Ep 12. Your childs’ gut health and how to help them thrive with Momina Salim, Pediatric Health Coach
Your childs’ gut health
Have you ever wondered why gut health is so important for us and our children? And with all the supplements on the shelves today, which ones should our children be taking?
Momina is a Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach who specialises in paediatrics. This conversation with Momina digs deeper into what gut health is, why it’s so important and what we can do for our children to have optimal health.
Season 1 Ep 12
Listen here
00:03
hi mama you’re listening to the mama
00:05
podcast it’s Sumayya here the co-founder
00:08
of mama ME app
00:10
mama me is the first app to exclusively
00:12
connect mothers
00:13
across the middle east connect with
00:15
like-minded mamas and create
00:17
lifelong friendships at mama we are all
00:20
about connecting mamas
00:21
to empower women so let’s join together
00:24
and make this mission
00:25
a reality in this week’s episode i am
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joined by the wonderful mommy
00:30
nur she is a certified functional
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medicine health coach
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and she specializes in pediatrics
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we talk all about gut health and
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everything else
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to help maintain a healthy child so
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let’s get stuck
00:45
writing welcome omino to the mama
00:47
podcast i’m so happy to have you with me
00:51
thank you i’m really excited as well so
00:54
um
00:54
yeah your journey has been really
00:56
interesting and i know you shared it
00:57
with me
00:58
but i think it’ll be great to start off
00:59
with actually sharing your journey
01:02
and with how you got to becoming a
01:05
health coach
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and more specifically why pediatric
01:08
health coach
01:09
and just for our listeners so they can
01:11
understand what got you there
01:13
yeah um so i got into the health
01:16
coaching space
01:17
um through my own journey of dealing
01:20
with autoimmune disease and so
01:22
um i had my son and then i think six
01:24
months after that i had like a really
01:26
bad bout
01:26
of of pneumonia which seemed to have
01:29
triggered a cascade
01:31
of autoimmune conditions
01:34
and just really struggling for two two
01:37
and a half years of going to doctors and
01:39
trying to figure
01:40
out what was wrong you know just going
01:43
and getting
01:44
all manner of tests and where they did
01:46
not have any other tests to run
01:47
on me anymore so that was pretty
01:49
comprehensive
01:51
and nothing was wrong but i just was
01:54
feeling worse
01:55
every single day in addition to having
01:57
to take care of a
01:58
of an infant it was just it was a
02:01
struggle bus every single day
02:03
um you know there was depression and
02:05
there was brain fog and then there was
02:07
just on top
02:08
of that like all of the headaches and
02:10
migraines so it was quite debilitating
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and
02:13
um and i reached a point where i thought
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okay conventional care does not have
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the answer for this so i really need to
02:18
go and start looking
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where else i can seek out some answers
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and that’s really where functional
02:24
medicine came
02:25
in and i think one of the first steps
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that
02:29
in function medicine that we do which is
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really looking at your whole
02:32
body in a very integrative holistic way
02:35
so we look
02:36
at not just what’s physiologically
02:38
happening
02:39
happening but things like sleep and mood
02:42
and relationships and antecedents so
02:44
basically what my genetics look like
02:46
what my parents went through what their
02:48
body and their illnesses etc are like
02:50
um and kind of just looking at all of
02:53
that
02:53
and we started off with um just putting
02:56
me on a simple elimination diet to see
02:59
you know if we can just give a reset
03:01
with
03:02
food triggers and food sensitivities and
03:05
really that was like the aha moment
03:07
right when i went off of gluten and
03:09
dairy
03:10
within days i you know i felt like i was
03:13
looking at
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life with a new spectrum like it just
03:17
looked so bright and
03:19
everything was making sense i could hear
03:21
birds chirp outside of like
03:22
our apartment it just was it was
03:25
different and
03:26
um it was something that i had forgotten
03:28
about
03:29
and that kind of let me down this path
03:32
of you know if this helped me like
03:34
imagine how many other people it can
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help
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um and so that’s where i went into the
03:39
function medicine
03:40
health coaching program um to help
03:43
families and help people just understand
03:46
um you know that there are firstly
03:48
options available to help them
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and then that we are there and that
03:53
there’s someone there with them
03:54
to kind of hold their hand through the
03:56
whole journey because a lot of times we
03:57
go to doctors we only see them for
03:59
if we’re lucky maybe 10 minutes and they
04:02
give us like this huge list of things to
04:03
do
04:04
and we’re on our way and we are kind of
04:06
overwhelmed and i remember being
04:08
overwhelmed when i have to go on my
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um you know elimination diet like what
04:13
all do i
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cut out what foods have these triggering
04:17
ingredients in them like is there gluten
04:19
in everything
04:20
is there milk and everything can i eat
04:21
chocolate chips can i
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have soy sauce like small things like
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that and just being cognizant about
04:27
those things because they were
04:28
um they were you know they were having
04:31
big a big impact on my health
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um and so just starting off with that
04:37
journey
04:38
and getting on that year-long course um
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initially i wasn’t sure whether i wanted
04:43
to work with the pediatric population or
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what my niche was going to be
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but as i dug deeper and kind of
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tried to see where my inspiration and
04:53
where you know when i feel the most
04:54
excited working with
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um and that population was just children
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um
04:59
and not just small children but even
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adolescents and
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in their teens and then late teens just
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working with that population
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just i feel like i i get along with them
05:08
so well it’s like a blast
05:10
so um and i’ve always worked with that
05:13
um with that group i’ve worked with
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pregnant women
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and children um in my previous life so
05:18
when i was a public health
05:20
researcher and so it was just something
05:23
that i naturally gravitated towards
05:25
um i was i’ve been in the works of kind
05:28
of figuring out what kind of a
05:30
non-profit children’s hospital to set up
05:32
in pakistan where i’m originally from
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so it just kind of made sense right um
05:38
working with children
05:39
and just trying to help and then the
05:41
more that i started digging into the
05:43
need
05:44
for being a pediatric coach firstly
05:46
there aren’t too many of us
05:49
and then the few of us that we are like
05:51
the problems in children
05:52
are just exponential right now um we
05:56
are we have kids we’re basically in a
05:58
generation now where our kids are called
06:00
the compromise generation um and that’s
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scary
06:05
because this they’re saying for the
06:07
first time
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our generation will be our kids
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generation sorry will be the first to
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have
06:13
shorter life spans than us parents
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oh wow and that’s scary and that’s
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because
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of the health conditions that they’re
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now dealing with
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so there are a lot of chronic illnesses
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so before
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um if you looked in like the early 1900s
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or all the way up to maybe even like
06:32
the 60s the 70s there were a lot of um
06:36
infectious diseases and that’s what was
06:38
either killing our children
06:39
and and and the grown-ups but as time
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has gone by
06:43
the disease is like diseases have
06:45
shifted and they’re more and like
06:47
chronic illness
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and what do i call chronic illness we
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have kids now with
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diabetes with asthma with autism with
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adhd we have kids with
06:57
ms we have kids with other neuro
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generative liking disorders we have um
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kids with um with just so many
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intolerances insensitivities to food
07:10
we’ve got kids with allergies to to hay
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or
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to grass or to dust there’s so much
07:16
eczema going on
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with our kids and we just don’t know
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why and so that’s where like this entire
07:24
paradigm
07:25
has come in where function medicine is
07:27
really focusing on giving an
07:29
alternative answer to parents to help
07:32
yeah and i think
07:33
so i’ve discussed my journey with you so
07:36
i just want to take you back a few steps
07:37
and just ask you firstly how old is your
07:39
son now
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so how how long did you actually have to
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suffer with your own
07:43
autoimmune um well i mean was it an
07:46
autoimmune condition
07:47
yes so and and the funny thing about my
07:49
autoimmune was that every doctor i went
07:51
to
07:51
every specialty they had a different
07:53
name but it all fell under autoimmune so
07:56
everyone said you i had a different kind
07:58
okay um but my son now he turns four in
08:01
november
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so um this entire journey started when
08:05
he wasn’t yet one i think um exactly
08:08
three years ago today
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um and i started my food uh my
08:13
elimination diet last year so i think
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it was march or april and and to say
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that it’s been a quick turnaround would
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be hard because it’s
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been it’s been work right to really just
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change your entire
08:27
diet your lifestyle um it takes work and
08:30
it takes
08:30
and it’s hard like going out to
08:32
restaurants etc is not so easy anymore
08:35
uh bringing in certain products at home
08:37
is not easy anymore right we’ll go to
08:39
birthday parties and dinners and
08:40
people have to make um
08:44
adjustments um and and now more like
08:47
my son is dairy free we don’t give him
08:49
milk um
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and we kind of limit his gluten intake
08:54
but even for him like going out to
08:56
parties and friends and
08:58
playdates we have to be careful with
09:00
what we’re giving him
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and so it does it takes work and with
09:05
him it took me
09:06
so it was almost two years of just
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struggle
09:10
like it was it was hard um we decided to
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put him in nursery
09:13
really early i think at the age of like
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um a year and a half
09:18
because i just could not cope i felt
09:20
like i wasn’t giving him what he needed
09:23
um you know i did not have the energy to
09:25
sit and do crafts
09:27
or to do like sensory play and those
09:29
kinds of things and
09:30
i just thought that you know i couldn’t
09:33
do that at home and i had to give him
09:35
an environment where i felt like he
09:37
could flourish and so sending him to
09:38
nursery was
09:39
like the best option because it gave me
09:42
those three or four hours
09:43
every morning to either go to doctors
09:47
or different appointments to get
09:49
different you know treatment plans
09:51
sorted out it was just it really
09:54
really helped so hats off to you to
09:57
actually recognize that because i think
09:59
some moms wouldn’t even recognize that
10:01
they need to do that and take that step
10:03
to
10:04
actually put their daughter or sorry
10:06
it’s your son sorry in
10:08
nursery and actually take that time to
10:10
actually figure out what’s going on with
10:11
you
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because i think that’s really important
10:14
sometimes we really forget that part and
10:15
so
10:16
it’s amazing that you did that and i
10:18
mean you did 18 months my daughter went
10:20
to nursery when she was 11 months so
10:22
you know i think it’s like early is
10:24
based on what what society tells us
10:27
sometimes
10:28
you really have to decide what’s right
10:29
for you and your family
10:31
but it’s incredible that you actually
10:32
gave yourself that time
10:34
um because i think some parents and some
10:37
mothers will just kind of bear with it
10:39
just because they’ve got other things
10:40
going on
10:41
so that’s incredible um you mentioned
10:45
something
10:46
quite interesting with regards to your
10:48
son and him not having dairy and gluten
10:51
is that because of your learning and
10:53
your sort of what you’ve learned or is
10:55
that something that he
10:56
suffered with and so you decided to go
10:58
down that route
11:00
so it started off um so we used to give
11:03
him milk
11:03
almost still like a year and a half or
11:06
two years
11:07
but you know it wasn’t like over time he
11:09
kind of reduced his quantity to like
11:11
just drinking a little bit
11:12
at night before bed um but the more i
11:16
started getting into this and just
11:17
studying and reading about um the
11:20
sensitivity of
11:21
of various foods and what it’s doing to
11:23
our bodies
11:24
we just decided that as a family we were
11:26
all like my husband and i were both
11:28
already dairy free
11:29
that we would just kind of not bring in
11:31
milk only for him and just transition
11:33
all of his like smoothies
11:35
and whatever food preparation that we
11:37
were doing to like dairy-free milk
11:39
and yeah sorry i was just going to say
11:42
it really isn’t as
11:43
difficult as it used to be i mean my
11:46
daughter’s dairy-free as well
11:47
for different reasons i mean my daughter
11:50
has
11:50
a cow’s milk allergy which is apparently
11:54
pretty common and most children
11:56
grow out of it um but we didn’t know for
11:59
a very long time so until
12:01
i have dairy in my diet and so even when
12:02
i was breastfeeding
12:04
there was dairy in her obviously diet
12:06
because of the breast milk
12:08
and so she was constipated for days like
12:11
we would go
12:12
seven to ten days of not her not going
12:15
to the bathroom
12:16
and obviously with breastfed kids this
12:19
they go like four
12:20
four times a day some of them right like
12:23
they go so frequently
12:24
and she just was constipated for weeks
12:26
on end to the point where we were having
12:28
to take her to
12:29
the hospital and then they were giving
12:31
her suppositories to help her go and i
12:33
like i knew that wasn’t normal but we
12:35
just didn’t know what the cause was
12:37
until we eventually figured out and we
12:39
only figured out when we started
12:40
introducing formula into her diet
12:43
that we realized that the symptoms got
12:44
much worse and then we kind of and this
12:47
was
12:47
very much on me me figuring out that
12:50
actually i think it’s a cow’s milk
12:51
allergy and it’s when i then went to the
12:53
doctor and said look i’ve done this this
12:55
and this i’ve tried this
12:56
this i’ve even tried the hypoallergenic
12:59
milks
13:00
and that they don’t help either and i’m
13:02
i feel that
13:03
she may have cow’s milk allergy is when
13:05
they actually then sent me to a
13:06
dietitian
13:07
and i spoke to a dietitian and we went
13:09
down that route until that point it i
13:11
was just kept like they said
13:13
it was colic or that it was normal to be
13:15
constipated
13:16
so it’s really interesting that you
13:18
mentioned that and this isn’t anything
13:20
against medicine
13:22
um and no disrespect to any of my doctor
13:25
friends that might be listening to this
13:26
because they do incredible work but i
13:29
think
13:30
nutrition and that aspect of it is just
13:32
something that isn’t integrated
13:34
into the training at the moment um so
13:36
this is where functional medicine really
13:38
works and helps because
13:40
i think you can really work alongside
13:41
medical professionals to help
13:43
a person sort of get to that stage yeah
13:46
and you bring up something really
13:48
important the fact that um medicine now
13:51
is at such a different crossroads right
13:54
even like our doctors and everyone’s
13:56
talking about this
13:57
there’s so many doctors that are going
13:59
into function medicine training and
14:00
coming out as function medicine
14:02
practitioners
14:03
because of the need and they’re seeing
14:05
this there’s more information
14:06
put out there so we’re all coming across
14:09
all of that
14:10
and so there’s this realization in the
14:12
medical field that we need
14:13
that extra training whether it’s just
14:15
nutrition or
14:17
or the different lens from which to look
14:19
at wellness from
14:20
you mentioned colic and your daughter or
14:22
that the doctors
14:23
were blaming colic for it um my son had
14:27
it
14:27
and everyone said it was normal right
14:29
that this is something that kids
14:31
go through but it’s actually not right
14:34
when you start looking at it from like a
14:35
functional medicine perspective it is
14:37
not
14:37
common i mean it’s common but it’s not
14:40
normal
14:40
and and why is it not normal because
14:43
it’s basically the body screaming out
14:45
symptoms saying that there’s something
14:46
wrong
14:48
work on it figure it out and work on it
14:50
like you said your daughter was
14:52
constipated for so long and and my son
14:54
had that there was a point where my son
14:56
did not poop for 10 days and
14:58
i was just after my doctor like what’s
15:00
wrong
15:01
and he said it was normal but just wait
15:03
it out like you know he’ll poop
15:04
eventually
15:05
it’s not normal and it’s one of my
15:08
favorite questions to ask
15:09
um anyone that i’m working with is
15:12
how often do you poop what does it look
15:15
like
15:17
and you know how does it feel right like
15:19
when you’re pooping
15:20
is it easy is it difficult is it painful
15:23
it’s it’s a
15:24
it’s a difficult like i everyone laughs
15:26
when i ask that question because it’s
15:27
just
15:27
it’s not an acceptable kind of a
15:29
question to ask like you know
15:31
when you’re speaking to somebody but
15:33
it’s very very important because it’s
15:35
really like the primary key to
15:37
understand what is wrong
15:39
with your body and our body is always
15:42
looking at signs and symptoms
15:43
and giving us those and it’s for us to
15:45
really interpret them
15:46
to understand what’s going on and i
15:50
think you
15:50
mentioned something really important
15:52
there that actually if it doesn’t feel
15:54
right
15:55
it there’s something wrong right like i
15:57
knew when my daughter was crying for
15:59
like you know it was a very long time
16:01
she would cry and a really high pitched
16:03
cry and i knew deep down there was
16:05
something wrong but having never had a
16:07
child before
16:08
and the doctors are telling you it’s
16:09
normal you kind of doubt yourself
16:12
but actually if it doesn’t feel right
16:14
there’s something probably wrong
16:16
yeah and one of the main things that we
16:18
as um like
16:19
pediatric function medicine doctors take
16:22
into account
16:22
is looking at um mama or
16:26
parents instincts and and trying to take
16:29
that into consideration because
16:31
many many times it is really the parents
16:33
who are spending
16:34
the bulk of the time with the kids so
16:36
they kind of know
16:38
what when one cry like you said was
16:39
different than another
16:41
or whether they’re starting to act off
16:43
and you just don’t
16:44
you can’t put a finger on it but it just
16:46
doesn’t seem right anymore
16:47
or that their color doesn’t look good or
16:49
that they’re trying to pick up like dark
16:51
circles or that they’re wrinkling under
16:53
the eyes they get a new rash
16:55
really like we really need to rely
16:59
on our parents instincts more and that’s
17:02
what they teach us
17:03
especially in our intake forms they’re
17:04
like go and ask the parents
17:07
what’s wrong first what do they think is
17:09
going on
17:10
not because we’re giving up our medical
17:13
degrees or anything like that
17:14
but we’re really leaning into
17:18
our own understanding of what’s wrong
17:21
right we can tell better what our
17:23
triggers are because we live with
17:25
ourselves and our kids
17:26
on a near-daily basis and so we need
17:29
that feedback to really help us
17:31
understand
17:32
the underlying issues that they’re there
17:36
and i mean we’ve mentioned gluten and
17:38
dairy here and it doesn’t mean that
17:40
everyone needs to take out gluten and
17:42
dairy because that’s also another common
17:44
misunderstanding isn’t it that gluten
17:47
and dairy are the causes of all of these
17:48
things and they are for some people
17:50
but for others they may not be the
17:52
trigger foods is that right
17:54
and that’s true um you know not everyone
17:56
is celiac but then
17:57
we have so many kids now who have atopi
18:01
and that’s basically
18:02
allergies and what are those allergies
18:04
they can be food allergies as well and
18:05
have sensitivities to food
18:08
having said that it’s just that the milk
18:10
and the gluten and the wheat that we’re
18:12
consuming now is
18:13
very very very different in its
18:15
structure in its form and its nutrition
18:17
to what we were eating uh to what our
18:20
families were eating or our grandparents
18:22
were eating it just
18:23
is not the same and because of that
18:27
our bodies have not really evolved to
18:29
adapt to the modern
18:31
farming practices so we’re not really
18:33
able to
18:34
really fully digest or
18:38
make sense of what’s going into our
18:40
bodies and so our body in many
18:42
in many cases is seeing these foods as
18:45
as a trigger or as in as a pathogen or
18:47
something as
18:48
an invader and the immune system in the
18:51
body the first thing it does is
18:52
it just tries to attack that invader and
18:54
says like it’s time to go like bye-bye
18:57
but it’s when we keep eating these
18:58
things day in and day out
19:00
is when we’re like just our bodies are
19:03
reached at like a max point where
19:05
it just cannot deal with that constant
19:08
overload
19:09
of those invaders and that’s where we
19:11
start really feeling
19:13
sick because our immune system starts
19:14
depressing and getting
19:16
really weak and and over time it just
19:19
becomes
19:20
into autoimmunity where our bodies are
19:23
just
19:24
are just depleted not just in nutrients
19:26
but in its
19:27
in its function and its ability to
19:29
protect us
19:31
yeah i mean so when is this when you
19:35
start to see the adhd
19:36
the um asthma the all the other sort of
19:39
conditions you mentioned earlier
19:41
yeah and so a lot of times it’s when you
19:45
um so because these kids a lot of times
19:48
are not able to either express what
19:49
they’re
19:50
what they’re going through and
19:51
especially kids with autism they’re not
19:52
very verbal
19:54
um and so when the when you ask the
19:56
parents for history and they’re gonna be
19:58
like oh there was that point where the
19:59
kids stopped talking
20:01
or the kids started um you know just
20:04
like the body was
20:05
flappy and wasn’t just like reacting or
20:08
for adhd a lot of times once they hit
20:10
school so around the four five six age
20:12
group
20:13
um that when they have to go and sit in
20:15
the class and just
20:16
you know conform to like a normal school
20:19
system
20:20
is when you’re triggered and you see
20:23
that you know the kid there’s
20:24
more hyper uh behavior in that child so
20:27
they’re more hypersensitive
20:28
um and so with different things you’ll
20:31
have triggers at different points but
20:33
the idea
20:34
is that the body starts giving you signs
20:36
and symptoms
20:37
much sooner and it could and a lot of
20:41
times we say that all of this really
20:42
stems from your our gut
20:45
and so we’ll get a lot of stomach
20:47
related issues
20:48
or headaches in kids okay and so
20:51
you feel that things like the behavioral
20:54
conditions such as adhd and autism
20:57
they’re not neurological are they do you
21:00
feel that they are something
21:01
that that can they be resolved is my
21:03
question i guess
21:05
so the new research that’s coming out
21:07
and especially with the way that
21:09
function medicine is looking at it
21:10
they’re saying that it can be resolved
21:13
and reversed
21:14
if the investigation is done correctly
21:16
right so there are certain
21:18
um things that were that everyone is
21:20
looking at especially like there are a
21:22
lot of
21:22
champions in autism and again
21:25
one of the underlying um rule is that
21:28
you work
21:29
with the parents to understand what the
21:31
kid is going through
21:32
but you basically look at not just the
21:35
genetic
21:37
susceptibilities but also look at the
21:39
function so we start off with the gut we
21:41
try to see why some of these kids their
21:44
energy cycle
21:46
is is compromised and so a lot of times
21:49
it’s stemming from
21:51
nutrient deficiencies or deficiencies of
21:54
hormones and cofactors and enzymes that
21:57
play
21:57
vital roles in the processes of
22:00
just providing us energy and making
22:02
enough atp
22:04
right and so when those things when the
22:06
deficiencies in that
22:07
is really um what helps highlight
22:11
um you know areas to work on and kind of
22:14
um move towards uh reversing it
22:18
especially
22:19
a lot of times an example that i that
22:21
i’ve seen and and
22:23
it’s just it’s amazing that a lot of
22:25
autistic kids the moment you put them
22:26
off of a gluten
22:28
and dairy diet they within days they
22:31
start talking
22:32
and the parents are just amazed they’re
22:35
like my kid was a mute and now he’s
22:37
saying like two or three words
22:39
it’s just that when you reduce that that
22:41
toxic load on their body
22:44
their the body is able to start like you
22:46
know revving because our bodies are
22:48
designed
22:49
to to fix itself to work and and
22:52
you know we’re not supposed to live in
22:54
the state that we are at all times and i
22:56
think i’m
22:56
i’m an example of that um like you said
22:59
your daughter
23:00
what you know she had her issues and so
23:03
over time
23:04
when you address certain triggers
23:07
and you reduce the load on the body and
23:09
the immune system you really
23:10
start to see results yeah i
23:14
i mean i’ve been a witness to that as
23:16
well i mean she
23:18
as soon as we stopped dairy within a
23:20
couple of weeks we noticed a huge
23:22
difference to the point now where if she
23:24
has
23:25
you know she’s going somewhere and
23:26
someone gives her a small piece of
23:28
chocolate or something that has a little
23:29
bit of milk inside it
23:31
she can tolerate it now but
23:34
it still has an impact on how her body
23:37
functions after
23:38
and she used to get sick all the time
23:41
before to the point where she was sick
23:44
every single week and and you know like
23:46
you think it’s because
23:47
they’re young and they go to nursery and
23:49
they’re going to catch everything
23:50
but she was sick a lot and so when we
23:52
saw our functional health coach and
23:55
and they went in the dietitian and we
23:57
went they went through like what the
23:59
reason was and she explained exactly
24:01
what you’re explaining where
24:02
your body’s sort of overwhelmed with the
24:04
toxins and you’re constantly fighting
24:07
your body never gets a chance to rest
24:09
repair and so
24:10
she used to get sick over and over and
24:12
over again and
24:13
the sickness lasted a very long time as
24:15
well and i noticed that
24:17
since we cut out dairy that that has
24:19
reduced drastically as well it’s like
24:21
her immune system is stronger
24:23
yeah yeah and it’s true and and you
24:25
brought up something important
24:27
that our bodies constantly under stress
24:29
right and
24:30
because of that stress and you know that
24:32
state of just like really high cortisol
24:35
levels in our bodies and our kids go
24:37
through that as well
24:38
we are seeing a lot of um depression and
24:41
anxiety
24:42
and and stress in our kids and really
24:46
really young kids where kids
24:49
in like the 5 to 10 age group are also
24:53
having massive anxiety attacks
24:56
right so it’s it’s quite alarming
24:58
because it just kind of feeds into
25:01
the kind of lifestyle that we have right
25:03
um
25:04
and and the kids are constantly like
25:06
just soaking it all in
25:08
um and a lot of times kids are not able
25:11
to connect the dots like us
25:12
adults are able to right they just don’t
25:14
know um
25:16
and and because of that they can’t
25:18
regulate their behavior as well so it’s
25:20
kind of easier also with kids to
25:22
identify issues
25:23
it’s because of that their lack of
25:25
regulation of how to behave
25:28
um but in that sense it’s also quite
25:31
frustrating to see your kid go through
25:33
that
25:33
right um we don’t want and we don’t want
25:35
anyone’s kid to have to
25:36
to deal with hypersensitive sensitivity
25:39
or
25:40
even like the basic things like eczema
25:43
or
25:43
anxiety or just you know constantly
25:46
feeling overwhelmed
25:47
and not having an outlet for any of that
25:50
and so you think
25:51
i mean anxiety right now is i mean there
25:53
are so many studies coming out right now
25:55
which is
25:56
covering anxiety particularly because of
25:58
obviously what we’ve been dealing with
26:00
as
26:00
the world has been dealing with so do
26:03
you think it’s more of the lifestyle
26:04
choices that are adding to the anxiety
26:07
so yeah food plays a big role right so
26:09
what kind of
26:10
food that we’re eating again has such an
26:14
important
26:15
role in like the cascade of of just
26:19
basic function and if i can just give a
26:21
small example so
26:23
our stomach has all of these
26:26
good bacteria and bad bacteria but
26:28
predominantly good bacteria
26:30
and one of those bugs makes something
26:34
called butyrate and butyrate is an
26:36
essential component
26:37
for something made uh in our brain so
26:40
it’s called serotonin it’s a
26:41
neurotransmitter
26:42
that controls our mood so imagine if our
26:45
stomach
26:46
is not in like optimal condition we’re
26:48
not making butyrate to make serotonin
26:51
we’re just not feeling good right and
26:54
that’s really kind of leading into
26:56
um just being either depressed or angry
26:58
or sad and just
27:00
not knowing why it’s a very straight
27:02
physiological
27:04
um example of how our lifestyle is
27:08
affecting all of that
27:09
right um small things our kids are
27:11
always
27:12
are predominantly consuming a lot of
27:15
tv or you know phones and ipads and
27:18
they’re just constantly surrounded by
27:20
all of these things
27:21
and the effects of that on our bodies
27:23
just like the emf radiation that our
27:25
kids are
27:26
eating and and soaking up constantly
27:29
those
27:29
also have a very direct impact
27:32
on on our health and then in addition to
27:36
that
27:36
you know how much time are they actually
27:38
spending outdoors or with family and
27:41
actually building connections and so all
27:43
of those things kind of
27:44
play a part in a piece in that lifestyle
27:47
that you’re talking about there’s so
27:49
many different elements to address
27:50
and you would go through all of that if
27:52
someone came to you as a client
27:54
yes and and a lot more like sleep and
27:58
relationships and you know just basic um
28:01
everyday life things that the kid feels
28:04
overwhelmed with so
28:05
the children that are slightly older um
28:07
they’re able to verbalize
28:09
what they’re going through a lot better
28:11
but the kids that are younger
28:12
um you know we would try to regulate
28:14
their schedules with the parents such
28:16
that we can really set them up for the
28:19
best so a kid who maybe is not sleeping
28:21
well enough or is not sleeping through
28:22
the night or
28:23
is having very disturbed sleep they will
28:26
have issues when they wake up in the
28:27
morning so kind of just working with
28:30
fixing that circadian rhythm in children
28:32
make sure to sleep
28:33
on time wake up at the same time you
28:36
know that they’re fed well and then
28:38
understand if they’re not sleeping well
28:40
why are they not sleeping well
28:41
right so it’s just really working
28:44
through
28:45
the very many pieces of that child’s
28:48
life
28:49
and making my way through that with the
28:50
families yeah
28:52
and i think yeah you mentioned they’re
28:54
not sleeping
28:55
well when they’re not feeling well and
28:57
that’s that was exactly the same with
28:59
our daughter as well she would have
29:00
really restless sleeps um she would wake
29:03
up so many times in the night
29:04
and it as soon as we cut out the dairy
29:07
we noticed the difference
29:08
like it was incredible to see how much
29:10
of an impact it was actually having on
29:12
her
29:12
body and i guess they’re so young and
29:14
they’re so small like
29:16
we’re really if we’re adding toxins to
29:18
their body
29:19
it’s it’s really incredible and this
29:21
isn’t to say that all dairy is bad for
29:23
everybody
29:24
but some for some children it is i’m
29:27
fine with dairy
29:28
my daughter’s not so it’s really
29:30
interesting to see that different people
29:32
react different differently to different
29:34
things um
29:36
just because we’re talking about dairy i
29:38
had a question more for a personal
29:39
question
29:40
but what would you advise is a good
29:42
alternative to
29:43
dairy then so they have um
29:47
for kids i’ve seen a lot of people
29:48
giving them the
29:50
pea protein yeah because it’s really
29:52
high in protein right so one of the
29:54
reasons why
29:55
a lot of parents like to give milk to
29:56
kids is because of not just protein but
29:59
it being a calcium source um and so
30:02
i really don’t recommend giving a lot of
30:04
like almond milk or almond or oat milk
30:07
and those kinds of things
30:08
so really trying to look at alternative
30:10
sources of
30:11
food and try to give your kid a more
30:13
balanced diet so
30:15
we can get a lot of calcium from um
30:18
from broccoli and you know and other
30:21
food sources like
30:23
peppers and and spinach and like so our
30:25
food is just really
30:26
food dense um sesame seeds have like a
30:29
quarter cup of sesame seeds has
30:31
more calcium than um a glass of milk so
30:35
we have like all these alternate food
30:38
items that we can eat that we can just
30:39
really nourish our kids with
30:41
um in in our house when we move our kid
30:44
away from
30:45
my son from having milk i mean we do
30:48
give it to like we will give him
30:50
like a milk alternative if he wants like
30:52
chocolate milk for example
30:54
we’ll make some in an oat milk or almond
30:56
milk but it’s kind of like a treat every
30:58
now and then
30:59
um we try to move him away from using
31:01
milk as a
31:02
as a primary source of nutrition but i
31:05
do understand that there are some kids
31:06
that are under two
31:07
that are very emotionally attached to
31:09
their milk and so for them
31:12
giving them uh like an alternate like
31:14
pea protein
31:15
milk is is a great idea because it’s
31:17
high in protein for them if they’re
31:19
still not eating
31:20
a ton yeah i mean we transitioned my
31:22
daughter when she was about eight
31:24
eight to nine months is when we stopped
31:26
giving her um
31:27
like formula and so it was p protein
31:30
that we
31:31
sort of switched to she loves oat milk
31:34
i guess because it’s quite creamy
31:35
tasting but pea milk is actually some
31:38
brands of pea
31:39
milk are like i think they taste good as
31:41
well and she drinks it so it’s fine
31:43
um also we compare it to normal milk and
31:47
obviously
31:48
they don’t because they don’t know what
31:49
right now it tastes like exactly
31:51
yeah but another interesting thing
31:53
though is um that we also look at
31:55
where the milk allergy is coming from so
31:57
whether these kids are either lactose
32:00
intolerant or whether these kids have an
32:02
allergy to casein
32:04
so a lot of cow’s milk is um
32:07
we get a1 casein from cow’s milk
32:11
but we can get a2 casein um from goat’s
32:14
milk sheep’s milk
32:15
or other like this this camel milk as
32:17
well um and so
32:19
we can tolerate those milks a lot a lot
32:22
a lot better
32:23
than than cow’s milk so we could always
32:26
also
32:27
convert just drinking cow’s milk to goat
32:30
milk or sheep’s milk
32:32
or even camel milk which is supposed to
32:34
be really good um
32:35
and and seeing how they react it
32:38
probably is because our bodies are not
32:40
exposed as much
32:41
to those milks the way that we are to
32:44
cow’s milk
32:45
and it hasn’t been changed as much okay
32:47
you know our cows are just
32:49
receiving so many different stimuli to
32:51
produce more and more milk
32:52
which goats and sheep milk are not
32:55
exposed to as much
32:56
and so for now that’s also another great
32:59
alternative to explore
33:00
um so let’s talk about probiotics
33:04
because i mean we hear about the gut
33:07
brain barrier
33:08
all the time and
33:11
yeah tell me more about probiotics what
33:13
are they how do they help
33:15
and yeah we’ll go into what kind of
33:17
probiotics we should be using
33:20
so probiotics i like to have people
33:22
think about
33:23
there being good bucks in our stomach so
33:26
they basically and they’re not just in
33:28
our tummy so they start from all the way
33:30
from our mouth
33:31
all the way down to um our rectum so
33:34
that entire pipe
33:36
which includes our stomach and our
33:38
intestines everything
33:39
and we have bugs there and so they’re
33:41
called um
33:43
our microbiota so basically these
33:47
good bacteria are there to kind of help
33:49
us
33:50
starting from our mouth all the way down
33:53
in in various different capacities
33:55
they’re there to digest our food
33:57
to maintain our ph um you know to access
34:00
cofactors
34:01
for various enzymes and
34:03
neurotransmitters
34:04
and hormones so they play a big role and
34:07
we have so many we put
34:09
millions and millions of these bacteria
34:12
in our body so
34:13
there’s a joke that goes on in the
34:15
function medicine group that you know
34:16
we’re actually more
34:18
bacteria than human because there’s so
34:20
many more of them
34:21
in our body than our cells even
34:24
and so they’re really important um
34:27
to keep a good balance of them so to
34:30
make sure that we have
34:32
more good to good gut bacteria than the
34:35
bad ones
34:36
but what tends to happen is that um
34:39
over time as our as we you know with
34:43
with food so we have sensitivities to
34:46
food
34:46
or we have all of these different toxins
34:49
and heavy metals that are coming into
34:51
our bodies
34:52
what that tends to do is create
34:54
something called dysbiosis and that’s
34:56
like the
34:56
imbalance of the bacteria so there’s a
34:59
lot more bad bacteria that we’re having
35:01
rather than good and because of that
35:04
is really where we begin this casket of
35:07
feeling unwell
35:08
um and not having enough good bacteria
35:11
affects pretty much every function in
35:13
our body starting not just only from
35:15
digestion and absorption
35:17
of nutrients but like i said making
35:20
basic
35:20
vital you know hormones and enzymes and
35:24
other things like that
35:26
and so with probiotic it’s very
35:29
important
35:30
to consume in our diet because it’s
35:33
something that we don’t
35:34
store um they’re not they don’t the good
35:37
thing is these bacteria they don’t
35:38
pollinate our
35:39
our gut so you know if they’re and
35:42
that’s a good thing because if they’re
35:43
the bad ones and if they start
35:44
pollinating
35:45
our gut then we have a massive problem
35:48
so we have to constantly provide our
35:50
body
35:51
with these sources of food um a lot of
35:54
times i like to recommend that families
35:56
just
35:56
use food as their sources of probiotics
36:00
so
36:00
i recommend using good qualities of
36:04
yogurt so greek yogurt is really high in
36:06
that i actually recommend that if we can
36:08
make our yogurt at home from live
36:10
cultures
36:11
um so the yogurt that we make at home
36:14
tends to be higher in probiotic by
36:17
millions and millions right so
36:19
um than the store-bought kind because in
36:22
the entire pasteurization process a lot
36:25
of the bacteria
36:26
is killed and so we don’t really get the
36:29
benefit of it that we should be getting
36:32
the other sources are kefir grains or
36:34
kefir milk so we get a lot of that in
36:36
supermarkets now
36:38
for those that are dairy free they have
36:39
a coconut version of that
36:41
from coconut milk um then there’s
36:43
sauerkraut and there’s kimchi and eating
36:45
fermented foods
36:46
um and it’s really just kind of
36:48
incorporating a lot of these fermented
36:51
foods in our bodies
36:52
so that we are bringing in those live
36:55
microorganisms so
36:56
all of those bacteria into our gut and
36:59
so that
37:00
it’s a symbiotic relationship they get
37:02
food down there and we get all the
37:03
benefits that they do
37:04
so um it’s really just kind of
37:08
adapting the way that we’re seeing our
37:10
meals and making sure that we’re adding
37:12
all of those good things to our diet
37:14
and how often would you say you should
37:16
be eating those things every day
37:17
or a couple of times a day so um
37:21
every day so we’re including that in our
37:22
meals and making sure that we find ways
37:25
to do that
37:25
um you know apart from small things like
37:29
uh miso or tempeh a lot of people who
37:33
don’t eat
37:33
grains they’ll go towards like
37:35
alternative grains and things to eat so
37:36
they’ll they’ll try to incorporate a lot
37:38
more
37:39
um miso or tempeh or um you know
37:42
other grains some cheeses that age
37:45
really well so like gouda or cottage
37:47
cheese
37:47
or even mozzarella they have live
37:51
strains of probiotics so it’s really
37:53
kind of understanding where
37:54
all we can find them um kombucha is a
37:57
really good um
37:58
alternative as well i think a lot of
37:59
grown ups drink that i think we
38:01
kind of caution giving too much to
38:03
children just because of the
38:05
fermentation of the alcohols in there so
38:07
but giving them some a little bit is not
38:10
a bad thing
38:10
but it’s just about creating being aware
38:13
of these foods and creating them and
38:14
putting them
38:15
on a rotation in our house really helps
38:18
and what about the sachets the powder
38:21
sachets of probiotics that you get
38:23
what what about if you wanted to do that
38:26
just because then you know that
38:27
yeah you may do the things during the
38:29
day as well but you just want to make
38:31
sure that the child gets
38:33
all of the probiotics yeah and that was
38:36
something i was going to get to as well
38:37
but
38:38
even though we try to eat as much as we
38:41
can
38:41
in our diet it still most likely is not
38:44
enough
38:44
especially with all of the toxins that
38:46
we’re constantly consuming
38:48
they’re working extra hard and we’re
38:50
bringing in along with our foods a lot
38:52
of
38:52
um you know the the things that the bad
38:56
bugs that are coming with that and so um
38:58
for supplements they really
39:00
do say to um to look at good quality
39:03
supplements it doesn’t really matter if
39:04
it’s like a sachet if it’s a liquid or
39:07
or if it’s um you know a pill for kids
39:10
i recommend that they have these um
39:13
these chewables
39:14
i’m not really like a hundred and i know
39:16
you’re you’re a dentist and you don’t
39:17
agree with chewables and either do i
39:19
because they don’t really be
39:20
they’re not very potent you know you
39:22
don’t really get what you need out of
39:24
those
39:24
but um in some in some cases so there
39:27
are some brands that really do make good
39:29
ones that
39:30
actually have all the ingredients that
39:31
we want um but a lot of times what i
39:34
recommend is just opening the capsules
39:35
and
39:36
using the grains from that in like a
39:38
smoothie or water or
39:39
milk or juice whatever that they’re
39:41
consuming because we can buy
39:43
varieties that have no flavor so it’s
39:46
just you’re adding it to their food and
39:48
making them uh you know getting the
39:50
benefit of it
39:51
what i do want to encourage is that
39:53
families to start looking
39:54
at the labels and making sure
39:57
that they have the right strains of
40:00
probiotics so lactobacilli is one of
40:03
those
40:04
that are um very important and uh before
40:07
bacterium
40:08
those are those are two that are really
40:10
important because they really help
40:12
with something that we call leaky gut
40:13
where our our the cells in our
40:15
in our gut lining are very porous so
40:18
we’re
40:18
soaking up a lot of toxins um
40:21
and just you know using uh using all of
40:24
that
40:25
and making sure that they’re there in at
40:27
the back of the bottle we read that we
40:29
make sure
40:30
that it’s got the good manufacturing
40:32
products um
40:34
you know labeled there and that we make
40:36
sure that it
40:37
has the light the the potency that they
40:40
claim on the on the label so you
40:42
really read that and see um and and i
40:45
always recommend that
40:46
families even for small children and
40:48
children as
40:49
young as a few weeks old to a few months
40:52
old can have probiotic
40:54
very very safely um that we kind of give
40:58
them a supplement that is
40:59
starting off at like a 5 billion cfu
41:02
so colony calling cfus and so making
41:06
sure that those numbers
41:08
are there and also to make sure that
41:11
as we get older so for a higher age
41:14
group
41:14
anywhere after two years old um they
41:17
recommend
41:18
they can use the adult so you can give
41:20
them anywhere up to like 25 billion as
41:22
well
41:23
cfus and so just making sure that we
41:25
kind of read the label
41:27
understand the label see the different
41:29
strains right
41:30
a lot of times i’ve seen that they only
41:33
have the lactobacilli
41:34
and that’s just not enough um especially
41:37
when
41:37
we want we don’t really know what’s
41:39
going on with our gut so it’s better to
41:41
kind of have a complete
41:43
um you know complete focus
41:46
of what all we can put in rather than
41:49
just taking it one at a time
41:51
sometimes we might not be able to get
41:53
all of them in one supplement
41:55
and for that i think it’s good to kind
41:57
of um
41:58
read the other labels and maybe mix and
42:01
match your probiotics
42:03
another thing that’s really big and i
42:04
know it’s not probiotic but it’s
42:05
something called prebiotic
42:07
and it’s something that really kind of
42:10
sets
42:11
the baseline for for your gut and
42:14
prebiotic are those ingredients that
42:16
it’s basically their fiber in our diet
42:19
that we
42:20
put in our gut and it’s our probiotics
42:23
eat them and use them for for their food
42:26
but they basically allow the probiotic
42:29
to
42:30
stick and to do their work so we’re
42:32
basically setting up like the ground for
42:34
harvest basically where
42:35
you know we’re setting up the the
42:38
grounds that we’re going to be putting
42:40
our probiotic on
42:41
is as nourished as possible so we’re
42:43
giving it the probiotic
42:44
and there’s a lot of focus on that and
42:46
so you can supplement and some
42:48
supplements even
42:49
have that and you’ll most likely see it
42:51
by the name of inulin
42:53
at the bottom of your your list of
42:56
um ingredients but we get a lot of that
42:59
from food and so again you know going
43:02
back to that idea of food is medicine
43:05
getting it through onions and garlics
43:07
and artichokes
43:09
and um you know there’s so many other um
43:12
options out there that we can eat them
43:14
making sure we’re getting enough
43:15
asparagus and a lot of these cabbage
43:17
family vegetables so brussels sprouts
43:20
and broccoli and
43:21
and cauliflower and consuming them on a
43:24
daily basis to make sure
43:26
that we’re able to benefit from all of
43:28
that
43:29
that’s amazing thank you so much um
43:33
i know you have a few things to do today
43:36
so i’m not going to keep you much longer
43:38
i have one question for you though if
43:40
you had to recommend
43:41
one supplement that all children should
43:44
be taking
43:45
what would it be um
43:48
so i really really like i can’t really
43:51
say one because you know there are a few
43:53
that are really important
43:54
unfortunately in our multivitamin the
43:56
packs that we get they’re just
43:57
not enough yeah um but it’s really
44:00
important to give our kids
44:02
good omega-3s so a fish oil supplement
44:05
probiotics is really important and then
44:07
making sure that their vitamin d levels
44:10
are optimal so we’re not um either that
44:14
we’re mostly not supplementing but even
44:16
if we are supplementing we need to
44:17
supplement them enough
44:19
so you know i would encourage you to
44:21
either speak to a doctor or get them
44:23
tested
44:23
or just amp up their supplementation
44:27
and then the last one that’s really
44:28
really important is
44:30
zinc so you know it has such an
44:33
important role to play
44:34
not just in our gut health but our
44:35
immune health and just overall
44:38
regulation of
44:39
all of the the processes that our body
44:42
has um so i really can’t understate that
44:45
as well so
44:46
sorry from one i went to four but it’s
44:48
just making sure
44:49
that our numbers um and the dosages that
44:52
we’re using and
44:53
we only had a certain amount of time to
44:54
talk about these things but you share a
44:56
lot of more
44:57
of this on your instagram page so where
44:59
is the best place to find you is it your
45:01
instagram page
45:02
so it is my instagram page um and it’s
45:05
my name momona
45:06
and it’s underscore saleem underscore
45:09
coaching
45:10
um you can probably add that to your
45:11
show notes but um that’s really the best
45:13
place and
45:14
really like i’m there to kind of help
45:16
and share
45:17
and just help families really hold their
45:19
hands through it’s it’s so
45:21
it’s a scary world we’re living in these
45:23
days yeah and i will definitely share
45:25
all your details in the show notes so
45:27
the listeners can find you easily and
45:29
i’m sure you’ll be happy to receive
45:31
messages if someone’s got a question for
45:33
you
45:33
oh for sure i love to i love to chat
45:36
you’re amazing thank you so much
45:38
thank you so much for having me this is
45:44
great
46:17
you
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