By Kim Waggoner
RN Waggoner Health, Etna Green

So now that you moms (or dads) have made the commitment to start taking care of YOU, lets talk more about your kids.

School has been in session for 3 weeks now. I hear a lot of moms saying how their kids have already missed school due to colds or allergy symptoms. I have also overheard conversations of how “strep throat” is going around. The awesome thing for our family over the past four years is that I haven’t really known when “cold and flu” season is or when illnesses “going around school” occur because my kids have rarely been sick.

We used to take a few trips to Med Stat each fall and winter or begged to get in to the doctor because of illness. Over the past four years I haven’t had to buy cold and cough meds, antibiotics, or pay for doctor bills. So what happened in those four years? A little over 4 years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer I began to learn all I could about health, nutrition and supplements. I have practiced as a nurse for almost 18 years, but I had very little training on nutrition, wellness, or prevention. Because of the 3 years I was able to be off work to undergo cancer treatments, I had a lot of time to read, go to lectures and watch webinars on what I could do to help myself heal and what I could do to help keep my family healthy.

The proof was how they felt, the almost zero number of illnesses or sick days of school due to what I started implementing in our home. I slowly introduced new foods or recipes in to their daily lives. They began to take quality supplements. I also began to educate them on things like what a can of soda would do to their body.

We cleaned junk and processed foods out of our cupboards. We pitched toxic chemicals in our house. Said bye-bye to loads of sugar. My husband had always gardened and canned our own food, but now he was no longer using chemical fertilizers or pesticides in our garden. We filtered our water. We learned and we put things into practice.

I asked the kids to be as consistent as possible taking their supplements and eating how I had taught. My daughter started packing her own healthy lunches. My son would pack his own healthy performance drink for practices. Healthy Living became a new normal in our house.

So I’m sure you want to know, do we ever eat junk? Yes, sometimes. Have I ever found forbidden foods like, Pop Tarts hidden in their car? Yes. Have I ever bought 2-liter sodas and chips for bonfires? Yes. In contrast though, I have also had amazing things happen. I’ve gotten a whole high school baseball team hooked on gluten free, organic peanut butter-chocolate chip protein bites. I’ve made coconut popcorn for the kids friends. I also get tons of questions from their friends and been asked to speak to their health class. It’s pretty cool to be able to pass this on to my kiddos and their peers. In our home, healthy living is now the norm and  “junk” is the occasional.

At 7 p.m. next Monday, Sept. 8, at Triton Elementary in Bourbon, I will be co-hosting a Healthy Kids Seminar. I will be going into more details of the steps you can take to make your home a healthy place for your child to thrive in and what you can do to help them be successful this school year. This event is free and sponsored by the Triton PTO. For more info you can email me at [email protected].

My next article will be a detailed recap of that seminar.

Here’s to healthy, happy, hopeful kids!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kim Waggoner is a wife, mom, nurse and Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma Survivor. Her passion is to come alongside others, encouraging them to create healthy, happy, hopeful lives. Kim is the owner of Waggoner Health and writes a blog, www.kimwaggoner.com to educate and inspire others.