Symptoms or Systems? Prepared Parenting
(post may contain affiliate links)
Most of us come into our young adult years with some “gaps'“ in our education. Be it proficiency in grammar, how to change a tire, how to file our taxes, how to start a business, math…you get the picture, we all have areas that lag behind, both in maturity and comprehension. These deficiencies exists in spite of general education, none of us arrive on the scene of adulthood totally prepared. There are a few primary things I believe to be at the top of the “lacking” list for women. Some of these areas of our education may not be a huge deal, right? If we never learn how to change a tire we can be sure to have AAA, we can hire CPAs to do our taxes. There are work arounds for a lot of areas in our life that we feel ill equipped to handle by ourselves. One area though, that CANNOT be abdicated is the general health and well-being of our families. I am incredibly thankful to live in a time where modern emergency medicine is available. By all means, if I get into a car accident and have limbs dangling from my torso, please, take me to the ER. Healthcare/medicine is not always a polar opposite choice, an either/or. All the same, MOST of the health care issues you will face as a parent are small, non emergency, daily boo boos and owies. Yet most of us are normally uninformed and uneducated when we are thrown into the newness of parenting. The current American paradigm is Symptom Management over System Function. As of this post date, the top health related Google searches are:
Flu Symptoms
Diabetes Symptoms
ADHD Symptoms
Anxiety Symptoms
Concussion Symptoms
Heart Attack Symptoms
High Blood Pressure Symptoms
Kidney Stone Symptoms
Depression Symptoms
Is Pneumonia Contagious
While “Googling” these topics is not bad. It demonstrates the incredible void we possess when it pertains to health and wellness. We have turned away from learning the WHYS to simple identification of symptoms so that we may either a) go to the doctor, or b) manage our anxiety. To think like the wise we must ask questions like the whys. How might we generationally fill these education gaps if we were searching out the whys? If if our Google searches looked more like:
Immune Supporting Foods
Eating for Blood Sugar Health
Brain Foods
Nutritional Deficiencies that Effect Moods
Concussion Symptoms What to Feed after Concussion
Top Minerals for Heart Health
What are Blood Pressure Rages in Other Cultures
Best Herbs for Kidney Function
Supporting Happiness Neurotransmitters
Healthy Lungs with Essential Oils
After the Bible, the most read books of all time, such as The Great Gatsby, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lord of the Rings, 1984, Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice, are all fiction. Formidable, fantastic fiction. But none of these reads gives you a true footing under you when you are taking care of your family’s health. When your child gets a fever, when your husband has a sore throat, when you see little bumps on your baby’s skin or a rash on his feet.
Of all the things we do daily - every single day - health care is one of them, whether we are activly thinking about it or not. Along with meal planning (WHY do they need to eat every day?), building up or tearing down our health is already happening. Every single day. Little thought is given, we when are carefree 16 year olds, to how much of our life would be completely devoted feeding and caring for the health of others. By painful experience, many of us also realize we are functionally illiterate in the field of geriatric care as well, when our parents and grandparents start struggling with the diseases that (often) come with age. Arn’t you glad you memorized the periodic table of elements but NOT how most of those elements your in YOUR body? What if we learned and taught System Function over Symptom Managment?
It is not on her registry, it may not be on her radar, but every young mom who recieves a baby shower gift from me always gets (at least) a copy of Dr Robert S. Mendelsohn’s, How to Raise a Healthy Child In Spite of Your Doctor. Don’t skip chapter 12!
Friends teased me when at twelve years old I was reading Nutritional Prescription for Healing. My brothers did not understand why I was enthralled by Suzanne Arm’s Immaculate Deception. My father thought it odd (albeit quietly impressed) that my reading choice at eighteen was Rare Earths: Forbidden Cures by Dr. Joel Wallach. Years later though, when my first child became sick with his first fever and threatened ear infection, I was not a nervous, I was informed. When a doctor demanded a battery of invasive tests, I knew to ask him what they were looking for and what would they DO with that information. This inquisitive manner of communication set the tone with doctors too. They knew I came with a pen in hand. One cannot wring ones hands in worry if the hand is set to productivity. I was armed, knew to ask myself, “How do I support his systems?” I remembered the kind, gentle tone in which Dr. Mendelsohn wrote, “fever phobia’ is a disease of pediatricians, not parents…no consensus exists among parents or even among doctor about what “high” is…common sense is the most useful tool in dealing with illness. Your doctor is less likely to employ it than you are, and certainly no more able…”
I had read the facts, stats, numbers, science. But I ALSO read about intuition, logic, preparedness. I knew to ask revealing questions such as, “Who paid for the study?…What happened before that?…What do you DO with those test results?…Was baby poked?” Respecting our wonderfully made bodies should be a thought pattern. Can we give this time to heal? Can we supporting healing with natural things? Have I prayed about this? Have I prayed for WISDOM? Remember…Nobody is more qualified to care for your child than you are because nobody loves them more than you do.
Shifting the culture is not going to happen overnight, and we cannot rely solely on social media. Teaching these truths happens best one mom at a time, sharing information, and encouraging young people to PREPARE for parenthood by learning about what will consume a portion of their day, every single day. HEALTH. Not medicine, not symptions first, but SYSTEMS first.
A link to the beloved Dr. Mendelsohn book, How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of your Doctor!
How to Raise a Healthy Child... on Amazon
