Why a Holistic Approach is the Healthiest Choice for Children’s Health Care
What do you think of when you hear the word holistic? For me when I first began working in the hospital, I was taught that the person who believed in this type of medicine meant they were against modern interventions altogether and would likely make for an antagonistic patient interaction. But as I’ve grown both in my professional and personal life, I have come to understand that as the world continues to change, so does the practice of medicine. Of course there are some components that remain the same such as basic human anatomy, but every day we are learning something new. We find new side effects of drugs, there’s a discovery that original first line treatments for diseases need to be replaced with different interventions, and to this day, we are still trying to nail down how certain illnesses are transmitted amongst the human population.
While medicine itself continues to evolve, our current healthcare system seems keen on going backwards and focusing on quantity versus quality of care. Providers are encouraged to assess, diagnose, and treat a patient within small fifteen minute windows in order to meet the criteria for the required number of patients that day. But as I am sure many of us will agree, this current set-up is just not working and it is one of the many reasons I decided to open my own practice. Are there times when I can see and treat a patient within fifteen minutes safely? Of course. But are there times, more often than not, that I think I am seeing a patient for one concern and they come in expressing much more than that? Almost all the time. Each patient is an individual, so each aspect of their health is affected in different ways specifically to who they are. Each appointment should be tailored to attend to those needs rather than crammed into a block of time with scheduled with three other patients waiting.
So what does the term ‘holistic’ actually mean when it comes to the practice of medicine?
Holistic medicine means that you are looking at the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. That may sound cheesy but when those aspects of who they are is broken down, it makes more sense than you realize. Let’s start with the mind and body. Mental and physical health go hand in hand. This is not to say that a six-pack equates to a mind free of clutter (I wish). What it means is that if there is a general health concern, this may cause damage to their mental health over time and vice versa. If there is a mental health concern such as anxiety or depression, over time a child may develop a physical health concern such as poor eating habits, decreased interest in daily exercise, or poor personal hygiene, just to name a few. If a child is suffering from being overweight, it can affect how they see themselves, their confidence and motivation, and this can lead to becoming depressed or a change in behavior such as acting out with frustration and anger. Then comes discussing a person as an individual. Whether a family has religious beliefs, a belief in God, or they have an approach that does not involve religion, this can affect how they approach taking medicine, accepting diagnoses, discussing recommendations, and their overall take on life. It is important that your provider acknowledges each piece of the puzzle that makes the beautiful human your child is in order to properly care for them, and provide a treatment that everyone agrees on.
Children are tiny humans. No matter the developmental stage or time in life they are in, they are still human and deserve to have each aspect that makes up who they are treated with dignity. If they view something as important to them, then it has the potential of affecting their health. I’ll give you an example. Let’s take something small like losing a stuffed animal. For some, they may say, well it’s just a stuffed animal.. But what if that was what the child tucked on the pillow every night before going to bed, and now it’s gone? What if they started learning how to read by holding the book up to their favorite toy? To some it may just be a stuffed animal, but to that child it was a set routine, a familiar and comforting piece of their life that is now gone and they aren’t sure how to react.
We also sometimes forget that children pick up on everything. What we say, how we say it, because they are learning and want to be like the people they love most in this world. I always keep my mother’s words in my head, as I parent my own children. All of these little pieces may sound minor, but they make up the practice of holistic medicine. This is what it means to treat a child as a whole person, not just through symptom management. Looking beyond the numbers and looking at the child sitting in front of you and what makes them unique is what can help provide the best plan of care.
