Holistic Pediatricians
Welcome to our Holistic Pediatricians category page, where we celebrate a whole-child approach to healthcare. These blog posts are dedicated to exploring how holistic pediatrics integrates mind, body, and spirit to support your child’s growth and development in every way.
Holistic pediatric care goes beyond addressing symptoms—it’s about understanding your child as a unique individual and providing personalized care that promotes their overall well-being. From nutrition and preventative care to emotional health and natural remedies, this category offers insights into how holistic care can nurture your child’s health and happiness. Dive into these posts to learn more about how a holistic approach can make a difference for your family.
Dr. Chheda – When your baby reaches 6 months old and you’re advancing to solids, they can eat almost everything – with just two important exceptions:
No honey. No whole milk (though whole milk products like yogurt and cheese are okay).
These restrictions apply until they’re a year old. But beyond that, the world of food opens up! Your baby can have: all fruits, all vegetables, all meats, all spices, pizza, pasta, sushi, Indian food, Chinese food. Important preparation notes: Everything must still be mashed up. Food should be soft enough to swallow. No raw carrots. No whole grapes.
Why introduce diverse foods early? Helps prevent your child from becoming a picky eater later (we don’t want a “mac and cheese kid” at age five). Helps prevent food allergies later in life. Introduces varied flavors and textures early.
Allergy Note: If there is a documented food allergy in the family, please talk to your physician first. But for a normal, developing child with no medical conditions, everything except honey and whole milk is okay at 6 months of age.
Dr. Chheda – 🌟 Building Empathy Through Action
❤️Ways to Volunteer with Kids:
Local Humane Society
Helping with younger children
Community service projects
Organized volunteer programs
🌟Benefits of Volunteering:
Develops natural empathy
Creates community connection
Builds self-worth
Teaches kindness
Shows real-world impact
✨Resource Spotlight:
Pebble Tossers
Atlanta-area volunteer opportunities
Kid-friendly activities
Remember:
Volunteering helps children feel needed while learning to care for others!
Dr. Chheda – Babies control their appetite by volume.
When you feed your baby milk and their stomach is full, they will stop eating. They will close their mouth, and you won’t be able to get anything else in them— and that’s perfectly fine!
🍼 Newborns only need breast milk or formula. 🚫 Giving them anything else, such as water or sugar water, fills up their stomach without providing calories or nutrition. This can be unhealthy because:
❌ Water has no calories.
❌ Water has no nutrition.
✅ Breast milk and formula already have the hydration babies need! After 6 months, babies can start drinking small amounts of water. You can always consult your pediatrician when introducing it. For the first 4 months—ONLY milk!
Dr. Chheda – There’s an old wives’ tale that eating or drinking something cold will cause a sore throat. That’s not true, you know. We have cold popsicles that we give, and it actually soothes a sore throat, and it’s one way to get fluid back into somebody who’s not really wanting to eat because your throat hurts so much. So cold foods by themselves do not cause a sore throat.
Dr. Chheda – Your baby’s sleep habits at 6 months become their routine until age 2 – and those patterns can last until age 8! Learn how to establish healthy sleep habits early.
Key questions to consider:
Where should your child sleep?
How long should they sleep?
How should they fall asleep?
Start thinking about these factors around 4 months old, so by 6 months, you’ve established the routines you want them to maintain through their toddler years.
Dr. Chheda – We don’t talk about contentment much. We’re always trying to chase happiness and joy. Well, there is something to say about happiness, but think about your typical day.
90% of your day is contentment. It’s normal. It’s the getting up, going to school, going to work, coming home, eating. It’s normal. It’s contentment.
5% of the time you’re really happy. “Ooh, I hit every green light on the way to work today!”
5% of the time it’s not so happy. “Oh, I got spaghetti sauce on my white blouse.”
That’s how life should be. You know, for the most part, it’s normal, it’s content. You’re gonna have some highs – you got married. You’re gonna have some lows – you had to put your favorite pet to sleep. But contentment is normal. Let’s enjoy it.
Dr. Chheda – 📮 Checking the mail today and all I have are bills. That’s all we get in the mail – no more personal mail anymore. But my kids used to love checking for mail because my cousin, whenever he traveled, would always send them postcards. So they had something to check in the mail.
Just remember, if you’re traveling, just send a postcard either to yourself or to a neighbor, and they will enjoy it.
Dr. Chheda – Does drinking milk really cause a cold or a cough, or cause a cold or a cough to get worse? Medically speaking, no, not really.
Whole milk, just because it’s thick, can make you feel like you’ve got a little bit of extra mucus inside. Now, if you want to stop drinking milk during a cold or a cough, that’s perfectly fine. But realize for infants and young toddlers, milk may be their only source of nutrition and source of hydration.
So I really don’t recommend stopping milk during a cold or a cough because I don’t want them to lose out on any nutrition, nor do I want them to get dehydrated.
So if your child has a cold or a cough and their main source of nutrition is milk, continue the milk. It’s perfectly fine.
Dr. Chheda – Which probiotic do I recommend? On a general basis, almost any probiotic is fine. What I do recommend is switching out the probiotic every month, so you get a different bacteria every month in your system. Your gut needs all the bacteria in order to function properly.
Now there are some probiotics that work a little bit better for certain conditions. So for those conditions, then I would recommend certain probiotics. For instance, an infant does really well with Lactobacillus Reuteri – Lactobacillus Reuteri, R-E-U-T-E-R-I. And there are several manufacturers that make them.
But you do also want to make sure that there are different probiotics going into the gut, and you can get a variety of probiotics by eating fermented foods like yogurt or kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi. All the fermentation actually gives you lots of different kinds of probiotic, and that’s what you want in the gut to maintain a healthy immune system.
Dr. Chheda – 🧠 When we talk about mental health, we also try to say don’t keep your emotions locked inside. Find some way to try to release your emotions.
Some people use action and they exercise. You know, just kicking a ball around your room for 20 minutes and tension that you might be feeling – exercise is a good way to get emotions out.
Being creative, you know, want to write in a journal or paint or even sing – that’s a great way just to get your emotions out. And again, it does not have to be anything organized. It could be just making up silly words while you’re singing, but trying to release that emotion. When you keep all those emotions inside, they’ll actually fester and or mental health. So find some way to release. You’re talking to somebody – that’s why a lot of people go to therapists as well too, because they’re getting their emotions out. It’s not about receiving, but it’s about letting go.
So remember, try to find some way in your daily life to just let go. And it doesn’t have to be anything organized, just releasing that pent-up energy, whether you – that is just not good for your physical.