast, relatively painless, and quick healing – and they require no sedation or even local anesthesia. For babies, each release takes about 10 to 15 seconds with a laser. Parents are required to continue daily stretching of the lip and/or tongue for several weeks to prevent reattachment and tight scar tissue formation. The best way to release tethered oral tissues is the modern approach called functional frenuloplasty – it is important to seek a trained dentist who offers this for your child or yourself. Tongue- and lip-ties can be released at any age, however, after age 6 much of the developmental damage has already been done. If considering a tongue-tie release for your child after age two, it is essential to integrate orofacial myofunctional therapy for optimal results.

Snoring is dysfunctional breathing. Even audible breathing in your baby or child is a concern. This suggests resistance in the upper airway that needs to be investigated. If your child is mouth breathing or snoring, especially in the absence of respiratory infections or allergies, you’ll want to consult an airway dentist or airway-educated pediatrician about the possibility of sleep-disordered breathing. At birth, a baby’s brain is about one-third of adult size. By age two, it’s around 80% of adult size. Neurons (brain cells) at any stage in life, are especially vulnerable to oxygen deprivation, so maintaining optimal airway health in infancy is essential for healthy brain development. Familiar symptoms of airway dysfunction and sleep-deprivation in children include: bedwetting, restless sleep, night terrors, anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, aggressive/defiant behaviour, slowed growth rate or delayed milestones, failing memory, poor decision-making, and lack of focus (including ADD or ADHD symptoms). At this time, most medical professionals don’t recognize the signs of disordered breathing, and if they do, they often misdiagnose them and prescribe medications to cover up symptoms. This is very dangerous for your child. They may say your child will “outgrow” their airway obstructions, such as enlarged tonsils and adenoids causing disordered breathing. Pay attention to physical complications of breathing issues, such as: mouth breathing, teeth grinding, strange lower jaw movements, forward head posture, messy chewing, or strange swallowing patterns. Form follows function. That means, when the functions of chewing, swallowing, breathing, and resting tongue posture are compromised, the CFRC will have developmental distortions. Physical signs you can look for include: crooked teeth, high-arched palate, narrow nose, deviated nasal septum, underdeveloped upper and lower jaws, collapse of the midface (upper lip, nose, cheekbones), dark circles under the eyes, overweight or obesity, and chronic nasal congestion.

Most people associate dark circles under the eyes with a tired look. That is part of it. It’s related to inflammation from lack of sleep. However, it’s also related to deficient upper jaw development. A poorly developed upper jaw (maxilla) leads to a shrinking of the spaces behind the upper jaw that contain the pterygoid plexus of veins, which receive blood from the inferior orbital vein. When the fossa space is reduced, this plexus of veins shrinks, pushing the darker venous blood back through the inferior orbital vein, which pools under the skin below the eyes causing dark circles. Furthermore, eczema is now present in about 20% of US children. These kids commonly have airway and sleep issues as well. This is an inflammatory problem that is not well understood and may be linked to nasal inflammation (allergic and nonallergic). Overweight and obese child commonly suffer from sleep breathing disorders from their excessive weight, however, they often have related root causes that include inflammatory foods that congest the nasal airway and hormone dysregulation, including the sleep-wake hormones and hunger-satiety hormones. Sleep-disordered breathing fragments sleep causing sleep deprivation, which in turn causes overeating and a preference toward high carbohydrate and sugary foods that leads to obesity and diabetes.

Chronic nasal congestion is linked to an inflammatory processed food diet, allergens, and pathogens and toxins in the environment, including bacteria, viruses, and molds. Nasal congestion can involve increased mucus production, inflamed nasal tissue, and a plugged nose, resulting in chronic mouth breathing. The nose works on a “use it or lose it” principle. The less the nose is used, the more inflamed it gets and less it is usable. This may result in inflamed turbinates – the bony shelves within the nose. With chronic inflammation, the turbinates can also become overgrown, which significantly reduces nasal airway space and worsens problems like snoring, upper airway resistance syndrome, and obstructive sleep apnea.

Asthma is another children’s airway disease that has skyrocketed in the last forty years. In childhood asthma, the lungs and upper airways become acutely inflamed and constricted when exposed to certain triggers. Allergic asthma is triggered by allergens, such as dust mites, pollen, animal dander, and mold. Nonallergic asthma has a range of other triggers, such as weather conditions, smoke, exercise, viruses, processed food, and stress. For asthmatic children, the ongoing day-to-day quality of life issues revolve around difficulty breathing, being tired from lack of sleep, missing school, inability to play outside (to avoid allergens) and inability to play sports (to avoid exercise-induced asthma attacks). These kids have a delayed recovery from common respiratory viral infections, like the common cold. For some, asthma can cause potentially dangerous attacks that requiring visiting an emergency department and possible hospitalization. There are some best practices to prevent or reduce asthma attacks. Help your child identify and avoid personal triggers. Don’t smoke around your child, which is a strong risk factor for childhood asthma and a common trigger. Help your child stay active to develop their lungs safely within their tolerance. Work with a trusted physician who is up-to-date on the asthma evidence and truly cares for your family. Talk to your doctor if your child’s asthma symptoms are not under control and discuss inhaler use. Help your child eat real food from nature that is not inflammatory, and strictly avoid processed and fried foods, especially wheat, dairy, and sugar, that are highly inflammatory and worsen asthma. Overweight and obesity can worsen asthma symptoms. Address acid reflux, which can worsen asthma symptoms, but is typically related to an inflammatory diet, so ensure a clean diet. Avoid common acid reflux medications, called proton-pump inhibitors, that have health complications; namely preventing proper absorption of nutrients (calcium, magnesium, iron, and vitamin B12) from food. It is important to address the root cause of acid reflux, which is typically from inflammatory foods, but can also be from obstructive sleep apnea or obesity.

The roof of the mouth is the floor of the nose. If the root of the mouth is high, it takes space from the nose, causing the cartilaginous septum to be squished into an S-shape – called a deviated septum, which often further restricts nasal breathing in an already compromised nose. The nose is often narrow and may develop a hump on the bridge of the nose. No matter what is causing your child’s chronic nasal congestion, it’s impossible to restore nasal breathing without addressing the root causes and making an effort to clear the nasal passages. For a deviated septum, this may involve nasal surgery when the child is the right age because development is a concern. For congestion, regular nasal clearing with saline rinses before bed can be very helpful. Sterile saline (salt water), when rinsed through your child’s nasal passages, washes away mucus, allergens, and other debris. It also helps moisten the mucus membranes. This is best done standing in the shower to avoid a mess. A rinse or spray with xylitol is also very effective at opening the nasal passages due to inflammation – for example, the brand Xlear. A xylitol saline spray before bed and in the morning may be all they need to keep their nasal passages clear for the day and night. It is better to try the safe natural approach, like Xlear, before resorting to corticosteroid sprays, like Flonase. Corticosteroid sprays can be effective short-term but have consequences long-term, such as rebound congestion (ie – making the problem worse with overuse). If the child is mouth breathing at night, consider mouth taping with a sensitive skin medical tape. It is important to ensure the child can breathe through their nose before taping their mouth closed at night. Xlear nasal spray to open the nasal airway and mouth tape to keep their mouth shut can be very effective at training them to breathe through their nose habitually at night and ensure proper use of the nose to keep it open. If you notice your child mouth breathing during the day, a simple reminder system is important. Try creating a mutually understood sign language reminder; for example, tapping below your chin with your index finger while making eye contact with them.

In children, in additional to nasal issues, the most common physical blockages associated with mouth breathing, sleep breathing disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea, and infections are enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids. These are lymph tissues that are part of the immune system and are the first line of defense when breathing through the mouth instead of the nose. They enlarge because they are overworked trying to filter toxins and pathogens in the unfiltered air coming through the mouth. They can also be enlarged from systemic or localized infections. Enlarged tonsils and adenoids obstruct the airway. They are located at the back of the nose, throat, and tongue, so when enlarged make the breathing tube smaller. Removing enlarged or infected tonsils and/or adenoids is critical to helping a child restore healthy breathing, however, is often overlooked by the medical profession. Delaying a needed tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy can have developmental consequences for the child. Their body is growing quickly and they need all the help they can get to restore healthy function to create a healthy form. Surgery may remove the enlarged tissue, but should be combined with orofacial myofunctional therapy to help train the child for proper nasal breathing. It is essential to understand the root causes of the enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids and to address those to prevent recurrent problems. While tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy can be very helpful in preventing further breathing and craniofacial development issues, they are often ignored by the medical profession in the absence of a recurring infection or OSA diagnosis. Before opting for surgery, it is essential to address the root causes and, in the absence of an infection, try a combination of a saline nasal rinse with a steroid spray to try to shrink the inflamed tissue. If this doesn’t work, advocating for surgery is recommended. Pediatric airway leaders in the dental profession have a lot of work to do in helping the medical professions understand how a wait-and-watch approach can have terrible downstream consequences in breathing and craniofacial development. By the time a child gets to OSA, they are in the severe end of the sleep breathing disorder spectrum and the system has done them an injustice by not helping them sooner.

Over-functioning or under-functioning of the facial muscles cause abnormalities in breathing, chewing, swallowing, speech, TMJ function, posture, and development in children. Orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT) was invented to help people repattern these muscles and their functions to reverse orofacial dysfunctions and their sequelae using specific exercises. Ingraining proper habits helps drive optimal results, but does require daily practice; so, for your young child, this will involve your participation. From an orofacial development perspective, the earlier the intervention, the better the results. Sometimes this may involve orthotic trainers from an airway dentist that are worn in the mouth to help with finger or thumb sucking habits, and to promote healthy jaw development. These exercises require a clear nasal passage, so should be combined with strategies to promote that. OMT always aims for improvement in lip seal and lip tone; reliance on nasal breathing 24/7; a more favourable up and forward resting tongue posture on the palate; improved tongue strength and tone; correcting any habitual tongue movement, jaw movement, swallowing or speech issues; alleviate pain and dysfunction by identifying compensations of the jaw and neck during chewing, talking and swallowing; and preparing anyone who is getting jaw expansion, tongue- or lip-tie release, orthodontic treatment, and/or jaw surgery. OMT is best done in person when possible, however, it is often offered through video chat platforms, which is also effective.

The published work of leading orthodontists and pediatric dentists, Dr. William Hang, Dr. Marianna Evans, Dr. Barry Raphael, and Dr. Kevin Boyd, recommend early intervention orthodontics and orofacial myofunctional therapy to avoid the consequences of waiting to improve a child’s jaws and airway until after the damage has been done. When teeth are crooked and crowded, it is because the jaw bones are too small and the craniofacial and airway deficiencies are well under way. With primary (baby) teeth, there is supposed to be spacing between the front teeth to ensure adequate space for the adult teeth to come in; however, if all the baby teeth are aligned tight together, there is inadequate space for the permanent teeth to erupt because the jaw bones are too small. Early intervention is essential to avoid lifelong complications and/or expensive treatments later on. Early interventions may involve rapid palatal expansion with an orthodontic appliance that is effective in widening the upper jaw and allowing the lower jaw space to grow, as well as orofacial myofunctional therapy, and addressing root causes.

Traditional orthodontics has teeth extracted from a crowded mouth to create space for braces to pull the remaining teeth back into that space – this is called retractive orthodontics. This made orthodontist’s job easier and aligned the teeth nicely. The problem is that this practice ignores the root causes and makes a small mouth even smaller. The teeth are crowded because the jaw bones are too small. Retractive orthodontics makes the problem much worse – creating worsening breathing issues, craniofacial development problems, aesthetic issues, and TMJ complications. If these orthodontists chose expansion treatment instead of retractive treatment they would have set the children up for health for life rather than for disease and dysfunction. Finding an airway orthodontist or airway dentist can be challenging, but it is worth investigating if your child has crowded teeth, or if you suspect your child has an airway or jaw development issue.

Mounds of research show that a chronic lack of sleep or poor quality sleep, which is our cultural norm, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, anxiety, depression, autoimmune disorders, and motor vehicle accidents. The quality of our sleep is worsening. We all function somewhere on a spectrum from healthy sleep on one end, with snoring, upper airway resistance, then to mild, moderate, and severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on the other end. About 75% of people who are obese have OSA. Obesity and OSA have a bidirectional relationship, as each makes the other worse. Diagnosing OSA requires polysomnography (PSG) in a hospital or sleep center, or a home sleep test (HST). In the 1970s, OSA wasn’t even talked about. In the 1980s, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was introduced to treat OSA.

Half of US children are not getting enough sleep. They learn to devalue sleep from the adults in their lives, who are also sleep deprived. They have sleep breathing disorders, like OSA, often like their parents. It’s important to understand what is happening to your child during the night when they are supposed to be sleeping. Are they sleeping through the night or are they interrupted with sleep issues, breathing issues, anxiety, stress, or distractions, such as screens or books? Children need more sleep than adults. Newborns (0 – 3 months): 14 – 17 hours. Infants (4 – 11 months): 12 – 15 hours. Toddlers (1 – 2 years): 11 – 14 hours. Preschoolers ( 3 – 5 years): 10 – 13 hours. School-age children (6 – 13 years): 9 – 11 hours. Teenagers (14 – 17 years): 8 – 10 hours.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is when we dream. Our bodies are paralyzed so we don’t act out our dreams. Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is divided into 3 (previously 4) stages. Stage 1 and 2 is the lighter sleep transitioning into stage 3 deep sleep where repair and restoration of the body and mind occur. Benefits of stage 3 deep NREM sleep includes regrowing tissues (including neurons in the brain), building bone and muscles, and strengthening the immune system. Stage 3 NREM sleep is where the body naturally produces human growth hormone, which helps kids grow and develop properly. Not getting enough deep sleep impacts physical and cognitive abilities. During REM sleep, when we are dreaming, our brain activity is increased, so is our breathing rate, heart rate, and blood pressure. REM sleep contributes to brain development (especially in infants and children), but is also essential for learning, memory, and mood regulation. Chronic REM sleep deprivation has negative impacts on memory, mood, and emotional heath throughout our lives.

REM sleep is the most compromised with obstructive sleep apnea because this is when the body is paralyzed and the muscles in the face and throat, including the tongue, relax, causing further airway collapse. A collapsing airway results in decreased oxygen (hypoxia) and increased carbon dioxide (hypercapnia), which signals to the brain to wake up briefly from sleep and take a deep breath. This fragments the sleep cycle and creates stress in the body. On a sleep test, at home or in the hospital, the stopping of breathing is recorded. If the breath stops for ten seconds or more, it is called an apnea. If the breath becomes shallow with decreased oxygen due to airway resistance, it is caused a hypopnea. The apneas and hypopneas together make up the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which is a measure of breathing distress. The AHI score determines whether or not a person has OSA. CPAP is a reliable treatment for OSA, so is an oral sleep appliance that postures the lower jaw forward to support the airway. The biggest problem with CPAP is compliance. Studies show that 30 – 80 percent of CPAP wearers keep it on less than four hours per night. Machines are getting quieter and the masks are getting better, but we have a long way to go for a widely acceptable solution to our growing problem. CPAP can be effective for managing symptoms in children with OSA, however, the masks can compress the midface preventing proper jaw development, which can worsen OSA as they develop. Most jaw-advancing oral sleep appliances are not appropriate for children either because their jaws are growing and the sleep appliance would hold it in a static position not allowing proper growth. Solutions for children with OSA require addressing root causes, such as weight loss, ensuring an anti-inflammatory diet, ensuring proper nasal breathing, removing enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids, tongue-tie release, and orofacial myofunctional therapy.

Upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) is similar to obstructive sleep apnea in terms of symptoms and health consequences, but the major difference is that breathing doesn’t stop completely or long enough to get an OSA diagnosis. This problem often goes undetected on home sleep tests and even by some sleep physicians on PSGs in hospitals. The issue is that resistance in the airway leads to multiple short awakenings (microarousals) that fragment sleep and cause excessive daytime sleepiness, as well as the other consequences of sleep deprivation. Treating UARS requires identifying the root causes of the airway resistance and addressing those.

From birth to age five, a child’s brain develops more than any other period in life. Studies are conclusive that early neurocognitive development has a lifelong impact on both a person’s intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ). The brain consists of only 20% neurons. The rest are helper cells, like glial cells and astrocytes – all part of the glymphatic system that functions to clear toxins from the brain when we sleep, as well as support, protect, and develop neurons and their connections. Without deep sleep, the glymphatic system does not function properly, which leads to cognitive impairment.

The BEARS Pediatric Sleep Screening Tool looks at five critical areas: bedtime problems, excessive daytime sleepiness, awakenings at night, regularity and duration of sleep, and sleep-related breathing disorders. This includes the following questions: Does your child have problems going to sleep or staying asleep? Does your child have excessive daytime sleepiness, or a diagnosis or symptoms of ADD/ADHD? Does your child experience awakenings during the night (including bedwetting or night terrors)? Does your child get adequate sleep? Does your child demonstrate mouth breathing, snoring, stopping breathing, or difficulty breathing (such as distorted head or body posture) while sleeping? We need to eliminate all airflow limitations in our children, including airway collapse, intermittent oxygen starvation, and loss of sleep because of that. If you are concerned about your child’s breathing during sleep, take a video of them while sleeping to show your airway dentist or airway-focused pediatric physician.

Sleep-deprived kids suffer from behavioural problems, cognitive problems, academic problems, increased risk-taking behaviours, increased substance use, anxiety, depression, and poorer decision-making abilities – all due to chronic stress. As for physical and metabolic decline, they may be at a greater risk of developing obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke. Sleep restriction affects our energy balance by decreasing our energy output during exercise and our resting metabolic rate, which contributes to obesity and metabolic problems.

Studies show that 73% of US kids consume caffeine daily. High school kids are drinking more coffee and energy drinks, while school-age children consume caffeine primarily through sugar-sweetened soda. Caffeine consumption can lead to insomnia, nervousness and restlessness, stomach irritation, nausea, and increased heart rate and respiration. Larger doses might cause headaches, anxiety, agitation, and chest pain. Children today are habitually consuming an addictive, pharmacological stimulant drug that increases stress hormones and brain activity throughout the day. While drug stimulants like caffeine can provide some energy and temporary alertness, it cannot override your body’s profound need for sleep – the reason why the drug is consumed in the first place. Caffeine makes it harder to fall asleep, causing further sleep deprivation, and thus further caffeine use the next day – the viscous cycle of sleep deprivation and addiction. This is not safe for anyone, never mind our children.

Adderall (amphetamine) and Ritalin (methylphenidate) are stimulant drugs that can improve alertness and focus for people with ADD and ADHD by increasing dopamine levels in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, attention, motivation, and movement. However, very few direct cognitive improvements have been shown in the research. These are drugs prescribed to manage symptoms without addressing root causes. These drugs are powerful stimulants that affect sleep, and are often provided to kids who have sleep deprivation issues that are undiagnosed –about 50% of children diagnosed with ADHD have an undiagnosed sleep breathing disorder that, when addressed, resolves the misdiagnosed symptoms of ADHD. All children with ADHD symptoms should have a sleep disordered breathing disorder screening before considering medications.

Evidence-based habits and behaviours that have shown to promote healthy sleep, called sleep hygiene, include: sticking to an established bedroom time (time to wind down for bed to promote sleep time); designing pre-bedroom time routines (activities to relax the body and mind as a family – puzzles, reading together, gentle back rubs, daily gratitude); ensuring bedtime is early enough to allow the child to wake up naturally without an alarm (alarms trigger a stress responses that is an unhealthy way to start the day); establishing a screentime curfew (screens before bed keep the brain awake); starting the dimming of lights at home as bedtime approaches (to allow the brain to prepare for sleep); making sure your child is getting enough exercise during the day (helps them to fall asleep and sleep deeper and longer); avoiding scary or violent content before bedtime (these movies, games, and stories can keep a child awake); avoiding caffeine completely; lowering the temperature at home (especially their bedroom to reduce core body temperature to allow sleep initiation); keeping their bedrooms dark and quiet at night; avoiding bed-sharing with a parent, which can be risky for a baby (consider room-sharing, not bed-sharing, if needed); attending to bedroom time worry (helping your child manage worry and anxiety to allow them to safely fall asleep); and integrating mindfulness practices, like meditation and breath work before bed to relax the body and mind.

Helping children learn how best to manage stress, even the stress parents and teachers cause them, is one of parents’ biggest challenges in life. When it comes to emotional health of their children, many parents in our culture seek common goals: to grow emotionally healthy children, each with the confidence to chart their own unique course; to establish and maintain positive relationships; to develop the ability to consistently make responsible decisions; and, to dodge the bullets of addiction and mental illness. Grown-up children who have become their best most authentic selves are kind to themselves and others, refrain from the constant comparison to others (which is an insidious cultural norm), can navigate their conflicts peacefully, and have the courage to ask for help when they need it.

Kids thrive when they’re given limits and allowed to push those limits safely. They need daily structure and support with loving guidance and clear expectations. Consistently living within the reasonable boundaries that you set for them teaches your children how to be better citizens and how not to lie, cheat, or steal from one another. You can really help them build integrity and moral character if you are a parent who lives in integrity and moral responsibility to others. By overstepping, we take away kids’ opportunity to learn social responsibility. They need to have the space and confidence in themselves to learn how to do things on their own. As a parent, it is important to foster self-love so that you can truly love your children and teach them about what it is like to love and be loved. We learn about social and emotional health by modelling our adult caregivers as we grow up. This involves recognizing our emotions and finding language to describe them, then communicating this to others. Integrity for children can simply mean: “Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Do what you say you are going to do. Don’t do what you say you will not do”. Developing good self-esteem revolves around living in integrity – being accountable and honouring commitment. One way to do this is to create “promise cards” that define what will and will not be done, and can help with commitment and accountability.

We live in a world where material belongings have been equated with the measure of our worth. So, most of us have succumbed to societal pressures to buy our kids a lot of cool stuff. In this way, we use gifts as expressions of love. The busier we are as parents trying to balance life, the less time we have to spend with our kids one-on-one, which is often substituted with material gifts. Material gifts are not a healthy substitute for kindness, communication, family, and fun. Consider investing in experiences with your children rather than just material gifts.

Electronic devices, like tablets, video games, cell phones, and computers, have overwhelmed our children with connectivity. This has created interpersonal disconnection. Social media comes at a cost – the cost of our children’s attention. Consider balancing screentime at home with playtime, ideally outdoors when possible and with other children, as well as creative activities. When you’re children are young, it is important not to allow their screentime to be private. There are countless traps that can derail them, including inappropriate advertising, dangerous stranger chats, intense social pressures to be “liked”, and bully without intervention. Take an inventory of your kids’ apps and social media use. Talk to them about potential risks and keep an open conversation about this. Allow them the opportunity to come to you when something doesn’t feel right. Our children’s worst decisions are often accompanied by guilt, shame, and silence. Talking it through allows your child to see their act as shameful, but not themselves as shameful. They will come to know the value of transparency, particularly if they are bullied, abused, drawn into a dangerous collusion, or inappropriately touched by someone. You will want them to tell you about it, rather than having them harbour a dangerous secret because someone swore them to secrecy.

The literature is clear. Increased social media use results in an increased risk of depression in children. It is not surprising that children’s views of themselves and the world are heavily influenced by their internal responses to their daily social media experiences. It’s nearly impossible for them not to compare themselves to what they see others posting. Cyberbullying is a rising concern. Social media posting makes it easier to launch wounding remarks because we don’t see the fear on someone’s face or the pain in their eyes before we push “send”. Labeling, judging, and blaming people in hit-and-run confrontations online invites defensiveness, denial, and emotional pain. Pay attention to changes in your child’s mood, sleep patterns, appetite, and social withdrawal, and encourage your child to open up about what’s happening. Listen calmly, and without judgement or interruption, and encourage them to uncover the whole story.

It's impossible to avoid your child’s exposure to social media, so it’s best to teach them about social responsibility. It’s important to focus on the values of integrity, respect for all people, kindness, and the practice of a healing apology. Emphasize doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing, every time. Every one of us encounters difficulties in life, and some of them are a direct result of our mistakes. But it is exponentially easier to forgive yourself if, looking back, you feel you did the right thing in the moment. Help your child make a habit of doing the right thing. Keeping lines of communication open – so they report their triumphs and their misjudgments – is difficult in families where the imposed penalties for mistakes are brutal. Living in an abusive culture teaches children to lie to avoid punishment. It is better to find ways to let children suffer the natural consequences of their actions, and you serve as their compassionate ally, helping them strategize how they will get through it. Help your children to recognize that each of us grows up in different surroundings, using distinctive communication language and styles, expressing varying degrees of conflict, practicing different belief systems with different spiritual influences, maintaining diverse types of traditional celebrations, and with family members who may have dissimilar sexual orientations and strong political affiliations. We can all do our part to judge others a little bit less every day of our lives. In that vibe, continuing to model respectful social responsibility for your children is even more effective than just talking about it.

Kindness can be instilled at a young age. We want our children to learn how to be kind to themselves first, their family members next, and all other living beings as well. It’s not too old-fashioned to teach your child the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Look for real examples to dialogue about, asking them to reflect on how it might feel if that was done/said/posted about them. To help soften your and your child’s hearts, it helps to adopt an ongoing practice of loving-kindness meditation. Through visualization and meditation, loving-kindness practices teach us how to love all things with wisdom that has no conditions. It doesn’t depend on whether one “deserves” it or not. It begins with loving ourselves – for unless we have a measure of this unconditional love and acceptance for ourselves, it is difficult to extend it to others. Then it expands to others who are special to us – parents, siblings, other family members, pets, and friends – and ultimately, to all living things and the universe. Our current society leans away from apologizing and accepting responsibility, toward blaming others and denial of responsibility. It’s truly missing from politics and the mainstream media, and also scant among social media posts and in business. Authentic apologies heal. They obviously go a long way to mend broken relationships because when we own our part of the damage or disconnect, the other person feels understood. That alone is an act of loving-kindness. More importantly, authentic apologies between people often bring with it true forgiveness. Releasing the hurt, anger, and betrayal you felt toward someone else is really a gift we give ourselves. Teach your child the power of a sincere apology – one that comes from the whole heart. We’ve all received half-hearted apologies that don’t feel apologetic at all, and we can feel the difference. Healing apologies are thoughtful, genuine, and without defensiveness. Remember that the best way to teach this is to exemplify it. Consider becoming accountability partners with your child (or entire family) where you champion each other for extending an authentic apology and also grant permission to gently remind each other when an apology might be due.

The amygdala, a part of our reptilian brain, drives our most basic needs, but is also the center of our emotions, fight-or-flight responses, and fear-based programming. The amygdala is regulated by our prefrontal cortex – our rational brain. Sometimes your child may be operating from the amygdala, which can be frightening. Their behaviour and emotions may be out of control because their rational brain is not regulating the amygdala responses. It is important to understand this and act accordingly. The child needs to be calmed down and loved for who they are. They are not their actions. As they get older, they can learn to control their emotions. Neuroplasticity is the rewiring of connections in the brain through repetition. Neurons that fire together, wire together. This means that the more we do something – thoughts, emotions, and behaviours – the more this becomes engrained in our brains. With repetition, and loving guidance, your child can learn to control their emotions and override their fear-based programming using their rational brain. Punishing kids for their inappropriate thoughts, emotions, and behaviours from the amygdala, especially through violence, only traumatizes and confuses them and creates further engrained fear-based responses.

It's important to recognize stress reactions in your kids and teach them coping skills along the way. If this becomes difficult, it’s important to have a thorough medical examination to rule out the threat of serious underlying illnesses before attributing unusual symptoms to stress, especially when working with infants and nonverbal children. The most commonly identified sources of stress in children are overscheduling, intrusion of technology into family time, two-working-parent families, single-parent families, the impact of divorce, abuse, acute or chronic pain, stranger or separation anxiety, school, loss of control, loss of privacy, and loss of playtime. These focus on stress from negative sources, but be aware of stress from positive sources as well: like a new teacher, striving for peak performance, efforts to maintain good grades, or being liked by a social group they desire. Stress, whether positive or negative, induces ongoing physiological effects of increased heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones. There are three levels of stress to consider. Positive stress is within normal range and of limited duration. Tolerable stress is characterized by high level of distress of limited duration. Toxic stress is the highest level, marked by a prolonged duration, lack of supportive relationships, and sustained exposure to stress hormones. Science shows that toxic stress is clearly associated with lifelong problems in behaviour, learning, and mental and physical health. Sometimes you will be aware of the source of your child’s stress and sometimes not. They keep secrets out of fear of consequences, shame, embarrassment, fear of exposing others, or any number of reasons. Even if a child perceives to be surrounded by empathetic and nurturing family members, the very act of hiding the stressor(s) keeps these supportive people just outside of reach. Your child’s stress can be hidden, even when you think you have open communication.

It is often said that kids easily adapt to different rules in different homes, such as in co-parenting. But when it comes to health training, it’s best to get on the same page. That takes both co-parents having good communication and committed to raising a happy, healthy child. Never give up on the idea of harmony. This involves putting together a mutually agreed upon plan centered around your child’s health and happiness, and when the child is of the right age, including them in this plan.

Mind-body techniques that have been proven to reduce stress include: breath work, progressive muscle relaxation, music therapy, guided imagery, loving-kindness meditation, yoga, neurofeedback, and many others. These should be priority to antidepressant and antianxiety medications that attempt to cover up symptoms and do not address the root cause of stress and trauma. These evidence-based practices can help teach problem solving skills, reinforce health suggestions, and help kids choose to respond to stress and anxiety in manageable ways. If your child has a chronic health condition, practicing daily stress reduction is extremely helpful in managing pain and stress. Evidence indicates that all children have the potential to benefit from conscious breathing techniques. Diaphragmatic deep breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system for relaxation. That means it immediately reduces heart rate and blood pressure, helps the digestive system, and quells the release of stress hormones. Breathing has direct connections to our emotional states and moods. Observe someone who is anxious or angry and they are breathing quickly, shallowly, noisily, and irregular. Conversely, someone who is calm is breathing slow, deep, quiet, and regular. While we can’t always emotionally regulate ourselves by an act of will, we can decide to make our breathing slow, deep, quiet, and regular, and the rest will follow with our intention and attention.

Behaviour changes or regressive behaviour in children of any age may be a presenting sign of serious issues such as child abuse or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you suspect a history of abuse or that your child has witnessed a traumatic event, it’s important to schedule a consultation with a trusted mental health specialist right away. Your child deserves your advocacy for them, procuring their safety, and getting them help with the recovery process.

Addiction begins as a seductive pleasure and often ends in tragedy. The feeling of pleasure is stimulated by dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the part of the brain called the nucleus acumens – the brain’s pleasure center. Pleasure is different than happiness. Happiness is regulated by a different neurotransmitter, serotonin. Our culture thrives on pleasure over happiness all day long. We crave the dopamine bursts and we go for it, hit by hit, through our behaviours, natural rewards such as food (sugar, salt, fat) sex, or psychoactive substances we consume. Dopamine regulates our emotional and motivation behaviour. Psychoactive drugs and natural rewards all can cause the reward-satisfaction system to go haywire. The pleasure associated with an addictive drug or behaviour dwindles, and yet the memory of the desired effect and craving to recreate it remains. Drug addiction results in compulsive drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviours that continues despite even the most terribly destructive consequences. Mind-altering substances can release two to ten times more dopamine than natural rewards do, and they do it more quickly and reliably. The brain responds by producing less dopamine and eliminating some dopamine receptors. This is called downregulation, and it means you have to provide more of the stimulus to obtain the same dopamine high. It also creates an effect known as tolerance. Every one of us wants to desperately avoid drug addiction in our children. It’s helpful to educate your children to recognize signs of dependency in themselves and others, talk about it openly, and continually address any of your own addictions with humility and grace. The top drugs causing addiction are caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, opioid pain killers, cocaine, MDMA, and heroin. Parents are commonly feeding their kids melatonin or Benadryl to wind them down at night, after hyping them up on sugar, caffeine, and/or prescription stimulants during the day. Teaching kids to rely on chemical substances for waking and sleeping is setting them up for addiction. For pain, encourage your dentists and physicians not to prescribe opioid pain medications unless absolutely necessary because they are highly addictive. Tylenol and Advil combined provide a powerful cocktail for managing pain – usually just one of these is enough. When your child is “high” on oral surgeon’s IV sedation, consider not posting “funny” videos of them in this state. This sends the wrong message to people about being intoxicated on chemicals. Vaping nicotine or other substances that are highly addictive is very popular among adolescents now. Education around the risks of addiction is absolutely essential in curbing these dangerous behaviours.

Chronic anxiety often contributes to depression, stress, and various pain syndromes. Anxiety helps us avoid potentially threatening or dangerous situations, but it’s one of the most contagious emotions we experience. Anxious children often get cues from anxious parents. If you suffer from anxiety, keep finding ways to improve your own anxiety. It will be a gift to your family. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the US, and has been rising steadily for decades. Anxiety disorders develop from a complex set of risk factors: life events, personality, brain chemistry, and genetics. As with any chronic illness, it is much better to catch them early. When normal anxiety begins to keep children from experiencing the everyday joys in their lives, it is considered a disorder. As a parent, it is often difficult to recognize anxiety disorders before they become catastrophic. Some of the more common symptoms include: concentration problems, sleep disturbance, waking with bad dreams, changes in appetite, frequent fidgeting, becoming tense or irritable, expressing constant worry, or having uncontrolled outbursts. You might also see unexplainable physical symptoms, such as stomach aches, headaches, shortness of breath, chest pain, gagging, or vomiting. If you notice these, ask your child’s physician or nurse practitioner to steer you in the right direction. If you’re catching it early, medication to cover up symptoms should not be the first-line treatment. Cannabis can be effective for managing anxiety for some people, however, it is also anxiety-inducing for many. Cannabis should not be given to children for anxiety because of the adverse effects on their developing brains. If you are using cannabis or alcohol to quell your own anxiety, just know that your child is learning how to rely on a drug instead of less invasive, more effective coping strategies. Identifying the root causes of anxiety and implementing mindfulness-based practices is safer and more effective than medicating symptoms. Medicating children for anxiety without addressing their issues from a functional, behavioural, and psychological perspective can be a slippery slope to depression, dependency, and life-threatening addiction.

Irritability, anger, and depression are the most common symptoms of chronic stress in children. Sadness and grief are normal human emotions. We each have those feelings from time to time, especially in response to disappointment, but normally they fade away in a few days, and we find ourselves experiencing emotions of happiness, pleasure, and joy once again. Major depressive disorder is something more serious. It’s a diagnosable mood disorder that can bring about ongoing symptoms, such as overwhelming sadness, low energy, loss of appetite, and a lack of interest in things that used to bring pleasure. If left undiagnosed and untreated, depression can lead to serious health consequences, including suicide. Depression in children has been on the rise in recent decades, in part due to unhealthy social media use. Feelings of hopelessness, bouts of unusual irritability, and mood changes are early signs of depression in children. These should be met with compassion and understanding, not judgement and criticism in an attempt to control their behaviour and mood, as children are more likely to mask their symptoms and not be open with you about it. Instead, stay curious about their feelings, offer loving guidance, and maintain open communication with them. Pay particular attention to any expressed desire for self-harm. There are several effective treatments for depression, including discovering and addressing the root causes, mind-body therapies, diet alteration, regular physical activity, social engagement, psychotherapy, and if absolutely needed, antidepressant medications. Don’t give up trying to find a trusted health care professional team who can guide you through this.

What can you do to engage your child in learning so they grow up to be self-directed and inspired? Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary study of the mind and intelligence, blending such factions as neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. We now recognize that the very elements that shape our cognitive abilities lie within our own control. The most long-lasting learning is difficult, not easy. As a parent, you will want to help stimulate desirable challenges – meaning inherent difficulties that help engage your child’s brain. Encourage your child to ponder a problem before formulating possible solutions. That way you’re priming their mind for learning. Keep the dialogue fun and entertain their most creative ideas. If you don’t know the solution, allow that to be an opportunity to do research together. Do your best to model the behaviour of a curious life-long learner, not being the resident expert on everything. Repetitive retrieval of learned information helps cement the brain’s circuit for memory. Periodic repetition interferes with the act of forgetting. Retention of information is better if you study for shorter periods and repeat the lessons periodically over time. That’s called spaced repetition. To help your kids learn everyday life lessons, make spaced repetition part of your routine, and space out the retrieval practice. Try starting with daily repetition for a couple days, then again in a week, then on to every few weeks, and eventually monthly. If your kids feel they know it well, then challenge them to teach it to someone else. Another habit that helps kids cement their learning is called interleaved practice – when the brain is taxed to learn two (or more) related concepts or skills at the same time. The idea is to alternate between two or three related concepts, learning them in smaller chunks rather than studying them comprehensively, one at a time, in sequential order. With your kids, resist the urge to keep them solely focused on one effort to completion. Encourage them to practice multiple concepts each day by incorporating a mix of similar topics and by switching back and forth between them. Consider tackling a variety of lifestyle changes to promote your child’s health and happiness all at once. You can teach them why you are implementing specific changes, while you overhaul your lifestyle.

One important topic you can teach your children is about oral health. There are six common oral issues that can compromise oral health: dental caries (tooth decay), periodontal disease (infections in the gums and bone support), occlusal disease (chipped, cracked, and worn-down teeth from clenching and grinding), oropharyngeal cancer (primarily caused by HPV from oral sex), malocclusion (misaligned teeth and bite), and fungal infections (often candida). There are others, but they are less common. The prevalence of common oral issues is escalating just like other preventable lifestyle diseases. Oral disease negatively impacts our other organs. There are now fifty-seven systemic ailments associated with periodontal disease alone, including preterm babies, low birth weight babies, heart disease, dementia, depression, and pneumonia. And the other way around, our bodies’ systemic illnesses exhibit recognizable signs and symptoms in the mouth. For example, the very first signs of diabetes show up as bleeding gums, dry mouth, oral fungal infections (thrush), and even changes in taste.

We get two sets of teeth. Twenty primary teeth spanning from around age 6 months to twelve years old. Thirty-two permanent teeth spanning from age 6 years to end of life. The structure of teeth is important. The outer layer is enamel, which is the hardest layer. The next inner layer is dentin, which is seven times softer than enamel. The innermost layer is pulp, which is soft tissue compromised of nerves and blood vessels that nourish the tooth and provide sensation. Children’s teeth may erupt with developmental defects, such as yellow and white spots or lines, or discolouration, which are commonly from significant illness, fever, or antibiotic use during tooth development.

Today, almost 20% of two-year-olds and one-third of three-year-olds have tooth decay. Half of all kids have at least one cavity by mid-childhood and 80% by late adolescence. Tooth decay is entirely preventable. The most common cause of hospital surgeries for children is teeth extractions and fillings under general anesthesia for preventable tooth decay. Dental caries (tooth decay) is the number one most prevalent of all 291 diseases included in the Global Burden of Disease Study and early childhood caries (cavities under age 6) is the number one most prevalent disease amongst young children worldwide.

Babies should be examined in their new “dental home” (their new dental office) when their first tooth comes in (around age 6 months) or by their first birthday. Things to discuss with your dentist, who is ideally airway-focused, at this visit include: the importance of nasal breathing 24/7; quality and quantity of sleep; nutrition; establishing healthy food relationships; orofacial growth and development; swallowing; nonnutritive sucking habits (fingers, thumbs, pacifiers); appropriate oral hygiene practices; and dental safety at home and play (what to do in a dental emergency). The dentist should do a “knee-to-knee” exam with the parent and the baby to examine their face, mouth, tongue, airway, tonsils, nostrils, and teeth. Preventative visits like this should be scheduled every 6 months.

Good food is nature’s remedy for almost every ailment. A wide variety of nutrients from real food from nature offer the building blocks for cellular health and dental health. Keep in mind that all disease begins at the cellular level, and your child’s ability to fend off illness depends on their daily intake of phytonutrients (plant-based elements that are integral to proper cell function). Even during infancy, when babies are getting their primary nutrients from breastmilk, it’s critically important to turn your child’s diet in the opposite direct from most American children (processed foods).

The increased prevalence of tooth decay in our children cannot be controlled until we get a handle on the sugary beverages and processed foods we feed them and understand the bacterial transmission that infects their mouths. Drilling and filling a decayed tooth to manage the dental disease does not address the root cause of the problem. Adults’ mouths are home to hundreds of identified bacterial strains, which can inadvertently be transferred to a baby’s mouth through a single drop of saliva – from a kiss, a spoon, cup, pacifier, or licked finger to clean the baby’s mouth. In this way, mom or dad can inoculate their baby’s mouth with a sizable dose of the most significant acid-producing strains of bacteria – Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus. These bacterial strains cause cavities in the presence of sugar and carbohydrates by metabolizing these nutrients and secreting acid onto the tooth, decaying the enamel and eventually the dentin, and then infecting the pulp. There is a higher risk of dental caries severity in children if the parent has a lot of cavities. To prevent tooth decay, the objective is to not transfer that bacteria to your child and then avoid feeding them sugar and carbohydrates.

The frequency of exposure to sugar and carbohydrates is the most important factor. Sipping on a sweetened beverage all day, or nibbling on candy or junk food throughout the day, constantly provides food for the bacteria to turn into acid. The saliva will neutralize the acid in about half an hour, but that gives half an hour of acid on the tooth to cause decay. If this happens all day long, the teeth are bathed in acid and start to decay. As decay starts demineralizing the teeth, the saliva at the same time attempts to remineralize the teeth – essentially reversing the starting decay. This is called remineralization. If there is not enough healthy saliva to do this (for example, from mouth breathing causing dry mouth) or enough time for the saliva to do this (such as from repeated exposure to sugar and carbohydrates), then early decay starts creating white spots, and eventually tiny cavities where the bacteria colonize in higher numbers creating more and more decay. Once the acid from those bacterial strains dissolve enough of the outside of the tooth (the enamel) it will expose the softer dentin and the decay happens much faster. The deeper the hole, the harder to clean out the bacteria with a toothbrush and the less opportunity for saliva to remineralize the decay.

Cavity-causing bacteria hang out in colonies in plaque. This allows them to attach to teeth and create decay in that area. So, cleaning off the plaque on a regular basis is essential for preventing cavities. Common areas for cavities are in the grooves of the molars, in between the teeth, and around the gum line. If your child has cavities, even if they need to be filled to prevent deeper decay, it is essential to talk to your dentist and hygienist about preventing further cavities. This involves preventive visits every 6 months with your dentist, as well as at home inspections and dental hygiene practices combined with avoid sugar and carbohydrates. Don’t wait until your child has tooth pain to take action. Often, by the time there is a toothache, the decay has reached the inside of the tooth (the pulp) and has caused an infection inside the tooth, which now requires an extraction. Once the infection has reached the pulp, the tooth starts dying, which can be painful, and may cause an abscess on the gums or even facial swelling that can lead to systemic complications. A permanent tooth with an infected pulp can often be treated with a root canal (cleaning out the infected soft tissue and filling it up from the inside); however, primary teeth with infected pulp tissue are usually extracted. Extracting a primary tooth is not ideal, but necessary. The extracted tooth leaves a space where a permanent tooth needs to erupt, however, the remaining erupted teeth can drift into that open space and prevent proper eruption of the permanent teeth and/or create problems with their bite. Sometimes a space maintainer is needed to hold that space open for the eruption of the permanent tooth. Other factors contributing to tooth decay include acid reflux (from inflammatory food and drinks, and sleep breathing disorders) that reduce the pH level in the mouth that allow the acid-producing bacteria to thrive, as well as the acid that comes up will erode the teeth, and dry mouth (mouth breathing, medications, alcohol, smoking), which creates an environment where there is not enough saliva to buffer the acid from the dangerous bacteria. Baby bottle tooth decay comes from allowing the baby to fall asleep with a bottle that baths the teeth all night long without an opportunity for cleaning, either with saliva or a toothbrush. It’s best to feed the baby before bed and then clean their mouth to prevent this.

There are two ways that fluoride helps protect teeth from cavities. First, is systemic fluoride – consuming the fluoride in supplements or water while the teeth are developing within the bones, which creates stronger enamel and dentin all the way through. The other is topical fluoride that is provided to the outer surface of the teeth already erupted, such as in toothpaste, mouth rinses, or varnishes at the dentist, that strengthens just the outer surface of the enamel on a daily basis. Systemic fluoride can offer a 40-60% lifetime protection from decay. At low doses, systemic fluoride strengthens teeth without consequences. Too much fluoride can cause fluorosis, a conditions that create teeth that are stained brown. The fluoride in our water or supplements is really only needed for people who are at risk at getting cavities or acid erosion from processed foods and drinks – those who consume a lot of sugar and carbohydrates, and acidic products, and who are not properly cleaning their teeth after. Cavity-prone kids can benefit from daily topical exposure with higher concentrations of fluoride that allow for the teeth to be remineralized on the outer surface with a stronger form of enamel. Even little kids (ages 1 to 3) can benefit from a rice grain-sized smear of toothpaste with fluoride if they are consuming sugar. Topical fluoride densensitizes teeth, slows down the metabolism of bacteria that cause cavities, and reduces the number of cavity-causing bacteria. This protection is important in the absence of a proper sugar-free and carbohydrate-free diet. If your kids are having sugar and carbohydrates, they should be brushing their teeth right after to avoid cavities. As an additional note for dental hygiene appointments, polishing teeth is not necessary, unless it is to remove stubborn stains. Polishing teeth with abrasive pumice can damage the enamel, especially on primary teeth.

For adults, the other wildly pervasive oral disease is periodontal disease, where the surrounding bone and gum structure around the tooth become inflamed and/or infected causing bleeding, puffy gums, and eventually a loss of these structures. With loss of the supporting bone and gums, the teeth become loose, drift around if there is space, and eventually fall out. By age 30, half of us have periodontal disease, which threatens the life of the affected teeth and the rest of the body. The problem involves microorganisms in the mouth, oral hygiene practices, and the immune system of the person. We now have microbial testing available to diagnose the specific bacteria and fungi present that may cause periodontal disease. We also have specific antibiotics and anti-fungal medications that can help get that under control. Food sensitivities, nutritional deficiencies, dry mouth, smoking, and autoimmune issues all play a role in periodontal disease. Periodontal disease is generally an adult disease and is 100% preventable. We can prevent this by teaching our children to master oral hygiene self-care and establishing healthy nutritional and lifestyle habits that support the body and the mouth for life.

Even before your baby’s teeth erupt (about age 6 months), it’s wise to begin to stimulate their mouth by wiping the gums with a clean, damp washcloth. As the first teeth erupt, introduce a soft toothbrush for daily cleaning with a smear of fluoridated toothpaste, ensuring that they spit it out and not swallow it. As children grow in their hand-eye coordination, they can assist in their own self-care. But until a child can demonstrate the ability to clean their entire mouth properly, a parent needs to finish the job. For special needs children, most or all of the responsibility relies on the caregiver. In order to avoid severe dental disease in kids who aren’t able to chew and swallow fibrous foods, maintaining good daily home care and avoiding sugar and carbohydrates becomes even more important. In choosing a dentist and dental hygienist for your kids, look for a partnership, someone willing to invest in a personal relationship with your child and your family that fosters your child’s progress toward self-care and optimal health. Electric toothbrushes are very effective, but still need to be used properly with the proper angle and pressure on the teeth. Traditional toothbrushes are also effective, but require adequate technique. There are many products to clean between the teeth, like floss and interdental picks. The best ones are the ones that get used regularly. It is important to have your dental hygienist demonstrate the right techniques for your child based on their age and skills. This can involve a disclosing solution that reveals the plaque, showing them in a mirror, and having them brush off the coloured plaque on their own or with help, then showing them how effective it was. This can also be done at home until the skills are mastered. Plaque disclosing tablets can be purchased and the skills learned at the dentist can be reinforced as often as necessary. It is important to be encouraging and celebrate their progress as they advance.

Teeth grinding (bruxism) in children is fairly common, but not healthy. It is often related to breathing issues at night. The lower jaw moves around trying to open up the airway at the back of the throat. If this is happening, breathing issues must be screened for. Teeth grinding can also come from malocclusion (bad bite) where the jaw moves around to grind out interferences in the bite to try to get better tooth-to-tooth contact between the upper and lower teeth. Other reasons for teeth grinding include stress, anxiety, and chronic pain, which can benefit from mindfulness-based practices and addressing the root causes of these issues. Grinding down primary teeth is less of a concern since these teeth will fall out and be replaced by permanent teeth; however, it is essential to resolve the reasons for grinding before the permanent teeth erupt and lasting damage is done. Chronic teeth grinding can result in worn-down teeth, but also teeth sensitivity, painful chewing, sore jaw muscles, bite problems, aesthetic concerns, and TMJ issues. While bruxism is easily remedied in adults with nighttime orthotic or sleep appliances, these are not appropriate for children who are growing.

It's reported that 70-80% of our population has dental crowding because their jaws are too small, often due to a breathing issues, a processed food diet, and a lack of breastfeeding. Without breathing through the nose, the low tongue in the mouth caused by mouth breathing doesn’t stimulate proper jaw development. Without sucking from a breast and chewing fibrous natural foods while developing, tongues and jaw muscles are not developing to their full potential and not functioning optimally to stimulate jaw development resulting in dental arches that are too small to have space for all of the teeth. This is why teeth are crowded and people require their wisdom teeth extracted. Most orthodontists ignore these root causes and just straighten teeth for aesthetics, often making a small mouth smaller and worsening the jaws and therefore airway issues, as well as other complications. Ideal orthodontics involves: balanced facial bones; a balanced and aligned bite; teeth surrounded by adequate supporting bone; an aesthetically appealing smile displaying desirable amount of teeth and gums; a broad palate that offers enough tongue space; a broad smile with no dark corridors near the corners of the mouth; jaw dimensions that easily allow the lips to close at rest; and straight alignment of teeth. To achieve all this, progressive orthodontists are diving deeper into their assessments that include an airway assessment, soft tissue support (including tongue function, tongue-ties, resting tongue posture, tonsils, adenoids, and facial soft tissue), and the entire complex of bones that support the face – not just the teeth. The majority of teeth and jaw misalignment is preventable in our children if we are paying attention to breathing, sleeping, chewing, and swallowing patterns as they grow up. To avoid braces, toddlers and school-age children can engage in eating real food from nature, orofacial myofunctional therapy, early expansion of the upper jaw, mouth taping, successful tongue-tie releases, and removal of enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids. If you child already has some teeth misalignment issues, it is essential to find a progressive orthodontist who considers all the factors. Without addressing the root causes of the teeth misalignment, the teeth are likely to relapse back into crowding once orthodontics is completed unless they wear a retainer for the rest of their life.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is our most common sexually transmitted infection (STI). As a result, the incidence of all HPV-related cancers (such as cervical, anal, penile, vaginal, and oropharyngeal) has escalated at an alarming rate in the last four decades. This is because more and more people are becoming immunocompromised from their processed food diet that has taken over in the last 40 years. Scientists have identified over 200 strains of HPV. Nearly all people will get at least one strain of HPV in their lifetime, however, that doesn’t mean that it is a strain that can cause cancer. HPV-16 and HPV-18 are the most common strains that can cause cancer. They flourish on the mucosa – the moist linings of our body cavities. A viral cluster can hang around for years and cause soft tissue lesions that resolve on their own or need to be removed, but they can also morph into cancer. Most dentists screen for cancer in the mouth and upper throat during recall visits, however, some dentists can now screen for the dangerous HPV strains with saliva testing. Our best defense against HPV cancers is education and vaccination. Consider talking to your children about sex when they start asking questions. It is best to inform them and not scare them. Understanding the risks and benefits of sex early on allows for children to develop a healthy relationship with sex and make educated decisions. We are amidst a cultural shift toward oral sex being consider safe and casual, even amongst middle schoolers of every demographic. Oral sex, especially in children, is not a safe practice when considering STIs like HPV. Children must be aware of such risks, and empowered to choose safely and with confidence. Gardasil 9 vaccine targets nine of the carcinogenic strains of HPV and can be effective in prevention in your children.

With so many people overweight or obese and mentally ill, we have processed foods and sugar drinks to blame, but also the increasingly sedentary lifestyle we choose. We need aerobic activity and muscle-building activity in equal measures, at least one of these a day. As humans, we are wired for movement, not for sitting in a chair all day. The more we are sedentary, the more metabolic, emotional, cognitive, and overall health issues we have. We need to start thinking about daily exercise as fundamental to health as eating, sleeping, and breathing. This sets your kids up for health as children, but also defines habits and values that last a lifetime. Help your kids create exercise activities that are fun and challenging. Kids need both cardio (endurance) and strength training, like everyone else. Cardio means getting the heart rate and breathing rate up for a little while and can include activities like running, swimming, cycling, energized walking, hiking, martial arts, dancing, skating, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, sports, or jumping rope. Cardio is aerobic exercise. It fortifies the cardiovascular system by expanding the lungs, consuming circulating blood sugar, and strengthening the heart muscle. It also bolsters mood, sleep, joints, and bone health. Aerobic activities burn calories and lowers blood sugar in the moment without necessarily building muscle. Starting your day with a challenging cardio workout boosts oxygen circulation and allows you to burn calories at a higher rate throughout the day. Strength training, such as with weights, grow skeletal muscles, which pull on the bones and thus strengthens the bones too. Strength training for kids burns fat, bolsters coordination, motor control, mental health, bone health, balance, reduces risk of injuries, and enhanced self-esteem. Weight training for kids is controversial, but when they are young, they can engage in bodyweight exercises, such as sit-ups, push-ups, squats, burpees, wall sits, stair walking, and triceps dips. Introducing exercise bands can be fun and improve strength safely. Kids can also engage in yoga, which is proven to improve focus, memory, self-esteem, academic performance, classroom behaviour, and even reduce stress and anxiety in children.

In addition to exercise, sports can offer character-building opportunities, such as responsibility to others, being a team player, learning how to follow rules, learning how to respectfully receive coaching, learning how to follow plays, and learning how to lose gracefully and win humbly. It also builds self-esteem from continual hard work and a sense of personal contribution to a competitive team. There is also a dark side to competitive sports. Children often grow up idolizing athletes in unhealthy ways, have ideas about team rivalries that may be distorted, and have expectations placed on them by their parents and others that may not be realistic or even desired. Managing this with your children is important for them to grow up with realistic expectations and priorities. Just as organized sports can boost self-esteem for some kids, it can destroy it for others. Don’t let your child become the subject of teasing for developmental challenges that are clearly not in their control. This can lead to emotional scars that may impede them from exploring physical activities that are healthy for them. There are other ways to express their passion, perseverance, performance, and creativity, such as through the arts. There is a balance in sports, arts, and education that has lasting benefits for health and healing. Helping children find their passion and develop a sense of purpose can sometimes come from exercise, especially if they can connect with nature at the same time. If motivation for physical activity is an issue for you or your child, having an accountability partner can help – a coach, a personal trainer, a group fitness class, a family member, or a friend – any encouraging individual who is counting on you to show up. Both daily exercise and a spirit of adventure will help keep your kids healthy, and it’s your responsibility as the parent to cultivate these.

It is important to build a multifaceted health plan for your child (or with your child if they are old enough), using love and a sincere desire for their health and happiness as your guide. It is helpful to share this plan with any other primary caregivers including other parent(s), grandparents, daycare providers, health care providers, teachers, etcetera. As parents, we walk a fine line between allowing independent decision-making in our children and over-steering their journey. We want our kids to be grounded in good character and healthy practices with the confidence to travel an unchartered path that is unique to them. Remember, it takes a village to raise a healthy, happy child.

Don’t give up on your own health, happiness, playfulness, and personal growth during your brief-ish stint as a parent. As your kids begin to make more autonomous decisions, they don’t need 100% of your attention. Without oversteering, you’ll get more opportunities to commend their success and help navigate some of their pitfalls, while taking care of your own needs and wants. Meanwhile, your kids will always need you to model self-care and self-love. This means continually growing your self-awareness, self-forgiveness, and self-acceptance. Commit to better health habits right along with your kids and act as their role model and guide. Keep learning and growing together. Celebrate the triumphs and grapple with the challenges, out loud together. Cultivate your support system with the other dedicated adults who love your children and are committed to their health and happiness.

In my opinion, all children would benefit from high conscious parenting. This is what Dr. Maples started introducing in her book. Highly conscious parenting is an approach that emphasizes self-awareness, mindfulness, and emotional regulation in the parent-child relationship. It involves understanding how the parents’ own past experiences, especially traumas and fears, and resulting emotional baggage can influence their parenting styles and aiming to break negative intergenerational patterns, such as harsh discipline, particularly violence to control children, emotional unavailability, and/or an unhealthy lifestyle. This approach prioritizes loving guidance, connection, compassion, respect, authenticity, and reciprocity over control of children. Conscious parenting encourages parents to examine their own emotional landscape, identify triggers, and understand how their past experiences might be impacting their interactions with their children. This involves parents being fully present in the moment with their children, listening mindfully to their own minds and bodies as well as their children’s, and responding thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively, while teaching their children to do the same. This involves embracing children’s true selves, accepting their thoughts, emotions and behaviours, trying to understand the root causes of inappropriate thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, and fostering open communication rather than trying to mold them into what the parents desire. By giving children choices, fostering their sense of agency, inspiring their creativity, and encouraging them to develop their own sense of self-worth and decision-making skills, conscious parents empower their children to grow and develop to their full potential. By fostering open communication, respect, and empathy, and establishing clear and consistent boundaries, conscious parenting can lead to stronger, healthier relationships with children. Self-reflection and mindfulness can help parents manage their own stress and anxiety, which can positively impact the family dynamic. Parents who practice conscious parenting can develop greater emotional awareness and regulation, which they can then model for their children. Conscious parents encourage open and honest communication, leading to better understanding, fewer conflicts and quicker healing within the family. Conscious parents are engaged in understanding health and happiness for the whole family, including educating themselves on root causes of physical and mental illnesses, and addressing these as early as possible, while implementing means of prevention as a priority. By aligning their parenting with their values and focusing on building meaningful connections, conscious parents can experience a greater sense of fulfillment in their role and raise highly conscious children. This is a continuous process of self-discovery and growth for the entire family that can be passed on to future generations.