Brain Power with Dr. Eko

When the meds stop working… what then?

• Hokehe Eko

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Speaker 1:

Is your child on medication? And yet you find yourself asking this question. My child is on medication, but it doesn't seem to be enough. When the medication wears off, my child is back to where they were. My child still has behaviors that are concerning to me. You've come to the right place, because today we're going to be diving into this tough but important truth right that for many children with ADHD and autism, medications are simply not enough. So today we're going to talk about why parents, why families are stuck, why children are stuck, what might be missing and how we approach healing from the inside out.

Speaker 1:

So welcome to GLOW with ADHD and Autism. I'm Dr Hokey Echo. I'm your brain or happy brain pediatrician, so thank you for being here. What are the limits of medications? And that's a good question. But let's be honest yes, medications do help decrease symptoms, right Stimulants for ADHD can help improve focus, can help minimize hyperactivity, but you know what?

Speaker 1:

There's a time limit on it. Most medications last six hours to 12 hours and sometimes a child needs a second dose of the medication to keep their focus and hyperactivity at a minimum so that they can get through school work and homework. Ssris might decrease anxiety for our children, but, as with medications, these medications are not addressing why our children are having difficulty with focusing. It doesn't necessarily address why our children are having anxiety. In other videos linked here, we have talked about how anxiety is a very common comorbid and depression is a very common comorbid disorder that we see in our children with ADHD or autism. It's always important to address that, for sure. But let me tell you a few things. I hear from families. Right, I hear my child is on meds, but they're still not sleeping. They are awake all night or they only sleep for a few hours at a time, in spite of the sleep medication. I hear that the meltdowns haven't stopped. I hear that she can focus now, but now she's anxious. So what happened and what do we need to change? I hear that they're on the medications and now they are afraid of the dark or they're hallucinating. Every medication has side effects and, yes, they help. But I want to address this important question how can we go beyond the medication? How can we address root causes of what we see in our children? Because, let's face it, medication doesn't address root causes. It's more like a band-aid it helps the child get through the day, but it wears off and then we're back to where we started at night. So what can we do?

Speaker 1:

It's important for us, as parents, to look at what's really going on underneath, inside of your child's body. What is going on, and the thing to note is that both ADHD and autism, there isn't one cause, right? There's multiple factors that come together that creates this set of symptoms that we have decided to call autism and to call ADHD, right? But so much research, nih-based research, research that has gone on over the years has found that our children with ADHD and autism have major nutritional deficiencies in important elements like magnesium, iron, zinc, omega-3s All of these things are such important building blocks to the function of your child's brain, and also the gut as well, right? Did you know that the gut and the brain are directly connected? The gut is often referred to as the second brain when you talk about sleep. A lot of us parents know that the gut and the brain are directly connected. The gut is often referred to as the second brain when you talk about sleep. A lot of us parents know that melatonin is produced in the brain and controls the sleep cycle. Did you know melatonin is also produced in the gut, right? So think about this. If, instead of us looking at how can we help the gut and the brain be healthier, we're giving melatonin, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but also what's even better is addressing why the production of melatonin has decreased and what can we do about that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and that's where you address inflammation, because so much research has shown that inflammation is a driving cause or factor of the major symptoms we see in our children, with both ADHD and autism. So things like not sleeping well, waking up at night, being picky eaters, constipation, all loose stools when they shouldn't be having loose stools If your child is, is not an infant and they are having loose stools frequently that needs to be addressed. That isn't normal. Your child shouldn't be having loose stools still, or baby-like stools. That's a sign of a gut dysbiosis or that there's imbalance going on in your child's gut and that needs to be addressed right. Environmental triggers or sensors, or your child having lots of eczema or rashes that you can't control, no matter how much eczema cream you put on it. All of that indicates there's an issue in your child's gut that needs to be addressed, and if you don't address it well, the symptoms just get worse.

Speaker 1:

I've seen children who are extremely constipated be really aggressive. I'm not saying constipation always causes aggression, but when you address constipation by addressing the gut itself not just cleaning out the gut but healing the leaky gut that has occurred as a result of the constipation then you see that the children are less aggressive. I have seen that myself. General pediatrician had autism and ADHD and she was very aggressive, not sleeping at all, constipated, going to the bathroom once a week, picky, eater. She never let me touch her. So guess what I thought about the inflammatory effects of gluten and dairy and I told the parents this is all I know right now. This is what helps my child. Try it and see if it helps. They tried it. Guess what? In four months she was sleeping better, eating better, less constipated.

Speaker 1:

Aggression was decreasing by month six oh, I forgot to mention she was also nonverbal. By month six she said her first, which was more. She also let me examine her for the first time ever and she'd been my patient for years. She did not like anyone that she didn't know coming close to her. She let me examine her and she was no longer on the verge of being kicked out of school just because we made nutritional changes.

Speaker 1:

So that's the power of decreasing inflammation in your child's brain. It takes time, it takes consistency, but it can be done. You can see improvement in your children. That family can go out. They couldn't go out before because of the behavior. Now they can go out with their child. The child is happy and going back to school. The child sleeps well at night and is no longer in pain. So that was possible. When you look underneath and look at the root causes of the behaviors that you see. That's what we do differently here at Glow Pediatrics. So I got retrained as an integrative pediatrician and that's why I started Glow Pediatrics.

Speaker 1:

We address imbalances, take a thorough history of what's going on with your child. We look at specific testing to see what food sensitivities your child has. We make a tailored, personalized plan, even down to the grocery store list with the links where to buy the items so that it can get shipped to your house Like, if that's not personalized, I think whatever's in. But that's how much detail we put into our plans. We encourage our parents to do the plans for the whole family because it does work. We have seen it over and over again. It does work. We have seen it over and over again. It does work. We prioritize addressing sleep, nutrition, addressing picky eating, addressing aggressive behavior, because all of these things can be addressed.

Speaker 1:

We teach parents. That's the biggest part of what we do. We teach parents, we empower you, because you are the biggest part of your child's care team, an empowered, knowledgeable parent. Your child's growth Empowerment is unlimitless because you know how to help your child thrive, and it's not just you, it's your entire family, and you yourself, parent, will see a difference in your health as well. Makes me so happy to be able to share this with you.

Speaker 1:

Ongoing care looks like coaching. We have coaching for our parents where they can come and ask questions, where they can find community, because this is not a journey you go on by yourself. Parenting is a journey you want to go along with community, a safe place where you can ask questions and be yourself, share your frustrations, the disappointments, joys and happiness, and all of it. Right, we're here for all of it, because that's what it means to treat the whole child and the whole family. But if you're watching this and you're thinking we've tried things but something is missing, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're here to help. We offer telemedicine in several states across the country. We offer parent med personalized nutrition and we can see anyone in any state for that, because that's coaching. Reach out to us and let us know we are here to help. We're here to work alongside you and your family.

Speaker 1:

You can sign up for a consult on gopediatricscom. Follow us on. Subscribe to this channel. Please share it with the family that needs to hear this Maybe a friend, a family member who's struggling and feels like something else is going on. Please share this episode with them. We have lots of content on our IG page, which is our Glow Pediatrics as well, but please follow us here and share with other parents that need to know. Remember, parents, you are the best parent for your child. Your child is valuable. Your child is more than a diagnosis and our goal as parents is to determine what our child's strengths are and to boost those. Know that there is hope, parents. Your child is not stuck. Your family is not stuck. There is hope. Reach out to us. We're happy to be of service to you. Have a wonderful day.