Functional Medicine
Functional Medicine
Functional medicine is a personalized and integrative approach to healthcare which involves understanding the prevention, management and root causes of complex chronic disease. The ultimate goal is to heal disease and promote a healthy life.
Your child may have a previous symptoms or diagnosis or simply want to be proactive in optimizing your child’s health. At Well Rooted Pediatrics our primary focus is prevention of disease (before the disease process has begun). Choosing a path towards a functional medicine consult ensures that the focus will be on either finding a root cause of your child’s diagnosis or focusing on comprehensive primary prevention of disease.
Conditions treated:
- Autoimmune
- Allergies
- Gut issues/Constipation
- ADHD
- Asthma
- Metabolic Syndrome
- Anxiety/Depression
- Eczema
- Headaches
How it Works?
Please call to speak to our patient care coordinator to discuss your concerns. If we feel as though we are a good fit, then we will proceed with the following steps.
Step One: Patient and Family Medical History
The first step is to fill out the intake forms which will be sent to you to complete at least 2 weeks prior to your appointment. Please provided all relevant testing or lab work done in the past 12 months prior to the appointment. We take a biomedical approach of evaluating all health systems ranging from a patient’s medical history from birth, diet, environment (and toxicity load), physiology, pathophysiology, use of medications or supplements, and family/social history. We will review this information prior to your appointment so that we can get the most benefit out of the initial appointment.
Step Two: Initial Consultation
During the initial consultation with you and your child, we spend 45 minutes thoroughly discussing your child’s history and symptoms, your concerns as the parent, and individualize a targeted approach to treatment. We typically suggest immediate changes with dietary supplements, lifestyle modifications, and/or diet changes. At this visit we may also suggest functional medicine labs to evaluate a targeted concern, such as your child’s gut, genetics, nutritional status, or toxic load. While functional medicine labs are not mandatory for treatment, they do assist us in gathering helpful data that we otherwise will not have. We typically suggest one lab at a time, as we use a systematic approach to investigating the systems of the body that could be causing your child trouble. For example, if a patient has troublesome gut issues, we may suggest a stool study to help us understand this at a more individualized level.
- Labs draws are available at the office for children 5 years and up
- Specialty Lab kits are ordered by our office staff and mailed to your home. Some lab kits allow for some insurance payment but others are cash payment only
- A 10% discount is given on supplements ordered through Full Scripts
Step Three: Analysis Review
We like to see our patients 4-6 weeks after their initial visit. This visit is typically 30-45 minutes. At this time we will discuss any lab work that was completed, recommend a customized plan of care, and plan for how to continue our therapy together. Additional appointments may be required. The number of visits depends on the child, his/her diagnosis, and the need for further assessments. Most patients will have an average of 2-3 visits for their initial treatment plan. We also work with therapists and other medical specialists, and can make referrals to those therapies such as naturopaths, chiropractors or other pediatric specialist if it is appropriate for the child.
Step Four: Managed Recovery
After your child has reached their wellness balance we recommend annual visits to support the changes all children experience as they grow into adulthood. At our annual visits we will make any necessary adjustments to your child’s wellness program.
ADD/ADHD
We strive to look at attention difficulties as a symptom of something else occurring in the body. Which may include,
- Poor nutrition leading to vitamin and mineral deficiencies
- Neuroinflammation resulting from eating foods that are heavily
processed - Genetic Influences making it more difficult for the child’s brain to
make essential neurotransmitters - Possible toxins from the environment that can negatively impacting
your child’s brain
Autism
We refuse to accept the answer there is nothing that can be done for a child with an autism spectrum diagnosis except external therapies. While there is no doubt these therapies are crucial to help kids on the spectrum, there is a growing body of research into multiple potential underlying contributors that are driving the autism epidemic:
- Neuroinflammation
- Mitochondrial dysfunction
- Immune dysregulation
- Gut issues
- Environmental toxins
- Genetic susceptibilities
GI Concerns
Does your child have regular bowel movements? Complain often of belly pain?
Often an unhealthy gut goes unnoticed because the symptoms seem completely unrelated such as a skin condition, neurologic symptoms, immune dysfunction, etc.; however, sometimes the symptoms are undeniably due to an issue within the GI tract and may result in constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain. We look at a number of factors that influence gut health including: Medications, Antibiotic and Steroid Use, Environmental and Dietary Factors.
Common GI related conditions we treat:
- Intestinal Permeability (leaky gut)
- Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
- Yeast Overgrowth
- Autoimmune Disorders
- GI infections
- Reflux, and others.
Headaches
Headaches should not be common. If your child is consistently experiencing headaches or headache pains we will help to determine the triggers and cause.
This may be addressed with:
- Nutrition
- Eliminate food and allergy triggers
- Environmental triggers such as allergies or toxins
- Vitamin or mineral deficiencies
- Stress factors
- Social and Family Life
- Sleep Routines
PANS/PANDAS
Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal infections (PANDAS) is a disorder seen in children after they experience a Group A Strep infection. PANS shares many of the same symptoms and markers as PANDAS — the key difference is that PANS doesn’t come from a prior strep infection. Common symptoms of PANS/PANDAS may include:
- Abrupt onset of OCD-like behaviors
- Anxiety
- Behavioral Regression
- Emotional Lability
- Handwriting Changes
- Irritability/Aggression
- Motor or Sensory Abnormalities
- Sleep Disturbance/Bedwetting
- Tics
We will help you determine what triggers may be occurring and reduce symptoms for your child.
Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that together can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. There are five specific factors that can put you at risk for it:
- Increased fat around the abdomen
- Low levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol
- High triglyceride levels
- Elevated blood sugar (glucose)
- Elevated blood pressure
Will discuss things like dietary changes, exercise, stress level and gut health. The goal is to address some of these things and reverse metabolic syndrome as early as possible
Anxiety
Children with anxiety may not present the same symptoms as adults, which may make anxiety disorders difficult to identify. Symptoms may include difficulty falling asleep, abdominal pain, change in appetite, bed-wetting, anger/irritability, social with-drawl, trouble concentrating.
Taking a proper history about how the child is feeling and when symptoms appeared is the first step. Evaluating the gut-brain connection is also important because dysbiosis and inflammation of the gut have been linked to increased anxiety and depression. Treatment plans for children with anxiety may include treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, as well as lifestyle and dietary changes.
Eczema
Eczema, or atopic dermatitis, is a pruritic, chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin disease, which has been increasing in prevalence since the 1960’s. It is believed that environmental factors, socioeconomic issues, genetic predisposition and immune dysfunction all play a role in its development and progression. We will help find the specific triggers which may include:
- Compromised gut health
- Impaired skin integrity
- Bacterial overgrowth
- Food Allergens/Sensitivities
- Environmental Allergens
- FLG mutation
Allergies
Allergies are an inflammatory condition where your child’s immune system “overreacts” to a substance. We believe that the inflammation caused by allergies directly affects histamine levels and other inflammatory responses in the body.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of kids that are treated for one of these conditions using the conventional medical model are only being treated at the symptom level, and no attempts are being made to discover and address the underlying cause of the illness.
We look at a number of factors influencing imbalanced immunity:
- Gut health
- The use of recurrent antibiotics
- Diet and Environment
If we find that you child may benefit from immunotherapy, we offer oral allergy drops that are administered at home. Naturally occurring allergenic extracts are used to formulate a customized allergy treatment. This effective natural product is free of the chemicals and compounds found in traditional allergy medications. These drops are customized to your child’s specific sensitivities by Allergy Choices. Treatment length is usually 3-5 years.
Asthma
Asthma is a chronic lung disease which causes inflammation in the lungs and bronchial tubes. The prevalence of asthma has increased globally over the past several years caused by many things including genetics and environmental factors.
Once diagnosed with asthma, we will work to discover your child’s triggers. A treatment plan is developed which will include correcting nutritional deficiencies, decreasing inflammation, and addressing gut health in conjunction with any maintenance medications and/or rescue medications. Asthma Action Plans will be developed so parents can recognize and address worsening asthma or an asthma attack when it occurs.
We require Asthma follow up appointments every 3-6 months to ensure that the child’s asthma is well controlled
Autoimmune Disorders
Your immune system defends your body against attack from viruses, harmful bacteria, pathogens, or diseases that you come in contact with. But this complex system of defense can be compromised or imbalanced by many lifestyle factors, including food allergies, toxins, and sudden illness or viruses.
Healing autoimmune illness is a special blend of changes to your diet, stress levels, and incorporating natural medicines and lifestyle adjustments to restore and retrain your child’s immune system, and decrease inflammation.