Most people think of health as the state of "not being sick." The truth is, even healthy children get sick. Healthy kids can still get colds, earaches, rashes, sore throats, flus, and coughs. Most of these illnesses are self-limiting, meaning they will heal on their own if untreated, and are signs of a strong immune response.

In the long run, your child's colds can mean better resistance to more severe illnesses and chronic diseases. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for children to get sick at times of growth, including developmental phases such as teething, walking, and speaking.

All parents know the distress of a sick child. As parents, we want to be able to offer relief at these times, to alleviate our child's discomfort or pain. Too often, we reach for whatever remedy will suppress the symptoms most effectively: cough syrup, acetaminophen, cortisone cream. But while antibiotics, anti-histamines, anti-inflammatories, antacids, and related medications relieve the outward signs of illness, they do not point to the underlying causes. They do not tell us why a child is getting sick in the first place. These medications are actually working against the body's innate ability to heal.

While these medications usually do make you feel better, suppressing symptoms is not always the best strategy for ensuring children's health, particularly when the medications prescribed may have unexpected side effects. For example, cortisone cream is absorbed into the bloodstream with potentially harmful side effects and can thin the skin. More importantly, it doesn't address why the child has the skin problem in the first place.

This is not to say that medications are necessarily bad, but there are treatments options that go beyond the medical standard and do not combat symptoms because they are not at war with the body. They work instead to restore a body to its healthy balance and to build up the immune system to better resist illness in the future.

A holistic perspective on health and illness expands the options available to you when your child does get sick and provides simple ways to cultivate wellness and prevent illnesses in the future.

For more information, contact Dr. Wendy at [email protected].