It’s the middle of the night.  All of a sudden you hear your baby crying.  You rush to check on her and she’s hot to the touch.  Then you run to the bathroom to grab the thermometer, take her temperature and learn it is 103°F!  What do you do?  Your first impulse is to call your Doctor or rush to the emergency room.  Trust me, as a mother of two, I understand how worried parents get when they discover their baby has a fever.  Here are some helpful facts and tips that will help get you through these long nights.

First, let’s understand the purpose of a fever.  Many parents have been led to believe that fevers are dangerous.  Well, you can relax, the majority of fevers are not dangerous.

Understand that the fever itself is not the disease.  It’s the body’s defense against disease.  A fever naturally occurs as a response to an infection.  As the body temperature rises, the infection is being eliminated.  The common cold and flu are the most common sources of fever in children.  It is more important to monitor and nourish your baby than it is to interrupt the body’s natural self-healing capabilities. Fevers do not usually require medical attention.

My baby has a fever?  When is it considered a medical emergency?

If your child is less than 2 months old and his temperature exceeds 100°F, this may be a symptom of an infection related to the delivery of the baby or events that occurred shortly after birth.  For example, a baby may contact an infection after a circumcision or from the germs in the hospital itself.  Whatever it may be, take your newborn to the hospital if it gets a fever in the first few months of life.

In older babies, medical attention is required if the fevers that last longer than 3 days or is accompanied by other symptoms such as vomiting, persistent cough, respiratory distress, lethargy or any other abnormal symptom not typically associated with the flu or the common cold.

Febrile seizures, caused by a rapid change in body temperature, are a great concern.  Physicians have proposed that febrile seizures are uncommon and rarely serious.  If it does occur, protect your child by lying her down on her side to prevent choking.  Protect her from hard or sharp object and ensure there are no breathing obstructions and call your doctor.

How do I know my baby has a fever?

First, understand a temperature of 98.6°F is not the “normal” temperature for everyone.  It is just a statistical average.  For babies, normal temperatures can range from 96.6°F to 99.4°F and can fluctuate throughout the day.  Many parents consider high to be between 100°f and 102°F and dangerously high at 103°F to 104°F.

There is no relationship between the height of the fever and severity of a disease.  For example, roseola is a non-threatening disease that produces high temperatures close to 105°F in some children!  I’ve witnessed this with my own child when he was only 9 months.  On the other hand, a more serious disease such as meningitis may produce a moderate temperature of 101°F.

Is there anything I should do when my baby has a fever?

It’s important to allow your baby to rest.  This allows him to completely recuperate and avoid complication or a relapse.

Give your baby plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration.  Babies can be nursed often or given water by spoon or an eyedropper every 30 minutes.  Your baby may not have much of an appetite, but if your baby is eating solids, keep it light.  Avoid sugar and dairy as they may prolong the infection.

Resist the temptation to reduce the fever.  The increased temperature makes the body’s environment inhospitable to growth of pathogenic organisms.   Suppressing the fever interferes with this defense mechanism, so it’s best to let the fever run its course.  If you can’t overcome the temptation, you may make your baby more comfortable by placing her in water only 1°F to 2°F cooler than body temperature.  Another option is to apply a tepid cloth across the forehead.

If you choose to use over the counter medications, please be aware of their dangerous side effects.  Aspirin can cause intestinal bleeding, while Tylenol is toxic to the liver and kidneys.

I have allowed both of my sons to have their fevers without interference and today they have strong, well-developed immune systems.  That’s what a fever can do for your child.  After suffering from a fever, they will become more resilient and tolerant of infection.  Children that aren’t able to complete their fever cycles may end up having deficient immune systems as adults.

In conclusion, healthy babies have fevers.  It’s all part of a natural healing process.  There is no need to panic the next time your baby has a fever, but if your instincts or gut feeling tells you that something is seriously wrong, do not hesitate to call your doctor.

Have you considered not to breastfeed because you are afraid you are not producing enough breast milk?  Or have you started supplementing with formula because you fear your baby is not getting enough breast milk?  What can be done in these situations?  Here are three things you must first consider if you want to increase breast milk production.

1. Ensure proper latching.  Ensure that your baby is latching properly and is removing the milk from your breasts.  The more milk that is removed, the more milk is produced.  If your baby is not latching properly she may not be removing enough milk from the breast.  You may need help from a breastfeeding expert such as a lactating specialist.  A specialist can work with you to sort out any breastfeeding problems you may have.  La Leche League is a great resource.
2. Nurse and/or pump frequently.  The more you nurse or pump, the more milk is produced.  Suckling stimulates the breast to make more milk.
3. Add skin –to-skin contact.  Skin-to-skin contact with you baby stimulates milk production.  Remove your baby’s clothes and place him next to your bare skin.  This can easily be done at bath or bedtime.  You may need to wrap a blanket around both of you to stay warm.  Carrying your baby in a sling throughout the day can also increase your milk supply.

Other factors that lead to low milk supply may involve poor diet, stress, lack of sleep, lack of fluids or a medical condition.  Before considering these other issues, first ensure your baby is latching properly, you are nursing or pumping frequently and adding more skin-to-skin contact.

For more information on the benefits of breastfeeding, read “The Nursing Mother’s Herbal” by Sheila Humphrey.

Please share your breastfeeding experiences in the comment section below.

Whey

Whey can be used using piima milk, whole-milk buttermilk, yoghurt or raw milk.  Personally, because of my busy schedule, I like to use a good quality commercial plain yoghurt for this recipe.  With the milks, you have to wait 1 – 4 days for separation into curds and whey to occur.

CLICK HERE for a simple whey recipe to use in your lacto-fermentation.

Lacto-fermented foods and beverages are important for the pregnant and nursing mother, by supplying high quality nutrients known to increase milk supply and improve the quality of milk.  Beet Kvass is a lacto-fermented beverage that offers great medicinal qualities, including detoxification, digestion and immune support.  Whey, which is rich in minerals, is used as the starter culture for Beet Kvass, as well as the preparation of many other lacto-fermented recipes.

To learn more about the benefits and preparation of this nourishing beverage that improves nutrition and boosts your milk supply, CLICK HERE!

So, during a consultation with one of my patients, she explains to me how her labor was induced in her first delivery.  I asked her, “Was it because of any emergency health complications?”  Her response was, “No, the doctor was going to be away on vacation.”  Seriously?!?!  I think that is just taking it too far!

Induction involves the use of drugs or other methods to cause labor to begin.  Even though, there is no concrete evidence to justify this, the widespread use of inducing labor is typically done when the mother is at or beyond 42 weeks of gestation, when the fetus is believed to be too large, twin pregnancies beyond 38 weeks, or the mother has a serious health condition such as pre-eclampsia, oh yea, and to prevent conflicts with the doctor’s vacation time and even sometimes, the mother’s time.

I vote that we stop interfering with nature and encourage our mothers to deliver their babies when the time is right.  A healthy, developing fetus does not need interference or induction.  I am sure there are a small percentage of births that can justify an induction, but for the most part, very little evidence supports reasons to electively induce labor.

Due dates are estimates and can be off by up to two weeks!  EVERY week of gestation counts for the completion of lung, brain, immune-system and liver development.  Induced births increase the risk of a C-Section.  Vaginal births are more beneficial because the pressure of the birth canal squeezes fluid from the baby’s lungs.

It’s best to allow labor to begin on its own and should not be done for the convenience of the mother or doctor.  Is your baby’s health worth the risk?

Within days of conception, the egg-sperm combination has divided into hundreds of thousands of cells.  In about three week’s gestation, the human brain and nervous system begins to develop.  By nine months, 10 trillion cells are present in the brain alone.

This complex and delicate structure must be correctly constructed from the moment of conception.  If the required nutrients are not available when needed, the structure is not built properly.  The mental health of the child depends largely on the diet of the mother before and during pregnancy.

The brain and nerve cells are composed primarily of proteins, fats, sugars, vitamins, minerals and water.  In fact, the solid structure of the brain is 80% fat, which plays a role in insulation and proper nerve transmission.  If the mother’s diet lacks these required nutrients in sufficient amounts for both her and her baby, the brain and certain portions of it may not develop properly.  For example, deficiencies in fatty acids will develop underdeveloped myelin, which hinders nerve transmission.

A prenatal diet should be comprised of essential fatty acids, quality protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamin and minerals, found in whole foods such as grass fed meats, seafood, butter, cod liver oil, fresh farm eggs, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.  We are currently not getting this in our modern diet of processed food, devoid of the nutrients required to develop our babies’ brains.

Food choices do matter and do influence brain development.  Optimum nutrition during pregnancy increases your child’s mental capacity throughout his or her life.

In simple terms, the digestive system works as follows:  we eat (good diet or bad diet), digest (complete or incomplete), then we eliminate (good evacuation or bad evacuation) or assimilate (good absorption or poor absorption).  The gut is commonly referred to as the “Second Brain” because the enteric nervous system is a collection of neurons in the gastrointestinal tract (GI) that constitutes the “brain of the gut” and can function independently of the nervous system.  This system controls the motility, exocrine and endocrine secretions and microcirculation of the GI tract.  It is also involved in regulating immune and inflammatory processes.  Hippocrates has also said that all disease begins in the gut.  About 70 to 80 percent of the body’s immune system is found in the digestive tract.

Poor digestive health that involves acid reflux, bloating, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or constipation is an extremely common and overlooked condition in this country that affects about 70 million Americans.  This accounts for billions of dollars in annual sales of over-the-counter digestive aids that only provide temporary relief.  Unresolved or ignored digestive problems lead to worse problems down the road.  With any health condition, it is important to restore gut health.

Poor gut health leads to blood sugar problems, and that leads to constipation.  With constipation, the body cannot eliminate unneeded hormones, and estrogen accumulates.  Food not digested properly due to lack of hydrochloric acid (HCL) results in putrefied, fermented food that becomes rancid in the stomach.  Low HCL results in the gallbladder’s reduced ability to secrete bile for the emulsification of fats.  Low gallbladder function causes a sluggish liver, and it cannot efficiently detoxify the body of hormones, toxins and other metabolites.  When the gallbladder malfunctions, there is no signal to the pancreas to secrete digestive enzymes.  Therefore poorly digested food moves to the intestines.  Rotting food in the intestines causes inflammation, infection and intestinal permeability, also known as “leaky gut.”  This prolonged stress exhausts the adrenals, and weak adrenals adversely affect the thyroid.  This progression continues until the underlying problem is corrected.

A healthy GI tract does not allow the absorption of bacteria, harmful foods or undigested food particles into the bloodstream.  Chronic inflammation brought on by poor diet, poor blood sugar control and chronic stress leads to harmful substances and undigested food being dumped into the bloodstream.  Again, this is leaky gut.  These harmful particles are misidentified as foreign invaders or antigens that are attacked by the immune system.  A stressed immune system leads to other health problems.

The proper care of the gut requires the supervision of a qualified healthcare professional.  To repair the gut, the first step is the elimination of foods that create chronic immune responses.  These are most commonly gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, soy and yeast.

A healthcare professional would help determine which foods to remove from the diet.  Other nutritional strategies include:  the removal of inappropriate organisms such as bacteria, parasites, fungus and yeast, replacement of digestive enzymes, HCL, bile and fiber, to thoroughly digest proteins, fats and essential nutrients, re-populate with ample probiotics to replace an overabundance of bad bacteria with good bacteria, and supporting regeneration and healing of the gastrointestinal mucosa.

The repair of a broken down gut is not easy and it takes time. But it is well worth the effort. It is important to restore gut function.  Other body organs may still need evaluation, such as the liver, thyroid and adrenals, but many of these issues cannot be resolved until the gut is first examined.

I hope you found this information useful and I would love to hear your comments!

Whether you are having trouble getting pregnant, or have had one or more miscarriages, you are not alone.  According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 10 percent of women (6.1 million) in the United States ages 15-44 have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant.  Currently, to treat infertility, medications are used to boost ovulation or adjust hormone levels.  There is intrauterine insemination, commonly known as artificial insemination, where the woman is injected with specially prepared sperm.  There is also assisted reproductive technology (ART).  ART works by removing eggs from a woman’s body and then mixing them with sperm to make embryos. The embryos are then put back in the woman’s body.  Now, I would like to talk about an alternative approach.  Let us not focus on just trying to get pregnant, but getting the body healthy enough to become pregnant.  It is one thing to get pregnant.  It is another to achieve a healthy pregnancy and a give birth to a healthy baby.  Standard treatments are not addressing the overall health of the mother. This information is also applicable for women who are either planning to carry a child in the future or want to achieve good overall health and weight loss goals.

Before becoming pregnant, you must first address and restore the integrity and function of your health and immune system.  This seems to be missing in standard care.  When a woman gets pregnant and is also suffering with leaky gut, sugar balancing issues, multiple food allergies or intolerances, or toxicity, she is putting her baby at risk of developing autism, eczema, asthma and food allergies.  Pregnancy is stressful enough on the body and if you do not begin the process in optimal condition, it will take a toll on your health and your baby’s health.  In my practice, my primary goal is to address the overall health of the woman and determine if she is healthy enough to become pregnant.  If a mother is having health challenges, chances are, she will pass them on to her child.

There are several conditions that can decrease the woman’s ability to become pregnant, including digestive problems, immune disorders, adrenal fatigue, dysglycemia, food allergies, chronic inflammation, hormonal imbalances, nutritional deficiencies and toxicity.

When trying to achieve pregnancy, focus cannot be solely on the ovaries, the fallopian tubes or other parts of the reproductive system. Because “every system affects every other system,” the body must be considered as a whole. Infertility is oftentimes a side-effect of something else.  For example poor gut health leads to blood sugar problems, and that leads to constipation.  With constipation, the body cannot eliminate unneeded hormones, and estrogen accumulates.  Food not digested properly due to lack of hydrochloric acid (HCL) results in putrefied, fermented food that becomes rancid in the stomach.  Low HCL results in the gallbladder’s reduced ability to secrete bile for the emulsification of fats.  Low gallbladder function causes a sluggish liver, and it cannot efficiently detoxify the body of hormones, toxins and other metabolites.  When the gallbladder malfunctions, there is no signal to the pancreas to secrete digestive enzymes.  Therefore poorly digested food moves to the intestines.  Rotting food in the intestines causes inflammation, infection and intestinal permeability, also known as “leaky gut.”  This prolonged stress exhausts the adrenals, and weak adrenals adversely affect the thyroid.  This progression continues until the underlying problem is corrected.

Proper treatment requires the supervision of a qualified healthcare professional.  Goals would be to eliminate foods that create chronic immune responses, manage insulin resistance, normalize blood sugar balance, normalize body mass index and balance hormones.

For those women who plan to get pregnant or are trying to get pregnant, just remember that the improvement of your overall health will benefit the health of your child.

Please share your comments of this article in the area below…..

So many people today are struggling with their health issues. I believe this happens because there are a large percentage of people in our society who don’t wake up and say, “What can I do today to be healthy tomorrow?”

Healthy adults and seniors took better care of themselves when they were younger. As a parent myself, I stress the importance of introducing a healthy lifestyle to our children at the time of birth. Actually, even before birth, but I will talk about prenatal health in a future blog.

Living in the moment without considering the consequences and eating the highly processed, dead devitalized foods is not going to make you healthier tomorrow. It will catch up with you.

When patients come into my office seeking help for their chronic pain, weight issue, hormonal imbalance or any other chronic health issue, it usually didn’t happen over night. A typical female patient coming in for care in my office in her forties is usually dealing with dietary and lifestyle abuse that began in her teens!

The point I am trying to make here is our habits or decisions we make now can affect us anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 years from now! So if you want to be healthy 10 years from now, start now! Decide to be healthy and make the necessary changes to your lifestyle now. Don’t wait for that magic potion to land in your lap, because it isn’t going to happen!

Decide to be healthy now! Start making the positive changes now! Start living a healthy lifestyle now and enjoy a healthier tomorrow!

To better health!

Dr. Leona Allen

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDw_SFGCzGE

I found that this video did a wonderful job explaining the impact of junk food on our health.  I would love to hear what you thought of this video.  Please share your comments below…..