Do's and Don't's
There are some basic do's and don'ts that you can implement immediately while you wait for your seminar or appointment.
This is a short list, culled over more than 20 years seeing multitudes of children, of thoughts and actions that can be applied at home with excellent results for your child – without ever setting foot inside The Family Hope Center. These represent only the beginning, but a strong beginning, of a strategy to bring wellness to your child and family.
Do:
- Take some time to pray every day, before you begin treating your child. This allows you to take time for yourself, to center yourself, and to focus on your core objectives.
- Structure your day – to succeed, disorganized children need more organization in their lives, not less. Begin with making sure everyone is well fed, the house is clean and organized, and the phone is turned off so you can help your child without distractions. Spend 40 to 45 minutes of each hour helping your child, and the rest of the hour on cleaning, cooking and other household tasks.
- Treat the brain, not the symptoms. Work smarter, not harder. Do everything to stimulate and develop the brain, while avoiding therapies that target the muscles.
- Provide an excellent diet. This is critical to metabolic function and development. Include protein at each meal, essential fatty acids (at least two tablespoons per day), and an excellent multivitamin.
- Have your child drink as many ounces of filtered water, per day, as half his or her weight in pounds. For example, if your child weighs 60 pounds, he or she should drink 30 ounces of filtered water per day. Remember, the brain is 80% of water!
- Get some good exercise yourself - daily. Please take good care of yourself. Mothers frequently do not take great care of themselves… you should. Your child needs you strong in your mind, spirit and body. If you are fit, eat well, and get a good night’s sleep you’ll be a great coach for your child.
- Spend time with your spouse and your other children. It is important for your health, theirs, and your hurt child’s.
- Find a good chiropractor or cranial sacral osteopath who will help improve and maintain your child’s physical structure. Go regularly. Remember, while function determines structure, structure also determines function. To learn about the incredible value these therapies can have for your child, visit these web sites:
www.braintherapy.com
www.chiropracticbiophysics.com
www.idealspine.com
You can also learn more about cranial sacral therapy, and its powerful effects when used in combination with fascia release therapy, by clicking here.
- Filter the air in your house, and all the water that your child drinks and bathes in. A shower filter for the tub is excellent! Clean, filtered water is essential for healthy brain function - but tap water is rarely free of contaminants. Clean air can also have a dramatic effect on your child’s neurological functioning, especially if they have allergies, so a high-quality air filter is strongly recommended.
- Fresh food, instead of processed and canned food, can add a great deal of energy to your child’s system. Processed and canned foods frequently lack the nutritional value that these special children desperately need.
- Laugh a lot, and go out as a family at least once per week.
- Read aloud to your child – as much as possible.
- Teach and give basic responsibilities to your child. Teach responsibilities as if your child understands, but realize they are neurologically disorganized and need extra time. Don’t underestimate how much your child understands. Just because they can’t give output back to you, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they don’t understand what you say.
- Have your child do a least an hour of physical exercise per day. It is important that they either - according to their level - crawl on their stomach (develops the pons and the child’s breathing), creep on their hands and knees (develops the midbrain and improves coordination, organization and breathing), walk or run (develops the cortex, respiration, language and organization), or do gymnastics (develops the vestibular areas and balance), every day.
Don’t
- Don’t accept defeat.
- Don’t accept opinions or comments that take you away from the goal of rescuing your child.
- Don’t allow guilt, judgment or shame to rule or motivate you. You are a part – the biggest part - of the solution for your child. True healing comes with joy, patience, kindness, and a calm, disciplined spirit – not with guilt or shame.
- Don’t feed your family sugar – it is poison to your child.
- Don’t serve your family a lot of dairy products – they hinder digestion, and cause a multitude of problems for many children.
- Don’t allow your children to drink or eat anything that contains caffeine.
- Avoid serving excess juice. Six ounces of apple juice is equivalent to eating nearly 5 apples. This is not helpful to the digestion, or to the nervous system.
- Avoid exposure to excessive television and recorded music. Your child will learn and develop better if you read to them, teach them, and spend time with them personally.
- Stop junk food of all kinds, including anything laced with additives and salts.
- Don’t let your children determine their own bedtimes. They need adequate, structured sleep to function at their best.
- Don’t accept inappropriate behavior. Even if you are not sure why something is happening, be consistent in addressing the behavior.
- Avoid medications that mask the symptoms, and look for healthy alternatives.
- Don’t give up... even though most days are long.
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