Childhood Asthma Allergy and Eczema

I have seen many kids over the course of my career who have this combination of asthma, allergies, and eczema occurring at the same time or at different time periods in the child’s life. Any one of these conditions is enough to cause frustration and concern for parents, but the additive effect of all three can be overwhelming and a challenge to the child’s system and energy threshold.

Asking the Question Why?

One of the strategies I like to use in the evaluation of kids, is to stretch out the framework of investigation to include not just what is happening now, but what has come before. Essentially, I think it is important to ask the question “why?”. Why this child, at this time, in this family, in this environment? Because this is such a difficult question to answer, it is almost never raised in the context of a practitioner’s office evaluation. The emphasis tends to be on treatment and management with medications, which is appropriate but in my opinion, incomplete. I am quite certain that every parent wants to know the answer to this “why” question for their own child, but it never reaches the point where it is possible to answer it because it is so nebulous and unclear, not to mention the fact that the possible contributing variables are too numerous to count.

I have learned to tackle this from an energy medicine perspective, which means we focus on the energetics of your child’s system which includes factors both inside and outside of their physical body, as well as time frames going all the way back to birth, prenatal and family history influences. When this is done, the reasons for the common scenario where asthma, allergies and eczema are coexisting in the same child have the chance to come to light. This awareness on your part as a parent is key to helping your child as I have mentioned previously in another post.

Your Child’s Lung Energy

In the Chinese medicine system, the lung energy, as a subdivision of your child’s overall energy allotment, is in charge of the process of breathing, the immune system especially on the surface of the body and on mucous membranes like the nose, mouth, respiratory and digestive tract, and finally the health of the skin (the largest organ of the body). By noting that this one sub-system is energetically in charge of all three of these categories (among many others), it is readily apparent that this triad of involvement in a child is likely to be caused by a weakness or imbalance on this one sub-circuit.

It is not that simple, however, because your child’s life experiences, events, environmental influences, inherited predispositions, and emotional contributing factors all can have a large or small impact on how your child’s system responds and seeks to balance itself. Therefore, the reasons and the answer to the question of why my child, why now, and so forth will always be individual to the child, there can never be a set answer that will cover every child with this triad of conditions.

It took me a long time to recognize this because this is not the way our current scientific investigation model works. Studies are done to look for the one explanation that tries to explain all, like a causative organism, an allergen, a toxin or a food or environmental sensitivity. I am not saying this is wrong, all I am saying is that it represents too narrow a view.

When every child with asthma, allergies and eczema has a different set of reasons for having those three conditions together, it is a problem trying to reduce the answer to the why question to a one size fits all response. I think we all know this intuitively, and certainly parents know that their own child has unique characteristics that differentiate them from everyone else in the world. To me, this is the main reason to use a more holistic approach to childhood issues and in my opinion, an energy based evaluation must be a part of the overall strategy.

Reality Based Approach

My final point to make is that your child does have a reason as to why they have or have had this triad of asthma, allergies and eczema but the answer will not be found in some textbook, or by a specialist, or on the next drug commercial. It will be found by the investigation of your child’s own history, predisposing factors, timing of events and experiences, and the awareness of their own energy based system functioning in real time.

My proposal to parents is to take a reality based approach which takes into account the necessity of medications if that is required, but not to the exclusion of all other investigations. Your child’s system is way too complex for us to logically reduce things to one answer only. Be open to all possibilities and systems of reasoning. Your child already does this naturally. I think we should do the same.

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Parenting Tips: Emphasizing Contrast

Another tip I often discuss with parents is the concept of “contrast”. This really refers to the idea that by contrasting what has happened in the past with what is happening now, you are making it easier for your child’s nervous system settings to stay up to date. The main points I like to make with parents regarding this particular tip include the following:

Emphasizing Contrast:

1. This is an important way of demonstrating to your child
the remarkable progress they have already made.

2. It also reinforces the stage of development they are in
which “contrasts” with what came before.

3. Ideally, this leads to the “letting go” of old, outdated, or
no longer relevant settings.

4. Broadcast the right messages to be helpful, knowing
your child is receiving them all the time.

What I mean by this is, you can make statements about what your child used to do in the past, and how now they are able to do something different and probably better and more in keeping with their current age.

For example, as a parent you might say “I remember when you used to have trouble sleeping by yourself, but now that you’re older you can sleep by yourself every night!” Another example might be to say, “I remember when you had to use training wheels on your bike, but now you can ride so well without them because your balance is so good!”

Arc of Change for Your Child

By making these statements, you are describing the arc of change your child has gone through. It is truly remarkable to see the gains your child has made over a short period of time. Why not acknowledge and emphasize this for them? Ideally, this leads to the “letting go” of old, outdated, or no longer relevant settings.

I have had the experience of seeing some kids who have trouble moving forward in their development, not because they or their body and underlying system doesn’t know what to do, but because they feel an inhibition or a reluctance to adapt to the changes required of them based on the feeling of not being able to let go of their more familiar, previously appropriate settings. The shorter way to say this is: some kids don’t deal with changes very well, and it is up to us and especially you to help them move through their period of adjustment.

Parental Broadcasting

Another aspect of this idea of “contrast” I want to mention is the fact that in the energy medicine way of thinking, this information can arrive in your child’s consciousness in more ways than one. Not only can you present this by making statements, but you can also do the same thing by projecting your thoughts and feelings.

This broadcasting of your energy in the form of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and your attitude is happening all the time anyway. Most people are just not aware of this fact. I want to bring this to your attention so that you can make use of it. This is particularly important for the non-verbal or preverbal child, and for those kids that have a heightened level of intuition or energy sensitivity.

Have Confidence Using This New Perspective

As an aside, this understanding comes from an energy medicine perspective, something I did not learn about or have the awareness to see in my practice back when I was a primary care pediatrician. This is one of the reasons why I have such an interest in getting this information out to parents right now.

So have confidence that your child is actively receiving information from you all the time. Now you can make sure they are “receiving” the messages and inputs that you want for them, using techniques like emphasizing contrast for your child as part of your ongoing role as a parent giving them reinforcement and encouragement.

For more tips on other topics and techniques, find out more about my 8 Tips for Parents.

Use Awareness to Help Your Child

I’d like to expand upon this theme of awareness taken from my free ebook called Paradigm Shifting Principles for Parents, which is available as a download on my website called PrinciplesForParents.com.

Awareness is key

I spend a lot of time in my practice emphasizing the importance of awareness. I believe this is the starting point for you, your child, and for me when it comes to beginning the process of helping your child to truly reach their potential.

Going back to the idea that energy has to become our common currency or common denominator, it is true that awareness itself has its own energetic signature or feeling associated with it. This in turn is detectable by your child, no matter what age they are. I find this is detectable by those outside of your family, including me, when interaction is taking place in my practice environment.

This is not surprising when you think about it. We are taught and learn early on, how to key into this awareness state and use it to our advantage and to help us navigate through the world and over the course of our lifetimes.

As the parent in your household, your own awareness of your child’s situation is the predominant factor that your child will key into. This is why it is important to have things squared away in your own mind so that you are not transmitting a sense of insecurity, doubt, despair and the like, to your child if at all possible. Once again, the energy explanation makes this clearer and readily understandable so that we can move forward to solutions for your child.

Age Reciprocal Resonance

Another concept I have written about previously which relates to this topic is something called age reciprocal resonance. This describes the relationship between parents and their children from an energy perspective and brings to our awareness the overlap between the child’s experience and their parent’s experience when they were that age.

This is a wide open, two way street so to speak, and it deserves our undivided attention in real time. The influence of this energetic process can be large or small, depending on the child, the parent, and the family history. I get into more details in my book called “Energy Medicine Principles for Parents”. You may want to read more about what is in the book, or download an excerpt of it that I have made available on my website.

Awareness is the Starting Point

One final thought on awareness I want to impart to you is this: Becoming aware is the starting point in the healing process for you, your child, and your family. When subjects remain in the unconscious or hidden realm, they are very difficult to change or to get a handle on them. By bringing things into your awareness and your child’s awareness, the recognition by itself will jump start and accelerate the process of balancing your child’s situation no matter what it may be.

I have seen this play out many times in my practice, and I have been fortunate to get feedback from parents, in some cases many years later, and their comments have been that a small change in awareness perhaps many years ago resulted in the start of a process which eventually led to understanding and resolution for their child.

I am very grateful for the opportunity I have been given to participate in this process with many parents, kids, and their families. So, work on your own awareness in order to help your child. It just may be the starting point toward helping your child move toward a more balanced state of being, and helping them to get in synch with their own underlying blueprint.