The Foundational Trifecta For Resilient Health
"Are they eating well, sleeping well, and pooping well?" I wish those were the very first things assessed when a child starts struggling with mood, behavior, and learning.
Sadly, they're overlooked too often when actually they have everything to do with the brain.
Eating, sleeping, and pooping are so incredibly important to brain health that I call them The Trifecta For Resilient Health.
Listen.... you are working hard to improve your child’s health & resilience and for that I give you a standing ovation. No parent wants to see their child sad, angry, scared, in pain, feeling stupid, or incapable. None of us wants to see them underestimated or misunderstood or excluded because of their troubling behaviors.
If you're like me, there is nothing you want more than to see your child thrive; see that sparkle in their eye as they experience curiosity and success. So I'm glad you're here because if you keep reading, you'll start to develop an unwavering confidence in your ability to help your child do just that.
Start With The Trifecta
I'm sure you've been on the hunt for strategies to help your child and have had to sort through all kinds of opportunities - medical tools, behavior therapies, physical therapies, nutritional interventions, lifestyle shifts, energy work, and educational assessments.... all worthy strategies to explore.
But here's some truth.....
To have a healthy brain, your child needs to have a healthy body.
If your child isn't eating, sleeping, and pooping, they don't have the healthiest body possible and they're not feeling or functioning their best.
So that means their anxiety, their fear, their inattention, their tantrums, their aggression, their sadness - whether they qualify for diagnosis or not - can all be amplified by health imbalances like nutritional deficiencies, gut problems, blood sugar issues, and food allergies.
If we start to resolve those foundational health issues by using food strategically, we get a healthier child who feels and functions better.
See how that works?
So the very first question to ask yourself about your child is: are they eating well, sleeping well, pooping well?
Why This Trifecta?
When these three things are not happening, there's a trickledown effect that interferes with ev-er-y-thing else you’re doing to support your child. Here's why:
- Sleep.
Sleep is when our kids detoxify, grow, reset their hormones, and integrate their learning. Without enough quality sleep, your child will be irritable and moody, they won’t be able to learn, pay attention, or respond to expectations. It will be harder for them to regulate their blood sugar and hormones, their reactions and mood. I've even seen picky eating resolve when kids get better sleep. Your school-aged child needs 10-13 hrs of quality sleep. Are they getting that?
- Poop.
Poop is something my clients have to get comfortable talking about because it gives us a window into the gut. Poop is one of our main exit routes for anything the body doesn’t need. If that exit is blocked, slowed, or inflamed, our kids have extra stress to deal with. Plus, our digestive system is our source of nourishment; it's where we extract nutrients from our food so they can be used by our cells. So if the digestive system isn't working well our kids get a double-whammy that erodes their health: a load of extra stress and a reduced ability to extract nourishment from their food. They should be having at least 2 well-formed bowel movements a day. Are they?
- Food.
Nutrients drive every function in the body. I think of nutrients like the workers in a factory: if they aren’t there, stuff doesn’t get done. Things might look fine for a while, but eventually, the breakdown becomes noticeable. So we need to keep the nutrients flowing into our kids and teach them that eating whole, nutritious food is a nonnegotiable. It has to happen. And if it’s not happening, we need to figure out why so we can start to make it happen. Many many many of my clients come to me with picky eaters, so I've addressed this elsewhere on the blog.
That’s the trifecta.
If they are not eating, sleeping, and pooping well you’re likely to hit a ceiling.
You’re likely to stall out and get frustrated with all the other interventions you might be trying as you search for the best way to help your child feel better, focus better, have fewer tantrums, be less anxious, learn better, get sick less often, have more stable energy and emotions.
Let me put this another way...
Restless sleep (and not enough of it), constipation, diarrhea, and picky eating are foundational obstacles to optimal health.
Are they issues in your family?
If so, it's time to work through them. They are in your way, and they are figure-out-able.
Poor sleep, digestive issues, and picky eating are all symptoms of something bigger... they are all telling you there's work to do on your child's resilience.
They are a starting point.
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Related Posts
https://www.jesssherman.com/blog/can-changing-a-child-s-diet-help-adhd
https://www.jesssherman.com/blog/what-is-raising-resilience-all-about
