The post FF 21: Best Parenting Advice appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

We are all aware that 20/20 vision is essential for health and learning.  However, having the eyes work together as they alternate between focusing close, looking into the distance and moving here and there is equally important.  Susan enlightens us about how the function of our eyes reveal how our  brain functions.  She also shares what we can do to improve function of them both.

The post FF 19: Two eyes- no spares – Behavioural optometry appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Kristie-Lee Anning is a local dentist with a masters degree in oral tissue revision. She shares with us the in’s and out’s of what this is all about and what can be done about it.

Dorte Bladt: I’ve got Kristie-Lee Anning with me today from Honeysuckle Dental and she’s going to talk to us about tongue-ties, and lip-ties and things like that. I’m so pleased you could be here. Thank you for joining us.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Thank you for having me.

Dorte Bladt: I’ve given people your name. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Kristie-Lee Anning: I’m a general dentist and I’ve done some additional training in laser dentistry, so I did a Master’s of Laser Dentistry over in Slovenia. That’s given me the opportunity to have a bit of better understanding about tongue-ties and things like that, and the release and benefit of the release. But I’ve also got a nursing background before I did dentistry. That’s also piqued my interest in that area.

Dorte Bladt: We just spoke before about you potentially being a little bit hyperactive. You have definitely been. You have confirmed my suspicions. You’re crazy. So why taking a course in Slovenia?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yeah. The academy over in Slovenia, the Laser & Health Academy, they produce the lasers that I use in my clinic and they’re one of the best lasers in the world. So the training academy that they have there is really comprehensive so that’s why I’ve done the travel over to Slovenia to do the training on site.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. Excellent. So tell us a little bit about… I think for many parents, there’s a lot of confusion about what the tongue-tie or lip stuff, what is it that you actually look for and work with?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Often, I get a lot of mums coming in with babies that are having challenged with their feeding patterns, sleeping patterns. Babies have not been able to breastfeed effectively and have had to go onto bottle feeding. And parents that are wanting to improve the feeding experience often reporting that their children or their babies have got reflux or colic, very unsettled sleeping.

So when they come in to see me, we’re doing an evaluation to see if those feeding patterns, if there’s a contributing factor from tongue-tie release or tongue-tie that might require some release or some intervention. But also checking the other tissues within the mouth, checking lip ties as well and buccal ties and just seeing what the movement or range of movement is of all of those oral tissues.

Dorte Bladt: So what I hear you say is that you’re doing quite a comprehensive assessment both of the symptom, if you wish, but also what may be the cause.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: It’s not enough just to come in and say, okay, I lift my child’s or my baby’s tongue up and I can see that it’s tied and I want it done.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes. There are quite a number of factors that we’re evaluating. Everyone has a freedom attachment or that piece of tissue that’s under the tongue or under the lip that tethers the tongue in some way. It’s whether or not that tissue is restrictive and functionally limiting in feeding, food consumption for older toddlers as well, not just babies, speech development and other factors. So there has to be some limiting factors there that contribute to it in order for us to want to treat that.

Dorte Bladt: Right. Is there a way that parents can have a look in their baby’s mouth and say, “Oh, it looks like I should possibly see someone about this”?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes. Some parents will come in and say, “Look, I can definitely see they’ve got tissue under their tongue that’s going all the way to the tip of the tongue and I’ve got a family history and my other kids have had a release and I think my child needs a release as well.” That’s often why they come in.

Sometimes they just don’t know what they’re looking for, which is understandable. You have to have a trained eye as to know what to check for and others just say, “I just want to get it checked”. That’s perfectly fine as well.

Dorte Bladt: So do you work with lactation consultants and people like that?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yeah. We have a really good network where we work, liaise with lactation consultants, people like yourself as well, where we refer off for body work or myofascial work as well. So it’s not just limited to the release. There are other aspects that we need to consider in that treatment.

Dorte Bladt: As in retraining after not having function properly.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yeah, absolutely. As you know, if the tissue is restricted there, any muscle or any other tissue in the body, if it’s not being able to be used effectively, you then have to train it how to work properly or how to do something properly. That’s the same with the tongue.

Dorte Bladt: Someone told me that the tongue, is it the strongest muscle in the body?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yeah.

Dorte Bladt: The one that works the most.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yeah. That’s quite a group of muscles that all work together so it’s a very strong muscle.

Dorte Bladt: It’s pretty cool. So you mentioned buccal ties. That’s not something that is spoken so much about. Do you want to explain what that is?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes. It’s one of the least treated tie in the mouth. It doesn’t tend to affect as many people. But when we’re doing oral assessment, we’re checking for all of the different tissue types and anatomy there and seeing whether or not there might be some restrictions in the movement of the lips as well as the tongue or the cheeks. That’s just one of the assessment areas.

We tend to find buccal ties affect more so people who are a little bit older and they’ve got the eruption of their teeth and they might have some recession to the gum as a result of really tight ties around their cheeks. So they have functioning and they’ve got good muscle strength there but then, with that, there’s actually pulling on the gums. Sometimes we might release that when they’re a little bit older if needed as well.

Dorte Bladt: Right. Does buccal tie affect breastfeeding?

Kristie-Lee Anning: It can. It’s like any tissue. If it’s restricted and it’s limiting movement, it can affect it. So wanting to get all that muscle working nice and freely, and if that’s one of the ties that’s restricting that then, yeah, definitely.

Dorte Bladt: That’s excellent. What are your thoughts on this epidemic in tongue ties as it seems like some people they’re referring to it like that? Do you feel that there are an increasing number of ties or is it more that we’re more aware of them? What’s happening?

Kristie-Lee Anning: I think there’s a change in the education about ties. Historically, ties were treated back in the 1800s as well through conventional methods of using scissors or a scalpel. As the education has changed, we’re seeing kids coming through… like everyone can compensate to a point so it’s just trying to enable everyone to function to their best ability.

And now with the development of laser technology as well, those procedures can be performed a lot safer than what they historically have been able to be performed. So they’re more prevalent in terms of treatment not necessarily in incidence.

Dorte Bladt: Right. So tell me what the difference is in… obviously, I know that what the difference is between the scalpel and a pair of scissors and a laser. That’s easy. But what sort of difference is there in outcome from the different way of approaching a tie?

Kristie-Lee Anning: With the release of a laser, I’m speaking from experience, I am finding that patients’ recovery time is a lot better because the tissue that we’re actually releasing there, it’s a very superficial layer. We’re only releasing the tissue that we need to get adequate movement. But the laser works really effectively at creating a nice little fibre layer over the top, almost like a body self-made bandaid. It’s really protective and nourishing of the tissue so you get a good clot forming over there and a good healing area as well.

And the laser in the treatment of it, you’re finding we’re not needing to use local anaesthetics to treat it, so you don’t have that downtime immediately after. There’s that reduced pain stimulation after as well. So I’m finding lasers to be a very effective tool.

Dorte Bladt: So what is it in the laser that makes that protective bandaid, for lack of a better word?

Kristie-Lee Anning: There are a couple of different types of lasers and the laser that I use is an erbium YAG laser. It’s actually a cold laser. It’s not producing a heat response, which means that you’re not getting that pain response that you would get with other lasers such as a diode. That’s why we prefer to use that one.

And in the creation of that cutting and sealing the tissue as well to a point that your body is producing that smear layer over the top as it’s called.

Dorte Bladt: I thought that was because of the heat, but it’s not.

Kristie-Lee Anning: No. This one is an ablation laser but it’s a cold laser.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. And what is the healing, recovery time after having had a procedure done? Let’s just say, in an average, six-week old.

Kristie-Lee Anning: As you said, it does vary depending on the age and the severity of the tie previous. But generally you’ll find you’ll get good closure of that wound within five days or so. You’ll see good changes in the tissue health and changes in closure within five days or so. Within two weeks we’re developing good muscle tone to the area with exercises that we prescribe as well. And then after about four weeks we’re seeing a big change to feeding patterns by movement of the tongue.

Dorte Bladt: So when you have just had it done, would you expect… let’s just stick to the six-week-old baby and let’s say they’re breastfed. Would they be able to feed straightaway?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes. Immediately after the procedure, I get all mothers to feed their babies whether it be breastfed, bottle-fed. Some parents will report an immediate improvement and I see that quite often. Generally, you’ll notice less clicking when they’re feeding, a better, deeper latch, less milk dribbling out, less regurgitation, reduction in reflux symptoms and a longer feed as well.

So often parents will say they’re feeding for very short periods, arching their back, uncomfortable, reattaching frequently, and then they’ll have to take them off and then try again. This is a pattern that they form. Over that time, they’re very unsettled but, often, I will witness immediately after, extended feeding and no challenges.

Dorte Bladt: So the baby is comfortable on the breast, comfortable feeding and probably not fatiguing as much.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Exactly.

Dorte Bladt: Because it’s hard work, feeding.

Kristie-Lee Anning: It’s exhausting.

Dorte Bladt: They may not think so. And what about that whole risk of reattachment that seems to be the biggest fear for parents?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes. With the laser, the other fantastic thing is, because we’re really cutting and sealing that tissue to a point, the reattachment rates are a lot lower than what it would be from a conventional scissor release or a scalpel release. We’re not needing to place any stitches or sutures there, so that’s fantastic as well.

But it is really important that these parents are doing exercises with their babies, and we prescribe those to get the tissue moving and to reduce the likelihood of reattachment. So it doesn’t matter what procedure you do. There is going to be some risk there, and we’re minimizing that through exercises.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. You can’t really show us what are the exercises, but what do parents have to do to make sure that the reattachment doesn’t happen?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Usually, I’ll get the parents, which I show them at the time, but we get parents to basically have their child on their lap with their head closest to them so they can get a good look at the tissues. And when lifting the tongue up towards the roof of the mouth and pushing it towards the back of the mouth as well, just getting it out…

Dorte Bladt: So stretching the whole basically.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes, getting the full range of movement. And running fingers along the ridge as well, getting the tongue to chase that.

Dorte Bladt: As in the bridge of the mouth or the gums?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes, the gums. And with the top, we’re getting that lifting all the way up again toward the nose so we can see that lip flanging all the way up. And it’s really just moving the tissue within its normal range of movement now that it’s been released.

Dorte Bladt: Yes. That one they can actually do it. So you mentioned that although you said toddlers and other children could have issues as well, what would be a symptom, maybe, that you would expect or suspect that there’s a lip tie or tongue tie within an older child?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Often I’ll see kids coming in with challenges with feeding. They might have had some choking episodes over time or trouble with clearing food from the roof of their mouth. They tend to pack food in the pockets and they have challenges with their brushing and cleaning of their teeth.

Dorte Bladt: Pockets of their mouth rather than the pockets of their clothes.

Kristie-Lee Anning: That’s exactly right.

Dorte Bladt: My son used to put food in his pockets as in on his pants.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes. Often you’ll find food in their cheeks and around the gums as well.

And not wanting to brush their teeth, so parents often are chasing their kids around the house. Because if they’ve got a tie there, sometimes that toothbrush can be a little bit uncomfortable to try and get in around those more difficult to reach places so kids just don’t want to do it at all.

Dorte Bladt: What about speech? What would be a speech pattern of someone with a tongue tie? If there is one, I don’t know.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yeah. I do tend to find that kids have challenges with saying ‘L’ sounds, ‘S’ sounds if they’ve got a tether there. They do compensate extremely well. So if I think that there’s a speech challenge there, I’ll send them off to a speech pathologist and get them to have a good look and do an assessment for me. And I’ll do the examination within the mouth and just see whether there is some other restrictive movement of the tongue.

But we’re also looking at the shape of the palate as well. Often, in a kid that’s got a tongue tie, you’ll find that their palate has got a really high vault. They don’t have that flattened, broad palate that you would see in someone whose tongue rests in a normal position.

Dorte Bladt: And why is that?

Kristie-Lee Anning: When the tongue is restricted, it tends to lie on the floor of the mouth and so as we grow, we’re reliant on the tongue being such an important muscle and quite a strong muscle to actually help the movement and growth of the bones and associated structures as well.

Dorte Bladt: So basically, what you’re saying is if the tongue is not putting pressure at the roof of the mouth, you’re not getting the expansion of the top jaw to the extent, it just narrows up and gets quite…

Kristie-Lee Anning: That’s right.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. Does that affect sinus issues potentially?

Kristie-Lee Anning: It can affect sinus issues as well. The maxillary sinus sits right above that structure so that can change the pattern in which that forms. And also we can find, if the tongue is not moving and sitting in the appropriate areas when you’re feeding or drinking, you can get some of that fluid running up or regurgitation up into the sinus area, especially in babies. That can certainly give them some sinusitis or chronic infection of that area as well.

Dorte Bladt: That doesn’t sound very good. So with regards to the adult, is this something that may have gone unnoticed until they get a little bit older?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes, absolutely. Often, some parents will come in with a newborn they’re having trouble feeding and then they’ll say, “Oh, my parents said that I had the same problems when I was a kid.” And you might look in their mouth and see that they also have a tongue tie.

And they’ve compensated extremely well over the course of their life but they might report that they’ve got constant headaches or they tend to posture forward and they get backaches, shoulder aches. These things can all be related to a tongue tie as well.

So sometimes we’re diagnosing later in life but still getting a very good treatment outcome from working with releasing that as well as doing some body work with them.

Dorte Bladt: I guess I’m wondering if your tongue is tied, you were saying that toddlers end up with food in the pockets of their cheeks and whatever. I imagine that an adult would often have…

Kristie-Lee Anning: The same.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah, or tooth health issues because they can’t clean even if it’s just without necessarily brushing their teeth but you’re cleaning your teeth with your tongue.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Absolutely. So you can find that there’s increased rate of carries, or decays as it might be known. And the positioning of the bite patterns as well, that can also have structural implications to the joint in the jaw.

Dorte Bladt: Can you just repeat that for me? The position of the what?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Of the jaws themselves. So the teeth position can be altered by having some tethered tissues. As a result, that can impact on just the overall structures or relationship to the jaw in the mouth.

Dorte Bladt: So if you have like a lip tie, it might keep the front teeth further apart? Is that what you’re saying?

Kristie-Lee Anning: You can have a lip tie where your teeth at the top, the two front teeth, the centrals can have a gap between them and that can be associated with a lip tie. But also in terms of growth of the mandible or the lower jaw or in the maxilla, the top jaw, you can have discrepancies there. And so the relationship between the top jaw and the bottom jaw can be altered too.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. That doesn’t sound like that would be very good. So how long have you been doing this sort of work?

Kristie-Lee Anning: I’ve been a dentist for five years, but prior to that, as I was saying, I was doing my nursing.

In terms of the laser releases, I’ve been doing this since I’ve basically started working as a dentist. The last three years I’ve really done a lot more training in that area.

But prior to that when I was a nurse as well, I was fortunately getting to go around doing home visits and working with babies and things, doing lactations consultations so that’s certainly helped with this field as well.

Dorte Bladt: So you know a little bit about everything from all angles. That’s very useful. And do you have a favourite type of work that you think, oh, I have a day full of this? What’s your bliss day at work?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Oh, gosh, it varies so much. I really love to see new patients and making treatment plans with them and deciding how we’re going to go about it. But restorative work with the laser, I love doing that. So reconstructing patients’ smiles but also working with kids. I love working with the kids. They’re always good fun. They prove to be a challenge sometimes but they’re good fun.

Dorte Bladt: I could imagine that some of them might not want to sit in your chair for a long time.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Absolutely.

Dorte Bladt: So what do you do actually if you have… so probably be a one-year-old. Let’s talk about someone with teeth. How the heck do you get in there?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Sometimes we have to go back to the basics and just sitting in mom’s lap or dad’s lap, toothbrush in hand and just look at counting teeth and brushing teeth and just get a good look that way draws interest.

Sometimes on the first visit, we might not be able to have a look at anything at all. It’s just getting to know that child and that child understanding who we are and what we do, and make a bit of a game of it. And then as we continue to see them over the course of their life, they become more and more familiar with us.

Dorte Bladt: So what if they have a tie though? Can you assess it?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Often, we’ll be able to assess it and we’ll be able to get a bit of a look there. We may need a number of appointments to do a really comprehensive assessment. In terms of releasing it, if it needs to be released, then we evaluate that tie once we’ve built up some rapport.

I’ve got a little boy at the moment who I’ve been seeing since he was around about eight months or so. Didn’t want me anywhere near him at eight months. He’s now 13 months, we’ll say, and loves coming in. He gets excited, jumps in the chair. And we’ve had a chat to him about what we’re going to do. You wouldn’t think at 13 months that they would understand, really, but he’s nodding, you know.

And we’ve been able to do quite a bit of other treatment with him and he’s been fantastic. So the next step when we get to it should be interesting again, but it should be good.

Dorte Bladt: Well, I suppose one step at a time.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes, that’s right. And sort of throwing this at you and you may or may not be able to do this but can you think of an episode or a work person that you’ve cared for that has been particularly funny or weird?

Kristie-Lee Anning: I’ve had all sorts of wonderful people in my chair. There’s one patient in particular that I can think of that when she first came in was absolutely refusing to have any treatment. She’d go, “Are we done yet?”

“No, I haven’t even looked in your mouth yet.”

But, over time, we’ve got into a bit of a game of everything and so we might have 10 minutes where she’d go, “Okay, there’s your 10 minutes. You’re done now.”

And now she’ll come in just to have a chat.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. She’s a little one or an adult?

Kristie-Lee Anning: She’s an adult, an out-patient.

Dorte Bladt: Right. Just come in for a little chat.

Kristie-Lee Anning: So she’ll come in for a little chat. She’d go like, “Okay, I guess you can look at my teeth.” She’s always a bit of fun.

Dorte Bladt: Well, it’s better that way than the other way because usually you’ve got 16 instruments in your mouth and the dentist says, “So, how’s your holiday?”

Kristie-Lee Anning: Oh, yeah. I do that too, sometimes. I have to think.

Dorte Bladt: So do you have any advice? This is for the people that we care for at this practice, I suppose. Do you any advice for moms of young babies what to maybe look out for and be aware of?

Kristie-Lee Anning: Sure. Often, moms will come to me and they’ll say, “I’ve seen lactation consultants, I’ve seen lots of other midwives and paediatric specialists and they’ve all said to me, ‘Oh, no, no. It’s fine’.”

But they have an overwhelming sense that something is not quite right with their feeding. They’re noticing that they’ve got clicking when they’re trying to get a good latch. It’s painful for them to feed if they’re still breastfeeding, or sometimes they haven’t been able to successfully breastfeed and they’ve had to transfer to bottle feeds. And they’re spilling milk, the baby’s unsettled.

If you really feel like something is going on, don’t be afraid to go and get another opinion. There’s never any harm in getting another opinion. So go ahead and do that.

When you do see the clinician that you’re seeing, just ask them how do they do a release if one is indicated. Do they use a laser? What type of laser are they using? Is it a cold laser, like the erbium YAG laser that we use, or is it conventional scissors? And then looking at different outcomes for that patient based on what they need.

So ask lots of questions, basically.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. That’s excellent advice. I think it’s one of those things with mothers often know best.

Kristie-Lee Anning: That’s right.

Dorte Bladt: Even though we might look in there or might care for them a certain way, and say, “No, no, no. You’re fine.” But if you’re not fine, you’re not fine.

Kristie-Lee Anning: Yes. If you have an overwhelming sense of something is not right, you’re probably right.

Dorte Bladt: Yes. How can people contact you? Where can they find you?

Kristie-Lee Anning: I’m based at Honeysuckle Dental in Newcastle. So you can ring our surgery and we’re more than happy to make an appointment there and do a consult for you.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. And your name?

Kristie-Lee Anning: I’m Kristie-Lee Anning, a general dentist.

Dorte Bladt: At Honeysuckle.

Kristie-Lee Anning: At Honeysuckle Dental, yes.

Dorte Bladt: Thank you so much for your time.

The post FF 18: Tongue ties appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Peta Wilson, a Newcastle physiotherapist, designs, consults and sells wraps, slings and carriers.  She talks us through the benefits of the different options and what to look for to get the perfect fit for you and your baby.

Dorte Bladt: I’d like to welcome to Peta Wilson today. She’s from Moondani. Hello, Peta.

Peta Wilson: Hello

Dorte Bladt: Thanks for coming along.

Peta Wilson: Thanks for having me.

Dorte Bladt: So tell us a little bit about the exciting things you do.

Peta Wilson: Well, I’m a physiotherapist locally and I’m also a mom of three beautiful babies. From there, I started to wear my babies in various types of carriers and decided to start a business called Moondani.

I design fabrics and I make them into ergonomic, physio, myself-approved carriers so that they’re comfortable and they’re fitting well and also look very attractive.

Dorte Bladt: Very good. So you obviously have a bit of a creative side.

Peta Wilson: I do. I enjoy that side of it a lot.

Dorte Bladt: There seems to be a lot about baby carriers and lots of different options on the market. Can you explain to us why would you wear a carrier and what should you look for?

Peta Wilson: It’s very confusing especially for a new parent. They often want to get a carrier before their baby is even born so it can be a really tricky concept to get your head around.

But the reasons you might want to wear a carrier is, one, to be hands-free so that you can do other things. Babies like to sleep a lot. They like to cuddle a lot. They like to feed a lot. And it really helps if you can have a comfortable way to keep them close while you’re still interacting with the world. So that’s good for both mom and bub and dad and whoever is caring for the child.

There’s a thing at the moment. It’s called the fourth trimester, so it’s obviously something that’s been around since the beginning of babies and parents. But they’ve coined the phrase, the fourth trimester. That’s basically giving your baby a womb-like experience. They’re very used to being warm and cuddled in close and hearing the lulled sounds of their mother. Wearing your baby in a well-fitting carrier can give them that easier, gentler transition into the world after birth, which is really beneficial for all sorts of things. So their hormonal regulation, their temperature regulation, not to get into too much science about it but it just gives them that gentle transition into the world.

Dorte Bladt: I think the science bit is very interesting, though. There are so many physiological benefits from continuing being close to mum but we sometimes, in our little busy industrial world, we sort of forget… just stick them in the capsule in the car and stick them in the pram that looks like it’s a tank but it’s quite removed from the experience that they had before.

Peta Wilson: Yeah. I find from my own personal experience that having the baby close most of the time, it just puts them in sync with your own rhythms of your day.

Dorte Bladt: So it’s really interesting when you’re actually looking at that whole science behind the physiological changes that happens when you are carrying a baby close by.

Peta Wilson: Yeah, that’s right. I think we were talking earlier about the various containers that we put our babies in sometimes, the prams and the capsules. It does give us that bit of disconnect. Whereas when you’re wearing your baby in a carrier, it’s more… what’s the word?

Dorte Bladt: Intuitive.

Peta Wilson: Yeah, intuitive and attachment, I guess.

Dorte Bladt: And we have a little one sitting in a carrier right here who is very intuitive, or maybe he is more inquisitive.

Peta Wilson: Yes. He’s four months old and he’s just reached the sticky beak stage, though. We might touch on that a little bit later when we talk about carrier styles.

Dorte Bladt: I wanted to ask you, so there’s obviously different types of carriers. But maybe before we go to that, if you look at just the basic anatomy of a good carrier, what is it that you should look for to make sure that you get the one that suits any age?

Peta Wilson: There are so many different types of carriers. The main ones that are on the market at the moment would fall into the category of a structured carrier, which is more of a buckle-style carrier or carrier with a waistband and a body panel.

Then from there you could go to a woven wrap, which is just one long piece of fabric that’s tied various ways. There’s also a stretch version of that. And then there’s also a ring-sling style which is a one-shouldered sling style of carrier.

So regardless of which type of carrier you go for, the main principles we’re looking for is to have a supportive base, if we start there, so that the carrier supporting the child from the knee crease to the knee crease under their bottom and that puts them in a more optimal hip position.

So we talk about the ‘M’ position of the hips and that’s actually the closed back position of the hips. So where the joint surfaces have the most contact with one another is an optimal position to have those little baby joints developing in. That’s the main thing for the baby’s hips.

From there, we wanted to support up the natural curves of the baby’s spine which tend to form a C-shape when the baby is facing you. And that’s very important because the curve of the spine is to support the head and the neck development.

So we need a carrier that supports the back. If the carrier is too loose, then the baby can fall into a very deep C-shape, which is not what we want. We’re looking more to just support the natural curvatures.

So those are the main things for the baby.

Dorte Bladt: Can I just keep you on the baby then. I’m sorry. This is not going to be very structured because I’m interested. So you were talking about the ring-sling or that’s where I have noticed lots of little babies, tiny little babies are being carried almost like you would carry them in your arms.

Peta Wilson: The cradle style.

Dorte Bladt: Exactly. That does not support the M-shape of the hips. What is the thought on that?

Peta Wilson: I just realized we’re talking about lots of letters here now, just to give you the idea of the shapes that we are trying to support with the baby. But we try to keep that support through the spine, to support the head, to support the airways. So we avoid chin-to-chest postures.

And in that cradle hold, it’s very difficult for a baby to push their head back, especially very young babies, and they can tend to end up in that chin-to-chest position where their airway is not supported and they can actually find themselves in respiratory distress, which we avoid at all costs.

Dorte Bladt: Absolutely.

Peta Wilson: It’s also harder to, if the carrier fabric is coming around and covering the baby’s face, it’s much harder to monitor. So we always recommend an upright posture as the safest way to carry a baby of any age because we can monitor them more easily.

There are a lot of acronyms and things out there to just give you a bit of a checklist to go off. T.I.C.K.S. is one of them, that you might see on the internet. Or Close Enough to Kiss is a simplified version of that. So having your baby close to you with their head close enough for you to kiss without straining your neck. That’s putting them at their right height so that they’re visible and kissable.

Dorte Bladt: Visible and Kissable. So you can make sure that they are breathing, they’re comfortable, they have their right temperature, they’re not getting too hot and they’re not…

Peta Wilson: That’s right. It does make it quite easy to do that if they’re in the right position.

Dorte Bladt: So what I have seen people, I’m going back to this cradle one and what mums have told me, the ease of the cradle is because they can breastfeed on the go, but I imagine that that would be with an older child.

Peta Wilson: Not necessarily. You can, for short periods of time, put them in the cradle position. But when a baby is breastfeeding, they’re in quite a different posture to sleeping in a cradle hold. Their chin is extended up off their chest. Otherwise they can’t drink, so they can’t use their jaw and they can’t feed properly, which prompts the mother to then change their position.

Plus, I don’t know for other people but for myself, when I’m feeding my baby, I’m very aware of what they’re doing because they’re physically connected to my body. You’re looking at them and you’re listening for them swallowing. Are they drinking?

Dorte Bladt: And are they comfortable and …

Peta Wilson: That’s right. Generally, if your baby is drinking then they are breathing and they are swallowing and they’re doing all the right things. But then if your baby does tend to nod off after a feed then you just readjust them and bring them up. Generally, at that period of time, they’re ready to go to sleep and they snuggle in and go to sleep.

Dorte Bladt: That’s good. So with the different types of wraps that you’re talking about, you said a stretchy wrap or… what did you call the other one?

Peta Wilson: A woven wrap.

Dorte Bladt: Yes. So what’s the difference and what would be… I don’t suppose you can necessarily explain how you would wrap them because it probably depends on lots of things: baby, age and muscle strength and mom’s shape and all that sort of stuff. But what would be the benefit of one over the other?

Peta Wilson: I’ll start with a stretchy wrap. They’re probably one of the more popular carriers for a newborn. The stretchy wrap is made of generally stretchy jersey fabric. They’re great for newborns because they’re very womb-like. It’s like swaddling and they can wriggle and move but they’re held in quite close.

But after generally about eight kilos, they tend to feel a little bit heavy on the wearer. From there, if you like, the wrapping process… I say if you like using your stretchy wrap then you’ll probably like a woven wrap, because it’s a similar style of wrapping and wearing but it’s a more supportive way to do that. And using a woven wrap, there’s not that stretch factor.

So it’s not recommended to use a stretchy wrap, actually, you just don’t use a stretchy wrap on your back because bub can actually fall out. So no back carriers in a stretchy wrap. Whereas a woven wrap gives you a lot of different carries that you can do. So you can do a front-carry, a back-carry and do those things quite safely and supported.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. And with all those front, side, back, you can still use the woven wraps with supporting the M-shape in the hips.

Peta Wilson: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: Provided you know what to do, of course.

Peta Wilson: Yes, that’s right.

Dorte Bladt: Is there an age that you would recommend changing the position of the baby? When they’re little and brand new, you would expect them to be faced to your body.

Peta Wilson: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: What about turning them out? What about having them on your back?

Peta Wilson: Yes. A lot of people do like the idea of their baby facing out into the world so being able to see everything and see what’s going on and interact with the world. There’s nothing wrong with that. But forward-facing in the carrier, I don’t necessarily recommend for various reasons. And if they do want to do that, short periods of time.

For the baby, the reasons I don’t recommend it is it doesn’t necessarily support that C-shape of the spine. It tends to put them in more of an extended posture. That affects how well they can hold their head. So certainly not for babies younger than four or five months.

Dorte Bladt: So once they get really good control of their head themselves.

Peta Wilson: That’s right. So being able to see out in the world, my son has just reached that four-month stage where he’s wanting to sticky beak at everything. He wants to look and see what I’m doing. He’s craning his neck around, pushing out from my chest. So to me, that signals it’s time to look at some hip carriers so he can be moved around to my hip.

That gives him the ability to see what I’m doing and interact with the world and smile at everybody and be very cute. But when he’s had enough, he can then learn to snuggle in. That tells me, okay, he’s had enough stimulation. Before he gets overworked and over-tired, I can address that. So those are the main reasons for the child.

For the wearer, when you’re forward-facing in a carrier, your load, which is the baby, is pulled further away from your body. So a biomechanics kind of…looking at the physics of it, you want the load that you’re carrying to be as close to your body as possible, as close to your centre of gravity.

Dorte Bladt: Yes. They get heavy very quickly.

Peta Wilson: They do. So if you hold something very light in your hands in front of you versus holding your arms extended out in front of you, that load, which is the same, is going to feel very, very different. It’s going to feel much heaving holding it out in front. That’s just the way to remember that you need to keep your baby in nice and close. And the bigger they get, the more important this is for you.

Dorte Bladt: You’re talking about the hip placement. I find that really interesting. I would imagine that it would be very tempting to have the baby strapped to the same side, preferably. It would probably the mum’s non-dominant side. But from a baby stimulation point of view, it sounds a little bit like it would be quite important to remember to swap sides. What’s your opinion on that?

Peta Wilson: Yes, for both really. For the wearer and for the baby. So most ring-slings are designed that you can wear them on either shoulder. So if you just change it up a little bit, it’s generally not a problem. It’s a fairly balanced carrier if you have it tightened correctly because you have the weight distributed across your shoulder and then across your body to the other side where the baby is sitting. But, as you say, you want to give them different views of the world and have them moving their neck different ways.

Dorte Bladt: Depending on how sticky beaky they are, they’ll have their head turned the same way all the time.

Peta Wilson: That’s right. You want things to be balanced. Although in that position they can look both ways.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah. With the stretchy bands compared to a much more expensive, fancy, imported carrier with lumbar support and bells and whistles, what’s your opinion on… well, probably usability for the parent carrying the baby and for the support and structure of the baby? What are you thinking on?

Peta Wilson: What I tend to recommend when I’m doing a consult is whatever works for you works. Everybody is different. Everybody’s body is different. And there are so many different carriers available. But what I find disappointing is when someone is given a carrier that’s not suited for their body. Or it’s not suited for the way they want to wear their child and they’re stuck with it. And then we have to do all this sort of problem solving things to try to get it to fit well.

So getting a consult before you buy a carrier is probably the best way to go.

Dorte Bladt: And can you get a consult before you actually have the baby?

Peta Wilson: Yes. So we have local groups all over Australia, local baby-wearing groups. I can give you the link for an Australia-wide baby-wearing support group and they can direct you to a local meet. They usually volunteer run meets where you can try various carriers and find something that suits you.

Dorte Bladt: That would be really useful.

Peta Wilson: Yes. In Newcastle, we have the Newcastle and Hunter Baby-Wearer Group. I volunteer to be a peer educator in that group and we run meets. I also do personal and private consults or small group consults for that, just to allow people to try a range of things and see what’s going to work for them.

Dorte Bladt: Which would be really useful, because often it is someone, somewhere that is really kind in saying you will find this usually but, you’re right. We’ve all got different shapes and different preferences. So it’s important that it fits.

Peta Wilson: That’s right.

Dorte Bladt: What about the, from a chiropractic point of view, we often talk about the carriers for a stimulation point of view for the baby. What can you tell us about the stimulation benefit that the baby would get?

Peta Wilson: Well, there’s lots, really, and on lots of different levels. But if you talk about it from a fourth trimester, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that already, we’ve talked about that already, but the fourth trimester is basically mimicking those womb-like conditions beyond the womb. So we’re trying to keep on stimulating those vestibular systems that are developing while the baby is in the womb.

So they’re floating around in space there and they’re learning what happens when we tilit this way and we tilt that way, and the brain is developing and the muscles are developing in response to that. So using a carrier, you can imagine your child is having those gradual changes, gentle changes in movement when you’re moving around and that continues to stimulate that vestibular system, which has an offshoot for lots of different body systems so it’s really important for their developments.

I think it’s as important to carry your baby no matter how you do it as it is to do tummy time or to have them in those other lying down and learning to roll and doing all those other milestone practices.

Dorte Bladt: It basically comes back to that whole thing of, like you said, the stimulation but it’s about where am I, what am I doing. Whereas if you’re on the floor, you tend to only contract certain muscles. At least when you’re up with mom, you’re not necessarily contracting but you are being moved and your little brain is active the whole time.

Peta Wilson: Responding to that.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah, which is exciting. What about backpacks? We’ve spoken more about the little babies. What about the bigger ones whilst they get to be a little bit heavier?

Peta Wilson: So when they start to be able to sit for short periods of time and they’ve developed their core stability and their neck support, then you can start to look at back carries. And you can do that in various types of carriers. You can do back carries in all of those styles of carriers.

Dorte Bladt: Basically you’re saying once the baby is comfortable sitting by themselves, they can be in a seated position more so they’re not… well, many of the carriers these days, they’re not necessarily supported so much. They’re just sort of sitting in them. But that’s okay once they’re comfortably sitting on their own?

Peta Wilson: Well, I still like to see them well supported, so the same principles apply, really, from the front to the back. The hips should still be supported and the wearer should still have the weight distributed evenly.

So when I’m designing carriers, that’s what I’m really looking for. Does it support the baby well, or the child well? And I design carriers all the way up to pre-schoolers.

Dorte Bladt: Really?

Peta Wilson: Very large children in this game.

Dorte Bladt: I don’t want to carry a pre-schooler.

Peta Wilson: But if you had a well-fitting carrier, you could.

Dorte Bladt: That’s true.

Peta Wilson: So people do ask me a lot at what age can I use this carrier to? So I say basically, for a woven wrap, as heavy as you would like to carry them. The carrier will support them.

Dorte Bladt: The carrier is strong enough to support them.

Peta Wilson: They’re strong enough to support them. But it really just depends person to person and you have to make that decision depending on what suits you.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah. You’ve spoken a lot about hip support and leg support. I often find when mums come in and they have been given this carrier, I’m horrified because there’s no neck support. What’s your thought on that?

Peta Wilson: So neck support. So I like to look at neck support from the base up. It’s not really good enough to put some sort of neck support if the rest of the carrier is not functioning well. So when the baby is sitting in a wide-based carrier, their spine is supported adequately, their neck is going to be better supported from the start.

With a woven carrier such as a wrap or a ring-sling, you can actually use a little washcloth or perhaps use the tail of the sling and just roll it up and have it just giving that little bit of extra neck support if you feel like you need it. But I do find that as long as the rest of the carry, the way that you’ve wrapped the wrap is done securely, the neck is well supported.

Dorte Bladt: I think I might not have clarified that. The point that I have been trying to tell parents is that when the baby falls asleep, it is important that the head is supported. I think that was probably what I was trying to say. So making sure that the wrap comes up… of course, if you have a wrap just stretch it up.

But some of the carriers only go to the shoulders and I personally see that as a challenge. One is that it’s not good for the baby’s head. And then mum often feels that and then she holds the baby’s head in place. That sort of defeats the purpose of having a carrier because she doesn’t have her hands free to deal with the other two-year-old that’s running around.

Peta Wilson: Yeah. That really depends on the carrier. If you’re unsure about your carrier, it’s a good idea to go to a meet or to see someone like myself who can give you some advice on whether that carrier is still fitting your child. I do that because my business is… well, I sell worldwide, but the Australia-wide people can do that via messenger and send me photos and I can say this carrier is getting a little bit too small.

So a general rule for that is younger babies, they need to have the carrier coming up to the base of their neck at the back. As they get older, they can manage with the carrier sitting lower towards the shoulder blade, the top of the shoulder blades, but really no shorter than their armpits. They need to have the support.

Dorte Bladt: I definitely agree with that.

Peta Wilson: A lot of carries have hoods as well, which you can use to… when the head lolls back a little bit, that can actually happen when they’re relaxed, especially an older child or a toddler. The hood can sometimes be helpful too.

Dorte Bladt: It can be the support. So my understanding is that you have an area or a place where people can actually come and have a chat to you.

Peta Wilson: Yeah.

Dorte Bladt: So how do they find you?

Peta Wilson: I’m very easy to contact. You can contact me via my website, my email, Facebook page, Instagram page, YouTube channel.

Dorte Bladt: You are that generation, aren’t you?

Peta Wilson: Sort of. I’m on the cusp. I’m just clinging in there. But I’m happy to be contacted by any of those means. And I do consults over at Bennetts Green, so I have rooms over there where I have various carriers there to try and I have people coming every week to speak to me and to see.

Dorte Bladt: So if people do look you up in Instagram or Facebook or wherever, how do they find you?

Peta Wilson: Okay. So my business is Moondani. Probably the easiest way to find me is on Facebook because there’s not a lot of Moondanis on Facebook. And message me from there. But my website is www.moondani.com.au and my Instagram is @moondani_australia. I’m just starting the YouTube channel so it has a few videos on there at the moment and it will be growing over the next few months with lots of education as well as different ways to use various carriers safely. So I plan to do a lot more education because I think it’s so important.

Dorte Bladt: It is.

Peta Wilson: To not only make it safe but enjoyable. And I encourage people just to not give up after trying one carrier because there are so many options that can suit you.

Dorte Bladt: And just really finishing up, do you have a particular burning advice that you would tell parents that are looking… let’s just say they are looking to purchase something for a baby that is not born yet. What would your main advice be to look for or to consider, I suppose?

Peta Wilson: I’d just say consider things that are outside of the box, if you like, or outside of the mainstream because there’s so many options and there’s so many different styles of carriers that you can use. They’re not always going to be what you’ll find in a store, in a supermarket, in a chain store.

So my advice would be to join the baby-wearing community on Facebook. From there, your eyes will be opened to so many more options. I never knew such a think existed when I started looking at this purely from the fact of the point of view of a mother looking for a tool to use to soothe the baby while doing other things.

Dorte Bladt: Taking care of a two-year-old and a four-year-old.

Peta Wilson: Yes. So my advice would be just to broaden your search a little bit. Get someone to advise you and maybe try some different ones before you buy.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. Thank you so much for your time, Peta. That was really interesting.

Peta Wilson: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

The post FF 17: Baby wearing appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Dorte Bladt: I’m so excited to have this next speaker with us today. I saw a young person come into my practice the other day and they had just found this guy in… well, actually, they’d been recommended to see this guy and I was like, whoa, I found someone in Newcastle. So I’m so pleased.

Thank you for joining us this morning. This is Dean O’Rourke. I’m really pleased to have you here.

Dean O’Rourke: Thank you.

Dorte Bladt: Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Dean O’Rourke: Well, my health journey has been an interesting one. I started out as a Health Phys Ed teacher many years ago after doing it at Newcastle Uni. I found I was getting more and more interested in the health side of things and less and less interested in the sports side of things.

But what happened to me is I developed a very severe and chronic case of hay fever. I was suffering it all year round, not just in spring but all year round, taking all of the drugs that the doctor was giving me and getting sicker and sicker and it just seemed like there was no end to it. So in utter desperation, I went looking for answers.

When I started doing that, it changed the course of my life, essentially cured myself of the condition. I’ve been medication-free and symptom-free for many years now. And it changed my career, what I do.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. So what do you actually do?

Dean O’Rourke: I specialize in breathing and orofacial function. So I help people with any breathing-related problem, any chronic respiratory problem, or any problem that they might have related to that. It’s a very specialized area. There’s not many people that do what I do.

Dorte Bladt: No. It’s so exciting you’re here.

Dean O’Rourke: So I’ve been doing it for over a decade now in Newcastle and on the Central Coast.

Dorte Bladt: When you say that you’re specializing in breathing, it’s one of those things we do many times a day and we could sort of lift our eyebrows and say, “You know what? I’ve done it for many years now.”

So tell us a bit about what you’re looking for.

Dean O’Rourke: That’s often the way people think about breathing and the reality is there’s a lot of misconception about breathing and a lot of misinformation as well. A lot of people do think it’s just something you do and you just stop doing it one day.

Dorte Bladt: Hopefully not too soon.

Dean O’Rourke: That’s right. But the reality is there is a right and wrong way to breathe and, when I discovered that, a whole new world opened to me. The reality is that dysfunction can range from mild through severe. It can happen at any age. And if you are on the dysfunction spectrum, it can lead to a whole heap of health problems, well, problems people suffer.

Genetics plays a role in that, or maybe the severity of it, but, very often, the trigger or the path they go down is because of their breathing function. The reality is you’re breathing 24/7. So if it’s not right, it’s affecting you 24/7. It’s the foundation of your health.

Most people you ask them what the two most important things to their health are, they would say diet and exercise. As important as those two things are, I’m not in any way saying they’re not important, but the reality is breathing is well in front than those two things. The only thing that comes close to breathing in terms of critical function, in terms of what you need to do to promote it would be hydration. And hydration is a distant second to breathing, still.

But most of us just take breathing for granted and we’re unaware of how much it may be affecting our health. But lots of people who come to me they’re very aware of how it affects their health.

Dorte Bladt: So what type of people would consult you?

Dean O’Rourke: I’ve worked successfully from 4 to 88 years, people from all walks of life, but the ones that come to me get referrals from the medical system or a small group of doctors who refer to me. So I might get an asthmatic, people with hay fever, people with snoring, sleep apnea, sleep disorders, anxiety, panic attacks, chronic pain.

I’ve worked for a pain specialist because he’s discovered that it works really well to help people there.

Dorte Bladt: So it sounds like a lot.

Dean O’Rourke: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: It’s a long list and it doesn’t seem like there’s much connection between those.

Dean O’Rourke: No.

Dorte Bladt: So what do you find, apart from the fact that everyone’s breathing but…

Dean O’Rourke: Well, what I find is that regardless of the medical tags they’re wearing, and it can even be orthodontics as well, they can have orthodontic problems as a result of breathing dysfunction. Regardless of what medical tags they’re wearing, whether it’s a child or an adult or teenager, whatever, I find the same functional problems over and over again. The breathing dysfunction that I come across is pretty much the same thing every time and that’s what I seek to fix every time.

Essentially, what that is, is that so many people, through no fault of their own, it’s just the way it is, develop breathing dysfunction normally where they’re using mouth breathing too much. So they might be breathing overnight, mouth breathing, or they might do a lot during the day, or both. Then that develops an upper thoracic pattern, so they end up…

Dorte Bladt: Upper thoracic meaning upper chest.

Dean O’Rourke: Upper chest. So their breathing then is shortened up between mouth and upper chest. The diaphragm is not working very much and the nose is not being utilized enough. Once you develop that pattern, once that becomes a habit, then it’s pretty much just spin the genetic wheel and see what trouble you get regardless of what age you are.

Dorte Bladt: And what is the link between the different types of conditions that people may have and their abnormal breathing? What’s the process?

Dean O’Rourke: It varies from condition to condition. In some cases, breathing dysfunction might be the causative or the root cause problem, resulting in their symptoms or their condition, or it may just be an amplifying factor. But what I found is it doesn’t really matter which it is. The bottom line is they need to breathe functionally.

I found that it’s been very beneficial regardless of whether it’s the root cause or whether it’s just an amplifier. It can make that much of a difference.

Dorte Bladt: And what is the defect? What system does it interfere with?

Dean O’Rourke: If your breathing is dysfunctional, anything from mild to severe, what you’re starting to do is switch on the adrenals harder. So you’re getting the fight-or-flight or the sympathetic nervous system kicking into gear on a 24/7 basis even whilst you’re trying to sleep. If that’s starting to happen then you’re switching on the inflammatory response in your body on that basis as well 24/7. Then once that’s happening then it really just becomes an issue of what it is you’re going to suffer and how badly.

Dorte Bladt: So the fact that the body is in that state of inflammation is just the beginning. That is fascinating, absolutely fascinating.

I went to a conference a couple of years ago and there was a very interesting dentist that basically was talking about re-educating a baby to breathe after having tongue-tie cut. He suggested using these taping things.

Dean O’Rourke: Techniques, yeah.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah. Do you do that? I have to admit I found it a little bit hard to work with babies in taping their mouth.

Dean O’Rourke: Yeah. With taping, I use it as a part of my gambit of strategies. It’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all thing. So each person I’ll design a program to fit their needs, which may or may not involved taping, and how you go about taping can vary a lot. Some people only need it very temporarily. Other people need it longer term.

But, with taping, what people need to understand is that it’s not actually taping someone’s mouth shut, it’s actually just a message sender. You got to use a particular type of tape. It’s a part of an overall 24/7 therapy so it’s not the big deal that some people sometimes think it is. As I said, not everyone who comes to me even uses it.

I have had few people, though, that have used it and fallen in love with it and they never stop. My wife has been taping for years. My son has been taping for years. I’ve had people come in and buy a box of tape and walk out. I assume they’re lifetime users too. And that’s okay. If they want to, that’s fine. But, normally, it’s a very temporary thing.

Dorte Bladt: So how do you know that the work you’re doing is making a difference? So when people come in and talk to you…

Dean O’Rourke: When people come to me for an initial consult, I go through an assessment process that I’ve developed based on clinical observation, filling out a fairly extensive symptomology form.

Then I have biofeedback testing as well. So they are linked to my computer by a cannula that just sits just inside the nose. They go through this step-by-step assessment process so I know A. are they breathing disordered, or is their dysfunction, how severe it is. Then that will determine what I came up with in terms of what they need for therapy.

If they go ahead and get my help then they’re retested on a few occasions. To be able to get post-measurement so they can clearly see how much their breathing has changed.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. So just help me here, so this biofeedback mechanism, so you have some sort of sensor sitting in your nose so you can sense how much air goes through your nose compared to what you would expect?

Dean O’Rourke: The system I use is known as capnometry. What it measures is a couple of critical things. The breathing speed, so what their respiratory rate is, their end-tidal CO₂ or carbon dioxide levels it measures as well, and it shows me whether there’s any disruptions in their breathing pattern.

It’s measuring them breath by breath. It’s completely not an invasive thing at all. It’s in no way painful or anything. It’s quite an easy test to sit through. Most people just sit there and chill out and sort of some have even nearly dropped off to sleep. So it’s just measuring their breathing pattern normally for about 6 to 7 minutes.

I get them to do a couple of different things as well just to see what happens to their breathing under different conditions. So it’s a snapshot of their breathing pattern and it allows pre- and post-measurement, which is handy.

But I know whether they’ve got a breathing problem pretty much as soon as they walk through the door.

Dorte Bladt: You can?

Dean O’Rourke: I have 10 years of doing it. And it’s kind of funny socially because I just assess people’s breathing automatically. My wife is often nudging me… or something like, “Don’t you say anything…”, sort of thing.

It gets very hard to switch off once you dial in the breathing because everyone does it and they take it with them everywhere they go.

Dorte Bladt: Absolutely. Goodness. My understanding is that our breathing rate, which we just talked about.

Dean O’Rourke: Respiratory rate.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah. Has changed a lot over the last 20 years or so.

Dean O’Rourke: Yes. It’s a very good point you raise. The reality is, at the moment, as far as I’m aware, the medical system they come across a respiratory rate in the mid-teens. They would think that’s completely normal. It certainly is average. There’s a lot of people breathing at that speed.

So for many doctors I suspect they would think that that’s okay but, in my years of clinical practice and through the research that I’ve been involved with and seen, there is more and more evidence to show that that is too fast and that people, even children, should be breathing slower. But certainly, for an adult, between 4 and 10 breaths a minute at rest is the optimal zone. There are not many people in that zone. Not many people.

What I found is that once I get a person from that sort of higher speed down into the 4 to 10 zone as a habit, so it just becomes automatic, that’s when the symptoms change. That’s when they go from having symptoms to not having symptoms, or having a lot less.

Dorte Bladt: So they go from that living in that fight-and-flight response down to the parasympathetic.

Dean O’Rourke: Parasympathetic. Exactly.

Dorte Bladt: Which is the rest and digest.

Dean O’Rourke: That’s right. Exactly.

Dorte Bladt: Then just from memory, and I could be wrong, but I seem to remember they were saying that 20 years ago, 12 breaths per minute was normal and now it’s like 20?

Dean O’Rourke: Yeah. The speed has gone up. I think there is some evidence out there that there has been an increase over time, and I think modern life is contributing to that. So many people are running on adrenalin and so I think there probably would be some overall increase, average increase. And, certainly, once you’re hitting 20 breaths a minute or more, you’re in trouble.

The fastest I’ve measured on my biofeedback system was 36 breaths. That person was very, very sick.

Dorte Bladt: It sounds like someone that’s been running too rough, is it?

Dean O’Rourke: That’s right. And when your speed is getting up into those, as I said about 20 in particular, you’re going to be in trouble. But plenty of people are in trouble with speeds well below that.

Dorte Bladt: So is the breathing then the chicken and the egg? Like how would you address…

Dean O’Rourke: Yeah, good question. I think in the end it doesn’t really matter whether it’s the chicken or the egg. The reality is you’ve got to address it. So if someone comes to me, let’s say, with anxiety, and they’ll be saying to me, “Oh, is it my head doing it or is my body doing it to my head?” In the end, it doesn’t really matter. What you want to do is address one side of the equation or the other.

I found that the simplest thing to do is change the way you breathe. By changing that, it will have an impact regardless of whether it’s the chicken or the egg.

Dorte Bladt: I have to admit I’m feeling incredibly self conscious here. I’m thinking crap, I’m sure I’m not breathing 4 breaths a minute right now.

So how do you deal with a child? Let’s say a child is maybe hyperactive. And not necessarily with the diagnosis but they’re hard to manage. How would you address it…?

Dean O’Rourke: Well, it’s going to depend a lot on exactly how old they are. If they’re middle childhood, sort of primary school age, I find that I can work with them not that dissimilar to older people. I can keep it fairly standard. But as they’re getting younger then the strategies I have to use change and the process may become slower.

But the earlier people find out about it, the better. If it’s a really young child, someone that is not ready to be able to work with me, what I often do is I fix the parents. By getting the parents breathing well, they start the education process with their child. And that has worked brilliantly. I fixed mom and dad, or mom or dad, and then the child gets involved when the adult is going through the process and their breathing starts to change as a result.

Dorte Bladt: It just goes to show how close we are. But I don’t think we actually recognize that we, in the family, we just feed off each other.

Dean O’Rourke: That’s right. Look, I find breathing dysfunction runs in families. It’s just, as you mentioned earlier, the speed of respiratory rates going up across the community. Breathing dysfunction is a silent epidemic. The reason it’s silent is it’s because it’s generally not on the medical radar. So lots of people don’t discover that they have a breathing functional problem.

Dorte Bladt: It’s such a subconscious thing.

Dean O’Rourke: That’s it. So they just have these symptoms treated normally with medication. And lots of people are being diagnosed with sleep disorder breathing now so that they are strapped to CPAP machines and things like that, and they never discover that they actually had a 24/7 breathing habit that’s not right and needs to be fixed. So, sadly, most people are just having their problem managed at best while trying to reduce symptoms rather than fixing the problem.

Dorte Bladt: So what do you do? You obviously, from what you’re saying, do not really like to give them medication. You would have another…

Dean O’Rourke: Yes. I’m not giving anyone medication. I’m not selling them a CPAP machine. What I’m doing is going through a simple step-by-step process of breathing habit change that I’ve developed over many years now and I tailor it to meet the needs of that particular person, depending on their age and whatever. Sometimes their pathology and medical condition can change how I have to go about it.

So I basically come up with a process normally, where they see me, most people see me once a week for four weeks, actually, and they walk out the door with their instruction sheet. They’ve learned exactly what they need to do and they go through that process. I support them and encourage them along the way, make change if I need to.

And most people’s breathing has been altered significantly in that first month. Then it just becomes so much easier and simpler after that as well.

Dorte Bladt: So basically it’s a question of diagnosing from your point of view where you’re not breathing well. Try to do this type of breathing and then go home and practice.

Dean O’Rourke: Well, they actually don’t have to think about breathing, funnily enough. They just have to follow my instructions and their breathing will change. It is quite simply just habit change. I just give them a set of instructions to help them change their breathing habit. They learn step by step what they’re going to be doing when they walk back out the door and we just touch bases each week for a few weeks. I’ll know when the job is done because it’s a very measurable process.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. And can you share a funny story from your practice?

Dean O’Rourke: I’ve had quite a few. Probably one of the most interesting things when you do change someone’s breathing pattern, there’s a small percentage of people who can have some strange responses, physical responses.

There was one fellow I had who had been mouth breathing for many, many years, very chronically. And when he started to change his breathing pattern and started to nasal breathe, his gums started to bleed. They bled for about three days before they settled down. So that’s one of the more unusual that I’ve seen in the 10 years I’ve been doing this.

Dorte Bladt: Oh, my goodness.

Dean O’Rourke: So he thought that was pretty weird. But there’s one other quick story I’ll give you is three women came and saw me about a year apart. The strange thing was they’re all the same age. All three were 52. They had been, unbeknownst to me, menopausal for about four years. They came to me for three different problems: asthma, snoring, and anxiety. We fixed all three but, in each case, they started their cycle again. Two of them were not impressed.

Dorte Bladt: That is so much.

Dean O’Rourke: The first time it happened, it happened within a week of starting therapy. The second time it was a week again. And then the third woman who had asthma it took a month for her cycle to show again. She was chilled out about it. She was okay, but the other two were not happy, let me tell you.

Dorte Bladt: I’m interested to hear. I know you talked about inflammation here, but what would be the process of being …?

Dean O’Rourke: That’s a good question. The first time it happened I thought maybe it’s a coincidence. Then it happened again, then it happened again. And these women changed nothing else. All they changed was their breathing pattern. They didn’t change their diet. They didn’t do anything else.

So my theory is that they’d gone, once again, from that sympathetic dominance into a parasympathetic state. And I think the body then goes well, we’re now in a state of rest. We can reintroduce functions or systems that have been shut down. So just once they got into that position then the system kicked back in.

It never ceases to amaze me what breathing can affect. It really does.

Dorte Bladt: Now, I’m obviously going off in a complete sidetrack here, which would be interesting then with the growing number of young couples that have trouble falling pregnant. You wonder.

Dean O’Rourke: Yeah, good question. I do wonder. I would say that there would be a percentage of, but no idea what, but there would be a percentage of people out there who are struggling in that area. Maybe all they need to do is change the way they breathe. Isn’t that amazing?

Dorte Bladt: Interesting. Do you have a piece of advice or a couple of pieces of advice for people that are listening into that?

Dean O’Rourke: Absolutely. The first thing I would say is check it. Have a look. Do I get around with my mouth open a lot or do I comfortably lip seal? How much nasal breathing am I really doing? And that’s awake and asleep. A lot of people have mouth breathing when they’re asleep and that’s a particular worry.

So checking yourself a bit. Get someone to look outside onto you and see whether your chest is moving when you’re breathing it should be sitting still at rest. There should be no chest movement, where everyone that comes to me they’re breathing from the upper chest.

So a bit of a check. Then if you see that things are not right, well then you’re going to have to think about whether or not you might get some help. But the first thing you should do is start to work towards lip seal. A lip seal habit is what develops a nasal breathing habit. That’s the number one thing that everyone should establish. That, to me, is more important than diet and exercise because breathing is 24/7.

Dorte Bladt: Breathing sure is 24/7. Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing your time this morning.

Dean O’Rourke: No worries.

Dorte Bladt: Tell us again where can people find you if they want to know more.

Dean O’Rourke: I work a few different clinics but the one locally I work at ATUNE Health Centres in Warners Bay. We’ve got a website. They can just Google ATUNE or ‘breathing therapy’ and you’ll find me there. That’s where I can be located.

I also work in the city at the Hunter Pain Clinic. So there’s a few places where people can catch up with me.

What I say to people is if you’re not sure or you know you’ve got an issue, just come for an assessment. Come for that assessment and you can ask as many questions as you like. You’ll be able to make an informed decision on whether or not you go ahead with therapy. If you don’t have the assessment then you’re not able to make an informed decision.

Dorte Bladt: That’s right. And your name again?

Dean O’Rourke: Dean O’Rourke.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. Thank you so much for your time.

Dean O’Rourke: No worries. Thank you.

The post FF 16: Develop the best breathing habits for a healthy life appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Typically, in our feverish goal to get fit and healthy, we rush around madly working hard to tick off exercise on our ‘to do list’.  However, in our rush, we often forget the importance of connecting to what we holistically need in this moment.  Being mindful of what our bodies need, and slowing our movements down so we can control  them and create balance will greatly enhance the results our efforts. Meg mixes primal movements with yoga and breathing practice, and shares with us some pearls we can bring to our own efforts of creating better health.

Dorte Bladt: So Welcome to Meg Linton. I’m really excited to be with Meg today. She’s from Redhead Wellness Sanctuary and she’s come here to share some amazing information about the body. Welcome. Thank you.

Meg Linton: Amazing. Thank you so much for having me. I’m really pumped to be here. I’m super excited. When you mentioned it, I just had this like little buzzy feeling, so I’m super, super grateful.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you?

Meg Linton: Goodness. I teach yoga. I teach mindfulness. And I teach kids and adults how to speak differently and speak better to themselves.

Dorte Bladt: That sounds interesting.

Meg Linton: Yeah. It’s just something I’m so passionate about. When we change the way we speak to ourselves, when we become aware of that, we can then change the direction and therefore we can actually be in a happier state. We can have more energy and vitality. So I’m so passionate about that.

Dorte Bladt: Sounds really, really interesting. So you say you’re doing yoga, you teach yoga?

Meg Linton: I do. I teach yoga at Redhead Wellness and a few other places around Newcastle. I speak in schools on body language and bullying and self-sabotage. I am writing a book at the moment as well.

Dorte Bladt: You are busy.

Meg Linton: Yeah. It’s good. It’s my passion and I love it.

Dorte Bladt: So I want to just hit you on the yoga for a little while because yoga seems to be, that’s what we have to do in 2019.

Meg Linton: Yeah. It’s become like a bit of a trend, isn’t it?

Dorte Bladt: Totally. You have your yoga mat wherever you go. What type of yoga, if I say, do you do but also do you find is useful for families?

Meg Linton: Beautiful. Great question. I do many types of yoga, I suppose. I think it all comes in handy. I think it’s a mixture of balance, kind of getting that equilibrium between that yin and yang.

For families, I think just getting on the mat, having a play and not being so serious. It’s about just moving the body and breathing. It’s not yoga without the breath and the breath is what brings us back into that beautiful parasympathetic state. It’s a way to find this delicious kind of flow within the body.

I know that every time I get to my mat I feel so much calmer after that. I feel really relaxed and I can actually function a lot more. I’m a lot more kind when I get to my mat. I try to get to my mat every day.

For kids, even if it’s just finding 20 minutes, some animal movements, even some animal sounds, we do that at Redhead, that’s super cute, it’s having fun and allowing ourselves to get lost in our practice and be mindful and be present because, in the present, we have peace.

If we are stuck in our past or if we are looking too far ahead in our future, we are going to be in states that are going to alter us. We’re not going to feel calm. We’re not going to feel that beautiful, nice state that we should be operating in.

Dorte Bladt: Or are definitely better when we are.

Meg Linton: Totally.

Dorte Bladt: You mentioned, and I just grabbed on that, the parasympathetic state. But can you explain to people what that’s like?

Meg Linton: Absolutely. It’s a state where I really never knew it for quite a while. I went through many eating disorders and body image issues, self-sabotage, orthorexia for so many years, over 20 years. I was constantly in fight-or-flight, so I was constantly in my stressed state, which you’d be well aware of as well.

I never knew how to slow down. Everything was go, go, go. I was constantly trying to fill my cup with things. I mentioned it before. I call them space fillers, so shopping. You know, coffee, going out, whatever it might have been, alcohol, anything else and things like that to find and to fix this feeling of just too much fast. So I didn’t know how to be slow.

I like to say yoga found me when I went to Bali. Firstly, I learned how to stop. I learned how to pause. And I discovered this beautiful state of mind where I found peace, and then I’d shift out of it 100%.

So with practice, I then started to find a way to bring myself into the present moment by shifting myself into this parasympathetic nerve system, which is our rest and digest. When I found I was in that system, I found that I could concentrate better. I could take in information, because I was so full in my mind that I couldn’t even read a page of a book at the age of 34. Nothing was going in and I was so down on myself and my language was so terrible to myself. So finding this state gave me peace. I wanted more of that.

Dorte Bladt: So you achieved that through yoga, you say?

Meg Linton: Yeah, and breath.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. That’s what I wanted to ask you. What in yoga specifically? You’re talking breath. What is it about the breath?

Meg Linton: The breath, when we breathe deep, most of us breathe so much through our chest. We are limiting ourselves of prana, of energy through our mind and our bodies. And it’s been scientifically proven too that when we breathe longer and deeper, we actually live longer. I think all of us, probably, want that at the end of the day.

Dorte Bladt: When you’re young you might not.

Meg Linton: No, but it was just discovering techniques on how to breathe. It just felt different. I started to breathe through my diaphragm and I felt this calm sensation through not only my body but also my mind. I felt my stress just completely disappear within even three minutes of breath.

And a simple technique of just doing a box breath, four counts in, four-count pause, four counts out.

Dorte Bladt: So do you mean one-two-three-four [inhales], one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four?

Meg Linton: Yes. We start with that. However it is, it doesn’t matter how it is. You feel like you’re drawing a box, and then you can elaborate. I think I actually started on two. To be honest, I was like in-in, pause for two, exhale for two and then pause for two.

Dorte Bladt: So is that something that our listeners, for example, could use as a tool when they’re in a situation where things are getting a little bit much?

Meg Linton: One hundred percent. It’s the first thing I teach to kids if ever I go in a school.

I actually walk in and I sit everyone down and I say, “Lie down on the floor. We’re going to breathe.” They look at me like I’m sort of alien. Like they all know how to breathe.

I’m like, “Just let’s take five minutes.”

And they sort of wake up and it’s like whoa. Some of them are like, “I’ve never felt that before,” this space and time to pause.

So whenever we feel stress or anxiety or things are just going too fast, and that’s what’s happening in our world these days, there’s a lot of air and movement going on. Sit down, take three minutes and just breathe ten deep breaths and I guarantee you’ll feel amazing.

Dorte Bladt: That’s something I actually talk about in my Switched-on Kids book. We use a little helper with putting a toy, or a rock or something on your tummy.

Meg Linton: That’s so good. So they can feel it.

Dorte Bladt: Yes, because sometimes you get a little bit like, “Where am I breathing? I’m breathing through my tummy.” Well, I’m not actually because I’m just so busy breathing through my chest.

Meg Linton: I love that idea.

Dorte Bladt: Now, having done a class or two with you, I know that you often talk about the grounding. What do you mean by grounding?

Meg Linton: As you know, I’m in bare feet at the moment. Connecting ourselves to the earth. To put it very simply, when I learned about yoga, I also learned about Ayurveda which is eastern medicine. In that sense, as I said, we’re governed by the five elements, so earth, air, fire, water and ether space. In the world we’re in, there’s a lot of movement going on. There’s a lot of vast energy which means everything is going really, really fast.

So to feel better, to bring ourselves back to a state of calm, we have to do the opposite of what’s going on. You mentioned about grounding, so it’s about finding some space to possibly be outside and just be still, pop our feet in the sand or the water and just pause, stop and not do anything at all. It’s about eating really nice, warm, nourishing vegetables, root vegetables. It’s like a big, warm hug and that will bring a sense of calm back to us.

But, obviously, it’s winter here at the moment where we are. If we eat cold and dry foods or icy, it’s actually going to make us feel more un-grounded as well, does it make sense?

Dorte Bladt: Totally.

Meg Linton: So it’s about listening in to what’s going on with the weather, listening into our mind. Is it moving really fast?

And in Ayurveda like increases like, so if we have a coffee and we’re feeling anxious or stressed, then what’s going to happen there? We’re going to be more wired. We’re not going to be able to sleep and, therefore, we’re not going to be able to recover. We wake up in a state of stress the next day.

Dorte Bladt: In your yoga practice, you often say about concentrating on the sensation of your feet and you want us to place our feet in a particular way.

Meg Linton: Yeah.

Dorte Bladt: What’s the reasoning? Can you explain what that position is and what the reasoning is for that?

Meg Linton: Sure. I’ll do my best to explain it.

Dorte Bladt: It’s easier to show it.

Meg Linton: Yeah. So when we stand, so many of us are in shoes these days and it actually restricts our movement through our metatarsals, our toes, our feet, through the connective tissue on the fascia, on the underside of our feet. What’s happening, as you know, is that our hips and glutes and our back are all paying the consequence for that.

So we have a space on the bottom of our foot. We have the two balls of our feet and our heel. And if you were to visualize a little bit, drawing like a triangle from the two balls of feet down to the heel, you make… I’m drawing like a little triangle with my feet and I realize it’s completely irrelevant.

But that space there, if we… even if you take off your shoes now for a moment and just feel the earth underneath your feet and you sort of lift your toes a little bit, you can really find that the underside of the foot, the muscles fire and turn on. In turn, you’re actually going to feel your VMO in your inner thighs really engage as well.

Dorte Bladt: VMO being?

Meg Linton: The inside of your knee, so the inner quad. Sorry, guys. So VMO, inside of your quadriceps, basically, and that helps protect the knee joint as well. You’ll also feel your glute medius, on the side of your glute, turn on.

A lot of us these days in the world we’re in, we are either on our phone or, when we’re standing, we’re not being still, we’re not being present. We’re finding a distraction, aren’t we? We’re generally tipping our hips somehow or we’re leaning forward so we’re not being connected as to how we’re standing.

The more that you practice being aware of this sensation through the feet, standing on the tripod of both feet, of course, but it’s really important to also practice standing on one foot as much. I know I do that a lot with you guys in class. That will also help improve your balance. You’re stabilizing around the knee joint and become stronger through the hips and the glutes as well.

Dorte Bladt: Great. So to translate what you’re talking about, the position of your feet, the breathing, what you’re doing is creating a focus for your mind that will then create that grounding and calming effect that is increasing the parasympathetic response.

Meg Linton: Absolutely, yeah.

Dorte Bladt: So, really, what you’re doing is getting more balance in the way your brain and your body communicates.

Meg Linton: Absolutely bang on. And that’s the thing. Say that coffee shop example, let’s sort of expand onto that. So if you’re on your phone in the coffee shop, you’re in somebody else’s world, generally. Say we’re scrolling on our phones, or whatever it might be, we are in a state where we’re not being present. We’re not being here.

So many of us are just human doing without human being. We forget to just stop. And when we do, when we come to that sense of grounding, we just feel here. And when we stand up nice and tall, we have three, what’s called Bandhas, in our bodies. We actually have four into our wrists as well, but we have our Mula Bandha, which is our pelvic floor area, Uddiyana Bandha, which is our belly lock, and then we have our Jalandhara, which is our throat lock. When these three are on, we actually sit and stand really nice and tall.

When you put the awareness into your feet, guess what’s going to happen with your spine? You start to notice how you are standing and you get energy from the earth as well. You come into a state of prana which is just feeling in flow. And when we are in flow, as what you say, we feel balanced, we feel calm, we make decisions better, we concentrate better, things are not so hard.

Dorte Bladt: You get the two sides of the brain to actually connect.

Meg Linton: We get the stuff done, yeah. Because in a state of stress, in fight-or-flight, we actually can’t learn. We’re not in that state where we can learn new information. We have to be in a bit more calmer state to take on board new information and to feel our best self.

At the end of the day, that’s what the universe wants for all of us, to be vibrant and energetic and feeling good and not tired and exhausted and stressed.

Dorte Bladt: It’s a long life, isn’t it? If that’s the state you’re in.

Meg Linton: Yes. I heard somewhere, and I think it was Dr. Bruce Lipton on one of his YouTube videos or podcasts that 150 times a day we are now getting ourselves into a state of stress.

Dorte Bladt: 150?

Meg Linton: That’s a lot. And our concentration is less than efficient. It’s seven seconds where a goldfish is eight. What the?

Dorte Bladt: Shocking.

Meg Linton: It is. And it can all be changed, 100%.

Dorte Bladt: You mentioned earlier about sabotaging. Obviously, standing well and being aware of your posture and breathing through your diaphragm, physical to-do lists, so what happens with the mind and the effect that our thinking has on that calmness?

Meg Linton: Goodness. You’re opening a Pandora’s Box for me here, but I’m going to keep… this is my passion. I love to talk about this because it’s shifted me out of where I was. I used to talk to my body and my mind and my state in a pretty poor way for over 20 years, as I was talking before. That created a very strong neural pathway in my brain that that was how I spoke to my mind and my body.

Dorte Bladt: How did you speak? What would you say?

Meg Linton: I would wake up first thing in the morning and possibly look straight at my phone. I would then judge and I would criticise.

Dorte Bladt: Sorry, I’m interrupting. You listeners out there, how many of you… is that the first thing you do and the last thing that you do?

Meg Linton: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: I’m sorry I interrupted but it’s just like, “Wake up. Go!”

Meg Linton: 100%, and I’m going to share some steps to help change that because that’s what started to change me. I started my day with comparison and judgement and fear and anxiety and I didn’t have the tools to know any different. I would look in the mirror and I would literally, I just wrote about it the other day in my book, I would grab bits of like fat which wasn’t evened out on my body, I would just literally want it away.

That was how I started my day, sometimes half an hour. And then my whole day was spent judging myself, ‘I’m not enough’. ‘I’m not smart enough’, ‘How can I do this?’, ‘My life will never get better’.

So I was constantly dragging in negative energy and negative vibrations, but I didn’t know it at the time. I had no idea. I thought this was the way it was going to be. I blamed everything around me.

Yoga taught me to pause and when we pause we interrupt the pattern. That’s all it is. So I had to practice, and it’s a practice, every single day for nearly 100 times a day, if I had to, to interrupt the pattern and go, “You know what? Thank you but I choose not to take that on board.”

Those words were massive for me and I still come back to them. If I feel anxious or stressed, I’m like, “Okay, I understand that you’re here. I recognize that,” and I’m coming from a place of kindness and compassion rather than a place of judgement and criticism.

For me, I think that is key in my experience, of coming at these feelings with kindness. Because, to be honest, and, as we know, being unkind to ourselves, doesn’t lift anyone up. And people around us see it, so our kids see it, right?

I saw, back when I was growing up, many patterns of language that was not confident or, ‘I can’t have this’, ‘I don’t deserve this kind of thing’. And it’s so important. “The words we speak become the house we live in.” That’s from Rumi [Correction: quote is by Hafiz].

Dorte Bladt: The interesting thing I find is how often we neglect to even hear it. As in, we think, “Oh, I don’t speak, I don’t talk badly to myself”.

But I was given an exercise, this was probably 10 years ago, by a mentor of mine and he said, “What I want you to do is just pick a time of day, 10 minutes, and in that 10 minutes you sit down and you don’t do anything but just pay attention to the voice. The voice that will say, “I’m sitting here. I’m doing nothing. I really should…”with ‘should’ being the word.

And, “Oh, I never get it done,” “I will never finish it,” “The others will do…” So you’re talking about comparison. You’re talking about not being good enough. That’s the one side of it.

Of course there’s the other side of it. “I don’t look as good as,” or “I’m not as smart as,” but those little thoughts they sit in the back of… I think they are in everyone’s heads.

Meg Linton: Absolutely.

Dorte Bladt: But being aware of them is the first step. Then, like you were saying, be really kind. Don’t just say, “Go away”.

Meg Linton: No.

Dorte Bladt: Just say, “Okay, well, thank you. I heard you.”

Meg Linton: Yeah, totally. Allow yourself to sit with it and be in a place of just allowing. Exactly what you said, be aware that the thought pattern is there. Like take that on board and go, “Okay, I recognize that this is here.” Call it out for what it is. Call out the BS. Because if we don’t say it out loud, if we don’t be vulnerable about it, we can’t move through it and past it.

Investigate why it’s come up. Spend the time with it, but spend the time with it in a place of love and kindness because that is the only way.

Dorte Bladt: So that might be easier for, I shouldn’t call us older, but adults to do. It may be a little bit difficult in children. What do you suggest children do?

Meg Linton: Beautiful. I find with kids, actually, they tend to… because their minds aren’t as developed as ours, or the neural pathways. So whether or not… and what I find even with young kids, it’s their own bullying to themselves. It’s very much on these expectations and comparison.

I say, to the kids, I’m like, “You’re never going to be like anybody else. You are the best version of yourself. You’re going to own that. You just have to believe it.”

And again I say that phrase to kids, it’s, “Thank you, but I choose not to take that on board,” when any of this comes up.

And I teach kids to breathe. In that moment, stop a moment, can you make a better choice. So breathe through the moment, pause the pattern and then ask yourself the question, “How can I say something that lifts me up here instead of something that puts me down?” That’s what I say to kids.

So I’m like find something that is a brighter light than that darker gray kind of colour that doesn’t make us feel good.

Dorte Bladt: What example would you give them? What would be a good way to think?

Meg Linton: For kids, like younger kids or teens or any…?

Dorte Bladt: Let’s do a 12-year-old.

Meg Linton: Beautiful. I actually had some 13-year-olds at Redhead the other day and what is coming up for those guys is anxiety. So a lot of social expectations and pressures just from the world around them of how we should be as a female, which is a tough world. It’s tough for females and males. These girls were just, “I feel anxiety,” “I feel pressure all the time”.

I was like, “Okay, pressure to do what?”

And it’s like, “To perform, to be better, to fit in, to get people’s likes and validation”.

So I asked them a question. I said, “So do you feel like you’re people-pleasing?”

They said, “Yeah, all the time,” and I find that very common so we share that.

So I said to these girls, like, okay, we wrote down a few exercises. What is the common language that’s coming out? It was very much the ‘I’m not enough’, ‘I don’t feel smart enough’ or ‘I’ll never achieve that’.

And I said, “Okay, so how can you word that better?”

We started to write down some mantras in that kind of sense. They were like, okay, this is what I’ll be doing one day. Listen to your heart, and we started to just write down the way that it would fit in with them and the way that it would settle.

So with the girls I just said, “Look, how can we say it better?”

And it was like, “I am kind to myself, I do believe in myself, I know that the universe will show me the way so long as I surrender the control.”

So it’s writing down mantras and whatever floats the boat in the kids as well. But I definitely recommend journaling it down, writing things out like you’re writing a letter, forgiving ourselves and then finding a way to move forward.Dorte Bladt: Take the pressure off.

Meg Linton: Totally.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. So we’re getting close to the end of our podcast.

Meg Linton: Goes quick, doesn’t it?

Dorte Bladt: Yes, it does. But I’m just thinking if you were to be standing in front of the people that are listening to you now, do you have a particular advice or maybe three bits of advice? I’m just saying one or three, whatever you prefer, but something that made the biggest difference for you and that something that people can do straightaway.

Meg Linton: 100% number one, have a morning and a night routine. Not negotiable, and that’s not being on the phone. So the first thing when you get up in the morning, try to throw your hands up in the air and say thank you. Have gratitude because you’ve just got given another breath.

At the end of the day, it is a massive, massive gift and I forgot that for many years. It was all about me. But I wake up and I’d literally put my hands in the air and I’m like, “Thank you.” The moment your head leaves the pillow you have all you need.

Secondly, I sit down and I set my intention. I take a moment and I breathe deep. So have your morning routine of just waking up, say thank you, do some box breath, which is four counts in, four-count pause, four-count exhale and then a four-count pause again, which we discussed.

And then really be mindful of how you fill your day, how much time you spend on Facebook or Instagram and things like that as well, and finish your day again with gratitude. Be off your phone. First 30 minutes in the morning, off the phone, the last 30 minutes in the night, off the phone.

Set yourself for feminine energy at night so that you can chill out and feel relaxed and allow yourself to be kind in that sense. Don’t go over your day on the shoulds, coulds and would’ves. That is the one thing that will keep you in a stressed state and you will not sleep.

So be kind, journal if you’ve got to, that’s what I do, take some space in every single day to be completely still.

I don’t know if that was three sets or a recap. So have a morning and a night routine, off your phone first 30 minutes and last 30 minutes, say thank you. Secondly, be mindful of how you fill your space in your day. We cannot pour from an empty cup.

Dorte Bladt: So Meg, this was fantastic. I really appreciate your time.

Meg Linton: Thank you.

Dorte Bladt: You’ve got some really good advice. How can people learn more?

Meg Linton: Beautiful. All my details are on Instagram and Facebook, both under Meg Linton. I share a lot of content there as to the how-tos, when we feel this way, what to do.

But also Redhead Wellness Sanctuary, so generally found at Redhead Wellness Sanctuary which is redheadwellness.com.

Dorte Bladt: Perfect.

Meg Linton: Amazing.

Dorte Bladt: Thank you so much.

Meg Linton: Thank you very much for having me here.

The post FF 15: Balanced with Meg Linton appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dorte Bladt, the Switched-On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dorte Bladt: I’ve got Charlotte Thaarup here today. I’m very excited. She’s from The Mindfulness Clinic. Charlotte, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Charlotte Thaarup: Well, I’m in a very privileged position because I work with what I’m most passionate about and I know it works. I see it on a daily basis. So, I work with mindfulness, and I have for the last 10 to 15 years. Of course, it’s extremely researched. They have 150,000 research documents and articles on it. Many of them are nonsense ones but nonetheless, it points to their effectiveness. Of course, what it does is that it mirrors and matches the ancient practice of mindfulness which sits within Buddhism and it matches that beautifully, so that’s exciting.  

Dorte Bladt: Just to make sure that we know that we’re all on the same page – what is mindfulness?

Charlotte Thaarup: That’s a good question because I think there’s so many different definitions. Some define the practice, some the outcome – that’s confusing in itself. So, if you are doing mindfulness, it’s a “doing” thing. It’s not something you can read in a book. Reading about mindfulness is not going to make you mindful because it requires awareness, so it is a practice where we start to get to know our minds. Of course, our mind is a result of our past, so we start to observe how the mind works so that we can direct it more in wholesome ways and away from unwholesome. That’s really what we’re doing.

Dorte Bladt: Can you give me an example because that sounds very beautiful, but I’m not quite sure if I can see it in my head.

Charlotte Thaarup: So you’ll notice thoughts – thoughts pop up all the time. You’ll also notice sensations – feelings in your body arise all the time, so when you observe something that comes up that’s not very pleasant, let’s say you observe jealousy, and you’ll notice that as a sensation that sort of sits in the chest and in the gut. You can go, “whoa, I better just breathe a little bit now so that doesn’t become a really big cloud.”

That’s one example when you catch it in the body and you just sit with it and you know it is a visitor. It’s not a truth. You can just be with it. You might notice a thought that goes, “oh, I don’t know why he’s saying that. What a stupid thing to say,” and you go, “whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me not continue further on that one.” Just take a few breaths and calm down and then see other options of thinking, because every time you think of a thought that’s kind of charged in that way, you’re strengthening what we call the angry, greedy, arrogant, reactive wolf within, and what you want to do is you want to kind of dial that down. Every time you follow those neural pathways you strengthen it.

We want to really dial that one down while we enhance the other. I think that’s what we’re talking about today, how we enhance the happy, healthy, wholesome wolf within and one of those ways, of course, is gratitude.

Dorte Bladt: Okay, so going back to that, you say we have thoughts that are going on in the back of the head, and I think we all do, we have several types and lots of stuff going on. What I’m finding is that I myself frequently realise that I don’t hear the voice. It’s sitting almost like the subconscious.

Charlotte Thaarup: Yes, an undercurrent.

Dorte Bladt: But is that a voice that you work with in mindfulness?

Charlotte Thaarup: I love that question because the first practice of mindfulness is not mindfulness of thought. Actually, that’s the last. The first one is mindfulness of the body. If you have undercurrents, which we all do, of kind of negative or frustrated, stressful, resentful, impatient, which again we all do, then you will notice that actually they arise from a body state that matches that. It’s so clear that, from a very calm and contented body state, those thoughts cannot arise. So, that means when you’re working on keeping your body calm you’ll also naturally have a calmer mind.  

Therefore the first practice in mindfulness is mindfulness of the body. That means we’re always checking in with where is your body at? When the body is an anxious or uptight or what we call charged state then our first responsibility is to calm that down.

Dorte Bladt: How would you do that?

Charlotte Thaarup: I love that question, too. The first thing is to pay attention to where that charge is in the body. You can also – and this works really, really powerfully – you can simply place your hand over your body, over your heart or where the charge is, and then you pay attention to the warmth and you’re just in the mind reassure the body, “dear body, it’s okay. It’s okay. We’re safe and all is well.”  

That just down-regulates and you’ll notice it happens very, very quickly. Even if you’re prone to panic attacks you can do that. You may, if it’s a panic attack, need a little bit more of an attention grabber, which could be a slight pinch in the inner arm, because as soon as you pinch and you feel the pain your attention goes to the pain and away from the generation of the anxiety. Does that make sense?

Dorte Bladt: Totally.

Charlotte Thaarup: You can also, of course, do what we call the five magic breaths, and it’s all on my website, where you’re just doing a longer out-breath and in-breath which gets you into the parasympathetic nervous system, but sometimes if we have a real charge, we can’t even access that so the body is the first place to down-regulate.

Dorte Bladt: Very good. How would you explain that to, let’s say, a school child because I’m sure you’re aware that kids are under more stress than they’ve probably ever been before, and I have definitely experienced a lot of kids that come in and have issues with anxiety and they’ve got nightmares, they’ve got a lot of stuff going on. Does this work in children?

Charlotte Thaarup: Yes, beautifully. Actually, I had a young girl – she was only 11 – who came in and I showed her the little panic attack interrupter of the pinch. She came in the next time and she said, “look at all my bruises.”

Dorte Bladt: Poor thing

Charlotte Thaarup: But that’s much better than training the wrong neural pathways.  So absolutely they get it. They also get it from the perspective of “your dear body just wants you to be safe” and it gets a little overactive in that way. It is your job to check out is there a real danger and if there isn’t, then you calm it down – but don’t rely on the mind. Look around and see; if there’s no great buses coming your way, most likely you are safe, because the mind, once your body is charged, as we said before, is going to look for the dangers. That’s how it’s trained.  

So children like the idea that, “oh, so I have to work in collaboration, in effect, with my body to calm it down”. So when my heart is racing, I can just put my hand over there and I can say to the heart, “dear heart, it’s okay. We’re safe and all is well. We’re safe and all is well.” Children get it very quickly.  

Dorte Bladt: Children probably actually get it quicker than the rest of us that are going to sit there and think “is that going to work? How is that going to work? How is that going to affect the hormones?”

Charlotte Thaarup: That’s right. I had a lovely friend who said to me, I just want to tell you how it worked for my son. She’s been doing the Dear Body Program and so she shared that with him when he was sick, and he was really in a state, and she said, “let’s just sit and talk to your dear body.”  

And he just put his little hand, he’s six, his hand on his body and he just kept caressing the body and going, “dear body, dear body,” and he just, of course, got out of that very anxious and upset sick state to a calm and he said, “my body is a little better now, mummy.”  

Dorte Bladt: That’s beautiful.

Charlotte Thaarup: So children get it.

Dorte Bladt: So there’s a lot of advice around suggesting we should meditate every day, but what’s the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

Charlotte Thaarup: I’d say that mindfulness is a type of meditation. Meditation can be a guided meditation. There are many different types of meditations but mindfulness is a practice. It’s a type of meditation where we’re really observing the mind. That’s the key thing. So, you might have some lovely meditations where you’re sort of following a wandering path or being with nice light, etcetera. That’s all good and lovely but it’s not mindfulness training.  

So technically speaking, it doesn’t help you get to know your mind.  It takes you to a good place and it strengthens the right neural pathways but it doesn’t get you to know the mind. That’s where the power is in order to create, to feed the right wolf, if you like, getting to know it.  

Dorte Bladt: I might be putting words into your mouth here but what I hear you say is it’s almost like mindfulness is a way of living, where mindfulness is retreating a little bit from living. Am I wrong?

Charlotte Thaarup: That meditation is?

Dorte Bladt: Meditation is a place where you sit down, you remove yourself, you go for your wandering path uphill to the beautiful waterfall.

Charlotte Thaarup: Yes, like an escape almost.

Dorte Bladt: Yes, like you are removing yourself from the situation. What I hear you say is mindfulness is almost something that you’re doing with your eyes open. You’re in a situation. You might be in front of a teacher that’s a little bit scary and you can actually, at that particular point, in a conscious way tell your body to do what it maybe would be better off doing rather than going into this panic state.

Charlotte Thaarup: Yes. Yes and no, because what you’re describing is the mindful way of living where you’re observing in life what’s going on and down-regulating. However, it’s very hard to catch yourself out in that way unless you do some formal practice, so all the good research is based on a minimum of 10 minutes a day over an 8-9 week period, because that down-regulates your system in the first place.  

It also sharpens your attention muscles so that you start to be able to observe what’s actually going on and of course you generally become more aware. So, then we have informal practice and formal. Some of the ones I actually talked about before are informal practices but we shouldn’t ignore the formal practice. It’s really, really important. Particularly if you’re feeling high levels of anxiety, your 10 minutes a day is all it takes to make a big difference in your life. You just start to sleep better, for instance, and we know that not sleeping is one of the early indicators of mental illness and all sorts of mental challenges, if you like. So mindfulness is very, very linked to creating much better sleep. Quality and length of sleep. So the formal practice, don’t ever ignore that or dial that down.  

Dorte Bladt: Okay. I want to return to that in a minute but I just heard you say a couple of times “down-regulating the system” and you also mentioned the “parasympathetic system”. Can you maybe explain a little bit about what you mean by that?

Charlotte Thaarup: So, we have something called the amygdala that some of your listeners may know about, and they’re deeply embedded in the old brain. They are little threat-alerters, if you like, so as soon as there’s a perception of threat, they get activated. When they’re activated, we see the world through a perspective of danger-danger, problems-problems.  

When it activates, the body changes actually. It changes from being potentially in a calm state, what we call the parasympathetic. It’s also called the rest-and-digest state.  That’s actually supposed to be our home base. It activates us into another state that’s about getting away from danger or moving towards what we think is going to feel good.

In that state, there’s kind of a depletion of resources, if you like, if it’s sustained. It’s a fantastic thing for just that little energiser, if you like, to move us up and get us into what we need to get away from or get towards something, but the problem is, in our culture more and more, we’ve kind of moved in there so we’re constantly living in that state. That’s not how it’s supposed to be. You can think of the analogy being firemen.  If there’s no fire, then what are they doing? They’re cooking, talking, preparing, maintaining, etcetera. Then the bell rings and they go out to the fire. Maybe some of us are living as if we’re always out putting out fires. Of course, they burn out and so do we.

Dorte Bladt: Burn out, yeah, literally.

Charlotte Thaarup: That’s right.

Dorte Bladt: Absolutely.

Charlotte Thaarup: Sorry, I didn’t answer that. The down-regulation is when you observe that you are in that state and then you bring yourself back to the rest-and-digest or the parasympathetic. You do that just by making a long out-breath and in-breath, by putting your hand on your chest and saying to your body, because it brings you into the present and the present you is not generating stress.

Dorte Bladt: That’s beautiful. That’s very nice. So, we’re talking about gratitude and gratitude being a type of mindfulness state, I suppose.

Charlotte Thaarup: Well, we talk about really from that perspective kind of strengthening the healthy. So, the healthy, wholesome wolf within and gratitude, along with love and compassion and joy is one of those domains that we strengthen. So, gratitude is a beautiful, healthy mind state. We all know that. If your listeners want to go and just put their hands like in the praying position and then bow their head and say, “thank you” just try that for a moment. “Thank you.”

Dorte Bladt: Am I supposed to think what I was just thinking?

Charlotte Thaarup:  Yeah, you do that.

Dorte Bladt: I’m thinking “thank you”.

Charlotte Thaarup: What do you observe?  

Dorte Bladt: I actually observe a really nice light spreading out on top of my head.  It’s a bit like sunshine, sunrise. It’s very nice.

Charlotte Thaarup: It’s beautiful, isn’t it? So simple. You also notice a calming instantly.  A muting of the self and a calming. So, we consider that gratitude has always been part of human lives through our religions and we’ve kind of dropped it. We used to say grace. We used to do offerings and things and now we don’t do any of that and it’s at a great loss, because we almost do the opposite. We sort of sit in this idea that we deserve – we deserve everything, but no one – on the way into this life – promised that you’re going to get a special deal. Actually, we want but we were promised nothing.  Really, that’s the truth. We were promised nothing and when we really sit with that and we get, wow, we were promised nothing, then everything is kind of a bonus and that brings us to gratitude.

Dorte Bladt: That is a very good state to be in.

Charlotte Thaarup: Yeah.

Dorte Bladt: Taking you back to “we were promised nothing”, well, we’ve been born in Australia.

Charlotte Thaarup: Yes, at the right time – but you weren’t. We weren’t born in Australia, but in a Western-safe world at a time.

Dorte Bladt: So what can people do? Walking around with your hands folded on your chest is maybe not going to work so well. Are there other ways we can reach this state?

Charlotte Thaarup: Well, you notice that within a split second you were there so there’s no reason you can’t when you go to the toilet to do that. You go to the toilet many times a day and you get sort of a double dose of pleasure, right?  

You can do it when you wake up. You can do it between meetings. You can say a little grace and that before you start your food, for instance. There’s lots of ways we can integrate that little pause of opening the heart and bowing the head. That’s in effect what we’re doing. That I’m just a little human and I am grateful for the journey and the experience.

Dorte Bladt: So you mentioned… I can’t remember. That might have been before we started, but you mentioned the traditions that we have had and many cultures have that have integrated. This seems like the traditions that we have now are more of an escape, whether that’s watching something on TV or watching something on your phone, but it almost seems to be like a flight away from our present state. How do you feel that we can potentially create more of that grounded presence into our culture in 2018?

Charlotte Thaarup: Again, we come back to the body. So, when you sit down in a chair… and children are really easy to get into the body because they are in the body in the first years. We all are. So, the problem – we just get out of them when we start to identify with our heads, so we get back into the body. As we’re sitting on a chair, you become curious around the sensations of your bottom against the seat, of your feet against the floor, of your hands, of what you see, of what you hear, what you taste and what you smell. So, you come back to your senses. It’s actually a really rich place to be in.

Dorte Bladt: Yes. Almost a little bit of a moment when you point it out like that. Lots of things to pay attention to.

Charlotte Thaarup: That’s right and as soon as we’re in this with our senses, we’re present. Also, I think we’d be kind of curious with ourselves and what am I trying to escape from? Some of it just bad habits. You know, social media and those things are geared towards addiction. They give us a little dopamine squirt that is just a little hormone that squirts so that we keep doing it. Is it all right when you’re 84 to have spent a lot of time on that? The average amount of hours that Australians spend in front of a screen right now are 46 hours a week.

Dorte Bladt: Per week!

Charlotte Thaarup: So is that a good use of time?

Dorte Bladt: 46 hours a week that’s more than the minimum weekly work hour or work time.

Charlotte Thaarup: That’s right.

Dorte Bladt: That is outrageous.

Charlotte Thaarup: Many of us, of course, use screens for work as well, but nonetheless does it deliver the life quality? Or just take a moment of gratitude, for instance, and notice the difference. What are the experiences? Which are the wolves you want to feed in that space?  

Then there’s a lovely little gratitude practice that’s an ancient – sort of a mature person’s gratitude practice, because many of these things, like gratitude, it gets hijacked by the West. It becomes kind of… I always think of candy floss. It becomes like a candy floss thing rather than really substantial, nurturing practice that they intended to be. Whether you do that with your partner or with your children at night or whatever, it’s very simple. You just say, “what have I received?”

Dorte Bladt: Today? As in, this is the tradition you’re trying to make for a night time ritual?

Charlotte Thaarup: Yes. Exactly. “What have I received?” “What have I given?” And then, “What difficulties may I have caused?”  

Sometimes we think, “oh, that’s a bit hmm-hmm” but just the fact that we perhaps had chicken for dinner that means that something suffered for us, and it brings us back into humility, so for the grace of God, and which brings us back into gratitude. So it’s a lovely, round, circular practice of gratitude, appreciation, humility and reflection.

Dorte Bladt: That’s very nice. Do you have any experience with that particular practice with children? Like you say, it’s easy to do with children, but what are the changes that you have observed, maybe?

Charlotte Thaarup: I get lovely stories back from… so I mainly work with adults apart from our Mindful Caring Program. It’s so lovely that parents will say how they’ve shared this with their children and then the children will catch them out. They go, “oh, but mummy…” So the children become the teachers because they take to it so quickly.

Dorte Bladt: Coming back to being present in the body, they’re much better at not getting lost in all those thoughts that are going around and around and around. “Now, I need to… I know I’m reading you a bedtime story but really I have to go fill the dishwasher and I should put another load on in the washing machine and, oh, my goodness, lunches for tomorrow!” We’re just on that merry-go-round of what’s next, what’s next?

Charlotte Thaarup: Indeed. That’s right and I don’t want to add to the pressure of parenting because I think there’s so much we’re bombarded with but personally, I think apart from the basic things – ensuring that your children sleep and get some good food and lots of hugs and love, it is that you are in a state of calm for much of the time, because we know that little brains form in relation to big brains, so you’re contagious. Your words become their inner dialogue. So that calm state is a huge gift you can give to your children and also in terms of not generating their anxiety any further.  

Dorte Bladt: How many of us have experienced that where you hear your child say something that you think you’re not saying but it’s in your head and you think, “oh, my goodness! Where did you learn that phrase?” And you know that you might not say it in front of them but you think it. It’s like, oh, caught out.

Charlotte Thaarup: That’s right and our states are contagious. Work by Dr Dan Siegel, it’s very, very clear that you may not say a word, but almost the content, the state of your brain is being downloaded. So watch your state.

Dorte Bladt: Easier said than done but it can be done.

Charlotte Thaarup: But the good thing is we know how. We know how.  

Dorte Bladt: So we know how by what? Coming back into the brain?

Charlotte Thaarup: Down-regulating. Becoming aware. Your daily mindfulness practice. They’re five magic breaths, longer out-breath and in-breath. I have a lot of free resources on my website so you can just go to www.themindfulnessclinic.com.au.  There’s eight weeks of daily email reminders that are free. There’s all the nine mindfulness trainings that are free and lots of additional resources, because it makes a better world, to be honest.  

Dorte Bladt: So you have what? Nine? What did you say?

Charlotte Thaarup: So they’re the formal practices of the 10-minute mindfulness practice. There is a gratitude one there too. There’s self-compassion, there’s a goodnight one, there’s all different ones. If you’re new to it, I would suggest that you start with the gratitude. That’s a nice one, but also just the basic, what we call the ABCD, which is your basic attention training. There’s lots of research on the website around why that’s a good place to start. We know that our ability to manage attention is the most powerful predictor of a good life.  

Dorte Bladt: I have been interested in that. Can you tell me more?

Charlotte Thaarup: Well, the study is based on, you might have heard the Marshmallow Experiment. Have you heard of that?

Dorte Bladt: Yes.

Charlotte Thaarup: For the listeners who are not aware of it, it was done I think about 40 years ago in New Zealand. A group of children had a marshmallow placed in front of them and then the teacher says, “if you don’t eat that by the time I go and come back, you’ll get a second one.” A third ate it straightaway, a third waited, and a third was somewhere in between.  

So, 35 years later the researchers went back and interviewed these children and they were curious around how they had fared. What they found was those children that had managed their attention… and of course there are a couple of elements to that.  Like if they kept looking at the marshmallow, it would have gone. So they had to shift their attention from that and maintain it on something else and, at the same time, remember the reward.

There are kind of three domains in attention management. They found that those who had had, in every way, had better lives and that was much more of a predictor of a good life than the school they went to, the postcode, the profession of their parents and all of those other… and that’s from a very basic test around you haven’t gone to prison, you’re considered that you have a good family, stable family life, a good job, a good income, etcetera, which is really exciting but not surprising. Everywhere your attention goes, that’s where your experience flows. So you’re constantly experiencing things according to where your attention is and you’re forming your brain according to where your attention is.  

Dorte Bladt: It’s interesting that that whole thing of I remember hearing about this story but talking more about the delayed gratification. At the time when people told me about it, it had more to do with that thing of you will put in the work now and you will reap the benefits later. So they were talking about better education and maybe being able to build for a bigger…

Charlotte Thaarup: Reward.

Dorte Bladt: Yes, you can get a bigger house or whatever, but it is interesting that it actually affects everything else that you’re doing in all areas of your life… but yes, it makes sense if you can keep your attention on other tasks that is of most benefit to you and not what’s right in front of you makes perfect sense.

Charlotte, I thank you for your time. Can you just run through again, because it was a very long website, where can people get a hold of you?

Charlotte Thaarup: It’s the www.themindfulnessclinic.com.au and there are lots of resources in there. All the audios, the guided meditations, your eight weeks of free mindfulness reminder emails and many other good things, there’s podcasts and lots of things there, so enjoy.

Dorte Bladt: Sounds great. Thank you so much for coming.

Charlotte Thaarup: Thank you. It was a pleasure.

Outro: The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host. Brought to you by Family Chiropractic Centre Charlestown, serving the families in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Charlestown.

The post FF 14: ‘Mindfulness for families’ with Charlotte Thaarup appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dorte Bladt, the Switched-On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dorte Bladt: I’d like to welcome Anna Campbell from HealtheCo to our podcast this morning. Anna, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Anna Campbell: Hi Dorte and thank you for having me and thank you, everyone, for listening. I’m an exercise physiologist (EP) and I run a business called HealtheCo who specialises in pediatric disability. Also, we do see clients who have musculoskeletal conditions and other chronic conditions but 99.8% of our portfolio are kids with disabilities.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. So tell me about – what is an exercise physiologist compared to a personal trainer?

Anna Campbell: We get asked that a lot, actually. Often the question is “what’s the difference between an exercise physiologist as compared to a physio or a personal trainer?” So, there are some similarities but there’s also a vast difference in what we do. Exercise physiologists prescribe specific movements for medicine. So we don’t generally diagnose injuries. We leave that usually up to the physiotherapists and doctors.

You do sometimes find an exercise physiologist out training people in gyms and in football teams and things like that, but most of the time, we spend our time in the middle, working with people with chronic conditions, so for me, I specialise in the disability area but there are lots of exercise physiologists who may specialise in oncology, diabetes, arthritis.

Dorte Bladt: So when you mention those, do you mean exercise physiologists may work for example with someone following surgery for breast cancer who may have trouble moving their arm. Is that what you mean?

Anna Campbell: Absolutely. Yes. So, exercise – the more they study it, the more they realise if it could be put into a pill, every single person on the planet would be taking it and every single doctor would be prescribing it and, basically, the government would be fully subsidising it.  

Dorte Bladt: However, there’s no money in it so…

Anna Campbell: Exactly. So exercise is, fortunately for us, finding its way into so many treatment modalities such as a female who may be suffering from breast cancer. The exercise can not only help with the outcomes of the chemotherapy but it can also help that person feel better throughout the chemotherapy whilst also treating side effects of the chemotherapy such as oedema or swelling, lack of movement through the body, pain in the body, all those types of things.  

Dorte Bladt: So that’s obviously not your chosen field?

Anna Campbell: No. It’s not my specialty. I certainly have an interest in it and follow, I guess, all of the research that’s coming out in those areas but, fortunately, I found myself in a very specific area which keeps me really busy in the paediatrics space.

Dorte Bladt: How did you end up there?

Anna Campbell: Interesting story. So we’re going back to 2002 when I graduated university. I was probably not one of the first exercise physiologists but I was one of the few that came out of the first round of the university degree. I’m showing my age now. Nobody really knew what exercise physiologists were when I first graduated. So I came out and I found myself working – where lots of EPs back then were working, in insurance.  In that space, there’s a lot of people who were suffering from chronic pain and pain-related illnesses, so I got to create a strong foundation on understanding pain, the neurological components of pain and how to use exercise to manage that pain.

I spent eight years or so specialising in that area, then I had my first son, William, and I couldn’t go back to working full time – it just wasn’t going to work for our family, so I started the business HealtheCo. I thought I really want to move into maybe another direction with exercise physiology and one of the biggest areas that I kept getting questions around was postnatal women’s health, so I started educating myself on that area which I found extremely interesting. I started working in women’s health which then led me to meeting a lot of mums, led me to meeting you guys here at Family Chiro, and then I came across a mum who had a little boy with cerebral palsy.  

She basically started asking me a few questions. She said, “could you help out?”  

I thought, “I’m not so sure, but let’s give it a go.”

And I started seeing him four years ago and we haven’t looked back now. My portfolio is full of kids, which is great.

Dorte Bladt: To me that seems like that would be a very different way of doing exercise to a person, but how do you do it?

Anna Campbell: It does, on paper, sound like it would be completely different, but I think that’s maybe why we’ve been so successful in that we actually don’t really treat the kids any differently than I would for an able-bodied child. I want to say I have the same expectations but I don’t have the same expectations in it – I know that all the kids that I see may never be able to run or they may never be able to walk even, but I expect, I guess, the same level of improvements from the kids, you know? We work hard and we play hard in all our therapy sessions and that doesn’t matter whether it’s an able-bodied child or a child with disability. I work across all aspects, so I guess that’s where we find that we’re most effective, I suppose.

Dorte Bladt: What would a session look like for a child that has difficulties learning to walk?

Anna Campbell: Great question. Sessions are all play-based, so our clinic probably looks like you’re going to a daycare centre.

Dorte Bladt: That sounds fun.

Anna Campbell: It’s full of toys, full of mats, and we spend the whole time on the floor.  We use as minimal assistive equipment as I can because I really am trying to help the kids learn where their body is in space – we have a word for that called proprioception, but basically that is helping a child learn where their hands are, where their legs are, where their feet are, and the only way we can do that is having as little equipment or as little assistance as possible and to move their bodies in space.  

Basically, we’ll start a session on the floor. Our warm-ups are usually depending on the child but we might play something like the forest game where we pretend that the child or the mum or me, we take it in turns, have to pick an animal and then we have to pretend to walk or crawl like that animal. So it might be a crab or it might be a giraffe or it might be a bear, depending on the mobility of the child.  

For kids that are at the stage of sitting but are unable to crawl or walk yet, we might pretend to sit up tall like a giraffe or put our hands up tall like a tree, wave our hands around. For the kids that are moving, we may go into a crawl and pretend that we’re puppies. We may wag our tails like puppies, sit down on our backsides like puppies and get up and run around – those type of movements for a warm-up.

Then we get into the more specifics and basically, our exercises or our sessions – I have goals, usually three goals for the session; that might be that we need to work on leg strength; we may work on to allow for standing or coming up to standing. We may be working on upper-body strength to allow that child to pull up to standing and we may be working on balance, for instance.  

So I have those three things in mind and then I usually say to the kids, “okay, what are we going to play today?”

Normally they will lead and they will say, “okay, I want to play drawing on the chalkboard.”  

So, with that in mind, I’ll quickly think on my feet, “okay, great, we’ll start in a kneeling position. We’ll transition into the pull-up phase with the chalkboard, using the chalkboard to pull up, into standing or assist them in standing, and we’ll encourage the child to draw big clouds in the sky”, for instance, so in those, in just that movement we’re working on transitioning from our sitting up to standing and then transitioning to arms up torso. We’re using a core stability proprioception. All that type of thing.

Dorte Bladt: So, what I hear you saying is that you are mimicking the movements that a baby will go through in a normal developmental continuation. So, a normal baby will learn to lift their head up – a normal baby will learn to roll. A normal baby will learn to sit and then they’ll pull to standing and they’ll learn to do whatever.

Anna Campbell: Absolutely.

Dorte Bladt: So, basically you are taking them back to the level they’re at mentally and physically and try to play around that level. Is that what…

Anna Campbell: Absolutely. We all generally have an idea of the milestones that a child is supposed to go through. We go from laying there unable to do too much then we get some head stability and then we start rolling, we start sitting, we start crawling, we start moving. Most parents have that idea. Basically, they’re the milestones that we’re working towards with all the kids.  

Some of the kids have conditions that won’t ever allow them to move through those milestones. However, we will assist them in moving their bodies through those milestones because, as the guys here at Family Chiro will let you know, that’s very important for the neurological development of the brain and the body to move through those milestones and there’s things called primitive reflexes that we need to inhibit sometimes to help the children move through those and that can then assist them with their schooling, their reading, their writing and, eventually, their independence and quality of life down the track. I see it as my job to get the kids basically as independent as possible and our goals of the programs are always working towards that.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. What if you have a normally-developing child that refuses to learn to crawl? So they bum shuffle or they might do a bear walk or they might insist on commando crawling, so they not necessarily have cerebral palsy or any sort of… not that it’s measurable at this particular time anyway, but it doesn’t look as if they have got any issues. Can you help a child like that? Is it worth looking at?

Anna Campbell: Absolutely. Lots of the kids that I see that would prefer to bum shuffle, usually there is something going on. Not serious necessarily when I say there’s something going on. It might just be a little bit of hyper mobility. The body will always choose the easy way out and it will always use its strongest muscles first. Basically, it’s about looking at that child and seeing why it is that they’re choosing to bum shuffle.  Then individually seeking out opportunities to pop them into the position that we’re trying, such as the crawler crawlies, predominantly the position that most children hate to do because it is so taxing on the body.

Dorte Bladt: It’s hard.

Anna Campbell: And it requires so much coordination, so much going on in the brain, so much going on in the body. I can totally understand why kids want to skip that phase because bum shuffling is a hell of a lot easier. So, how do we in the clinic encourage kids to do it? We basically meet them where they’re at. That means that they would prefer to bum shuffle so then we break down the tasks. I won’t go into the details specifically about how many tasks are involved in crawling because it’s a huge number.

Dorte Bladt: You will be there for a while.

Anna Campbell: Yes, but for those that are listening – just know that it’s a lot. Basically, we’ll meet them where they’re at. They’ll be bum shuffling around the clinic and we might say to the child – if they’re a one-year-old child – we might pop toys in front of them and encourage them to put their hands down in front. We call it ‘bunny hands’ or ‘puppy-dog hands’ so they’re getting the feeling of their hands on the floor in front of them, so they could gain that trust that their hands will support them and they have the strength in their upper body because, often, that is a big thing. They don’t trust that they’re strong enough to put their hands in front of them and then we encourage them to start reaching with another hand. So one hand is supporting them then reaching for a toy out in front, or food. Food is always a good one.

Dorte Bladt: Nothing wrong with a bit of bribery.

Anna Campbell: I know. Then encouraging them to come up onto their knees and then it might be that we have to assist them with the movement, with the cross-patterning movement we call it where we do left arm-right leg because the brain actually hasn’t realised that that’s the best way to move in that position. So, I might assist them in that movement by just popping my hands under their tummy and moving their hand to reach and just a little pop of the right leg as a movement. Like, you sort of got to see it done a couple of times so that you can do it at home.  

Generally, the kids will resist and pop straight back onto their bottom because that movement is a little bit scary to start with. Then again, it comes back to that proprioception or awareness of where their body is. I tell parents it’s a little bit like us spinning you around ten times and then back the other way and then telling me where north is. It’s really a bit scary feeling for kids to learn a new movement like that.  

So, it takes a lot of patience and a lot of practice, and that’s what I would say to parents is don’t rush it. A lot of patience, a lot of practice and try and integrate it throughout the day regularly so it becomes a norm. You’ll be amazed that just one day you’ll walk out of the room and you’ll come back and you’ll see them moving around…

Dorte Bladt: Practicing.

Anna Campbell: Yes, practicing because they feel safe in that movement, so it’s about feeling safe in that movement.

Dorte Bladt: A challenge that I feel parents have is that whole thing of, “well, he doesn’t like it.” What’s your advice to parents for, yes, I realise I’m feeling a bit unstable. Shouldn’t we just let him bum shuffle because he will end up walking?

Anna Campbell: I know. Well, he feels he doesn’t like it so there’s reasons why he doesn’t like it. We need to provide the opportunities for him or her to come to like it.  

So, we’re really starving the child of the opportunity to develop and develop those neurological pathways when we don’t spend the time in trying to get them to crawl.  So, it really is important. I don’t want to say that you need to spend half the day with your child screaming and you’re trying to push them into crawling, but certainly a little bit of uncomfortable feelings is where the learning happens.  

Certainly don’t be too afraid to do things that kids don’t like. Of course, we all try and make them fun; we try and encourage them to do them themselves, we meet them where they’re at, all those types of things. But often, in the clinic, we are popping kids into positions that feel scary for them and we just need to reassure them that, “You’re safe. All is okay, darling. Look, we’re going to have a little play in this position for a little while.” The more often you do it, the less resistance there is because that feeling becomes safe.

Dorte Bladt: Because we’re normal and the growth, I think, for all of us in all the areas of our lives is in that uncomfortable zone. If you’re always there in the comfort zone, you are never going to get fitter, you’re never going to get smarter because we always avoid things that are unknown. So, I think it’s very important to provide that safe space and that acknowledgement that you doing something that’s not comfortable will be over here for a short time.

Anna Campbell: Yes, absolutely. The parents often laugh at us in the clinic – before the child gets good at something, we’re often moving to the next thing because I’ll allow them to practice in their own time. My job is to get them into those uncomfortable states to practice it and always be ahead of the next of the current milestones. So, I’m not wanting them to just stay and crawl. Once they’re crawling or almost crawling I’m already looking towards the next milestone. So, my day consists of popping kids into uncomfortable positions.

Dorte Bladt: I love you, Anna.

Anna Campbell: Please, just know that those kids love and trust me and still, to this day, even though they come and see me every week, twice a week and often are getting into positions that they are resistive of, but they know that they trust me as they would trust their parent.

Dorte Bladt: You mentioned the primitive reflexes. I read a study about normal adults and the amount of reflexes that were actually present in normal adults. I guess I’m going back to that whole thing of skipping the crawling phase or skipping the rolling phase and we often think it’s no big deal. He’ll walk anyway, but we don’t necessarily understand the long-term neurological repercussions. I’m not saying that these adults don’t have the reflexes weren’t functioning well. I’m just saying that it is more common that these people like that that we know and that it means that there is a weak link somewhere in the brain.

Anna Campbell: Absolutely. You do see it. I’ve got a couple of friends actually who I interviewed because they were fully functioning, very successful people, but they reported to me that they never crawled so I found that quite interesting in the work that I was doing. So I thought, well, do I need to be ensuring that these kids definitely crawl when they are resisting the crawling phase?  

So I really started chatting with them, digging around what were you like as a child?  Did you find it easy to read at school? Things like that that research tells us that if you have some of the reflexes still there that it makes it difficult in lots of areas, sports, reading and things like that at school. Often it came up that they found anything that where you’re moving across the body, so for instance your hand going across to the other side of the body, from right-to-left for instance, they found things difficult.  

So I would say, “Did you enjoy a sport?”  

“Not so much. I was particularly bad at tennis.”

Dorte Bladt: That was the one I was thinking of. Squash.

Anna Campbell: They can’t for the life of them hit a tennis ball or a squash ball. As an adult now they find that quite funny, but as a child who has to do tennis for sport, I would imagine that would have been quite frustrating and quite embarrassing and those types of things. As I say, it’s not the end of the world because they’ve grown up as very capable adults but there are things that they are particularly not good at.  They’re not good at understanding where their body is. So if you spun them around or if they’re in a city that they’re not aware of, they find it very hard to find their way back. Things like that. Both of these people that I interviewed there were very strong similarities between them.

Dorte Bladt: Interesting.

Anna Campbell: Yes. So as a kid, they’re all things that we would prefer for them to have developed. Certainly it’s not the end of the world but it’s at least a very important part of our development.

Dorte Bladt: And it’s never too late to pick up and say, “okay, well, I didn’t crawl so I will now,” so you’re still creating the neurological pathways even though you are eight years old or 48 years old.

Anna Campbell: That’s right. So, as an adult, physically… I assessed them both physically as well, these adults have very poor core stability generally, because they didn’t spend all those hours in the crawling position, which is in quadrupedal or all fours which is very important for a stabilising our core. So, therefore, they do tend to end up with a lot of cervical injuries or pain due to poor posture because their core is not nice and strong.  

We can go into numerous things as to what they have going on but, as an adult, you certainly can work on being in quadruped, as silly as it sounds, crawling around on the floor, doing bear crawls, regular quadruped crawls, doing what they call “Supermans” where one arm, left arm is out in front, right leg is out in the back while in quadruped – those type of things. Anything that you see a baby doing in crawling position we need to do with adults, too – assist in that primitive reflex and gaining the strength that they didn’t gain in those early years.  

Dorte Bladt: My brain is going all over. It’s just so exciting. When I recently did my course, I did a certificate in neurobehavioral disorders with a PhD in America, so he works with kids that have all sorts of learning challenges and you’re saying – it’s really interesting – the push that we have to help kids that are maybe overweight and just spend too much time on their iPads or iPods, or whatever they’re doing and to push them to start walking. Whatever you do, just start walking. What he was saying was that it’s actually totally, totally, totally wrong, because we start too high in the hierarchy of neurological development. He was saying we need to go back to – not necessarily rolling, but going back to the core stability, because if you don’t have the core stability you don’t get the proper walk and then you’re really just setting yourself up for injury.

Anna Campbell: Absolutely. So, so important. I always say to the families that are worried about their child not meeting the milestone as quickly as other parents should or the parents sort of gloating that their child walked, “didn’t even bother to crawl, just went straight to walking and then running, isn’t that great?” I often find myself saying to the parents whose child is supposedly, in inverted commas, “behind”, those kids are the smart kids. They’re the ones spending huge amounts of time on the floor strengthening their bodies, doing the hard work. So when they’re older they will not end up with all these injuries that are caused through not strengthening the body in the way it should be, before the body is up on two limbs and compressed by gravity and running. So absolutely, for the parents out there worried that your child still isn’t walking in 15 months, just keep them crawling. They will get up. They’re just doing the hard work in their early years.

Dorte Bladt: That’s good. Do you have any advice for – not necessarily the kids with delays, but just something that you can tell to the parents of the kids that we see at Family Chiropractic, something you’d say this is what I would focus on?

Anna Campbell: First and foremost, any type of activity is better than none. So don’t think that you need to enrol your child in a particular type of sport. Of course, unless they really enjoy being involved in sport, and they’re probably not the parents who would be necessarily listening or need to worry about or have that thought, “ah, my child’s not doing enough activity. They prefer to sit and watch the TV or their iPad and everyone tells me they’re watching too much screen time,” really worried. So for those parents out there who want to get their kids more active I would say that – first and foremost, being over-scheduled as a parent yourself and being in a hurry and not having time to play with the kids is probably the worst case scenario because kids they want to do things with you, they want you to be involved with them – and I’m talking kids that are 12 and under. Of course, once they start getting older than that they prefer to do things with their friends, I guess, but for those kids that are younger they want to hang out with you, they want you to be involved in things that they’re interested in.  

So meet them where they’re at. Look – maybe it’s about finding something on their iPad that they’re interested in. I actually don’t know what’s cool on iPads these days, but maybe there’s a game on there that you can play with them in real life. So maybe they’re watching Paw Patrol or Superman or things like that, so maybe it’s about, “how about you turn that off and we’ll act out these in real life?”

Then if it’s Superman it’s, “let’s go to the park and swing from the bars and let’s roll”  and maybe mum may not be fit or well enough to be rolling, doing tumbles at the park, but you can certainly jump and move and pretend that you’re the baddie and shoot spider webs and all those type of things. So, the first thing is find out what they’re interested in and see if you can mimic that in real life through movement.  

And again think, I guess, going back to the start where I have those three goals in mind about what I want to do, so if you find that in your child probably could do with a little bit extra upper body strength, for instance, because they’re slumping in their chairs or having trouble holding their pen writing, maybe the swing from the bars would be an excellent thing to do as Superman or maybe it’s like, “how many push-ups can you do, Superman?” 

Just think on your feet and just become involved in the play. Let them lead the play but have the goals in mind about what you’re trying to achieve out of it.  

Dorte Bladt: That’s excellent advice. I love that involvement of parents because it’s easier just to delegate but…

Anna Campbell: Absolutely.  

Dorte Bladt: We have kids for a reason. We want to have fun with them.

Anna Campbell: Absolutely. Be involved. They will keep you fit and kids will always mimic what they see. If all else is lost, get up and start doing a few exercises yourself and things like that and talk about how well it makes you feel and how great you feel.

Dorte Bladt: So don’t be irritated that they’re jumping on you but use that opportunity to play.

Anna Campbell: Play with them, yes. Absolutely, because they mimic everything you do and everything that you do they take it in.  

Dorte Bladt: That’s great. So tell us again: who are you, where can people find you?

Anna Campbell: Sure. So our business name is HealtheCo. We’re in Lake Macquarie.  You can find us at www.healtheco.com.au and all the contact details are on there. You can also click on there and follow us on Facebook, which is great. You can see what we call the HealtheCo Kids are up to. We’ve got some quite funny little snippets of what they’re doing in all the sessions on there and all their progress, so jump on and check it out and become part of the little community we’ve got going on.

Dorte Bladt: Sounds wonderful. Thank you so much for coming in this morning, Anna.

Anna Campbell:  No worries. Thank you.  

Outro: The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host. Brought to you by Family Chiropractic Centre Charlestown, serving the families in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Charlestown.

The post FF 13: ‘Movement makes the brain’ with Anna Campbell appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Newcastle infant chiropractor, Felicity Cook, shares her preparation and experience with bringing beautiful little Ivy into the world with Dorte Bladt.

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dorte Bladt, the Switched On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dorte Bladt: We’re going to do something really different today. We’ve got our own super mum, Felicity Cook, on the podcast today. Instead of asking your experience with work, we’re actually going to have a little bit of a chat about birth. Now, birth is a very personal experience – a good birth, a not so good birth, some are challenging – but I think many of us get scared… we sort of attract the bad stories. So we’re just here just to have a chat about a happy birth story.

Felicity Cook: Yeah. Exciting!

Dorte Bladt: Yes, so introduce us to the birth.

Felicity Cook: So little Ivy was born back in March. We did, we actually were quite lucky. We worked hard on it but we were lucky to have a nice, straightforward birth. So a nice positive birth story, so we’re lucky.

Dorte Bladt: That’s good. What were the things that – you obviously had a little bit of an idea of what you wanted. I think we all have an idea. What was your vision? What was it that you were looking to achieve?

Felicity Cook: Well, for me, I wanted to make sure that I had the best birth that could allow my child to have the best darn life. That was kind of my aim. So at the end of the day, if I had to make choices that meant that her safety was paramount then I would do that, but I wanted to also make sure I can have close to natural delivery as possible. So that was my ideal and so was Ivy’s, as you can hear. So really, I wanted it to be intervention-free, if possible, and work towards that.

Dorte Bladt: So that was your vision. What sort of action steps to take? What plans did you put in place to try to achieve that?

Felicity Cook: Well, I made sure that I had the best support I could. Initially, when it came out to it, I wanted to make sure I had the care providers that would support that vision and who understood that vision – so I did. I went and actually met with a couple of obstetricians and then I also met with the midwives and I came away from that feeling like the midwifery quality of care was intuitively what I needed to do for me and I felt amazingly supported in that. That was great and also then having the support team around me too, so knowing that my partner was on board and he was happy with that too. Then making choices towards the end that enabled that all were on board with that too, so antenatal education and books and those kinds of things that helped along with it.

Dorte Bladt: So what sort of antenatal team did you have?

Felicity Cook: Well, I had my amazing midwives, my primary midwife, and she was there pretty much throughout the whole care for me. So from when I booked in at 20 weeks with the hospital and with the birth centre. I had some really good antenatal that was privately arranged and then I also had my chiropractor. That was a big part for me for lots of reasons and I had that all the way through from basically prior to conception, so I thank you.  

Dorte Bladt: Anytime.

Felicity Cook: Towards the end, I also did some acupuncture as well, too. That was my support team.

Dorte Bladt: And when you were looking for support, what sort of support were you interested in?

Felicity Cook: I knew to have the birth that I wanted to have, I knew that I had to have the options of being active for as long as possible. So I wanted somebody who would support the idea of active birth if I needed it and also that could give me techniques and measures that could avoid intervention, so being able to move, being in the right headspace. So having the right mindset around that was really important and just people who are on board and understood the vision that I had.

Dorte Bladt: What is your understanding of an active birth?

Felicity Cook: There is the true active birth. For me, I just wanted to be able to move, if I could. I didn’t really want any restrictions if possible. So early stages of labour for me, I did go for a walk because I thought that that would be a nice way to either bring it or slow it down and a good way to tell that you’re in labour or you’re not. The night before I went into truly serious labour, I thought I might have been on the verge of it, so I went for a big long beach walk with my dogs and, yes, I could actually start off be like that, be as active as I could and then have that available to me throughout the labour – if I needed to be active, I could. If I wanted to walk around, I could. I didn’t have those restrictions.

Dorte Bladt: And that was because you were in a birthing centre, you feel? Or was it more your team that provided you with that?

Felicity Cook: I think the birth centre ideal is that you try and go as intervention-free as possible, generally, not that they explicitly say that but you don’t have the availabilities of things like pain relief or epidural so they want you to be as active as possible, so that was a big part of it. But also for me, I enjoy movement and I feel movement, and I figured if I could move well through the labour, I’d be able to move well afterwards and I wouldn’t be restricted in my recovery from that delivery either.

Dorte Bladt: Good. You were talking about the education that you had going through the pregnancy itself. What tools do you feel that was useful to learn, that was helpful for the birth process itself?

Felicity Cook: For me, the mental preparation that comes with that. So a lot of the meditations and the visualisations are really good. The breathing – because that actually gives you something to focus on, too. The program that I did, there was a big focus on different types of breath for different stages of labour and having a partner who could do that.

Dorte Bladt: So it was a two-people education. It wasn’t just this is what you need to do.

Felicity Cook:  Yes and that was important, too – having a partner who kind of had an idea of what was expected of him at the time. He knew a bit about what to suggest or where to be. So he knew all the breathing and the mindfulness exercises. He was also given some tools about acupressure points to release and we talked about different muscle releases he could do or ways he could help support my hips if I needed it. So he had stuff to do. I think as a male partner, I think sometimes boys like having things to do, so that’s great he had those tools.

Dorte Bladt: To make them active.

Felicity Cook: Yeah, so that was useful for me too because I knew that he didn’t need my direction. I didn’t have to think. I didn’t have to tell him. He knew what was expected of him and he could act accordingly.

Dorte Bladt: So this is basically some discussions that you had both as a couple but also with the antenatal educator?

Felicity Cook: Yeah. The antenatal education that I did – which was She Births – really did promote that.

Dorte Bladt: You mentioned that you were also doing your own… research may be a strong word, but you were reading some books.

Felicity Cook: Yeah, so I think there’s lots of information out there and I think that can also be a bit of a downfall sometimes, too. I’m very lucky having worked with pregnant women for a long time that I kind of knew what was out there and I had also heard my fair share of stories where things didn’t go very well, either. So I had looked at, in the past, the resources that women had told me about that were quite useful. I went, “okay, this is what I want to suggest to some women”. So then I looked at how that had helped women through the practice as well, too. The books I found particularly helpful were Juju Sundin’s Birth Skills because that’s a lot of movement-based stuff. So a really good way of pain management or pain distraction which you don’t need the whole… you can’t use the whole way through labour, because otherwise, you get too tired but it’s good for crucial times, so I really like that book.

I do really like Sarah Buckley’s Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering because it gives you the information that you need. Then the two other things that I had were Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery which is just a bunch of stories. Another, Guide to Childbirth, which is just a bunch of good birth stories. They’re not all positive like they’re not all perfect vaginal births. They’re all different types of births that’s really good… and then I had this one video that I watched that was actually the kind of ideal birth. So I just kept that and I watched that a couple of times towards the end. So that was the visualisation.

Dorte Bladt: I think just realising that I think we all have a plan. We go into birth time thinking this is what I want, this is what my plan is. I guess the important thing with this is that there’s no judgement when things go wrong. Things may change and we don’t have any control, but one thing is what happens, another thing is how we react to what happens – like what you’re talking about in that book – not all the stories were great but how did the people still end up with a baby.

Felicity Cook: Yeah, and the knowledge around that too. You can’t always control what happens on the day and things that I thought I would do in the birth suite, I didn’t do, but you can’t control it, you prepare for it, I guess. So you can inform yourself with those things and know the whole situation, like you know that epidurals do tend to lead to more interventions. That’s what the research tells us, anyway. It’s not everybody’s outcome but knowing that that for me was like, “okay, well, maybe I don’t want to be offered an epidural the moment I step into the birth suite”.  If I choose, I came on the way that’s likely to be the option then I’m less likely to have that intervention.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah. What was your experience once Ivy actually was born?

Felicity Cook: Immediately after? It’s amazing. You think, “wow, my body’s amazing!” It’s just done. Then it’s like “yes, yes, thank you! It’s over!” Because it is a long time there. But my recovery was quite good because I didn’t have the interventions that some people need or have. I had delivered placenta very easily and basically, I could just walk out of there. That’s what a lot of people were surprised at. I had her and then three hours later I’m walking out of there and going home.

Dorte Bladt: Did you have that whole experience of the baby crawling up your tummy, the skin-to-skin and all that that a lot of midwives are talking about as a really good bonding time?

Felicity Cook: Yeah, we did. We had delayed cord clamping, so it meant we just basically could stay where we were for a little while and have lots of skin-to-skin. So the moment that she – that first hour, she was pretty much on me, which is what we wanted. We made sure we left all that vernix on there for as long as we could. Then for that little time where I just had to go and have a shower and sort of…

Dorte Bladt: …Make yourself decent.

Felicity Cook: Yeah! Then our option was then our second best option, which was have skin-to-skin with her dad. So she wasn’t really off us at all for the next 48 hours. She was on us the whole time as much as she could be.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent and how do you feel that this experience of having such a beautiful birth and really positive experience – how does that place you for coming back into practice which you have done for the last four weeks you’ve been back?

Felicity Cook: It gets me more and more excited to work with pregnancy. I’ve always been excited about working with pregnant women, but I’m getting more excited because I’ve obviously got a little bit more knowledge about it too, and if there’s anything that I can bring my experience to help other women have that experience, then that’s exciting too because I think a lot of women don’t realise they have choices, or what choices are available to them. Obviously, I knew that I had choices and I have done a lot of research about what those choices are in our area, too, so I have lots of knowledge around it. I’m happy to share that, but also for the health of our kids at the end of the day. If we can facilitate a nice experience then it means you bond so much better, you recover so much better.  I mean, physically, in our job, if I hadn’t had the birth experience that I had, I don’t think I would be back at work this early. So there’s all of those kinds of things.  The bonding happens and how you can get back into your everyday life, too.

Dorte Bladt: Now, you mentioned – you were talking about the videos that you watched for visualisation and the meditations. Are there specific meditations that you can do for birth?

Felicity Cook: There are, there definitely are and I didn’t actually – I listened to them in the early stages and then I just had a track of mine, so there’s music playing in the end that I could just focus on because I knew that I had to focus on, I had to get something else to clear the chatter in my head. I listened to those meditations too many times so I could actually almost tell what they were – I needed a distraction. I just needed to focus on something that wasn’t that. So, I feel sorry for anybody else in that birth suite with me because that played – the same track played – for the three hours I was in there, pretty much. Luckily, it wasn’t a drawn-out labour where I was there for hours and hours. They probably would have gone crazy. But for me, it was literally just an app with my phone as music in the background and then the visualisations and the meditations from the program that I did with She Births.

Dorte Bladt: Okay, so it wasn’t something that you necessarily found on the internet that people could download.

Felicity Cook: There are plenty out there. She Births just gave them to us, so we had them available to us and they’re quite good. They’re great. I mean, She Births is a really well-thought-out program. So it’s them and you can do that, but the one, the mindfulness track that I had was literally from Mindspace. It was an app that I just downloaded and just decided halfway through that I just needed that track.

Dorte Bladt: And you had for a moment because I thought you were also working with a doula for a while?

Felicity Cook: Yes, I did. We had that support because all three of us had the support of a doula.

Dorte Bladt: What is a doula?

Felicity Cook: So a doula is a birth assistant or a birth companion. There are lots, actually, that say that they have doulas who come into delivery and are actively there. There are doulas who just do prenatal, doulas who just do postnatal stuff too. So we had one who had done a little bit of our pre-birthing with us and she was going to be there with us on the day, but we called her and told her that things were happening and then we just kind of got so in the moment that we didn’t end up having to call her back. So we called her after Ivy was already here. She came when I was in the birth suite afterwards, which the benefit for us was knowing we had a backup if we needed her.

Dorte Bladt: So a doula’s job would be to guard the hospital, to be helpful or to actually do the massages themselves?

Felicity Cook: Yeah. It’s really what you choose it to be. For us, it was having that third person, so that if Cameron became fatigued and needed to step out, he could, and I was okay with that as long as I had somebody familiar with me. I think mentally I understand that you’re sitting on the sidelines for however many hours and you don’t know how long it’s going to be. It can be quite tiring, so if he needed a moment to step out and even to have some food then I wouldn’t be completely on my own – which I wouldn’t have been because I had those midwives there who were very supportive and familiar to me – I didn’t actually need the doula in the end, we didn’t because we had this team of really supportive people with us already.  

Dorte Bladt: So you went through Belmont. They have a set amount of midwives that you get introduced to and it will be one of them? Or how does the team work from the midwife perspective?

Felicity Cook: Well, for me, I was really lucky in that I had the complete continuity of care that every visit for me was done by the same midwife, except for my booking appointment. I got to meet… because they’re such a great little community out there, I did get to meet other ones along the way, even just those of us waiting for an appointment they would come in and have a chat. Then the backup midwife – who we didn’t actually meet until that day – she was great. She was amazing. You knew that they all talked and they are all on a similar page. Sometimes they just drop in when you’re there for an appointment and say “hi”, so you knew that that would possibly be somebody you’d meet. So there’s only a certain number of people who are going to be there.

Dorte Bladt: Do you know how many people are… I think is it one man? Mainly women in the team?

Felicity Cook: Yeah. I think it’s grown a little bit. They’re a great option, I found. A great, great option so it’s nice that they’re growing – but I think there’s maybe 10 or 12 that are rotating.

Dorte Bladt: So if you show up, would you potentially be exposed to all 10 or are they in smaller groups? So you’d say it’s one of these three that you will be with?

Felicity Cook: I think it’s more like that. We had a rough idea that the backup was going to be one of two people, depending on which rotation, which week you went into labour. We were lucky. They were great. Then I met the two others on my prenatal appointment.

Dorte Bladt: So you had met them, all of them there.

Felicity Cook: Yeah. Met enough to know that I was comfortable with whoever it was.

Dorte Bladt: That’s good. Any advice that you have for mums that might be listening to our little podcast?

Felicity Cook: Trust your intuition. I knew that when I had looked to other care providers that they just weren’t right for me. I’d actually been initially told that I probably wouldn’t meet the criteria for Belmont, but I just decided to call them anyway because I knew that’s how I wanted to go. So trust your intuition. Trust what feels right, because that turned out beautifully. Inform yourself and actually feel comfortable with that because sometimes I think women feel a bit disempowered, or they feel like they don’t have… they just have to follow all the instructions that they’re given, but you don’t necessarily have to. The care providers are great. Lots are giving advice from a very experienced and informed place, but there are usually more alternatives out there than you realise.  

Dorte Bladt: Yeah and sometimes all the advice, like you said, you try to follow it all and you end up getting totally confused, which is probably not the best place to come from when you’re going through such a life-changing experience.  

Felicity Cook:  Yeah, because I think… this is not my saying but one of another chiropractor that we know very well, has said that sometimes in pregnancy it’s almost like you have to prove that you’re not sick or you’re not unhealthy. I found that very true. So you have to then trust your body and go, “you know, I’m strong and I can do this. I’m meaning to do this.” If that’s what works for you, choose the team that’s going to support that.

Dorte Bladt: That sounds great. One thing I was confused up here, but I just remember you talking about strength and the amount of physical work you also did. One thing was walking, but you actually did a fair bit of strength work through your pregnancy as well to prepare you… well, probably to stay fit but also to prepare yourself for the birth.

Felicity Cook: Yeah. Definitely not doing as much now time-wise, but I was still going to the gym and still doing weights and things even to the day. So I had her on a Sunday morning and I went to the gym on Friday morning.

Dorte Bladt: Were you guided by someone?

Felicity Cook: Yes.  Definitely by somebody who’s very skilled. Towards the end, it was all one-to-one because, earlier in the pregnancy, I had been dealing with some issues, too, with just being uncomfortable. A lot of women do get back pain in pregnancy. I didn’t think I would and I didn’t. I got pelvic pain instead and so I had to deal with that. I wanted to make sure I was as strong as I could be for the delivery but also my recovery, and so I would have that mobility. So I made sure I could do that for as long as I could. I was going to the gym as often as I could, doing Pilates to make sure my pelvic floor was happy. So doing all the prep work that I could do physically so I could be as mobile as I could but also recover as well as I could too.  

Dorte Bladt: What did you do with regards to… we’ve talked physical and we’ve talked emotional. We might as well talk about the chemical side as well. What did you do to prepare your body nutritionally?

Felicity Cook: Yes. Pregnancy is hard in that sometimes you can have the best intentions and that will get out the window. Be careful, you can’t. A little bit intuitively – like I love coffee and I do love the smell of it, love making it, and my body just went “you can’t have this”. I still haven’t had any so it’s been a long time without coffee. So it’s about listening to that a little bit too, but also then pushing through some of the days where all you feel like is just eating pasta. Making sure you get vegetables and those kinds of things. So plenty of the good stuff, plenty of the green stuff, and plenty of balance in that too. So making sure that you… for me, I did like sugar. That was probably my stimulant of choice when I was tired. I just tried to make it as healthy as possible. So dates and nut butters and those kinds of things.

Dorte Bladt: And did you take any particular supplements?

Felicity Cook: I did. I took a very carefully-selected antenatal multivitamin throughout for a couple of reasons. You’re tired in the beginning, particularly you don’t always feel like having the green smoothie even though we made it and it’s there. And you go…

Dorte Bladt: Yuck.

Felicity Cook: Exactly. So that made sure I was really well-balanced. Then towards the end, I did need to also then supplement with some iron. But again, I didn’t want the average iron because I know that can be hard for the body to absorb, so I went to the compounding chemist instead talked to them about what the best options were.

Dorte Bladt: So again, you used your support people.

Felicity Cook: Yes.  

Dorte Bladt: Because reading whatever magazine we tend to have lying around doesn’t necessarily give us the best advice for something like that.  It might be more a question of who has paid for the ad.

Felicity Cook: So true. Actually, that’s very true. Also because they can just be a bit of a scattergun approach. You may not actually need all that.

Dorte Bladt: One last question. My brain is just…. Seriously, talking about scatter: the abdominal separation. Did you have any issues with where the two sides of the stomach muscles are pulling apart? Did you have any issues with that?

Felicity Cook: I did. Every woman has a little of it and that’s just how functional it is and how strong you are with it. But for me, I had a hernia when I was younger as a child and I had surgery with that so that actually popped up about halfway through my pregnancy – like literally popped up.

Dorte Bladt: Great. Welcome home.

Felicity Cook: Yes. So I had to deal with the diastasis a little, bit but could still be functional. That’s the thing. It didn’t stop because I had these issues. I was just dealing with it and working around it in the best possible way.

Dorte Bladt: Right. Just tell me a little bit about now Ivy is five months old, almost. She’s been here for a long time. So what are you actually doing now to take care of your body?

Felicity Cook: Well, yes. I’m not back where I would like to be or where I thought I would be by this stage. I haven’t been back to the gym yet but I’m going to go and so I’ve been more gentle than I thought I would. My body had different needs then, feeding, sitting, breastfeeding can be hard work actually. I did say I prefer to give birth any day than feeding initially.

Dorte Bladt: Are you serious?

Felicity Cook: Because it’s hard work. It’s hard work on your body and I think a lot of mums – a lot of attention goes into bub at that time, but I needed attention. My body needed attention too. So I saw the chiropractor and I also went and saw a therapist to make sure everything is recovering from my lower body, who was good. Getting posture happy. I’m working on those things. So I had a bit of attention that time too. You needed it to make it a successful journey there. And then Pilates, yoga. Initially, I was really keen to get back into exercise really quickly and then I kind of slid off a little bit, and then now back into working at it again. So back to the gym – next week I’m going.

Dorte Bladt: Yay. Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing your story. It’s a beautiful story. I look forward to hearing lots of good feedback.

Felicity Cook:  Thanks, Dorte.

Dorte Bladt: Thank you.

Outro: The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host.  

The post FF 12: Felicity’s beautiful birth story appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Jasmine Polley shares her professional insights about the connection between a healthy gut and a healthy body and brain. You will understand the importance of feeding your gut bacteria to help them thrive and the intricacies of pre and probiotics. Enjoy!

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dorte Bladt, the Switched On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dorte Bladt: Welcome, Jasmin Polley. We’ve got Jasmin – she is a local Charlestown naturopath. I’m really excited to have a chat to you.

Jasmin Polley: Hi, Dorte. Thanks for inviting me on to your podcast.

Dorte Bladt: My pleasure! So tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? What do you do?

Jasmin Polley: Well, I am a biomedical naturopath. I started about 15 years ago and I’m currently still studying. I think I’ve always studied, but moving more into the functional medicine side of things as well. So I specialise quite heavily in gut and digestive health as well as hormone and thyroid imbalances.

Dorte Bladt: Interesting. Can I just be – because I’m not the smartest person in the world – what’s the difference between a naturopath and a biomedical, whatever you said you were, practitioner, and functional medicine?

Jasmin Polley: Well, there’s a lot of overlap there because my view on things has been always looking at the underlying cause and having a good framework where to investigate that in each person that comes in. Functional medicine provides more of a framework around that. So, it’s very evidence-based and it gives us a really good way of digging deeper and finding those Achilles’ heels that people might have that’s their imbalance and where some of their health issues may come from.

Dorte Bladt: So does that mean different testing?

Jasmin Polley: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: How would naturopath testing compare to a functional medicine? I mean, I know it’s different from person to person.

Jasmin Polley: Well, it is very different from person-to-person so it’s a difficult thing to say. I do use quite a lot of normal pathology. Not so much with kids, though, because I don’t like to put kids through unnecessary blood tests.

Dorte Bladt: They hate them.

Jasmin Polley: Yes, but as well as other functional medicine tests. Then obviously a big part of it is a really good case history taking, so really digging deeper, finding out when did their actual health imbalance start, because I see a lot of these symptoms as being an imbalance in what the body wants to restore to normal. So, if we can adjust that, then the body has got an amazing ability to be able to heal itself.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah, it’s amazing, isn’t it? So, just fill me in a little bit about… you said, so you like, if we’re looking at kids anyway.

Jasmin Polley: Yeah, sure.

Dorte Bladt: Looking at their guts. What does gut health have to do with the health of a person?

Jasmin Polley: I think gut health is paramount because our gut is where we’re receiving the nutrients into our body. It’s also where our immune system is trained. So, most of our immune system hangs out in the gut, especially when it comes to kids – their immune system is developing and this is happening in utero and through the breast milk as well. There’s a big priming of that immune system that’s happening in the early years. If we can really look after kids and their gut health in those times, then we show that there’s a much-reduced expression of chronic disease later in life.

Dorte Bladt: So what does a good gut consist of?

Jasmin Polley: A good gut symptom-wise, you mean?

Dorte Bladt: No. Just what does it look like? When you assess a person and you say, “oh, my goodness.  You’ve got a great gut!”

Jasmin Polley: Well, a lot of that, first off, would come back from the symptoms. So people saying that they’re breaking their bowel motions. A lot of them have got lovely Bristol stool charts. Everybody gets to see that and show me what sort of stool they’re having each day because that’s really important to see if they’re going frequently, the right form and things.  

The other thing is no bloating, indigestion, burping. All of those kinds of things. Now, there’s a lot of testing that we can do. So, usually, that will either be something that could be initially people coming in for gut health complaints. Otherwise, people want to usually address their current concerns and then I move them towards gut health with pretty much every client, because I see it’s so important. That’s where we can do testing for their microbiome, so we can actually do genetic testing to see what levels of bacteria they have. Then we can also test food sensitivities if there are any issues with them reacting to things. It should be healthy foods in their diet but it’s not healthy for them. Also that their nutrition is correct, because if they’ve got nutritional deficiencies then that could come from them having either gut inflammation or a lack of enzymes or ability to digest.  

Dorte Bladt: So what would kids be present with that would have a gut issue?

Jasmin Polley: They can present with a lot of different things. So, obviously, gut symptoms would be a big one. So, constipation or diarrhoea. I get a lot of parents coming in where the child might only go once every second or third day and a lot of people have the assumption that that’s normal because that’s the way it’s always been. I don’t see that as normal and that can usually be corrected quite quickly with just being able to tweak their diet for what’s suitable for them and address any food sensitivities that they may have. Other things can be chronic sinusitis or ear infections, often to do with gut health as well. That’s where the immune system is reacting to other foods or environmental stimuli that it shouldn’t be, so it’s overreacting. And other ones would be a lot of the allergies, so like eczema, dermatitis reactions, as well as even things like asthma and hay fever symptoms would be a lot to do with gut health and the harming of the immune system as well.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. You have mentioned food sensitivities a couple of times and the fact that certain healthy foods or that we perceive as healthy may not be healthy for a person. Could you maybe elaborate a little bit about how does that work in a little child?

Jasmin Polley: Absolutely. So say, for instance, if the child doesn’t react well to the dairy protein. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s… a lot of people think of lactose intolerance but what we often see with food sensitivities is more about the casein and, in some cases, the whey, which are the protein components of the milk and that, in turn, in grains could be the gluten from your oats or your wheat products. So with those sorts of foods, they’re seen as an intruder to the body. That means that the child’s immune system can actually start attacking those components that are coming in and cause inflammation through the system. Now, if there’s inflammation in the system, depending on where those inflammatory compounds settle out in the body is where you can get symptoms. So they could settle out in the skin causing eczema; they could settle out in the joints causing joint pains;  obviously, some of them can pass through the blood-brain barrier and cause moods, like anxiety or poor concentration or even autism and ADHD symptoms. They’re linked in with those as well.

Dorte Bladt: Oh, and we see so much of that. What’s your theory as to why have the inflammatory numbers… I suppose when I say inflammatory I’m thinking about the things you just mentioned. You know, when I go back and think of being young, I don’t remember anyone having bloating or eczema or ADHD, and I’m sure it’s just because I had a small number of friends, but why do you think things have changed over the last many years?

Jasmin Polley: I think a lot has to do with the way that we produce our foods. There’s so much… like in a lot of foods, there’s less fibre in those foods, there are more chemical residues in those foods and we know from kids’ bodies, they’ve got a smaller liver and their smaller weight ratio so they’re affected by pesticides and chemicals in our foods much more than adults are. So I think that that’s a big part and then just the way that we breed our foods, with the different hybrids. For instance, with wheat, it contains huge or much larger amount of gluten than it used to, and then we’ve got the glyphosate which can make kids more, and people in general, more reactive to the gluten as well.

Dorte Bladt: So what is glyphosate?

Jasmin Polley: Glyphosate is like your Roundup.

Dorte Bladt: Oh, really? Sorry, I misunderstood you.

Jasmin Polley: I was just reading a paper the other day actually showing that it forms complexes with the gluten that the immune system can then not be able to recognise well. The other components tend to be able to break down the gluten properly.

Dorte Bladt: So, it is coming back to being more inflammatory for the body.

Jasmin Polley: Yes. It brings back the argument for people who don’t have celiac disease, are they reacting to the gluten because they’re actually intolerant to the gluten or is it because of these chemicals and pesticides that are on the gluten?

Dorte Bladt: So the first point of advice from there would that be to try to eat more organic, less processed?

Jasmin Polley: If people can. Now, I know that it’s sometimes picking the battles and I think for parents listening out there, they might be just thinking, “well, that’s great, but I can’t afford that”. So yes, if you think your child is reactive to gluten then potentially if you’re going to give them bread, try them on an organic type bread if you’re not keen on going gluten-free. But really, I guess I look at if maybe taking the gluten out initially – if that’s doable for the parent. See if everything settles down because sometimes they can be more sensitive to even just the one. If things don’t settle down then sometimes we need to go a little bit further and then see if we can bring that back and if we’re going to bring it back, bringing back the organic form of it first would be a good way of testing that theory, I guess.

Dorte Bladt: Do you have ways of testing – I guess what I’m hearing is that you’re saying try to eliminate different products. Are there ways, knowing that kids have sometimes very selective palates, are there ways of maybe helping a family go through that so they don’t have to just eliminate everything?

Jasmin Polley: Yeah, absolutely. I try to keep it as simple as I can. If we do the food intolerance test then that actually helps to see what the main culprits are and then I’d focus more on the moderate to severe intolerances with that. Otherwise, it’s about helping people go through eliminating the major ones which often are your wheat or gluten, dairy and eggs.  So they’re pretty much the three that I see come up the most. Obviously, nuts, seafood, yeast, and others that can be there, but those three tend to form most of the intolerances. Some kids will be reactive to just one of those. Unfortunately, some kids will be reactive to more. If I see a lot of reactions there then I’m definitely considering more of a leaky gut or an intestinal permeability point of view, so they could have had their intestine – some sort of infection, perhaps – that they’ve had that’s led to some increased leakiness that’s going to make them more reactive to other foods as well. So sometimes when we correct their gut health, these food intolerances can go away in some cases.

Dorte Bladt: Okay, so, I’ve got lots of questions for you. I can’t remember them all. So with regards to the food intolerance test, is that the proper blood test that you would get normally when you go for an intolerance test?

Jasmin Polley: No. With kids, we usually do just one that’s a little finger prick. I’m pretty good at doing that now. We hardly ever get any tears.  

Dorte Bladt: Oh, very good!

Jasmin Polley: I know! Quite quick! And that tests for 46 different foods. Now, it’s an IgG reaction test so it’s not a true allergy test. If I do suspect allergies then that’s when I still would refer them to an immunologist to get the skin prick test because that’s the most accurate way. Although, I do see some people go through with the blood tests and I don’t always find that that’s an accurate way to test allergies.  

Dorte Bladt: Can you just explain – because I think sometimes people get a little bit confused about that whole allergy intolerance scenario – how come they’re not the same?

Jasmin Polley: It’s actually a different immune effect in the body. So, with an allergy, you’re getting histamine released from mast cells, so it’s quite a fast onset and it can be quite severe. So that can be often with asthma or airway issues, but it can also be around sinus and eczema in some cases, whereas an intolerance – sometimes that can take up to three days to set in. It can be an accumulative effect in some people. Some kids – they might be okay having a bit of dairy, but when they have too much, all of a sudden they get a flare-up of their symptoms. That can be really difficult as a parent because you’ll be thinking about what they’ve had. They’ve been having dairy and then they’ve had this new food which may not be related at all but it can just confound the mothers. A lot of parents are just really confused with what’s setting off their kids in the first place.

Dorte Bladt: Well, fair enough – but is it a combination of this or is it a combination of that? Then you end up not being able to eat much of anything.

Jasmin Polley: Absolutely and I think that that’s the really sad thing – there’s a lot of kids that end up on quite restrictive diets that I see. My aim is to try to prevent that as much as possible because the more that you restrict the diet back then you’re going to actually cause damage to the gut microbiome or the bacteria that live in our gut that have to actually keep our immune system modulated.

Dorte Bladt: So because you have a restrictive diet, I’m just trying to extrapolate on what you’re saying, does it mean that the gut bacteria live on different types of foods?

Jasmin Polley: They do indeed, yes. A lot of them, especially anybody that comes and sees me knows that I’m very passionate about a rainbow food diet, so trying to get as many different plant pigments from as many different variety of plants, so rather than sticking to the same type of apple or the same type of carrot, experimenting and trying different colours of food, different colours of grasses, different coloured beans. All of those things can feed different varieties of our gut microbiome and when we’re thinking about our gut bacteria, we can have over a thousand different species in there. Some of those might be only fringe dwellers, so they might only be very small numbers, but if we put the right foods in there they can grow up and really cause massive effects in our own immune balance.

Dorte Bladt: So how long does it take to change the gut microbiome?

Jasmin Polley: It does depend. If there is really imbalances there then sometimes it can take a little bit of time to be able to, I guess, restore balance in the gut. So with kids that have been on quite a restrictive diet, we can’t go too fast because then we’ll get bloating if we bring in foods too quickly. However, when we’re looking at the actual growth of bacteria, we can radically change what bacteria are growing in our gut in only four days.

Dorte Bladt: Oh, my goodness. That’s quick, isn’t it?

Jasmin Polley: Really quick, but saying that, yes, sometimes it does take a lot longer than that just to prevent symptoms coming on in the first place. Make slow and steady adjustments so that the kids aren’t getting flares in their symptoms.

Dorte Bladt: I suppose when you say it only takes four days to make a change, then it probably also means it takes less than four days to make a negative change, if you’re unwell or if you’re taking too many days of not particularly supportive foods.

Jasmin Polley: Absolutely and I think a lot of people might know that after coming back from holidays and maybe feeling good on holidays for a period of time and then getting back and going, “oh, I really upset the balance of that”.

Dorte Bladt: “Oh, back to normal”. Okay, so if we find that a child has some sensitivities – let’s just say it’s gluten – does that mean, “okay, we’ve done a blood test, we see it’s gluten, we’re taking it off”. Are they off gluten forever?

Jasmin Polley: Well, that’s a really tricky one because there’s a big difference between something like celiac disease, which is an autoimmune condition where they’re actually attacking that gluten and is causing a lot of gut damage compared to someone who maybe has an IgG reaction to gluten or to wheat or something like that. So if they’ve been diagnosed as celiac disease – which the unfortunate thing about that it can be quite difficult to diagnose because they need to be eating quite a lot of gluten – then there’s a blood draw or test that’s taken. If they’ve got high levels of antibodies there then they usually send for a biopsy to confirm that. So that’s the celiac side of things but if somebody is reactive, say on an IgG test, and we don’t believe it’s celiac disease then what I would be focusing at first of would be settling down their symptoms, healing their gut, so you know, trying to make sure that they don’t have any leaky gut and that their immune system back to balance and then we can start with some of the gluten and grains back into their diet and see if that flares things up.

Dorte Bladt: To see how they react.

Jasmin Polley: Unfortunately, there is a little bit of guesswork there because the testing in Australia for gluten is still a little bit behind.

Dorte Bladt: So what’s your experience with the amount of time that it takes to heal? You said that you can make a change in the gut over four days and, chances are, that’s not what’s going to happen if you’ve been having 12 years of gluten intolerance, or whatever. What sort of time frame do you tell the parents? Do you say, “okay, we’re going to do this for, I don’t know, six months, and then we’ll do a test”? Or are you going to say “we’ll do it in three weeks and then we’ll do a test”? Or what’s your sense?

Jasmin Polley: Well, once again it depends on the situation as well. So, like, if I’ve got kids coming in that have got diagnosed celiac disease then we know that it’s going to take about 6 months before their intestine is absorbing food in the right manner to curb some of their nutrient deficiencies and obviously, they’re going to be staying off gluten for life. However, for a child who maybe has eczema and is reactive with that, they should start seeing results with taking those foods out within the first week or two. But you would be waiting at least the 3 to 6 months before you wanted to start bringing those foods in and that’s when we’ll be doing the gut healing. Now, to know the exact time frame of how long that takes, it depends if we did the testing. With most of the parents, we’ll just go off the symptoms more so than doing the testing. However, there is leaky gut testing that we can do. I always offer the testing but there’s no pressure either way. We can work in a range of budgets and that sort of thing with people.

Dorte Bladt: There are a lot of different people talking about – obviously – the state of the gut microbiome and suggesting kombucha and kefir and kimchi and sauerkraut. How do you feel about from not a supplement point of view but from having those things in your diet? What effect does it have in the gut?

Jasmin Polley: Well, a lot of those probiotics that you get in those forms – and the same also with your supplement forms – they’re transients. That means they don’t set up house in the gut but they come through and they can actually help re-establish balance in our own gut bacteria. So our gut bacteria are generally set at quite a young age, around three years old. They say that our gut microbiome is set and that it’s not going to change too much. Obviously, we could kill off species in that time but we’re not going to be able to add too many at current thinking anyway. So what we’re doing with putting some of these fermented foods in, though, is actually some of these bacteria that are coming in can help potentially have a settling effect on the immune system as well as acting a little bit like police, I say. So, getting some of the gut bacteria that may be messing up to straighten up some of their habits. So, that’s where we use probiotics as well. Some of the probiotics that I use are ones that have been consistently shown to be useful, say for instance some are beneficial for diarrhoea, some for constipation, some for allergies, and knowing their specific strains that would do that job.

Dorte Bladt: So it’s not just necessarily going to the chemist and say, “oh, I’ll just have that one.”

Jasmin Polley: Absolutely. There’s a lot out there that have got 50 billion of ten different strains and really they’re doing nothing because they’re not using strains that have got any efficacy in the body. Saying that, though, I still definitely encourage the fermented foods and I’m a big fan of encouraging prebiotics.

Dorte Bladt: That was my next question. What’s a prebiotic compared to a probiotic?

Jasmin Polley: A prebiotic is the food for the probiotics, like them taking their packed lunch when you’re taking a probiotic, or if you think about your own gut bacteria which the number of bacteria that we have in our gut outnumber our own cells ten to one.

Dorte Bladt: Wild, isn’t it?

Jasmin Polley: I know. That still gets me. So if we’re actually nourishing them through feeding them the right types of food – that can make a massive difference. When we’re looking at prebiotic, some of the things like your inulin or FOS, for instance, has been shown to increase levels of your lactobacilli and bifidobacteria and decrease levels of a lot of your harmful bacteria. So that’s something that’s great in there and it’s also a really great one for kids because it’s great for their immune balance.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. Is that a supplement or is that something you find in foods?

Jasmin Polley: Both, actually. So it comes actually in a lot of your FODMAP foods. I don’t know if many people have heard of the Low FODMAP Diet. The Low FODMAP Diet is a diet that restricts different carbohydrates because it can settle down bloating and a lot of gut symptoms. The problem is a lot of people can get stuck on this diet for too long and they can actually not be feeding their gut microbiome. So foods like leeks, shallots, artichokes, most of your greens, like broccoli and things like that are actually providing some of these fermentable carbohydrates, so will actually be encouraging good bacterial growth.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent.  

Jasmin Polley: Yes. Sometimes you need to look at an underlying cause if you’re sure they got a bacterial overgrowth, but then bringing those foods back and trying to nourish the good bacteria.

Dorte Bladt: So it doesn’t just feed – whatever – one-cell in your body, it also feeds the ten cells in your gut.

Jasmin Polley: Yeah, absolutely. I think just reminding people of when they’re eating they’re not just eating for themselves, but they’re also eating for their gut bacteria.

Dorte Bladt: For their family. Someone told me once that if you – because we were talking kids, but, you know, antibiotics – it supposedly kills out a significant number of your gut bacteria as well as whatever else it’s targeted for. How long does it take or is it possible to bring it back to normal levels?

Jasmin Polley: Yeah, it depends on the type of antibiotic and how long you’ve been on it. Your general penicillin or amoxicillin, they’re generally pretty good at being able to bring the gut back from that. If they had been on triple broad-spectrum antibiotics then it can definitely a little bit trickier. Some of those gut microbes species may be killed out with that, so that means that they’ll unfortunately never come back without a faecal transfer or microbial transfer as far as we know unless – technology might catch up and we might be able to buy some of these gut strains in pills in the years to come – but when somebody has just had antibiotics, it does vary, once again, but you’re probably looking at at least a month to six months depending on the antibiotics.

Dorte Bladt: Okay, so people actually mentioned kimchi and kombucha is all very good, but I take it that people like that actually need a supplement.

Jasmin Polley: Yeah, I do use probiotics in that case and I use prebiotics to really boost that back and making sure that they’re taking probiotics during the time that they’re taking the antibiotics. A lot of people wait. They think “oh, it’s really no good” when it can actually definitely prevent more damage with them doing that. Just obviously taking them at a different time of the antibiotic and some, there’s different probiotics that are actually transient yeasts that are not killed by the antibiotics so we can use them at the same time to prevent some of the antibiotic-associated symptoms, like diarrhoea and things like that.  

Dorte Bladt: It’s so important, isn’t it? That means then that a family with a kid with infections or whatever, they have their antibiotics but they really should take the probiotics then for six months?

Jasmin Polley: Well, if they can do that then yes, that would be good. The other thing is even starting off with a high-strength probiotic and then really looking at the prebiotic side with that, because the prebiotics you can actually buy things, like your GOS and your FOS, which are different types of prebiotics at higher levels and you can be supplementing that which works out more cost-effectively as well.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. So what do the average parent that is listening, can they go to the health food store and say, “okay, well, we have just had antibiotics prescribed for ear infections. I need probiotics. What do I need?” Can they go there? Is it something over the counter? How does that work?

Jasmin Polley: Yes, they can. It depends on the staff that they get, obviously, and how much they know about that. Can I mention brands or anything like that on here?

Dorte Bladt: I think you can. I want to say, yeah, we do one of those and we offend anyone, but, yes, you go ahead.

Jasmin Polley: I just think that the Ethical Nutrients brand is one that’s pretty easy to get – that would be the Inner Health. If it’s still damaged by the antibiotics then it’s a good one for re-establishing balance. They do do a brand that I think is called Candex that has that yeast in there, so that they can take it at the same time. So that will be a place to start if they at least want to make sure that they’re doing something at the same time and then just really trying to keep their child’s diet as broad as they can, really thinking about those rainbow foods so that they’re nourishing the child at the same time.

Dorte Bladt: I’m going to throw you a curve ball here. I know you have two children.

Jasmin Polley: Yes, I do.

Dorte Bladt: So what does their lunchbox look like?

Jasmin Polley: Well, that fruit and vegetables for the Fruit Breaks. Usually, they got a little container with some chopped up apples or some berries or something in it and another one where I usually put some carrot, cucumber, that type of thing.

Dorte Bladt: Okay, so we’ve got red, orange and green.

Jasmin Polley: Yes. So I’ve got a rainbow in there. My son – he’s loving his fried rice at the moment, so I think with winter – bringing that into the lunchbox. I usually got to mix the veggies in there and we use brown basmati rice so that’s a little bit of a slower GI release. That’s a good thing with that. My daughter often likes wraps – so a wrap with a salad and some protein on there. Then it depends on what I’ve got – sometimes I do get lazy and I’ll just get a packet of popcorn or something like that, but ideally, I like to be cooking them a little mini quiche or things like that that can be as their recess kind of options.  

Dorte Bladt: Good. Well, you passed the test.

Jasmin Polley: I was right.

Dorte Bladt: Absolutely. One last thing – do you have a particular passion? Do you have some advice that you think is incredibly important for our listeners to have? Something they can use in their everyday life?

Jasmin Polley: So I’m known to go back, I think my number one thing that I really want people to know is that food can be your medicine and don’t underestimate the power of a healthy diet and what you can actually heal from just eating well. The most of our nutrients can come through our foods. Now, it is true that our foods may not contain as many nutrients as they did in the days gone by, however, if you start there, at the very least trying to eat as broad a diet as possible, at least the kids are getting a broad range of tastes then as well. So a lot of kids they don’t know what they don’t like or what they will like until they’ve had it quite a few times. So, you know, really sticking with that. You know what’s best for them as a parent. Just getting them to try little bits and experiment with the foods that they’re eating can make a big difference for not only their health now but how broad their thinking is when they get older.

Dorte Bladt: That’s good advice. I’m just going to tell you a silly story. A couple of years ago, my son was travelling around the world and he was in Canada living with a couple of boys. As the typical mother, I’m thinking “he’s out of home… I wonder whether he lives on McDonalds and stuff”. So I just had a very quick sneak peek in the cupboard to see what he had in there – what I found really interesting was that all the hard yards – he is living away, he’s out of home and mother isn’t going to tell him what he needs to eat any more – but his cupboard was full of lentils and brown rice and fruit and vegetables. There was nothing prepackaged. I was so proud of him. One thing was being proud of him and another thing will also be a little bit proud of me, but knowing that it is when they’re young that they pick up the habits. If we can instil a healthy habit, it will be with them for their health for a lifetime.  

Jasmin Polley: Absolutely and I think kids are little sponges so we really can educate them now so that they can understand that they’re growing a healthy body and that starts early on when they’re putting all those foundations in, so the more that we can get them eating healthy and if they do eat bad, they’re feeling sick, actually questioning them, “oh, what do you think may have caused that?” And linking it back to maybe the unhealthy food that they just had before or something.  

Dorte Bladt: That blue vomit, child, may be because of the sponge cake. Sorry, that was disgusting! Thank you so much for joining us, Jasmin. If you could just again just fill us in, where are you? Who are you? Just so people know where to contact you if they feel they can get some benefit from having a chat to you.

Jasmin Polley: Sure. Thank you so much, Dorte, for having me on. I’m actually just pretty much around the corner from you in Charlestown. My website is https://www.wellnessvision.com.au, so you can find out more about me there if you’re interested.

Dorte Bladt: And your name again?

Jasmin Polley: Jasmin Polley.

Dorte Bladt: And your business?

Jasmin Polley: Wellness Vision.

Dorte Bladt: Perfect. Thank you.

Outro: The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host. Brought to you by Family Chiropractic Centre Charlestown, serving the families in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Charlestown.

The post FF 11: ‘It’s all about the gut’ with naturopath Jasmine Polley appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dr. Dorte Bladt, the Switched On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dorte Bladt: So you’ve got Family Chiropractic’s dynamo at the podcast today. Super duper matriarch, Katrina Morton. Welcome, Katrina.

Katrina Morton: Thanks, Dorte.

Dorte Bladt: Basically, just to start with, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Katrina Morton: I have been at Family Chiro now for 15 years.

Dorte Bladt: 15! I haven’t managed to get rid of you yet.

Katrina Morton: No, no. And I have got four grown-up children. I’ve got three grandchildren with one on the way in February, so we’re all very excited about number four. I have worked here and seen so much go on through chiro so, over the years, I’ve done Pilates and so I thought I’d like to be a bit more involved with Family Chiro instead of just being on the front desk. So a few years ago I became a Pilates instructor and between chiro and now Pilates, it’s giving our patients a great opportunity to really have a good future with their supported spines.

Dorte Bladt: Very good. So just tell us, what is Pilates?

Katrina Morton: Pilates is a series of exercises that are performed on a mat. You can do it on a reformer that I do mat Pilates and it strengthens the whole entire body with supporting the muscles around the back, the core, your bottom and your hip. So with chiropractic aligning the spine and now with Pilates strengthening these muscles around the spine, you end up having very good posture and a lot stronger body.

Dorte Bladt: That’s good. So how does Pilates differ from – I don’t know – maybe doing weights at the gym, which would also, I suppose, strengthen the body and the spine?

Katrina Morton: Yeah, it does, but with Pilates, you actually are not relying on weights to strengthen you. You actually are relying on your own body weight to do it. So as we strengthen each muscle, instead of workout at the gym you might be doing weights and you strengthen the bicep, with Pilates it’s all slow and controlled. Say you were working on your arms, you’re actually strengthening the entire arm muscles, so it’s not just focusing on one muscle. You’re actually learning to focus on all your muscles and so you will strengthen all the muscles.

Dorte Bladt: Also while you’re strengthening your biceps, you’re working through the core, working through other muscles there.

Katrina Morton: Yeah, because of the breathing. You see, the more you breathe – the deep breaths, it gives you better lung capacity which then, in turn, helps strengthen your core muscles which then help all the stabilising muscles. So you’ll end up not just having a strength workout, you are actually doing a bit more of a mind-body workout as well.  That’s a big difference from other exercises. They just do a physical side whereas with Pilates you actually do pretty well mind, body and soul.

Dorte Bladt: I have many years of doing Pilates but I always remember that rib and hip connection. Can you explain what it is that a Pilates instructor would mean by saying that?

Katrina Morton: When people lie down… so do this at home, everyone. Lie down on a mat and just lay there and you’ll notice your ribs are popped up. So as you breathe, you just breathe through your tummy and it pops your ribs up but in Pilates, we want you to breathe within your lungs, not using your abdominal muscles. So with your rib and hips, you bring it all down together and you tighten your lower tummy muscles. So between your chest and your pubic bone, you want all your muscles to be tight and contracted and flat. So if you imagine you’re on the floor and you’re drawing your muscles – all of your muscles – down towards the spine. That’s the rib-hip connection, keeping your torso tight. Imagine Glad Wrap being wrapped around your torso, that’s how you should feel.

Dorte Bladt: Basically, when people are lying on the floor and they’re lying flat, and you say the ribs are popping up, what they want to do is bring the ribs not necessarily towards the spine but down towards the hips but also towards the spine.

Katrina Morton: Yes, correct.

Dorte Bladt: Now, if you’re in this position, and I always wondered about that when I first started Pilates and people will say, “now, bring both your arms up above your head without letting the ribs flare.” I remember thinking “that is the best tummy exercise” when you’re bringing your arms straight up above your head and down again because you want to automatically flare that chest. And you look down and you think, oh, “I didn’t know I had my… Where did those ribs come from?” But when you do the contraction that you’re talking about, you’re doing very little movement elsewhere but you’re really contracting through the stabilising muscles.

Katrina Morton: Yes, because Pilates is all about slow and controlled. So if you wanted to try anything at home, lie on the floor, take your hands to the ceiling, take your legs up to the ceiling, draw down on all your tummy muscles towards the ground and feel your tummy contract.

Dorte Bladt: Okay. I feel like a dead bug.

Katrina Morton: That’s exactly how you look.

Dorte Bladt: Great. Thank you.

Katrina Morton: But it’s a very, very, very good exercise.

Dorte Bladt: So what inspired you? What is it? Five years ago? What inspired you to start doing the teaching of Pilates? I know you’ve been doing it for a long time.

Katrina Morton: Well, yeah, I have been doing Pilates. You know, I started in my 40s when children were all grown up and I thought it was time for me to do something. So I had a taste of Pilates and I just loved it because I didn’t have to bounce around the gym. I didn’t have to walk into and have 50, 60 people in the class. Then a few years into it, working here at Family Chiro with everyone wanting doing their best to get the spine and the hips and the shoulders and neck all working, I thought what better way than to help the patients as well is to become a Pilates instructor, which I’ve absolutely loved every minute of. Now, I feel like I’m also helping the patients. It’s not just about the girls being chiropractic. I can help as well to heal these people and make them stronger and now the years have ticked by and I’ve got a great following of people who come to my classes and they even inspire me because Pilates isn’t about an age thing. You can be a senior, you can be a young mum, you can be whoever you want and you can start doing Pilates. I’ve got 65-year-old women in my class and they inspire me because they are so super strong.  It’s amazing to see the results in the few years of doing it. I also get great pleasure of watching my pupils become super strong.

Dorte Bladt: Super strong and that determination of people just like “that’s what I’m doing. I’m going to get better.”

Katrina Morton: Yes. They love a challenge. I find that the mature aged women actually are probably better than the young ones because they really do love a challenge.

Dorte Bladt: So what is the biggest win you have experienced with your classes?

Katrina Morton: I think just watching them grow, watching them strengthen. Even themselves, they sit back and think about when they first joined the class and how weak and pathetic their abdominal muscles were and they couldn’t do anything. Now they can plank and they can push up and they’re super strong. They can go and play with their grandchildren on the weekend and nothing bothers them. They can crouch down. They can jump up. I think it’s just inspiring watching the pupils just come in and…

Dorte Bladt: Is there one particular person that stands out that you would say, “wow, this person has really outdone themselves.”

Katrina Morton: Yeah, I would actually. She is a little woman but she is my 65-year-old. She’s the one that inspires me. She has just become so super strong that I think if there was a competition of planks I think she would win. She’s better than me.

Dorte Bladt: That’s amazing.

Katrina Morton: She is super, super strong so it’s wonderful to watch.

Dorte Bladt: I realise that this is not a class and we can’t really do this. But if you were to, say, give some suggestions or some advice to people that are listening, are there some things that they can do?  I mean, one thing is obviously showing up to your class, but if they’ve got little kids at home and it’s too difficult to find time, is there something that you would advise for them to do that would make a difference?

Katrina Morton: Absolutely. There’s so much you can do at home. Everyone has a lounge so all you have to do is stand in front of that lounge, even if you’ve got a baby – put the baby up in front so you’re carrying it. That will give you a few little extra kilos to carry and you crouch down, so your legs are just a little bit wider than your hips, and your feet are just slightly turned out, and then all you do is go down and just tap your bottom on the lounge, and then stand up, squeeze your bottom, do it again. Do that squat maybe, if you can, 25 times and build yourself up to 50 times.

If you’ve got a doorframe, which we all have, take your hands on that doorframe and stand up on your toes, squeeze your bottom, use your calves and then just come back down flatfooted and then repeat that 25 times. Build that up to 50 times. You can do pushups on a wall. Just stand there a little bit out from the wall. Have your hands at chest high and just push up and down. If you feel like that’s too easy, get on the floor and do some pushups. Everyone knows how to do a plank. Again, it’s one of those things you just tighten that tummy if you’re on your knees or your toes.  Just do it for a few seconds or a few minutes, whatever you can manage, but everyone can do something at home.

Dorte Bladt: I’m just going to go back to “so everyone knows a plank”. They might all know it…

Katrina Morton: But we don’t really know.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah, we don’t. So if you were to describe it again. It’s much easier when you’re actually watching it, but the arms would be where?

Katrina Morton: Your elbows are directly under your shoulders.

Dorte Bladt: So you lie down on the floor.

Katrina Morton: Yes. Lie down on the floor and be on your tummy. Then put your hands together and place your elbows under your shoulders and lift your body up and you’re on your toes.  So your bottom has to stay flat and you’ve got that complete plank.

Dorte Bladt: So you’re straight.

Katrina Morton: Yes, nice and straight.

Dorte Bladt: Nice even line from your feet to your shoulders.

Katrina Morton: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: I suppose the thing to remember with this is – don’t look at your hands and don’t look at your bellybutton.

Katrina Morton: Yes, don’t look at anything. Again, it’s what I said before. It’s about drawing that bellybutton in towards the spine. So as you’re in that plank series… and you can be on your knees. You don’t have to actually be on your toes. So you can still be on your knees, but it’s about drawing up your tummy towards your spine and breathe. Don’t hold your breath.

Dorte Bladt: Breathe… slowly but controlled.

Katrina Morton: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: So with these exercises that you’re talking about, the one thing that I have experienced as a difference… over the last 25 years or 30 years, however long it is I have been a chiropractor… a long time, the change in people’s postural control with the fact that we’re sitting so much more. This is not just in the last little while. This obviously has been going on for a hundred years, but that thing with Pilates that I really like is the potential to focus on the pelvic floor. I think we’re forgetting the pelvic floor because it’s not a muscle that you can do bicep curls with, but doing – like you were talking about the pushup on the wall or planking or whether you were doing a squat. If you’re saying holding your tummy in, one thing is holding your tummy to the spine.  Another thing is drawing up, so contracting the pelvic floor. Do you agree with that visualisation?

Katrina Morton: Absolutely. We all do forget about pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is just, as Dorte said, pulling up those muscles as tight as you can and contracting them. It’s something you can do sitting. You could be in the car and at the red light. That’s something you do. You can pull in your pelvic floor. This is for men and women. It’s not just for men. It’s for the women and the men as well. So you draw it up. You hold it as long as you can. You tighten those low tummy muscles and you can get a super, super strong pelvic floor by just doing that every day.

Dorte Bladt: I guess it’s not even just that whole pelvic floor thing. It’s remembering that the pelvic floor is connected to your breathing. It’s remembering that the pelvic floor is connected to your bottom muscles and to the lower abdominal muscles. We just forget that we don’t have separate bicep muscles. It’s all connected and it all works and it all stabilises.

Katrina Morton: That’s why I think I love Pilates so much is because when you are in the class, you are working every single muscle you own, and that includes the pelvic floor. So the people who do Pilates would actually have a super strong pelvic floor. That’s the one really big bonus about Pilates, especially post-baby, that would be a wonderful exercise class to go to would be Pilates.

Dorte Bladt: So how soon after having a baby can you do Pilates?

Katrina Morton: As long as you get that clearance from your doctor after that 6 to 8 weeks and you feel you’re ready for it. Yeah, you have to get that medical clearance from your doctor, but yes, you can start, because Pilates is something that can always be modified. Whether you’ve got an injury or you’re doing rehabilitation – there are thousands of exercises in Pilates and so it can always be modified for your personal need.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah. When you were talking about modification, I remember reading years ago about how Pilates actually started.

Katrina Morton: Yeah. Joseph Pilates started it back in 1920. He was actually doing it for the First World War. He was starting to bring in – for the injuries and the poor soldiers that had injured themselves in battle – so he started these exercises to help rehabilitate the men back to some sort of strength and good health, but then he started to realise that these exercises that he was doing actually ended up… well, after the war, he then started his own studios and he started to help people to prevent injuries and that’s another reason why it’s good to do Pilates. I found out here, with chiropractic, they help stabilise everything, and then with Pilates, we’re also doing the same thing because one of the biggest benefits of Pilates is to help stabilise the spine. So with chiropractic, getting the nervous system working properly and all your organs working properly, then in Pilates we’re also trying to strengthen every muscle so that we’re stabilising what the chiros are doing and so it’s a perfect marriage.

Dorte Bladt: You talked about reformer and that’s not what you do, but am I right in that this particular person that started it, he was taking springs from beds and doing resistance training?

Katrina Morton: Yes

Dorte Bladt: That’s fantastic! But that’s a good thing about Pilates. You don’t actually need equipment.

Katrina Morton: No. Exactly. That’s why it’s good to do anything at home. You don’t actually need any equipment to actually strengthen yourself. Use your own bodyweight, or you young moms out there with babies, use your babies. Use your babies as a weight.

Dorte Bladt: So when we have this young mum with a six-week-old baby, it’s okay. She can come to Pilates, but how do you manage having a class with a mum with a little one?

Katrina Morton: Oh, it is quite amusing. The other women in the class love it because the little ones are very, very cute, but they are funny, because I’ve got a little toddler in one of my classes now and mom just gets a super workout because he’s over sitting on her head or sitting on her legs or sitting on her abs and so she has to work twice as hard as anybody else, because that little toddler is about 12kg and it’s hilarious. He thinks it’s hilarious and gives us all the giggles. So it is beautiful to see the moms bring the children to Pilates because they can actually use the child in Pilates too. So it’s fun to use them as a weight.

Dorte Bladt: I was going to say, yeah, it’s a tough dumbbell to hold on to.

Katrina Morton: Yes. Moving a lot.

Dorte Bladt: So you would be okay with mums bringing in little ones?

Katrina Morton: I think it’s a fabulous way for mum. I know how hard it is. You have a child and you’re at home. How do you get to classes without your children and you haven’t got a babysitter? That’s why I will always encourage my mums to bring the babies. I don’t call them a mums-and-bubs class. It’s all about the mums. The babies are more than happy to play with toys or lay on the floor or whatever, but I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for a young mum to get her body back into shape, get her muscles nicely tightened again after giving birth and having her baby with her.

Dorte Bladt: Let’s just say that a mum comes in and she has a young one. She’s never been in before, she’s never done Pilates before. How do you work with someone that you potentially could have something to do, so some stuff going on but you don’t necessarily know?

Katrina Morton: I often – you know, particularly if it’s a chiropractic patient – I will always discuss everything with the chiro first and see what the background of this person is, but if it’s just a young mum who’s decided to come to a Pilates class, I usually get them in 10 minutes earlier than anybody else so I can give them that one-on-one time of literally explaining how Pilates works, how today don’t push yourself too far, let me know if you’re feeling anything a little bit odd and I’ll really keep an eye on that particular pupil for the day, but it’s one of those -I only have small classes. I think it’s better to have a small class and then you can all get those one-on-one techniques right. Often you can go to a big gym.

That’s another difference between Pilates and a gym. You might have 50 people in the class. How can a gym instructor really keep their eye on you? Whereas I like to keep my classes very personal. I really get to know how that person’s body is reacting to all my exercises. If they’re good, I start to intensify them and if they need a little bit extra rehab, then I can modify it just for that particular person. That’s what I like about Pilates. You can just always fit everybody into your class.

Dorte Bladt: So you can always make each exercise easier or harder.

Katrina Morton: Absolutely.

Dorte Bladt: That would be a challenge if you’re teaching in a big class because I have often… I like going to the gym, as you know, but looking around then they say, “now, do this particular exercise,” and I’m looking at people thinking, “oh, my goodness, I should give you my card because you will be hurting very soon.”  Because we do a particular abdominal exercise that is just beyond the strength and capacity of that particular person.

Katrina Morton: Exactly.

Dorte Bladt: Injury will tend to happen, I think.

Katrina Morton: Oh, I look at the gyms and think that, too. I’ve got friends that will go, “oh, I’m going to the gym for the very first time.” And then they can’t walk or breathe or do anything for the next five days because they haven’t had that personal, I suppose, first lesson of “take it easy, let’s work out what you can and can’t do.” That’s what I like about my classes or any Pilates classes I’ve been to as well. They give you that personal touch.

Dorte Bladt: What about pregnancy?

Katrina Morton: I believe… sorry, I didn’t have the opportunities, like the young mums of today have got opportunities to do any class they want to do. I would have loved to have had Pilates in my life pre-conception, pregnancy and then post. I didn’t really discover it until I was in my 40s but I love the fact these mums today can do whatever they want. So I would definitely suggest – get into it now. Definitely keep it going. There are proper pregnancy Pilates classes out there. I personally don’t do them but I know there is a lot in Newcastle that you can do and it really does help with the pregnancy.

Dorte Bladt: Could people come? I realise it’s not a pregnancy class but could they be part of your class or would you suggest they go to someone that specialises in it?

Katrina Morton: No, I have had a few pregnant girls in my classes. Once again, you just modify what you do. You might bring a big ball in, you might bring different equipment in for a pregnant girl, because of course, they can’t lie on their backs like everyone else can, so you just modify it and they can still do a very good workout even though they’re pregnant.

Dorte Bladt: Can’t quite protect the stomach just the same way.

Katrina Morton: I can’t quite do that.

Dorte Bladt: Right. So what else do I need to know?

Katrina Morton: Well, there’s so many benefits of Pilates. If you’d like me to tell you what some of the benefits are, we could really run through a couple of those.

Dorte Bladt: Absolutely.

Katrina Morton: Because it is amazing how Pilates can actually benefit the body. It definitely improves flexibility. It increases all the strength in your abdomen and your bottom and hips and it improves your posture outside. The most important, it improves the stabilisation of your spine and also, I love it because it will always help to prevent injuries because your muscles are so lovely and strong that it automatically will already start to prevent… so if you’re into sport, you should actually be doing Pilates so that you can enhance your sport performance.

It’s just such a good thing because it increases your lung capacity, your blood circulation – so you got your heart pumping and also too, it’s just once you get into Pilates and you really get the breathing down pat, it’s so good. It’s relaxation for the neck, the shoulders, and the upper back as well. So it just takes care of the whole body. It just works for everyone, men, women to do Pilates.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. I remember talking to a colleague of yours a few years ago and she was working I think as a Pilates and yoga instructor for a professional sports team around here.  Big blokes, strong blokes. She was saying it was hilarious to get them to do Pilates and yoga in that 1) they had absolutely no idea and 2) they couldn’t believe how weak they were in their core because they are so strong! They use their muscles in certain ways and – supposedly, this is just what she told me – she said the benefit was just amazing because they increased their flexibility, they increased their core strength, they increased their stabilising strength for the strong muscles.

Katrina Morton: Absolutely. Well, I have men in my classes and some of the men have come because they’re losing their core strength and they want to surf, and they want to continue surfing until they’re old.  So they have found the improvement is just unbelievable in their core strengths to actually jump on a board. I was given an opportunity through a friend that she owns a big CrossFit gym.  So these are big, strong, superwomen in my eyes. They can lift weights. And she said, “could you please come and do a Pilates class with these group of women?”

I think they looked at me and thought, “She’s in her 50s.  This won’t be hard.”

It was hilarious because those girls could not believe how hard Pilates is. I was so much better and stronger, even though physically they looked so much stronger than I am. They actually do not have glute strength. Their abdominal under muscles are just so weak. So their core is so weak, their bum is so weak, and yet they are so super strong, but it’s the internal muscles…

Dorte Bladt: They use the active ones.

Katrina Morton: Yeah, they use all the external muscles – your six-pack muscles, if you want to say it, but they have no inner strength. So that was hilarious. It was an eye-opener for them.  They realised then they need Pilates to actually become super CrossFit people.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah, to get the whole health. So how do people find you?

Katrina Morton: Well, because most people do know me through Family Chiro because I have been here for so long now, so if you really do want to find me, I am at Family Chiro at Charlestown. So please look me up and please come and join me in one of my classes. I think you will really love it and you will get so many benefits from it. I just couldn’t live without it.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent and just to go through your name and your business name?

Katrina Morton: My business name is Tone Up Pilates and my name is Katrina. Just give me a ring here at Family Chiro and I’m sure I can fit you into one of my classes. It would be lovely to have you in one of my classes because I’d love to see you get the benefits that I’ve had.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. Thanks for your time, Katrina.

Katrina Morton: Thanks for having me, Dorte.

Outro: The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host.

The post FF 10: ‘Tone up for health’ with Katrina Morton appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Melinda, a local dynamo, mother of 5, gym owner and naturopath talks to us about how she helps busy Mums and families get a healthier balance in their lives.

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dr. Dorte Bladt, the Switched-On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dorte Bladt:  I’d like to welcome Melinda Carbis-Reilly to our podcast today. Thank you for joining us. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Thanks for having me. I am the owner of Redhead Wellness Sanctuary – I’m a naturopath there. I’m also a fitness and Pilates instructor. My latest babies are my books. I’ve written a book called The Natural Path and that one is aimed for families. It’s more of a reference guide to keep it up in your medicine cupboard and when your kid has an earache or you have a tummy bug, you get it out, you flip to that page and there’s some nice home remedies there for you to get stuck into so you don’t have to race off to the doctors at midnight if it’s not necessary. Sometimes it is.

Dorte Bladt:  That sounds good.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: The other book I wrote was Diggin’ Your Dark Side. That one is more to help people that are a bit challenged with stress, mental health issues, like depression and anxiety, or possibly suffering from addictions as well. So that book is based on my life when I went through a bit of a depressive state when I set up my business, ironically, in wellness is when I hit my absolute bottom with adrenal fatigue and things, so I just shared all the tools I learnt from that in there.

Dorte Bladt:  Wow. That sounds like it’s built on experience. That’s always interesting to read.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly:  Oh, makes a complete difference to textbooks when you actually experience it.

Dorte Bladt:  Totally. And you remember it for a lifetime.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yes.

Dorte Bladt:  So you say that you are a fitness instructor.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: Yes. What sort of fitness are you looking at?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I do love my classes. That’s what I’ve stuck to now. I used to do a lot of rehabilitation and physical therapy back when I first started in the industry, especially with my Pilates. I was very much into that. But now I really like the group fitness because everyone is happy when they walk in the room. They’re ready to go hard and then go home. So I do love my strength and cardio and spins, probably one of my favourites as well.

Dorte Bladt:  You also have your naturopathy side of things. What do you specialise in? What’s your favourite?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: My favourite is probably gut health, I must say. I do love working with the gut because, as a typical naturopath, we believe that’s where it all starts. But I also love helping Mums and kids. That is a big passion and that’s where most of my clients lie. I find that a lot of kiddies come in that have immune problems and they have gut problems as well. I’m seeing a lot of kids with anxiety which is quite concerning, really, and the Mums are stressed. Mums are worried. Mums are busy so I like to help them get on top of that and their stress levels.

Dorte Bladt:  If you have a child with anxiety that comes into your office, what would you look at? How would you address that kid?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: We really as naturopaths like to look at it quite holistically, so we will look at from the ground up. We’ll look at their physical health; we’ll want to know how they’re going and if they’re doing any exercise. We want to know what their diet is like.

We’ll do some iridology and I like to look in their eye. The eye doesn’t give you a full picture but it gives you something to lead with, so we like to use those tools. I personally like to use those tools to have a look at what’s going on physically. Then we like to look at their lifestyle and socially what’s going on for them as well, so we can paint a really big picture and not just blame it on one thing… And then we can start to tweak the lifestyle choices and the diet.

And help Mums, as well, understand because sometimes it can be quite confusing.  There are so many different messages out there about what is healthy and they can think they’re doing something amazing for their child but their child in particular is quite sensitive to that supplement or that food choice and it’s taking them down a different path. So it’s nice to help the parents with that knowledge too.

Dorte Bladt:  Totally. How would you assess what a child may be sensitive to from a food perspective?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: From a food perspective, a lot of Mums go down the food intolerance testing path. I’ve done quite a lot of those on little kiddies and it gives me a nice understanding.  There are 46 different foods that we can test in this 45-minute process where we mix the blood chemicals and by the end of it, we can give the parents a bit of an overview of foods that the child might be sensitive to. We also look at other things, like is your child coming up with rashes and hives and are they having difficulty breathing, because it can help us point, particularly with dairy and gluten. They’re very obvious symptoms that they come up with. So it’s good to have those scientific processes in place but also having that good, solid conversation about what’s going on at home as well.

Dorte Bladt: What would you say, if you’re doing a blood test? My understanding is the test that you’re doing is a finger prick type test.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yeah, it is.

Dorte Bladt: It’s not too invasive, not painful or anything?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: No.

Dorte Bladt: So you would go in and see, okay, you’re sensitive to, let’s just say, gluten. What are the symptoms that could be related not just to gluten sensitivity but to food sensitivity?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: There is quite often a lot of issues with… anxiety is a big one. Rashes is another big one that we tend to see. Bowel issues. So sometimes they can’t have movements and sometimes the movements are quite loose. Sometimes it’s alternating as well, so sometimes the child could go for days constipated and then their movements are very loose.

Gas is also a big symptom. Headaches are another one and then looking at their minerals as well. So if their minerals seem to be out of balance then we can do like a quick Zinc Tally test. We get them to have a little drink. It’s 10 ml of zinc and that will tell us how their zinc levels are going. So we can have a look at their mineral balance as well because if they’re eating foods they’re intolerant to, they’ve inflamed their gut. They now have impaired their gut lining and they’re normally not absorbing the nutrients from their food because of that. So if we can have a look at that.

Dorte Bladt: Basically, I guess what I’m trying to get out of you is that there is a link between what you see in the blood and the gut health.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Absolutely.

Dorte Bladt: So what you’re really doing is you can’t stick your nose in their gut but you can definitely have a look at how the gut digests the foods that we eat and then the outcome that that has in the rest of our systems.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yes, definitely.

Dorte Bladt: You were talking about the stressed Mums. How would you look at them?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Stressed Mums. I think a modern day issue is that us women try and do it all. We’re not just staying at home as frequently as Mums used to and we’re trying to juggle still being a great Mum and an attentive parent as well as having a working life, and then we need time for ourselves as well. So I think parents, particularly Mums, are really pushing their limits with what their body can cope with and I think that’s the difference. Our mind is able to do more than our body can as a general rule, as a very general rule. The body starts to fill quite rundown when the mind wants to keep pushing and taking on all these projects.

So with Mums, a lot of it is about helping them identify that. To identify that they don’t have to be everything to everyone and it’s okay to say no. I guess there’s a bit of counselling involved. I actually heard on a podcast I was listening to yesterday, a beautiful quote and this lady said, “If you’re saying yes to someone, you’re actually saying no to someone else.” I thought that was beautiful, because if you’re investing your time and energy into a project that you could have possibly said no to, you’re really saying no to your family and your loved ones or something that might have…

Dorte Bladt:  So true.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yeah, so that really resonated. I think we do that a lot and then we feel guilty so we try and make up for it and we’re just in this vicious cycle of never-ending work. So Mums that are quite rundown, what’s going on on a physical level is we’re trying to push our bodies to the limit and when we stop working from a loving, calm place, we put ourselves into our sympathetic nervous system. So we’re in that fight-and-flight where our stress hormones are being released constantly in our body. We don’t have to work from that place. We can actually work much more effectively when we’re not, but we tend to go there because we’re trying to achieve too much.

When we run out of those hormones or we’re overproducing them, we have what we call adrenal glands and they sit like little hats on top of our kidneys and as they’re secreting these hormones, they actually begin to burn out and we end up with what we call adrenal fatigue. So the adrenals have just said, “I am done. You are demanding way too much from me. I am shutting up shop.”  So we’ve gone from a point where we’re just stressed and wigged out and switched on all the time to absolutely flat and finding it hard to get motivation and inspiration because our hormones have just said, “I’m over this.”

Then it affects our sleep because it’s a big part of our circadian rhythm. So it’s a really important thing that we have cortisol. I think cortisol has had a really bad rap because we relate it to stress but we actually need stress. We particularly need cortisol first thing in the morning. When the sun comes up, cortisol levels rise in our body and that helps us feel ready for our day, feel zesty.  But we’ve gotten into this practice as a general rule that we don’t rely on that anymore. We wake up groggy and cranky until we have our first injection of caffeine.

Dorte Bladt: Right. That should get you going for the day.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yes. So I think we’ve gotten into a habit of expecting that external energy.

Dorte Bladt: How do you help a Mum that comes in like that? Obviously, there’s the counselling part. It’s so easy to say, “just say no.” Not so easy to do. But what would you potentially do physically for a Mum like that?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: So once we’ve had that little chat of the things they need to start learning to do for themselves to help themselves, we need to assess how far gone they are. That’s really important.

At some point, sometimes, we do need to do some blood tests. We’ll send them away for pathology just to see if we’re really feeling this has gone quite far because it affects your thyroid, it affects your gut health, it affects everything. So we need to see how far it’s gone sometimes. That might be the first thing we do if it’s quite extreme. If it’s not, we can just start looking at boosting the adrenals if they’ve gotten fatigued. So things like licorice root are amazing, Rehmannia. I’m talking about herbs here. We’ve got some beautiful herbs that help. If it’s not too far gone, just a herbal tea remedy is enough. Sometimes it feels nice to just sit down and have that cup of tea. There’s more therapy in that than some of the chemical constituents that are actually in the tea, because we’re getting them to chill out and have three cups a day.

Dorte Bladt: Sit down. Like sit down, shut up and enjoy yourself.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly:  Exactly. Gingko biloba is another beautiful one that works on circulation, just to get the body moving again. It really helps with cognition and clearing the head because once we’ve been firing constantly, the thoughts become so powerful that we can’t really dim them out anymore. We’re very much run by our mind, so having things that can help bring us clarity again and help our cognition expand instead of it being a big muddled mess is really important as well. So ginkgo biloba is another beautiful remedy. But then there’s things lifestyle-wise that we strongly encourage and that’s things like meditation. If you don’t feel connected to meditation then you could just do breathing exercises. Yoga is essential for your nervous system especially very restorative practices and to help those adrenals calm down. They’re probably the main things we would do for people.

Dorte Bladt: That’s very good. Now, I’m not a coffee drinker but I just hooked on to the way you said that people use that as a pick-me-up in the morning. Do you have any dietary things that you would suggest maybe to do before the coffee? Other certain foods that might be better to get into your system to maybe get your cortisol to a level where you can maintain sanity.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yeah. The best thing we suggest to people that are trying to come off coffee, number one is just I don’t want to take coffee away. I’m the same as you. I’ve never even tasted it. So I don’t get the addiction but I understand it’s there because some people they look at me with not love in their eyes when I start messing with their coffee, but if they just moved that morning coffee, that first-thing-in-the-morning coffee to 11:00am, that straightaway makes a huge difference to their body because they’re not waiting for that caffeine injection. The body says, “ah, okay. I’ve got to do this job myself.” So it gives it that wakeup call. Then the next thing you can do, because you don’t want to just take something away that never works, you’ve always got to replace it. So replace that morning kick with something like a dandelion root coffee. That’s a beautiful way to start your day. A lot of people find that an easy transition, especially if you’re an instant coffee drinker, because it comes in a tin. You make it like coffee. It looks like coffee so it gives them the mental…

Dorte Bladt: Does it taste like coffee?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: It doesn’t quite taste like coffee, apparently, but people are finding if they just add a dash of raw honey or a bit of cinnamon or something to give it some flavour, it’s enough like coffee to get them going.

Dorte Bladt: Very good.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yeah, that’s a good way to do it. Green tea as well. If you just, like you said, you want to still give them a little bit of caffeine and not take them off straightaway, green tea with jasmine or something like that is a beautiful replacement as well.

Dorte Bladt: Also very relaxing and an excuse for sitting down. Coffee is often, my understanding is that it’s often something you have on the run. Almost with a cup of tea, you can’t have it on the run.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: No.

Dorte Bladt: I can’t. I have to sit down.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: You’ve got to infuse, you’ve got to wait for it, the aromas.

Dorte Bladt: If people find it hard to get to the yoga class, now you said breathing – that’s great. Can you think of any apps or websites you might have come across where people can find a way to chill, meditation?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Definitely.

Dorte Bladt: Something for two minutes or five minutes?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: There are two apps that are amazing. One is called Headspace and I strongly recommend Headspace for people who are completely new to meditation because it’s progressive. It shows you this cool little cartoon of what your mind looks like. A bit of an analogy with the road. It’s nice, it’s engaging. So you get engaged with, “ah, this is why I’m doing this.”  Then it takes you into a really simple quick meditation so you’re not there for too long. Then next step, and you kind of graduate at the end of the process so it’s quite nice for people who are totally new. If you have a little bit of experience with meditation but you haven’t quite got there to make it a regular thing, there’s another app called Insight Timer and that one is my favourite.

Dorte Bladt: Why?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Because it’s so broad. You can get on there, say you’re at work and you’re really stressed and you can feel yourself getting anxious and flighty. You’re not productive when you’re in that state so you need to bring yourself down and clear your head, but you’ve only got three minutes. In Insight Timer, you can just type in “I have three minutes” and it will find a meditation for you.

Dorte Bladt: Wow, fantastic. That’s very good.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I know, or if you have fifteen minutes, you type in “fifteen”. You can also type in “I’m having trouble with sleep” so you type in “sleep” and it will bring up all the meditations that help you sleep… So you can choose the topic that you need help with, as well as morning, there’s a beautiful morning gratitude ritual on there. So it’s very vast.

Dorte Bladt: And would you be able to put kids in that?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yes.

Dorte Bladt: I understand, going back to the anxious kids, to get them onto meditation is easier said than done. It’s great when there are some tools to help them, but can you type that in?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yes, definitely. I’ve got many kids using Insight Timer and they love it. It’s like the oils. When I get kids to start using their oils, do TERRA oils or any essential oil, and getting them to do the app, it’s almost like they take ownership of their health because it’s something that they can have by their bed, their oil or their iPad, and they have control of it and they feel quite good clicking it on or putting their oil on before they go to bed. So as a general rule, they do enjoy doing them.

Dorte Bladt: That’s great. Now, you talk about kids and you have a couple yourself?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I have a couple, yes. I do. I’ve given birth to three. My eldest passed away and my husband has three, so we have a blended family with five little cherubs in our house.

Dorte Bladt: How old are your little cherubs?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: They range from eight to fourteen… fifteen, sorry. Sorry, Flynn.

Dorte Bladt: How the heck do you manage to run a business, doing your naturopathy, doing your wellness sanctuary, and a family of… let me just count. Seven. Do you have a dog? Eight.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: We’ve got two dogs actually and sixteen chooks.

Dorte Bladt: Right. This is a big family.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: It’s a big family.

Dorte Bladt: Do you see yourself as being chronic fatigued? Do you have adrenal fatigue? How are you coping?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I certainly went through it. That was the basis of the book is I was trying to do it all, and I guess I still do if I’m honest. I do still try and do it all, but it’s about finding that balance and listening to my body. I’m much better at that now. I used to just keep trying to push through but now, because I’ve been to that darkest place and that lowest place, I can feel it when, okay, you’ve taken on too much. Just either pass that onto someone else or pause that one and it’s time to go run a bath.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah. So just create that little bit of space in your day.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yeah.

Dorte Bladt: So with having five children, how are they going with interacting with the meditations? How are they going with their roles? How are they going with the food suggestions that you would have as a naturopath? I imagine that you would have an idea of what a family diet should be like.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: It’s very interesting as they grow older because when they were younger it was so easy. My kids just they woke up and they had vital greens every morning. Green spirulina, barley grass, all those things grounded down. They would just wake up and have that because that’s what they knew and they would have their little gummy bear vitamins and we had tofu and we had fish. We’d go to the shop and I’d say to them, “if you’re good, I’ll get you a banana,” and they honestly thought that was a treat. It wasn’t until they went to school and they went to a party and they go, “Mum, what have you been doing to us? All this stuff!”

Dorte Bladt: It’s a secret.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I started to lose that control but you just have to go with the flow. My philosophy is if it’s not in the pantry, they can’t eat it. So you can’t say I can’t stop my kids from eating junk food. If you don’t have it in your home, then it’s not available to them as much as what it would be if it was there. They can only get it when they go to a friend’s house, they go to their grandparents’ house, they go to a party. Or, like my kids, they’re now earning their own money and they’ll go to the shop and they will buy themselves things that I don’t like them having, but I’ve decided to take the approach of you know what? I’ve brought you up so far to have a good understanding of what nutrition is and I will continue to remind you when you tell me you’ve got a sick tummy or you’re running around the house like a crazy person. I’m going to remind you that you just had a can of Coke.

So I do take a bit more of a laid back approach to it now that they’re older, that I’ve sown the seed. I’ll keep having only healthy foods in my pantry. If you happen to make choices other than that then you will need to go through that… you called it “rebellion” when we had that little private chat before. I believe, like your children have, they will come back to me because they know what it feels like to be healthy.

Dorte Bladt: Yes, very much. So we’ve had a private talk before. My kids are adults and are on their own and I have, as a mother, secretly checked their cupboards and they look so clean. I am so impressed. What’s interesting that what you’re saying with having… we tried to control what the kids eat, we tried to control how much time they spend on the screen, we tried to control the fact that they’re taking time out and doing the right thing, and I feel personally that we’re very, very good as parents, and I will take total ownership of this, very good at telling other people what to do but we’re not necessarily doing it ourselves, and having the cupboards… if you don’t buy it, you are usually the one, you or your partner are the one that’s doing the shopping. Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry. Only buy what you know that you are happy for the rest of the family to eat. Don’t buy it for yourself. Don’t spend all your spare time on the screen unless you want your kids to think that that’s the way they have to live. So it does come back to you being the role model for their future family life, I think.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I agree and we do tend to do that sometimes, don’t we? I catch my husband out and, if I’m honest, he does for me too, just constantly on the phone checking emails.  I’m like, “honey, you complain about the kids. Look at you.” And we do have to catch ourselves because that’s where our work is.  That’s where everything is, isn’t it? It’s on our phone.

Dorte Bladt: Absolutely. There was a study, I put it on my website probably six months ago, maybe a year ago. They were surveying children and asked them what they thought of their parents’ screen habits. There was something like 46% of children thought that their parents spend too much time on screens and were choosing the screens over their children’s company. So it is quite significant. It’s not something you necessarily can verbalise as a young person, but the older you get and the smarter you get, the more I think you realise that you’re actually losing out on connection because you’re looking at something that’s…

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yeah, that’s not even really there. It’s sad, isn’t it? I read about this in my book. I was busy writing an email, sat at the dining table, because, you know, I give myself credit because I pick my kids up from school.  But sometimes if I pick them up from school and they just go off in their own direction, I’d straightaway get the computer and I’ll start working.  You’ve really got to catch yourself but I sat there typing an email and I was engrossed with what I was writing and Oscar was talking to me and was saying, “Mum, can I go to my friend’s house?” I just wasn’t really listening. “Mum? Can I go to my friend’s house?” I didn’t hear him again because I was just engrossed.

Then he said to me, “Mum, can I go play on the street?” And I just went, “yeah, no worries.” I wasn’t actually listening and he’s like, “Mum! I just said could I go play on the street. You totally don’t listen to me.” And it was the biggest wakeup call for myself.

So we introduced at our home, maybe this is helpful for parents listening, we introduced the elbow grab. So my kids know now if they can see that I’m really engrossed and just by talking to me they’re not going to get my attention, they actually come up and grab my elbow. As soon as they do that, that’s my key that I just step back straightaway, okay, and I can look them in their eyes and step away from what I was doing because I know they need me. It’s quite extreme when you go to those. So the elbow grab, if that’s relevant for anyone else.

Dorte Bladt: It is about having those, isn’t it? Because we do have to do everything we have agreed to do and deadlines and stuff but, yes, our family comes first.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: They do. They definitely do.

Dorte Bladt: Do you have an interesting funny experience that you can share with our parents that are listening to the podcast today?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I do actually. I’ve got a couple just on the line of my kids because we’re talking about it already. It just reminded me of another little funny thing that happened because I’m a blended family and we never had cow’s milk in our home. We just had almond and rice milk. Then when my husband and his kids moved in from a family that has lots of chocolate and they’re used to cereals, which is interesting because their Mum is a dietician, but everyone has a different approach. The kids were used to having cow’s milk so my step daughter created a PowerPoint slide for me as to why we should have – she was eight at the time – why we should have cow’s milk in our home to present to me, so I had to give in.

Dorte Bladt: Oh, it’s because you can’t argue with that one.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I can’t. I mean, I certainly played back and sent her a video why we shouldn’t but I still gave in. I thought that was pretty funny and another time when Oscar got home from school, he had a headache and so immediately I’m running the water, hot water on the floor, put his feet in and I’m putting lavender oil on his head and I’m massaging the pressure point between his thumb and his pointer finger and he just looked at me and he said, “can’t you just give me Panadol like a normal Mum?”

Dorte Bladt: No.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Yeah, the answer was no, but I just thought that was quite funny.

Dorte Bladt: And here I am loving you with all my heart.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I know. It would have been easy just to flick you Panadol but I’m actually trying to care for you… but that was his response.

Dorte Bladt: Well, he’s obviously a clever boy. Any final tips or advice for families that may be listening?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I think the biggest advice I can give is chill out. I think we stress way too much. Like you said, it’s control, control, control. We’re always trying to control everything about our kids. I think sometimes it’s just to make the simple choices, like I said the pantry. Do things, lead by example. Let them see you meditate or let them see you nurturing yourself.  Let them see you hold hands with your husband.  Let them see you laugh and be joyful and playful. Throw the bubbles out of the sink at your kids. Have a messy kitchen. Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Let them see that life is supposed to be joyful and fun. I think leading by example will just help them relax. I think that’s the biggest problem in our health today is that we’re so uptight and stressed about everything that our bodies are just reacting. So I think that would be my number one tip.

Dorte Bladt: That’s very good. I’m taking that on. I’m taking the day off.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Awesome. Straight after this.

Dorte Bladt: Absolutely. Again, just tell us who are you and how can people find you?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: I’m Melinda Carbis-Reilly and you can find me most of the time at Redhead Wellness Sanctuary. That’s where I do most of my stuff.

Dorte Bladt: Do you have a website or anything that people can look up?

Melinda Carbis-Reilly:  Yeah, we do. Go to https://www.redheadwellness.com and at that site, you’ll find a lot about the centre. Then there’s also http://melindareilly.com.au and that one has more about naturopathy and there’s a lot of articles. There’s also a free ebook there too called The Happy Diet. It’s a book that I wrote to a company, my other book, but this one is completely free. Just download it and it’s got lots of tasty recipes on there that are amazing for happiness, promoting good, neurotransmitter health.

Dorte Bladt: That’s perfect. I’ll go and do that on my day off. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Melinda Carbis-Reilly: Thanks for having me.

Outro: The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host. Brought to you by Family Chiropractic Centre Charlestown, serving the families in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Charlestown.

The post FF 09: ‘Balancing a busy family life’ with naturopath Melinda Carbis-Reilly appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Stress is an inevitable part of life. It can be both good and bad depending on what sort of stress it is, and how we deal with it. Kelly Beanland, chiropractor at Family Chiropractic Charlestown, explains how chronic, bad stress can cause a persistent fight and flight reflex, and how this can cause health problems, what it may look like in both children and adults and what to do about it at home.

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dr. Dorte Bladt, the Switched On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Good morning. I’m really happy to have Kelly Beanland here with me to do a podcast this morning. Thanks for coming.

Kelly Beanland: Thank you for having me, Dorte. I’m excited to be here.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Excellent. Can you tell us who you are?

Kelly Beanland: I’m a chiropractor. I’ve had the utmost honour and privilege to be adjusted since I was an infant. My Mum took us from a very young age so I became a chiropractor seven years ago and I now work at Family Chiro in Charlestown. I have a special interest in seeing kids, families, young babies, pregnant women, so that’s exciting for us. I’ve trained in Gippsland as well after I first graduated from RMIT, so I’m a Victorian. I grew my practice there and now I’m in sunny Newcastle.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Sunny Newcastle, except for today when it’s not very sunny.

Kelly Beanland: It’s a disgusting 40 degrees.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Tell us, you have a particular interest in something called Sympathetic Dominance. What exactly does that mean?

Kelly Beanland: Yeah, I do. We’ve decided to start look at the nervous system in a very functional way and in a holistic way. As a chiropractor yourself, you would have seen a lot of signs of Sympathetic Dominance but a lot of people haven’t really connected the ideas. So we started to connect a few ideas on how stress physiology starts to change every system in our bodies over time, not just the classic stress signs of “I don’t sleep” or I get “tight shoulders” but neurophysiological changes – that’s a big word and I’ll explain it more in a minute, but what can happen to our gut system, what can happen to our hormonal system and how that can affect our bodies as a whole. So yeah, it’s very interesting work and I’ve started to enjoy doing that the last five years.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: You started that from working with Wayne Todd.

Kelly Beanland: Yes. I had the very great opportunity to do my first placement with Wayne and Angela Todd in Gippsland with Todd Clinics and I grew my knowledge base and how I became the practitioner I am now. Wayne put together what we call SD Protocol.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: What exactly does it mean, the sympathetic dominance?

Kelly Beanland: Sympathetic Dominance refers to how hard a system functions. It starts to look at our voluntary versus involuntary systems. We’ll put voluntary aside for a second and let’s just talk about our involuntary cycles. That separates into another two arms, being sympathetic and parasympathetic. So if we think about our parasympathetic, a lot of people think of that as a rest-and-digest part of our nervous system. This part of our nervous system does most of its work while we’re actually asleep and in our healing phases and when we’re more resting, so when we’re not in an aggravated or what we call fight-or-flight part of our nervous system. Parasympathetic functions mainly in our digestion and our hormonal system with impacts on our immune system as well. So let’s go to the other side of the system, the involuntary pathways. We look at the sympathetic nervous system and it’s “S” for survival, fight or flight. A lot of people have heard of that part of our nervous system.

So if we imagine, now, Dorte and I are sitting in this room, a tiger came into the room, we think of what our nervous system would do to react to that type of situation. Our breath rate goes up, our heart rate goes up, our sweat response increases, our eyes become dilated so we can see more, our blood pressure goes through the roof and we start to get a forward posture. Our shoulders tighten up, our hamstrings get tighter, our calves get tighter. We get ready to run away.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: We’re getting ready to…

Kelly Beanland: Fight or flight. I think I’m not going to fight the tiger.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: But we are getting ready to move. It’s a movement preparation, basically.

Kelly Beanland: Yes. It’s a stress response in movement, yes. 100%. The big thing that we’re started to look at was this system evolutionary, but this is the system that got us here today so we wouldn’t be here without that sympathetic nervous system thousands of years ago. It made us fight or flight, away from the dinosaur or the tiger or whatever it was back then to get us here and evolved where we are now. So this part of our nervous system actually suppresses when this one has heightened the parasympathetic function. That’s when we start to see those changes in those physiological gut hormones that I mentioned before.

The interesting thing with that sympathetic overdrive is it’s not designed to be activated any longer than hours, maximum days. So, unfortunately, you think of the young family that might have financial stresses, work stresses, getting kids to school, what are we having for dinner tomorrow, what are we doing on the weekend, when are we planning our next holiday? That potentially, say a young Mum – I’m just going to pick on Mum for a second there because they seem to run those types of households – that young Mum is most likely in a state of fight-or-flight or Sympathetic Overdrive for a lot longer than what we’re actually designed to do.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: So evolutionary, we’re supposed to fight the tiger or flee the tiger and then find the place to shelter and have our parasympathetic nervous system take over and make sure that we heal and we digest our food.

Kelly Beanland: Yeah. I think of it as a dance. This is the way I was taught and I think it’s a great analogy – if we think we dance between our sympathetic and our parasympathetic nervous system, that’s when we achieve balance in our lives. It’s about getting one heightened and then the other one just picking up the slack and they dance between each other. Much like kids on a seesaw.  When you have a kid that’s too heavy on one side, the other one pulls it up to the other side and that’s when you start to get those imbalances.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: So being in the sympathetic state is not necessarily a bad thing. We need it.

Kelly Beanland:  We do, 100% we need, it just not for the sustained state that we, unfortunately, see a little bit more often than we should.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Okay. So we have this parasympathetic kid sitting on the end and seesaw has stuck.

Kelly Beanland: Yes.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: So what does that, you say, what does that look like? You mentioned the shoulders, you mentioned the heart rate and blood pressure going up. What would people experience if they were in that state?

Kelly Beanland: There are a couple of key indicators that we often see patients that could be experiencing an overdrive in their sympathetic nervous system for a long period of time. Some of it can be digestive in regards to they might get bloating, they might get butterflies excessively. They might find they’re getting intolerant to certain foods that they could have tolerated five, ten, even two years ago. They’re constipated, diarrhoea, those types of things. Unfortunately, Dorte and I are in a bad category – it affects women a lot more, Sympathetic Dominance, we do find just because we have a lot more fluctuation through our hormones and I do find that women are bigger thinkers than men as well. We do kick into our sympathetic nervous system a little bit more than men, but not to mention that Sympathetic Dominance doesn’t affect men. We just see it more in females, as I said, for that hormonal link.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Can you just hold that thought. I’m really interested in that if you have the physiological response, let’s just say it’s exercise, and men tend to do more heavy, pushy type exercise whereas we women might do more long… we might go for a walk or ride the bike with the kids or whatever.  Is there a helpful exercise in that they burn their adrenaline, burn their stress response through much more gutsy type exercise? Do you see what I’m trying to say?

Kelly Beanland: Yeah, I do. Men, if they’re doing those manly, like “yeah, let’s go push things and lift things” as a choice to doing that calming, I think that’s definitely part of it. Testosterone-driven exercise I think a lot of that is. Again, it comes back to that hormonal link. I think, instinctively, women don’t mind doing those exercises that are a little bit calm and a little bit more settling because that is essentially what our nervous system does require. I’m not saying weights and everything like that are bad because it’s definitely good to be strong, but I do find that women do well when they’ve got that nice balance doing any calming exercise with their lifestyle. So just to go back to what you said before, we could see hormone imbalances as well. I often see patients that have had retaining sympathetic dominance for a long time that may have things that are very common in today’s society, like menstrual issues, PCOS, thyroid issues as well.

Dr. Dorte Bladt:  Let’s just stop there. What’s PCOS?

Kelly Beanland: Sorry, Dorte. Polycystic ovarian syndrome. We do see it quite often now. We are seeing quite often now infertility. It’s becoming a big issue in our society and I’ll explain that concept really quickly right now that if we think of it if we’re being chased by that tiger or that bear, you’re not going to want to digest the sandwich that you ate for lunch. Essentially, that’s not a priority. Your fight or flight is your priority and go to the hormonal system of that parasympathetic function like we discussed before, you’re not going to want to ovulate. You’re not going to want to release your egg so you can reproduce if your body is in threat mode.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: No. That makes sense.

Kelly Beanland: So it’s the hormonal or the holistic look at how the nervous system is actually affecting these pathways sort of comes into it. Physically, we can definitely see a lot of physical signs when we’re looking at a patient with sympathetic overdrive. So tight shoulders as I mentioned before… They might have a significant forward head posture. Forward head posture can be defined by looking at the patient or looking at the individual from the side and looking at their ear to their shoulder. They should be in a nice line when they’re standing up straight and we often see the ear coming forward. Every centimetre that comes forward puts a significant load on the neck and starts to change our rib functions and we don’t end up oxygenating very well.

Oxygenation is really, really important for higher brain function as well, and when we breathe. So if we did some breathing exercises now, I could guarantee Dorte and I would feel really calm and collected because our brain is receiving that oxygen it requires. So if you’re constantly not oxygenating and you’re locked into that forward posture, you’ll often get other physical effects below your waist, you’ll tighten up your hamstrings and your calves. Low back issues is very common in patients with that forward head posture driven by that sympathetic overdrive as well. If you had a look at your lovely wife’s eyes, if there are some guys out there, you might see their eyes dilated quite a lot, the pupils, because basically, they’re dilating so they could see where that tiger is in the grass. So waiting for that rustling tiger to come through, they could see more so they might not like bright lights. So driving at night can become an issue. They don’t like that headlight coming on to them. They need their polarised sunnies when they’re outside. They can’t handle the brightness on their phone up too high, they can’t handle the blinds they have open when they’re sleeping at night. They can’t have the alarm clock light. That fits to these light issues is very prominent.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Right. Is that sensitivity related to headaches?

Kelly Beanland: Can be, yeah.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Okay. So I find it interesting you talking about the forward head posture because we spend a lot of time talking to the kids and the parents in the practice about their screen time. Does it go the other way? Can we induce the Sympathetic Dominance by spending too much time with our head bent?

Kelly Beanland: I would 100% agree with you, Dorte. I think of it as a highway. So I think if there’s a two-lane highway, so we’ve got a highway going to Sydney and we’ve got a highway going away from Sydney. If we are inducing a forward posture by ergonomic activities such as screen time for kids but also adults at work on computers, to me that physical posture is telling that brain, “I’m ready to run away. I’m getting ready to fight or flight”. Our body is priming and you are telling your brain, “quick, let’s go.” But vice versa, if you have the emotional part of Sympathetic Dominance, so let’s say there’s a lot of stress for children at school, they’re going to be pushing themselves into that sympathetic windup. So neurologically, their brain is telling them to be in that forward posture. We have to work at it from both ends of the highway to get the best results for our patients.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: You mentioned exercise and I like exercise. I’m interested to hear there is a big trend today with a certain body image. Big shoulders, big chest muscles, maybe not so much working on the legs. People exercising the front of the body that would naturally pull the shoulders forward. What effect does that potentially have given? Again, we’re talking that forward head posture.

Kelly Beanland: I agree with you. The trend that we’re seeing is actually quite concerning because it is very pec-driven, but it’s not only exercise but then now social life is driving that pec changes like with the increased phone usage and looking down and texting on the train or texting in the car or watching TV or whatever that may be, but going back to your exercise point, yeah, a lot of pec-driven exercises aren’t actually beneficial to, I think, any patient all the time but also particularly the patients that are suffering that sympathetic overdrive.

A lot of these patients also experience some emotional aspects of this sympathetic overdrive. Stress is a big part, which you’ve probably already picked up that it’s massive, but that’s linking in with anxiety. So if every cell in your body is primed and ready to run away from that tiger, it’s going to be ready and wait for attack, waiting for attack, waiting for attack, waiting for attack, and then it doesn’t get attacked then you’re going to feel anxious all the time waiting for that response, and the average patient is going to feel, if that is retained, that response, they’re going to feel depressed about being anxious. So it’s really that linking but then you find a lot of people would use exercises they’re out from that way of thinking but if they’re doing the wrong exercises, so pec-driven exercises, exercises that are winding up their low back or winding up their hamstrings or winding up those calves, they’re often doing themselves more detriment than what they could be doing. They feel better at the time but more long term for their healing in their body they’re not doing themselves any favours.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: So it’s again coming back to the nervous system. It’s not necessarily the muscles but the way we affect the way the brain works.

Kelly Beanland: 100%, yes.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Excellent. So we’ve spoken a fair bit. We’re pushing the mothers. That’s not very good. Let’s look at the kids. What would it look like in a child?

Kelly Beanland: Sure. I think in my experience, we are seeing sympathetic overactivity in children a little bit more these days. Dorte, it’s already linked into as screen times increase these days and how that’s affecting our children’s brains. What I find in kids that might have a bit of an increased sympathetic system – the big one is sleep.  To be honest, so many kids are struggling with getting a good night sleep and I don’t think that’s necessarily the parents’ fault. It’s just about how our spare time or our leisure time has started to change over the last ten years. TV and screens and homework on iPads and computers are becoming a norm for our kids. What that’s doing to our brains is it’s keeping them awake or keeping them going. That brain is thinking it’s daytime a lot of the time so you’ve got that hormonal effect that you don’t secrete melatonin at the right times that keeps you awake, but at the same time, that brain is becoming sensitive and wound up to maybe that light stimulus of whatever screen they’re looking at before they go to bed and they’re not really kicking into that parasympathetic balance in dance that I indicated before.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Just relax to digest.

Kelly Beanland: Yeah, 100%. So sleep is the main one, I do find. Some younger children might not like being in the car with the flicker of the lights like the light sensitivity can really shine through there. They just can’t concentrate in a brighter environment. I find that might not work for them. I do use some – what we call red lens – so if the light going too bright now, just change the light from a blue light to a red light so the brain can calm down.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Which is a slower wavelength so less stress there.

Kelly Beanland: Yes. Very calming to the brain, the red light as opposed to the blue. That works quite well for some kids and adults or anyone looking to calm their sympathetic system through that light factor. I often use earplugs with kids. So you might find a lot of kids with Sympathetic Dominance can exhibit symptoms of some sensory processing issues as well, so visually and auditory are the main ones we look at, but they might be oversensitive to those auditory symptoms as well. I find if we work on carving that primitive sympathetic response their sensory processing starts up and does improve, which is great. Behaviour-wise, they might just be a little bit quick off the mark with getting a bit agitated.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: That’s a nice way to put it.

Kelly Beanland: So whether they used to be able to tolerate their sister pinching them, now, they’re not going to tolerate them looking at them and they lose the plot sort of thing, or they start to get a bit more angry than they used to and things like that, but forward posture is very prominent as well in children. I think it’s something that we really do need to be aware of. So they’re your classic signs, really.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Yeah. What are some of the things that you would advise parents or people to maybe do at home that could settle down that sympathetic hyperactivity and get a bit more parasympathetic response in their lives?

Kelly Beanland: The way I look at this – this is a common question that we get, obviously – once we diagnose or talk about what could be going on in someone’s system is we start to talk about what to do about it.  I look at that in the health triangle. It’s a really good way to explain it. So you’ve got physical, chemical and emotional health. Most people have heard of that expression that if we don’t hit each part of those paradigms, we don’t reduce the overall stress in the body as well as we possibly could.

Physically, we start to look at posture. That’s really important. We start to change how someone stands in gravity and increase their oxygen. Oxygen is so important because we talked about cells before. Every cell in the body requires certain things but neuronal cells just start to change our nervous system require three things: nutrition, oxygenation, and activation.

So activation, being movement. Movement being exercise, like Dorte has already indicated. Movement as well.  Movement directly into the body could be chiropractic work as well works really, really well to keep that movement and activation. Nutritional is what you guys feed brains at home, good diet, nutrition, things like that and then oxygen you start to change how that works. Then we start to look at chemical impacts or chemical stresses on the body that’s pushing them into sympathetic overdrive. If there is a gut issue there, the gut has been affected, we need to start doing work with your gut system. We’ll start to look at what could be pushing that system into a bit of stress. Won’t go into that now – that’s quite detailed on its own – but that’s important to look at as well.

Then you’re looking at the emotional part. Meditation is really good. Anyone should be doing some sort of mindfulness or meditation to get them out of that space that says, “go, go, go,” all the time.  “go, go, go” is just not healthy and that’s what retaining. As I said to you before, the system isn’t made to be for days, like weeks, years. It’s only meant to be hours, maximum days. So it’s just about getting us out of those twitches.

When we start to look at the nervous system as where this sympathetic system sits in the brain, it actually sits in what we call the mesencephalon. It’s a very complex name and you don’t have to remember it, but there are certain nuclei which respond to different stimulus at different times. I’ve already spoken about them so you’re really familiar with it already, one being sound – that hypersensitivity to sound comes into play. One being light – the light coming into play. One being posture – that coming into play as well, and the other thing is stress-linked and mind-linked with the adrenal glands. So to get the best outcome for my patients, I find if I address each one of those factors within that physical, chemical and emotional triangle, somewhat two ways to look at it there, I’ll get best results there.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: So I will often mention to children and it’s really difficult. They tend to go a million miles an hour. The last thing they want to do is to meditate. But there is a free app called Smiling Mind which is quite manageable and not too long and easy to understand. Are you using that as well?

Kelly Beanland: Yeah, I use that very often actually. It’s a great app. It’s really, really good. That with Headspace, I think some adults like Headspace as well, but Smiling Mind is my classic go-to for children. There’s a lot of great teachers out there now are using it in classrooms, which is awesome, as in after lunchtime.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: To calm them down.

Kelly Beanland: Yeah, because funnily enough, when they’re calm they learn better which is great. So I encourage parents that if they’ve been out for a busy day, often as soon as they get in from wherever they’ve been, whether it be school or they’ve had after-school activities and then they’ve come home, usually dinner is on the next step or homework. So, either way, I usually say just do this for five to ten minutes. There are set programs. You download the program according to the age of the child, so if you’ve got a four-year-old or a twelve-year-old, you will just set it up in such a way that is good for them. I get them to lie on the floor in an open ‘T’ position because that’s very oxygenating for them. If they’ve got some postural issues I might get them to lie on a rolled-up towel as well just to help open up that chest, like what we spoke about before, but that is perfect to winding our sympathetic system.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: That’s great and of course, that’s not just for kids.  That would also be for Mum and Dad.

Kelly Beanland: Yes. Family meditation. I’m all for it.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: That sounds like fun. I can just imagine where the kids will be. Not on the posture roll, they will be on your chest, they will be rolling over you.

Kelly Beanland: Yes. I remember I had a patient send me a screenshot or a photo of her whole family lying on their laundry room floor, so it does happen.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: That’s fantastic! Following your advice. I like that. So tell us what is next in line for you for the foreseeable future?

Kelly Beanland: I am about to make Newcastle my home for the next foreseeable future, which is really exciting. Working at Family Chiro, I get to incorporate sympathetic dominance work within this already elaborate practice. To me, it’s very different, it’s very innovative and it really does demonstrate how we can look at the utmost primitive cause for a lot of what can lead on to the chronic health conditions. If we can get in to start to change people’s health that comes at the earliest stage in the health timeline as possible, I think we’ve got a great future in natural health care… but I just get excited that I get to change lives every day.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Excellent. Thanks so much for spending your time with us this morning, Kelly. I appreciate your time and we look forward to spending much more time with you.

Kelly Beanland: Yes. Thank you for having me.

Outro: The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host. Brought to you by Family Chiropractic Centre Charlestown, serving the families in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Charlestown.

The post FF 08: ‘Chronic fight and flight – how Sympathetic Dominance affects your health’ with Kelly Beanland appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

The post FF 07: The importance of chewing with Mary Bourke appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Assistant principal Kate Highland shares with us how we can help our kids feel comfortable and confident as they enter a new and exciting phase of their lives: Big school.

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dr. Dorte Bladt, the Switched-On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dorte Bladt: I’d like to welcome Kate Highland today. Kate Highland is the Assistant Principal at Charlestown East School. I’m really excited to have you on and share with us about school readiness.

Kate Highland: Okay, thank you, Dorte. Yes, my job here at Charlestown East – which is a government school, a public school in New South Wales – is I look after all of the children in kindergarten Year 1 and Year 2. A lot of what I do is bring them into the school. So all of those processes to do with orientation and easing their transition into school here. I give a lot of advice to a lot of parents about that and I run the Whitebridge Community of Schools Readiness Night. That happens around May every year where we invite parents to come along. They can ask questions and it’s a big information-sharing session.

Some of the things I say there, at that session, are to do with having strong links with your preschool and taking advice from preschool teachers because they know your child and they know what they’re up to, they know their readiness levels and they’re the best person to give advice about readiness. We, of course, haven’t seen your child yet at that stage of the year. We look forward to getting to know them.

But your preschool teacher will give you advice about things like how they’re holding a pencil, for instance, and the areas that they need correction. It’s also a good place to start making playdates with friends so that your children start to socialise and kindergarten, believe it or not, a lot of it is about socialisation and getting along with friends rather than academics.

Dorte Bladt: That’s the most important thing, isn’t it?

Kate Highland: Well, you would think so and that, obviously, is something that is vital and it is our main focus, but we also believe that for your child to be an independent, functioning human being later on in life, they need to be able to relate and communicate with each other and learn all of those things that are vitally important.

A lot of times, skipping to the end of school, when children leave and we ask what it was that they really enjoyed about school, they’ll talk about kindergarten. They’ll talk about their friends. They don’t remember learning how to read. They don’t remember learning how to count. They remember their buddy, the person that helped them in the playground open their lunchbox. They remember creative arts performances. They remember being in a play.  They remember those sorts of things. So those human aspects are vital as well as the academics.

Dorte Bladt: Well, preschool, when you think of it from preschool to kindergarten, it’s a great transition then of being, like you say, learning how to grab that pencil and how to make friends. So you’re building on that.

Kate Highland: You’re building on those things, yes. So we look for lots of things in the children coming in. We look for people who can share, children who don’t demand to be first, who know that they’ve got to wait their turn. Something that parents can do – I know it sounds a bit funny, but parents can get children to put their hand up. I know that sounds strange but in that sort of playing schools and playing at being at school when you’re at home and it’s safe and secure and it’s environment that they’re familiar with, but having that play-acting time of let’s play schools, they’ll read a book together and reading a book together is so vital. I’ve known people who’ve read to their babies before they were born. They’ve read to them when they were an hour old in the hospital and I think they’re lovely stories about people who just value communication with their children.

Dorte Bladt: I used to do that with my daughter. I used to when she was hours old, like you say. I used to read to her in Danish.  I had read someplace that that was a really good thing to do and I always like checked around, is anyone coming.

Kate Highland: I’m fairly safe.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah.

Kate Highland: I think children just like that connection. They want that eye contact. They want that connection and if that involves something else to look at, to focus on, a picture of the Three Little Pigs in a book or whatever, that’s what they love to do. So your children maybe they can, after you’ve read the story, maybe they can read it back to you and reading it can be pointing to the pictures and talking about them. It doesn’t need to involve text at that really early stage. It can be they can read a picture and then they can talk about it and use their memory. So there are a whole lot of things that parents can do literacy-wise but it involves playing at being at school.

Dorte Bladt: So do you feel it’s important for parents to prepare their children for school that way? As in, should we, as parents, look into doing this, doing that? This is what we’re preparing for… or is it more of a sitting back and waiting for teachers to sort of guide the way?

Kate Highland: Before they come to school, the parent is the most important teacher, and actually most of their life. Of course, the parent is the most important teacher, but I think – especially if they’re just about to start school or just about to return to school – to alleviate any anxiety is to talk about what might happen “if”. That might involve perhaps walking through a school, playing on the equipment – seek permission first – but ask if you can.

“Do you mind in the holidays if my child comes and plays on the equipment” or peeks in the windows or just becomes a little bit familiar with the environment. They know where the toilets are, for instance. They might not exactly know their room but they know where the playground is and the boundaries of the playground. All of those things just alleviate anxiety because it’s information.

It also imparts a sense of, well, this is where the parent wants the child to be and that they know that the experience will be positive. One thing I’d like to ask parents and probably grandparents and older people not to do is not to relate scary stories from the past.  “When I was at school, I got the cane,” or “when I was at school…” Those sorts of things that parents like to talk about those experiences but they’re not always positive. So sometimes children walk in and they’re scared. I’ll ask, “But what are you scared of?”

“Do you have a cane?”

“Well, no,” and so this unnecessary anxiety that I think we can probably do without.

Dorte Bladt: Most definitely!

Kate Highland: I know that it’s not 100% positive all of the time. Classrooms are very busy places. They’re very noisy. It can be a little overwhelming, but we don’t need the fear factor in there as well.

Dorte Bladt: No. So is it a good idea to share the positive stories? How much fun, like you were just saying, “oh, when I went to kindergarten I had a fun time doing visual arts,” or whatever.

Kate Highland: Yes, definitely, and even emphasising friends that you’ve kept. I used to tell my children about that I still have friends that I made in kindergarten or in high school or whatever, friends that I’ve kept through the years because then they can see the whole spectrum of the point of socialisation, and I guess when we’re on socialisation, for people to realise that if they can limit the amount of screen time that their children have, because what children do, I find, when they’re watching a screen is they’re disengaging. They’re shutting down from…

Dortee Bladt: Social contact.

Kate Highland: Yes, from that contact with real life. They’re not hearing the birds singing. They’re not hearing their brother singing off-tune in the car sitting next to them. So I’ve always thought that car trips were about singing songs and chants and chatting and telling stories.

There’s one thing we did – we drove to Queensland years and years ago. We were in the car for 13 hours on and off, and we made up this game where you know how you go across a bridge and it will have something like Dead Man’s Crossing or, I don’t know, Bill’s Hill or Bill’s Crossing or something, and we would make up a story – how did that place get its name? Then we would take it in turns and so everybody in the car had to tell a story that was bigger and brighter or scarier or funnier. It took us hours and it was so much fun because we just spent that time communicating and bonding and interacting. There was no, “put a DVD on,” and, “I don’t want to hear from you” sort of thing.

Dorte Bladt: That’s right. It’s hard because it takes a little bit of input from the parents. I think sometimes we hop in the car and we just want to, oh, shut down for a moment, but if we put in that little bit of extra input and that little bit of energy in to start a positive experience then time will go faster and everyone would have a good time.

Kate Highland: Yeah and everybody loves a story. Children love hearing stories about what their parents’ life was like in the past, just try and make it a bit positive! But yes, so all of those sorts of things are really important. I do think, back to playing at schools, take them places like a park. If you’re going to buy them something, buy them a skipping rope because there’s a whole lot of skills that are important and skipping helps – it eventually helps reading with your hand-eye coordination or foot-eye coordination, and things like using paint and scissors and glue, crayons and that sort of thing.

Occasionally, I have parents who say, “oh, no, my child doesn’t use crayons because they might draw on the walls,” which I’m always surprised about because I think, well, you’re there with them. Do these things with them. Don’t just provide them.

Dorte Bladt: And walk away.

Kate Highland: Put them on the table and walk away. Draw with them. Colour with them. Show them nice things.  Try not to teach them too much. Leave the academics to people at school. So a little bit of writing their name, for instance. Children often like to do that.

Dorte Bladt: Why would you think… you’re the teacher, of course, but what is the matter with the parents, if the kids are really excited, to teach them stuff?

Kate Highland: There’s ways and means to teach things. When my daughter was three, she learned to read the word ‘exit’ because we drove down the freeway and she said, “what’s that,” pointing to the exit sign, and I said, “it says exit.” And so all of the way, up and down the freeway for the next three or four years I got, “exit, Mummy! Exit, Mummy.”

These environmental print things are great. If they’re in the supermarket and they can recognise the peaches and know that the picture is a peach, and that’s what the label says, that’s great to encourage that sort of thing, but I wouldn’t sit your child down and try and teach them how to write or too much of how to form the letters of the alphabet. Preschool will do a lot of that anyway, so I wouldn’t try to do those formal things. I’d try and enjoy your child more than try and teach them a whole lot.

Dorte Bladt: So there’s a division between school and that home academic setting. So home is safe, it’s fun.  It’s not a place we necessarily do anything other than homework when the set time comes.

Kate Highland: Yes and when that’s homework, you’ll find that these days teachers set for a practical homework. My homework sheet will say things like, “count the forks in the drawer,” or, “how many steps does it take to get to the letterbox?”  You know, these practical things that we put in there so that it’s a little bit more interesting. It’s not always sit down with a pencil on a piece of paper. So teachers are very used to thinking outside the square now, finding things that kids want to do.

Dorte Bladt: So more play-based type.

Kate Highland: It’s far more play-based and physical-based. I’ll say, “set a timer and how many times can you do star jumps? How many can you do in a minute?” That sort of thing.

Dorte Bladt: What a great way to exercise.

Kate Highland: Yes. Well, it’s just a bit different and they’re tired when they get home in the afternoon. You’ll find they’ll sleep a great deal. It’s a big deal to come to school and teachers are exhausted. The kids are exhausted, too.

Dorte Bladt: Absolutely and when you’re talking about the physical side of things, how about, like for example, food? You as a teacher, what provides the best brain capacity for learning food to take?

Kate Highland: Okay, food choice is really important. A lot of schools, including us, ask that parents provide what we call the ‘nude lunch’, which is a lunch that’s in a box that doesn’t have wrappings and papers because we’re all into recycling and producing less rubbish, that sort of thing. So things that are wholesome and nutritious. Certainly, a lot of places have what’s called Fruit Break or Crunch Break where we get them to bring… so we eat three times a day. One is morning tea and that might be fruit or it might be a snack of some sort, but even half a sandwich can be fine.

Fruit Break or Crunch Break, which is fruit and vegetable or water,  so small manageable pieces. If they walk in with a big green apple, I know they’re not going to get through it. In a few minutes, it will land up in the bin.  Whereas half a mandarin or beans or a carrot, they can get through it.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Or the apple cut up, I suppose.

Kate Highland: Yes, as long as it’s cut up. So Fruit Break works really well. Strawberries, whatever is in season. Then lunch needs to be, again, probably a sandwich, but people sometimes – I’m out there in the playground and I’ll see people have provided sushi for their children, or they’ve been really fabulous at being very inventive of what their children will like.

We do like to minimise packet food, packaged, processed-type things not just because of the litter part but because filling yourself with the sugar and the salt and those sorts of things aren’t so good. Please make sure that your children have breakfast. I think breakfast everyone says it’s the most important meal of the day. I can tell a difference between children who walk in who’ve had breakfast and those who haven’t.

Sometimes I’ll say, “why didn’t you have breakfast?”

And the child’s response is, “oh, we had to get to school on time,” which just tells me, well, you’re not getting up early enough.

Dorte Bladt: Yes, that’s fairly simple.

Kate Highland: I would think fairly simple. So try setting routines with your child so that they know where their shoes are at, where their uniform is, packing their own bag or their lunch, water bottles, those sorts of things so that you can streamline that whole getting out the door and getting to school on time.

Dorte Bladt: That would be a really good thing. When we’re talking about school readiness that would be a good routine to start maybe before school starts.

Kate Highland: Before school, yes, but by the time they’re 4 ½ or 5, they’re old enough to know where the bowl and the spoon is – the Weet-Bix and the milk. I mean, it can just be that. At least if they’ve got something decent in their stomach, I find they can then concentrate, and those few hours to start the day are the peak learning times.

You’ll find that teachers will do more creative things in the afternoon because we’re all a bit slower and all a bit more tired, but peak literacy and numeracy time happens first thing in the morning, especially in the younger grades. So if they come to school and they’re already exhausted, it’s really hard to concentrate. So food choice is very important. Look, I think fruit and sandwiches just will get you through the day. Good quality bread and fillings that are just a bit different, a bit unusual. I often see things that I think, “gee, I haven’t thought about that.”

Yoghurt is one, but if you’re putting milk products, they certainly need one of those little freezer block things that will keep it cool, and I always prefer to see children drink water rather than anything else. Everything else – fruit juice and cordials full of sugar, so water is fabulous, and if they can’t then we’ve got bubblers here.

Dorte Bladt: So I guess what you’re saying is there’s nothing really new and exciting. We all know what basic good food is, but, again, remembering that it’s not just for health and for lack of weight gain. That’s not the only thing.  It is also so they can actually concentrate.

Kate Highland: It is for concentration, yes.

Dorte Bladt: All through the school day.

Kate Highland: Yeah and I find children now want to eat fruit because of Fruit Break. I’ve only got to look at my class and say, “oh, yeah, your strawberries look nice,” and four more children have got strawberries the next day because they… and they like that community sharing of food that all human beings like to do. We all like to sit and eat together.  So doing that in the classroom… I know at my school the teachers read, the primiers reading challenge books. So we’re reading picture books to them. So they have this really relaxing time.

And I say to them at the end of the year, “what did you really enjoy doing?”

And it is, “we like Fruit Break. We like Fruit Break because you read to us and we’re just a bit relaxed.”

But we’re together and it’s 10 or 15 minutes of eating healthy food, drinking water.

Dorte Bladt: Healthy food together.

Kate Highland: Yes, eating it together so it’s a really fabulous thing to do. Often, when they’re in the playground, if it’s lunchtime, we always supervise lunch, and we’ll say, “where’s your lunch?”

“Oh, I’ve eaten it.”

“Okay. Show me your lunchbox.”

And they often haven’t eaten it because they want to play. So things that are appealing to them, although children will say to me, “oh, but I don’t like Vegemite.”

And I’ll say, “well, I don’t make your sandwich. Make sure you tell your Mum. Make sure you tell your Dad that you would prefer something different.”

So ask them! Ask them what they want because if they don’t like Vegemite, what’s the point of giving them one every day? Or whatever it is, if they don’t like ham and salad or something. So I guess try and find something that they want to eat, then monitor it so that if they bring you home a full lunchbox, you’re giving too much, or an empty lunchbox, maybe it’s too little.

Dorte Bladt: Yes. I suppose the other thing is also we know how sick we get of the same sandwich every day. I suppose that it’s also a little bit of variety that might be good for a kindergartener or a school-age child.

Kate Highland: Yes and think about just cooking a bit of extra something at night time so that you’ve got that leftover to put on a sandwich. I think that’s a great way to use that up and it teaches really good skills for the future as well about food.

Nobody at school shares food. Most schools request that there’s no nuts, peanuts in particular because of allergies. I know it’s really important that you communicate with your school if your child has anything, any issue. Any hearing issue, vision, fine motor, which is things to do with scissors in the hands, really, like cutting and pasting and colouring in, or any problems with big movements. If they’re wriggling around or having trouble crossing their legs. One thing I know I always do is stop children from doing what I call a W-sit, which I know would be something that you would talk about because of what that does to their spine and their whole sitting, and I can tell the children that purposely choose a W-sit often will have trouble with tasks.

Dorte Bladt: Yes. There’s a chicken and the egg in that.

Kate Highland: Yes, I’m sure there is. So that’s a really important one to do too. So there’s a lot of things that people can do, but I guess the whole idea about talking about school, playing at being at school, even talking about things, having little things like there might be a spot on the fridge where you can put their work. I know that when I was at school, someone complimented a piece of art I did and my mother put it in a frame and stuck it on the wall, and it stayed there for years. When she passed away and we were at her house, I found it, and it was so touching it was still in the frame. I have it up in my house now.

A couple of days after I put it up, it’s just in my study, at the back, my husband looked at it and he said, “what’s that?”

“Well, you know what? I painted that when I was in Year 4,” and I remember it. Those things are really… making memories is really important.

Dorte Bladt: Yes and it also seems for the time that that is valuable. It was time well spent and it’s not just wasting… as if you could waste your time in school, but it is valuable time.

Kate Highland: It is. That’s exactly right. They feel very safe and secure and after I’ll say, “you know, this is where your Mum and Dad want you to be today. Do they want you to be doing this?”

And they’ll go, “oh, no.”

That becomes a bit of a reminder of what your behaviour looks like. So it is very important that they know that they’re in place and that they feel safe and secure.

Dorte Bladt: So are there anything, any suggestions for parents, like going into, let’s just say, the last week before school? Making sure that this is going to be a great new year. Anything that you could suggest just for that short week or two or however long that you think is the right sort of timeframe.

Kate Highland: Look, advertising-wise, it starts as soon as Christmas finishes. It’s the “back-to-school, back-to-school,” which freaks all the teachers out, I have to say. It’s December and January, but so you’ve got the whole build up with buy the school shoes, make sure you’ve got the uniforms, that sort of thing, but I’d start having the conversations about “what was good about last year? What are you looking forward to?”

I really think they’ll say, “Oh, well, I will see my friends,” or “I will see so-and-so.”

Try not to talk too much about who the teachers will be because often staff change. They move or they seek other positions or whatever, so you can’t guarantee who our staff member will be. We tend not to tell children you’ll be in so-and-so classroom of whatever in case it changes because you don’t want anxiety about that at all.

So it’s about “you will be back there”. You might change and some schools it’s really difficult to organise because of new enrolments, so a lot of schools the children will return and they’ll stay in their class for a day or two from last year so that we can get the organisation correct or as good as we can get it. So that happens that you just go back into the same class for a day or two with the same teacher until we can move on and sort things out, because with new developments in building and that sort of thing, it’s very tricky to sort that out, but certainly have those conversations and just talk to them about, “is there anything that you would like me to talk to the teachers about or not?”

Often children will say, “no, no, no. Don’t go talk to them.”

But just about what the expectation is. I expect that you’ll go to school. I expect you’ll listen to the teachers. I’m sure you’ll do as you’re told. I’m sure that you’ll have a lot of fun. Some days will be tricky. Some days will be a little bit hard, but know that you’ll come home and you’ll talk to us about that. I know, certainly, in my house, it was soon as they walked in the door of an afternoon, “now, what did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“You didn’t do anything?”

“No, I played.”

And you think, “they don’t do much there.”

Then we’d sit down to have dinner and then it would come out. They just needed that couple of hours of downtime before dinner to sort of maybe process it or think it through and then I think the questions at dinner were different. It wasn’t “did you have fun today” or whatever. It became “who did you play with” and “what did you do in maths.” Something that had an answer to it.

Dorte Bladt: Open-ended.

Kate Highland: Yeah, open-ended. Not just yes and no type things. Once you start telling stories about your day, you’ll find that they’ll open up then.

Dorte Bladt  I think I read this study on that. They were saying… I can’t remember where I read it but it was something about Mum or Dad starting dinner with the story of their day and then, like you were saying, the stories will be light so it ends up becoming that whole conversation and everyone likes to contribute, but it’s not that we necessarily want to be the one that has the monologue. I think often it becomes almost an interrogations, “so what did you do today, who did you play with today?” Whereas if we come home and say, “you wouldn’t believe it, so-and-so did such-and-such with birthday cake and we had”… whatever. The story that you can come up with, they like to share their side too.

Kate Highland: I think the other thing that parents can do is I’m sure there are things in their day that don’t go right. Certainly, you edit what you say, but let them know that you’re a human being and that you do have days that aren’t all sunshine and roses and rainbows, and that it’s tricky  Some days you’re very tired or you might have had something go wrong that was difficult and you’re worried about it, and what you’re going to do about it.

“Well, I’m going to talk about it”, “I’m going to have a good think”, “I’m going to make a decision”, “I’ll seek advice”.

But those sort of life skills that everybody needs, you know, how to make a decision, those sorts of things we all need to know about. Let them see you as an example of how to make that and the example of, “of, let’s finish now and I’m moving on. I’m letting it go.” I think they’re things that parents can do that teach their child. We try to do that as well but, obviously, teachers don’t have the same rapport.

Dorte Bladt: The circumspect, like you were saying earlier, that parents are a child’s first teacher.

Kate Highland: Yes, that’s right.

Dorte Bladt: And second teacher and third teacher.

Kate Highland: The most important person and because the parents are imparting their values and their beliefs onto their children and so you want to do that, but you want to give them skills in resilience. You want to give them skills in organisations and getting along with other people.

Sometimes at school, children will get upset because somebody doesn’t like them and I’ll say to them, “well, you don’t have to play with everybody. You don’t have to like everybody.”

And kids are really surprised when I say to them, “well, you know, you can choose who you play with. As long as you’re being polite to people and being pleasant, you don’t have to be best friends with everybody. Nobody is.”

And it doesn’t happen in adult life, why should it happen in children’s lives?

Dorte Bladt: It’s that confidence, though, isn’t it? If you’re always being told that you have to be nice and you think you have to play with everyone because that’s easier for us adults.

Kate Highland: Yes, it is. But we’ll say to children, “to resolve your conflict with other children, what you should do…”

We teach them how to do it, how to stand up to someone that they might think is bullying them, and to use words.  Or to put their hand up and say, “please stop. I don’t like…” then say what it is the person is doing. Most of the time, everybody else respects that. Occasionally, you’ll get someone who’ll be annoying, and that happens a little bit where “they’re singing in my ear. I’ve told them not to sing in my ear.” You know? A bit of cooperation here would be good. But we do train them to do that, to be able to verbalise and say what it is that’s upsetting you.  As well as go and tell the teacher, and that’s very important, but trying to solve those little things yourself.

A lot of that happens at home. I mean, brothers and sisters playing. The situation is different at home. You can have kids wrestling on the floor and that’s all good, hopefully, but at school, that’s not. So there is a disparity, really, between what could happen at home and what could happen at school.

So sometimes the rules are different and I guess that’s another thing to talk to your kids about is the difference in rules. There are different rules when you go to a swimming pool. There are different rules when you go to a shopping centre or whatever. There are different rules for every facet of life that we all have to learn because sometimes kids will say, “oh, but you know, my Dad said I can thump him.” Sorry, that’s not going to work at school. Won’t do with that one. I’m sure Dad didn’t or if Dad did, maybe he needs to talk to me but we don’t… that retaliation thing is gone, hopefully, in most kids but that’s something you need to learn about school is that the rules are different.

Dorte Bladt  Excellent. Well, I’m sure lots of parents could get some good take-homes from that. I really appreciate your time, Kate.

Kate Highland: Thank you.

Dorte Bladt: And good luck with your holiday!

Kate Highland: Thank you very much!

Outro:  The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host.

The post FF 06: ‘School Readiness’ with Kate Highland appeared first on Family Chiropractic Charlestown.

Nichola talks with us about supporting couples with knowledge and skills for birth.

Intro: Flourishing Families with Dr. Dorte Bladt, the Switched-On Kids chiropractor and her passionate friends sharing the secret of inspiring wellness to help your families thrive.

Dorte Bladt: I’d like to welcome Nichola Kinnane to our podcast today. It’s lovely for you to travel down and have a chat with us today. Welcome.

Nichola Kinnane: Thank you for having me, Dorte. It’s lovely to sit down and have a conversation.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. So tell me, who are you, Nichola?

Nichola Kinnane: I am a doula and also a childbirth educator. At the moment, I’m offering the She Births course which is a holistic, evidence-based childbirth education course in the Newcastle and mid-north coast areas.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. So just for our listeners, just tell me what is a doula?

Nichola Kinnane: A doula is an independent, professional childbirth support person. Generally, a couple or a single mother might employ me at some stage during her pregnancy and then you are on call for the pregnancy two weeks before the due date, two weeks after the due date, and you give support during that time and then attend the birth and just offer tools and techniques and support in whatever way that looks to be for the couple or for the mother.

Dorte Bladt: So what’s the difference between a doula and a midwife?

Nichola Kinnane: A midwife has been trained and is a nurse and a doula is an extra set of hands. We offer all those things that you might need, where there’s someone to hold the bucket while you vomit, will give massage, acupressure and even emotional support, and support for the dads as well so they can really be involved in the birth and help to facilitate a beautiful experience for all of you there.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent and how does that then fit in with the She Births experience that you offer?

Nichola Kinnane: Yes. Well, I trained as a doula about 10 years ago and since then I’ve had two children of my own. I was kind of dipping my toe back into the birth world and wanted to find something else. I had a diploma in counselling as well and I wanted to find something else that I could incorporate into that work that was still in birth and I found the She Births course which was developed by Nadine Richardson in Sydney, and it seemed the perfect addition to what I was already doing and I’ve really enjoyed sharing with couples so far.

The thing that I love about it is that in my experience training as a doula, I heard so many birth stories and listened to women, what they planned on using the birth they hoped to have and then I was able to also hear their experiences afterwards. In my training, I was going to birth classes with the women and going to mothers’ groups as well.

What I heard during that time for the year that I was doing my training is that women have really diverse experiences and you never know exactly what you need on the day of your labour, and with all the things that you think you want, you want the candles and you want the massage and then suddenly you’re in labour and it’s, “don’t touch me, don’t come near me!” You just want to be in that corner by yourself birthing but have the right team around you to support you and She Births is a fabulous course because it offers an opportunity to explore all of the tools and techniques that you might need. It also exposes your birth partner, whether it’s a dad or a partner or even a doula that you might bring if you’re a solo Mum, it exposes them to the tools and gets them very comfortable with what might be required of them and kind of demystifies birth, if you like.

They’re tools that we offer and that we teach, many of them evidence-based or just even anecdotally-based. We know that they work and then the more tools that you have, the more knowledge you have, the more confident you are on the day to take what you need and leave behind whatever you don’t.

Dorte Bladt: So just to clarify for me because it’s 500 years since I had kids, give or take. The She Births is set up as a certain amount of time that you spend going through techniques, like you said, “I would like massage and candles” but I end up in the corner. So are you going through the different scenarios into this may be what you’re thinking now and this could be another option, or this is also something you could look at? Is that how it’s set up?

Nichola Kinnane: Yes. So over the weekend, we look at three main pillars or components. We look at knowledge and the idea that knowledge is a powerful force and it helps to eliminate fear. So the more you’re prepared with the actual understanding of the body, the better prepared you are when you’re in that process to bear where you really let go and to trust in what’s happening and trust in your team.

The next area that we focus on is your inner knowledge or inner strength and that’s what women have been using since the beginning of time, the breathing and the movement, meditation, visualisations, more relaxation-based methods as well as active birth principles. So how you move, the positions you might be in, your yoga, etcetera, and then you have your other resources that you draw on and the biggest one is going to be your partner and your team, the midwives or doctors that you have or your doulas. But then also creating a lovely environment and then you come in with the massage tools and techniques or acupressure, and learning all of those components is really important to facilitating a really beautiful birth no matter what unfolds, no matter what kind of corners you come in with or what happens, the changes in plans that happen along the way.

The more prepared you are – and you can use those tools at any point in time – the more prepared you are, hopefully, the better that you’ll feel, the more empowered you’ll be because you’ll be an active part of the process.

Dorte Bladt: Right, that sounds good. So you said that you became a doula 10 years ago and then you’ve had a bit of time off with your children. What is your experience getting back into it now? I mean, we hear so much that we’re becoming more technological and there’s more intervention and there’s more fear, maybe as time goes on. What is your experience in that, like from a birth point of view, in the trends over the last 10 years, if any?

Nichola Kinnane: I think there’s a lot of different trends going on and I feel that for me and my experience, what I thought birth was before I had attended a birth as a doula was very different to what I saw in the room and I think that there’s a lot of fear, like you said, based on birth stories that we might be hearing, or media, how it’s portrayed. Often, it’s really funny to see someone rushed in a cab to a hospital in the movies but it’s not necessarily like that. It can be extremely spacious. It can be days and if I hadn’t had the experience of being trained as a doula before I had my own children, I probably would have just done a very – not a conventional route – but I might not have been empowered in my choices because I would have been doing what I thought everyone was doing.

But as a doula, I had explored the avenues. I’ve heard stories of women who had explored other avenues themselves and it created possibility for myself that I could have something that looked different. My birth could be different. My experience of parenting could be different. That was really exciting and I’m really glad that I had done that training.

Dorte Bladt: You mentioned before when we were talking before we started the podcast that you look a lot at the mind-body connection. What’s your experience with that?

Nichola Kinnane: Yes. In my early 20s, my mother had taken me to a chiropractor who worked with kinesiology. I remember being very sceptical of this process, not really understanding why I was talking about feelings and thoughts that I had been having when I was eight years old, but after a period of time, I realised that my body felt much better and my mind also felt much better from working with the two together, so I became very curious about this mind-body connection.

It’s something that really excited me in the She Births courses that we look at mind-body connection and how you process your thoughts and feelings and how that can translate into the room and start to uncover, and really it is a self-reflective weekend as much as it is a birth course. It encourages couples to look at their own beliefs and attitudes and work from there to be active in the process for themselves.

Dr. Dorte Bladt: Fantastic… and you mentioned that it’s evidence-based?

Nichola Kinnane: Yes, it is evidence-based, so a lot of the tools and the techniques we have the corresponding research that backs up why we would be recommending that. Then it is also the only course in the world that’s been scientifically verified to lower epidural by 65% and the caesarean section rates by 44% and it has a resuscitation reduction rate for babies at 53%. So it really improves outcomes for mothers and babies as well, and that research paper was published in the British Medical Journal in 2016, so if anyone is interested they would see it on the shebirths.com website or could probably search for it in Google.

Dorte Bladt: So what’s your actual background? What did you do before you became a doula?

Nichola Kinnane: Before I became a doula – well, coming off the experience with the chiropractor and the kinesiologist, I ended up training as a holistic kinesiologist. I felt very passionate about the mind-body process and working with the body to relieve stress and to help the body function a little bit better. Then I worked as a kinesiologist and then I started hearing this word ‘doula’ which was quite surprising for me because I had no friends with babies, I have no nieces or nephews and then suddenly I was thinking, yes, I’m going to be a birth support. I’m going to sit with women and hold babies.

I thought about the process… It was beautiful and it was such an eye-opening experience, something that I had never experienced before, but the kinesiology and then working as a doula and then doing my training as a counsellor and then, now, the childbirth education all works in together and all that knowledge is the foundations building up to where I am now.

Dorte Bladt: So you mentioned that you potentially go to birth classes with people, or used to, anyway. What’s the difference between the normal antenatal classes that I think most of us do going through and preparing for birth and the She Births Program? Is there a difference?

Nichola Kinnane: Every course is definitely different. There’s a difference between the independent childbirth classes and the hospital classes. I haven’t been to every single class available so I can’t really speak as to what the specific differences are between that, the She Births class in my experience and in the classes I was doing as well about 10 years ago, so that was when I was training as a doula, and I think that there are more tools and techniques that have been incorporated since then, but a lot of them are the eastern wisdom and tools and techniques along with the western medicine have been combined pretty well.

I did go to one class when I was having my second child just as a refresher but I went through the hospital. My experience and this is definitely not everyone else’s experience, it’s just simply my experience, was that I didn’t feel a connection to the process of the birth which was what I was really looking for, I guess, to reconnect to the baby.  You’re about to give life to something and you’re with your partner and your family is going to change, the dynamics are going to change. I was really looking for that connection from the class which is something that I didn’t get… but that’s not to say that women and couples don’t get that.

Dorte Bladt: Yeah. You also mentioned I think that you do some following-up. Is that with the doula? I can’t remember now, but the following-up after the birth, so when there is that change in family dynamics. How does that fit into what you’re doing?

Nichola Kinnane: As a doula, what I would do to postnatal visits and just check in. There are some great antenatal doulas as well. So for anyone that doesn’t know what that is, you employ a doula who would be coming in post-birth, as opposed to a birth doula, and supporting you during that time.

In the She Births course, we look at settling. We also look at breastfeeding and conscious parenting too, so the choices that you make in the birth are really about the three of you and those choices can then laid on when you take the baby home and how you want to live your life and recreating your life in that sense.

Dorte Bladt: It is recreating it, isn’t it?

Nichola Kinnane: It is! It is a process and it is a lot of change. I think going slowly and just doing the best that you can be doing. Then if something is not really working, just being curious as to why it’s not working and knowing that you can make decisions and it’s your baby, it’s your relationship with your partner and that’s possible.

Something that down the track I’ll be looking at doing in Newcastle is Soul Mama Circles which is mothers’ groups for women. The women mostly will be coming from the She Births Groups that I’ll be running, but then if other people are interested in joining it or are like-minded – of course, we talk about settling and sleep and poo and all those sorts of things – but we really want to focus more on transitions and talk about the meatier stuff in there too.

Dorte Bladt: Do you find it, I’m probably incredibly cynical when I say this, but does that whole change in the western lifestyle where we keep talking about Mum and Dad and baby or Mum and Dad and children, do you feel that there has been an increase in the need for people like a doula or a support person or She Births because we don’t have aunties, we don’t have cousins, we don’t have grandparents? We don’t have that exchange of wisdom through our wider community. We do sort of end up on our own, as in, “oh my goodness, now I’m a Mum, how the heck do we do this?”

I remember feeling that.  Again, it’s a long time since I had kids but what are your thoughts on that?

Nichola Kinnane: I think that there definitely has been a change to being the nuclear family and not having as much community. Also, people have been moving from other areas and so they might not have family close. There are services out there, for sure, that you can call on to support, but often people don’t even know where to begin.

So it’s the middle of the night and your baby is screaming and you’re not too sure what’s going on, but you feel like the breastfeeding is not really coming together. A lot of them might not know that there’s a breastfeeding association hotline that you can use 24/7 and it’s free, or that you can have doulas come to your home or you can have someone to come and help settle your baby so you can go to sleep early, and that the community centres have nurses that have lots of wisdom there, too.

So I think that it’s a balance of having Doctor Google at your fingertips where you can find out everything or be overwhelmed by that then also be isolated, but just because you have more access to knowledge doesn’t mean that you’re more connected in that sense.

Dorte Bladt: No, you’re probably getting less connected because you get overwhelmed or it could also be and then suddenly you start thinking that this is really bad.

Nichola Kinnane: Yeah. So I think that having a few great practitioners, whether it be a chiropractor or anything that works for you, someone you connected with before you have children and then you continue that relationship afterwards just so you have resources at your fingertips, it’s better to have that sooner rather than later for sure.

Dorte Bladt: That makes sense, doesn’t it? It is about using your community, using your friends and being able to be vulnerable enough to reach out and say, “oh, my goodness. I feel a little bit out of my depth,” and reach out.

Nichola Kinnane: Yes and also friends and family or anyone just knowing that giving someone time with their baby is really, really important but also it doesn’t take much to text and check in and say, “we’ll drop a home-cooked meal at the door,” or anything like that.

Dorte Bladt: That sounds all right. Can I have one of those?

Nichola Kinnane: Yes, me too.

Dorte Bladt: So just to keep this a bit light-hearted, is there a particularly funny experience that sticks out in your mind that you may have had in your years either as a She Births facilitator or as a doula?

Nichola Kinnane: Yes. I think that something that I think about and I share with my couples is the first She Births Course that I did with Nadine when I was just sitting there and teaching with my training. She was teaching and it was… you go around and you have your introductions. One of the couples – it was their turn to share who they were and why they were there and everything, and it got to the dad and he said, “well, this morning I thought I was going to Bunnings and I was brought to She Births and I found out that I’m spending two days in a childbirth education class.”

But he did it! He stayed the whole weekend and he was right into it doing all the massage and everything else. I just love that story because, often, the women, they’re having this experience. They’re growing the baby, they’re online, they would have read the website ten times and then checked my profile as a She Births educator. So things like, “what has she done,” da-da-da. The dad’s kind of might have some form of… you know, they’re right there with their partners. Other times, they sort of don’t know what they’re going into, but any guy that goes to a course called She Births has to be a kind of pretty cool guy.

Dorte Bladt: Nothing wrong with Bunnings.

Nichola Kinnane: Nothing wrong with Bunnings. I just thought, okay, just…

Dorte Bladt: You can stop there on the way back.

Nichola Kinnane: Yes, you can definitely stop there on the Sunday night.

Dorte Bladt: Do you have any advice for some of the Mums that may be listening to this on our podcast?  Something that you feel makes a big difference in that whole getting ready to create life.

Nichola Kinnane: I think the biggest piece of advice that rings true for me at the moment is to be curious and to be open to the possibility of things being different and to trust your intuition around that. So don’t be afraid to question the care that you’re getting because you want to build a solid team with all your caregivers, doctors, midwives, doulas and partners. Make sure everyone is on the same page and be open to the possibility that you can have a beautiful birth no matter what that looks like. It can be very different for everybody and the women that come to She Births and do the courses, they might be wanting a totally natural birth with no intervention at all. They might be electing to have an epidural, even elective caesareans – you can still do the course and use all the tools and techniques. A beautiful birth is one where you feel empowered in yourself and as a couple and as a family. So be open and curious about the possibilities out there.

Dorte Bladt: Perfect. Thank you so much for your time today. Just to clear this up so people know – tell me again, who are you? Where are you from? Where can people find you?

Nichola Kinnane: So my name is Nichola Kinnane and if you want any more information about the She Births Course, you can look at https://shebirths.com. At the moment, I’m offering the courses in Newcastle, in Charlestown, and as a doula, the doula directory has lots of great doulas in the area and my details are up there too.

Dorte Bladt: Excellent. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you coming down today.

Nichola Kinnane: Thank you, Dorte.

Outro: The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Family Chiropractic or the host. Brought to you by Family Chiropractic Centre Charlestown, serving the families in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Charlestown.

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