After twenty years of treating adult patients, Jennifer Reilly, Licensed Acupuncturist and Functional medicine practitioner is now opening natural health care to infants, children and teens. She has been trained to work with children to help them feel relaxed and safe, and where she can share Chinese medicine and Functional medicine alternatives with them and their parents.
Functional medicine for kids focuses on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, and/or stress-management techniques. Acupuncture for kids uses very thin needles that we call “taps” and teaches children that the “taps” will help their bodies heal themselves. She also has non needle techniques like laser acupressure and magnet therapy for those not ready for the needles.
Just as with adults, when children symptoms are related to inflammation, structural integrity issues, cellular communication issues, etc. It shifts the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to address the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Looking at genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. No two people are alike, and while their “Diagnosis” may be the same, the reason they have gotten those symptoms may be completely different. For example, if we take 2 teenagers with migraine headaches: one may have them because they have a genetic tendency, are Type-A personalities and are under tremendous stress at school. Another teen may have no family history but has a poor diet and is reacting to a food additive, dye, Aspartame or MSG derivative that is in the food at school or that the parents purchase not realizing that this is the reason. Common sense would tell us that while we may want to temporarily relieve their symptoms in similar fashion, the ultimate cause and lifestyle adjustments are very different.
Common conditions that can effectively be treated by acupuncture, functional medicine, and/or herbal medicine are:
- Cough
- Asthma
- Allergies
- Ear Infections
- Digestive/Constipation
- Eczema
- Allergies
- Anxiety& Depression
- Headaches
- Hormonal/PMS
- ADD/ADHD
Please call or book online for a free 15-minute consultation to see whether these treatments may be right for your child.