There is HOPE for your health! There is HOPE for your child!
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You’re tired.
I get it. You’re sick of feeling sick. You’re exhausted when you wake up. You crash sometime around 3 in the afternoon. (Or maybe 7 p.m.) It’s been a long time since you have felt like YOU.
I know. I’ve been there. It’s hard.
Maybe it’s your child who is sick. You can’t stand the thought of them being hurt, sad, cranky, irritable, angry or just generally in pain. It’s hard to answer questions about them. It’s even harder to get unwarranted advice from friends and strangers. It’s even harder to get judgmental looks from people who just don’t understand.
I know. I’ve been there. It’s hard.
Maybe you have depression or anxiety. Maybe you have a feeling of deep, deep fatigue, the type that settles in your bones and makes it hard to look anyone in the face and be honest. Maybe it’s so dark that you can’t see any light, much less the light at the end of the tunnel.
I know. I’ve been there. It’s hard.
I hear you. I’ve been there. And I want to tell you that there is hope.
My own health journey started in my early 20’s with multiple rounds of doctor visits for unexplained abdominal pain. I had the stool tests, the barium swallow tests, the endoscopy, the experimental pills, and then nothing. After everything was normal I was given a diagnosis of “Irritable Bowel Syndrome,” which I translate to mean “we don’t know what’s wrong with you so here’s the only diagnosis that is left.”
So I did what everyone does in that situation: I read, I researched, I went online to find something, anything that could help me. I found information about food intolerance testing and called the Bastyr Center for Natural Health (where I ended up going to Naturopathic Medical School!) to ask if they would give me the test. The results literally changed my life. I had “off the charts” reactions to more than ten different foods. I radically changed my diet, followed the supplements the naturopathic physician recommended, stopped drinking coffee, and three weeks later ate the first meal that didn’t hurt since I could remember. (I use that same food intolerance test in my practice. Perhaps I’m a little biased!?)
The next year I enrolled in Bastyr as a student in their Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine program.
4.5 years later I had Annika and had my next two major health crises: one was Annika’s, one was mine.
Annika had “colic,” or so they say. She cried almost all day, every day (or so it seemed). She would stop crying when she was sleeping – which was incredibly hard to get her to do. She would stop crying when she was nursing, but sometimes I had to rock or bounce her to get her to latch she was crying so hard. Then we would get maybe 5 minutes every hour of “happy Annika,” which now when I look back at the pictures of her was really “worried but not crying Annika.”
At 3.5 months, on Jason’s birthday (I remember so clearly), she finally got the diagnosis of silent reflux. We did a trial of medication and the next day we woke up to a totally different baby. (Side note: I don’t think that all babies with silent reflux need medication. We were able to use herbs to wean her off the medication very successfully once we knew what it was that was making her so unhappy.)
In the meantime I had postpartum depression. I cried for as many hours as Annika did, I think. I felt alone, stuck, and had no idea how to get myself out of that deep, dark pit. My story of PPD is pretty long, and I don’t want to re-tell the whole thing, but you can read it here.
In this case, I’m not sure what brought me out of the depression. Jason and I moved away from the dark, rainy skies of Seattle, I started sleeping a bit more, I started taking vitamin D and methylated B vitamins a bit more regularly. I still have a few bad days, but now I know what my triggers are. I also started doing a lot of research into natural ways of treating postpartum depression and anxiety (and just regular depression and anxiety). Now I feel well equipped to manage my own bad days.
So that was a long tangent. My point is this: there is HOPE. I know it can be hard to see that pinprick of light, but I promise you it is there. The best part of my job is being able to see patients when they get to the other side of that tunnel. It is a huge transformation from pain and darkness to health and light and a feeling of “I never knew I could feel this good!” I do this all the time – it WILL happen to you too. I get to see it all the time.
So here is my encouragement for you: there is HOPE.
No matter how deep down in that dark unhealthy hole you feel, there is HOPE.
For my patients who have been working with me for some time: remember to go back to the basics. Do the work that it takes to get yourself well. You know what to do. Go back to the diet, exercise, sleep routine, your multivitamin and supplements. Breathe. Prioritize your healing (or your child’s healing) in your life. Remember that this process takes time.
For those of you who haven’t been working with me: if you need help, please reach out. Don’t let time or life or money get in the way of healing – we can figure those things out and get you started on a plan to feel better.
If you need a reminder – click on the picture above, print it out and tape it to your fridge (or mirror). Remember that there is HOPE for your health. There is HOPE for your child.
Sarah
October 14, 2014 at 2:16 pmCan you tell me what herbs you used for your daughters reflux? When were you able to wean her off medication? Did she have any food allergies along with the reflux?
Dr. Erika Krumbeck
October 15, 2014 at 3:02 pmSarah – so sorry for the non-reply – but hang on – we are working on a big GERD (reflux) blog post over at the other website: http://naturopathicpediatrics.com. I’ll post again when it is ready!!