What’s Age Got To Do With It?

I’ve started to put up pages on my website Principles for Parents that address the different age ranges that your child is likely to be in right now.

One of the things I have learned in my practice is just how important your child’s age is as far as how they view the world, themselves, and their life experiences. I’ve started with the prenatal time period and I’m now moving into the toddler age range.

The most important concept I want to convey to you is that we have to take into account your child’s age both currently and historically. What I mean is: the age your child was when some significant event or experience took place has a tremendous influence on how they have stored the memory of that event. An even more crucial point is that their brain is likely to associate many varied factors along with the event or experience and this can lead to misconceptions and beliefs about the world that may not be true. This in turn can cause energy expenditures on your child’s part that will interfere with how their body and system functions as a whole.

Here’s an example. Let’s say your child was in the car when you had a minor car accident. Everyone was fine afterward but it left you and your child pretty shaken up. If your child is less than 5 years old, it is very likely they will interpret this event as kind of a surprise or shock to their system. However, the end result may be to associate being in the car with ongoing or imminent danger. This can lead to inordinate amounts of energy being expended by your child whenever they are in the car. Since this kind of experience is equated with survival, you can see how difficult it can be for them to resolve or reconcile the need to expend energy on this versus other needs of their energy system.

I think it is well worth the time to explore this with you as the parent because you are the one who can most help and influence your child. As with many other things, the earlier one intervenes and corrects an energy imbalance the sooner and more complete the resolution will be for your child.

You can read more about this topic of how I relate the importance of your child’s age in the context of their overall evaluation on the age ranges page on my website.

8 Tips for Parents

I just put my “8 Tips for Parents” available to download on the home page of Principles for Parents. These tips are more related to energy medicine principles and how to use them in parenting your kids. Some examples include techniques like “foreshadowing”, “contrast”, and “practice”. These are taken from conversations I’ve had with parents over the past several years.

I think this will give you an idea of my style and philosophy when it comes to energy medicine and your child. When you receive the download email, you can choose to watch the short video/slide show or listen to the mp3 audio file. You may also download the ebook and read it as a pdf file. Click here to go to the page where you can download it from my Principles for Parents site. Hope you enjoy it!

UPDATE: Please note the 8 Tips for Parents is no longer available on the Principles for Parents home page. Instead I have an excerpt from my new ebook available now. The 8 Tips for Parents will be included with the purchase of my new ebook as a bonus, or you can get it separately from the multimedia store page on Principles for Parents.

Thanks!

Dr Pete

Overscheduled Children

In an article called “The Overbooked Child” published in Psychology Today a few years ago, David Elkins described what has been happening to kids who are over-scheduled and pushed too hard by well meaning parents to be successful and involved in too many activities. As in all areas of pediatrics, there is wide variation in parenting styles.

However, I believe that given the high stress nature of our environment and society, children could really use more free time and a relaxed schedule. Parents can help even more by modeling the need for relaxation and non-goal oriented activity, like puttering around in the yard, going for a walk, spending time playing sports or wandering on the beach or in the woods.

If children grow up thinking it’s their job to be busy every minute of the day, this will surely take a toll on their health and wellbeing in the long run.

Let me know what you think about this topic by leaving a comment.

To read the original article on overscheduled kids, follow this link to the Psychology Today reprint called “Are We Pushing Our Kids Too Hard?”

Growth and Development in Kids

In the energy medicine system, growth and development is an extremely important category which demands energy expenditures depending on the age of the child. I tend to take more of a macro view of medicine and the world, so my explanations may be foreign compared to what you have heard before. In this way I will approach common pediatric topics and just give my current perspective, having practiced as a general pediatrician for several years, and now practicing in a decidedly “alternative” style.