With childhood illnesses on the rise, it's sadly not a surprise that your child may be dealing with a chronic illness. Did you know that over 40% of children have at least one chronic health condition? Even if you feed them healthy meals and encourage them to move their body, issues can still unfortunately arise.
If symptoms are left ignored, the illness can stay with them into adulthood and can even contribute to other chronic diseases later down the road. If you have a child with a chronic illness, the right steps must be taken to address the root cause.
Most Prevalent Pediatric Chronic Conditions
- Allergies (food allergies and environmental allergies)
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- Autoimmune disorders
- Constipation and diarrhea
- Diabetes
- Eczema
- Gastroesophageal reflux / heartburn
- Inflammatory bowel disease / Irritable bowel syndrome
- Inflammatory health conditions
- Recurrent abdominal pain
- Recurrent infections like sinus infections, ear infections and colds
- Yeast infections
What Causes Chronic Illness in Kids?
There's not one single cause for chronic illnesses in children. There are numerous causes of childhood chronic illness that add to their stress bucket. Once their stress bucket is too full, it can "pour over" and result in their body not being able to function properly.
Factors and Contributing Causes of Childhood Chronic Illness:
- Environmental Toxin Exposure
- Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies
- Poor Diet
- Obesity
- Stress
- Underlying Infections (Like Lyme disease)
- Staying Idle
Why is There an Increase of Childhood Chronic Conditions?
Poor Diet: The standard American diet is high in processed foods and extremely low in necessary nutrients. When children's bodies don't have the necessary nutrients, optimal bodily functioning can't be carried out.
Toxins: While environmental toxins impact adult health, kids are even more susceptible to their dangerous effects. Toxins found in food sources, children's clothing, plastic toys, and even furniture and homes can impact kids' health on a cellular level, even harming mitochondria!
Obesity: Childhood obesity is associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases. Factors contributing include: not enough physical movement, majority of meals consisting of processed foods, increased stress, and toxins that impact metabolic pathways.
How Exactly do These Cause Chronic Disease?
All of these stressors start to pile up in their stress bucket. As a result, their body is impacted internally:
- Gut health is damaged
- Immune system is weakened
- Hormones become unbalanced
- Mitochondria gets damaged
- Immune response becomes overactive
- Nutrients can't get absorbed
- Inflammation is increased
- Communication between organs is hindered
- Detoxification pathways can't function properly
Functional Medicine Treatment for Chronic Illnesses in Children
Ways To Support Your Child's Health:
- Feed your family organic foods as much as possible
- Offer whole foods (easy fruit and veggies) as a snack instead of packaged foods
- Serve a colorful plate filled with foods high in antioxidants
- Limit sugar consumption
- Swap out toxic cleaning products and personal care products for non-toxic alternatives
- Encourage daily physical movement
- Limit screen time and blue light exposure before bed
- Address underlying infections and toxicities with a functional medicine practitioner