Integrative Health Blog

Viral and bacterial infections are all around us; if your child is going to daycare or school, they are exposed to numerous microbes every day. 

Many of those microbes are not disease-causing, but the many that can cause disease could be severe enough to cause symptoms for your child and even your whole family. 

Below are my top 5 tips to boost your child’s immune system to keep viral and bacterial infections away. 

 

1- Abundant and Restful Sleep

A good night’s sleep should be refreshing for the body. During nighttime our body can reset many of the functions, clear the “bad stuff”, and strengthen the immune system. School-aged children need 9-12 hours of sleep every night, so make sure to get the kids to bed on time! 

 

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As a holistic pediatrician, one of the most common questions I’m asked during an office visit is “How do I help my child sleep better?” 

I’m not sure now is the time to delve into the complexities of sleep patterns, but I assure you, sleep is complex and key to good health.  Sleep patterns and requirements are also made more challenging to understand in children because they change based on age.  Newborn sleep habits are certainly different compared to a baby who is 6 months and older.

The interesting thing is that I don’t think many of us appreciate sleep until it’s gone.  While pregnant, many women (I was one of them) start to wake up more frequently at night.  I once heard this was because our bodies were slowly conditioning to becoming sleep deprived.  I’m smiling as I write this, because I see the truth in that.  And of course, after baby arrives, there’s nothing better than the first 3-4 hours stretch of uninterrupted sleep.    

Sleep Issues Can Persist 

In any case, we all know about the lack of sleep in early babyhood. However, what I’ve found is that these issues with sleep can extend past the baby and even toddler stage. Hence the reason this is a topic of concern for most parents.

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The Let’s Talk About Vaccines event held at National Integrated Health Associates was educational, engaging and enlightening.  I had the privilege of sharing my experience at this event with students, trainees and colleagues in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Howard University’s College of Medicine.  My focus for that talk was the Holistic Pediatrician’s Management of Vaccine Refusal.  Your stories, the information shared and the discussed research by Dr. Suzanne Humphries, Barbara Loe Fisher and the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) served as an incredible background for teaching empathy to current and future providers and promoted the perspective and need for more personalized and precision medical approaches to keeping our children healthy and protected.

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