A Safer Way To Think About Detox For Kids

Parents are told a thousand different things about “detox” for kids, and most of it is either fear-based or unrealistic. We want to ground the conversation in what actually shows up in real life: eczema, perioral dermatitis, rashes, mood swings, and the daily foods that quietly stack the deck against a child’s skin and gut health.

Marissa Parchman talks through the biggest detox misconceptions, starting with the belief that detoxing cannot support children’s skin conditions. Marissa shares why she looks at anti-aging and wellness from the inside out, and why it’s so common to see adults investing in their own health while kids continue to eat additives, food dyes, and excess sugar. We get practical about what parents can control, how to read ingredient labels, and how to rethink “treats” so they’re still fun without being loaded with unnecessary chemicals.

We also explain how Timeless Skin & Wellness approaches testing and support, including epigenetic scans and holistic testing that can flag environmental stressors like mold or heavy metals, while staying clear about scope and making referrals when a dermatologist or medication is needed. From there, we zoom out to the bigger system: school lunches, cheap ingredients, and why advocacy matters. We close with the overlooked pieces of kids’ wellness, including screen time boundaries, mental health, sleep, light exposure, and circadian rhythm changes in adolescence.

If you care about child nutrition, kids detox myths, eczema support, and realistic wellness habits, listen now, subscribe, and share this with a parent who needs it. After you listen, what is one change you want to try first?

To learn more about Timeless Skin & Wellness visit:
https://www.TimelessSandW.com
Timeless Skin & Wellness
Denver Metro & Northern Colorado Locations
303-800-1821

Transcript

Clinic Intro And Anti-Aging Pitch

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to OPS guy. Anti-aging solution. Honestly, so honest anti-aging solution. Anti-alovative wellness. We offer product vitality because it's optional. We believe it's optional. Serving discerning clients across Denver Metro and Northern Colorado. Your transformation begins here.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Parents want to support their kids' health, but detoxing is one area where myths spread fast. And the truth is much simpler and safer than most people realize. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer here with Marissa Parchman, the founder of Timeless Skin and Wellness. Marissa, it's great to be back with you. Hi, Julie. Yes, thank you so much for the introduction. Yeah, thank you for being here. Let's jump right in. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about detoxing in children?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yes, this is a big one. I feel like often people are kind of closed off to the word detox or detoxing in general until something happens with their child. And what I see most often, and a big misconception, is that people believe that detoxing is not going to heal a child's skin conditions. And I feel like that is kind of the first thing that starts in a young child. Sometimes it's gut issues, but often you'll see children with eczema or, you know, perioral dermatitis and, you know, severe eczema sometimes. And the idea that these parents don't look at mostly the food that they're feeding their children. There's so many other toxic exposures, but often I'm talking and teaching about food consumption or sorry, chemical consumption in our food. And it's amazing how many people just don't understand or believe the idea of detoxing to heal these conditions in their children.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

And what signs should parents like look for that they could see as maybe something toxic going on? Is it always like a sleep issue? Maybe like their ability to pay attention?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

You know, I don't specialize in child development. And it's something that I'm so passionate about and I'm always learning about. And I'm also not a mother. I have a stepdaughter. So for me, I see so many different children. And you know, you always see children that have like issues with outbursts or children that are clearly being fed too much sugar. Um, so for me as an outsider looking in, I think it's so easy to again address the diet and see children acting a certain way in public and, you know, a mom that's struggling to get this child to behave. And often that child has, you know, a color around their mouth from eating an ice cream cone or eating a snow cone or, you know, consuming candy and things that really just should not be consumed on a regular basis as a child. And it's just mind-blowing. Even people who will come into my clinic and want me to help them with anti-aging. And I always preach anti-aging from the inside out, they will be feeding their children chemicals and additives and food colors and sugar that they wouldn't personally eat themselves. So, what should parents look for? I think that is a very broad question. I think there's so many parents that are so hungry for the knowledge, and they're sometimes it's very hard to understand why a child isn't sleeping well or um is crying endlessly. And that's a little out of my scope of practice. But in general, I like to make people aware of the things that we can control, you know, and if a mother is having to supplement with formula, be very aware of that ingredient label and make sure you're choosing the purest and most whole food option for you and your child. Um, again, as these children are growing, you know, we look at snacks and colorful things as treats. Like I would love for us to stop looking at it that way. Like, I don't look at ice cream as something that is unhealthy because if it's made the right way, ice cream could really be a much healthier option for a sweet treat. You know, it could make be made with honey, it could be made with whole milk. It doesn't have to have all those additives. So when you look at what we look at a treat, if if you look at the, you know, the US food food supply and how we look at treats, it's usually a very bright fluorescent colored something. You know, I think of candy or I think of going to the frozen yogurt place that my stepdaughter loves to go to. And am I guilty of consuming some of these ingredients? Absolutely. Um, but I also have the knowledge and know when to reset and take a step back. And that is something that parents need to just look at a little more carefully is why are your children having these issues? Maybe we can't figure it out. Maybe that's not that simple. But the number one thing we can control is the diet. And that is just so important. And that will solve so many issues.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

And also, do you guys treat uh young adults or kids at your place with, you know, any of the treatments that you do for adults there? And have you seen any adults um, you know, come in and perhaps ask you questions about, hey, can I do some of the same supplements with my kids or detox the same way that I would as an adult with my kid?

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Yeah, absolutely we do. Um, we offer very specific epigenetic scans and holistic testing to um look at underlying issues in somebody's system, like environmental factors. Um, that might be mold that's affecting somebody, that might be heavy metals that's affecting somebody. Um, there are there's a fine line with helping people detox and treating a diagnosis, but we follow some very strict protocols that have been created by a board-certified naturopath. And we also work very closely with um our hormone specialist, which is um Jacqueline Avila, and she is a nurse practitioner. She's amazing. We have a medical director, Jonathan Gallen. So we have a very strong team of individuals and we make sure we're not treating outside of our scope and always making sure the client has all the information they need. Again, there are certain things like medical diagnosis that are out of our scope to treat, but in cases of severe eczema or severe acne or other rashes that people can't figure out the underlying concern. It is absolutely in our scope to help these parents understand through testing what potentially could be going on in the child's system. And most of the time we're removing things from the system. We don't treat in this regard with medication. We, if we think medication is necessary, then we recommend they go see a dermatologist and we refer them out. Um, in our clinic, we're often taking things out. Again, this comes back to the three things that I preach so often that we're not supposed to be consuming on a daily basis. And those three things are processed white flour, processed sugar, and hydrogenated oils. And often these young children are being overburdened, overburdened with these three things because again, the regulations in the food supply that we are exposed to are just not that of a whole food system. And it's a huge, huge problem. So we have to educate and help the parents take control where they can take control. And often that's taking things out of the system and not adding a bunch of things in.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

And before Marissa, you've mentioned this between recordings too, about the school lunches and the the daily food exposure, which you just mentioned. Can you expand on that too? Because that can be tough for parents too, because they're not seeing everything that's, you know, going into the kids' systems. And it seems like school lunches overall have maybe improved um health-wise, but still, you know, what do we do?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah, absolutely. I do hear a lot of talk about um the food systems improving their food supply. And it's actually the largest restaurant system in the world, is the is the food system at schools. So it is a very profitable system. And they are using the cheapest ingredients to create these meals for a large portion of the population. And a lot of these families rely on these school lunches for meals for their fake for their children. And a lot of these kids will go unfed if they don't have these school lunches. So the answer is obviously not to not have the school lunches, or you obviously can't tell everybody like, don't feed your kids school lunches. The problem is the system, you know, we need to advocate for higher food quality for our children. And um, again, it circles back to the three things we're not supposed to be eating. And those three things are in most of the things that you're gonna see at an elementary school or a high school. I mean, any of these schools, you're gonna see cereals that are full of white flour and often hydrogenated oils and for sure processed sugar. And you're gonna see milk that is not organic and that's full of antibiotics and hormones. You're gonna see chocolate milk. So add sugar to the antibiotics and hormones. And then you're gonna, I mean, they're gonna offer maybe a fruit option, which is the best option, but then they're probably gonna have a little orange cup that's full of glycerin and processed sugar. And then they're gonna have, you know, hamburgers and french fries and things like that. It's just, it's not whole foods. And we actually can make all of these things with whole food ingredients. We can clean up the quality of ingredients we're using. And again, that's probably easier said than done. I understand these things, you know, cost a lot of money and it is it can be a little more expensive to eat healthy, but I can also argue that from a different standpoint. Um there are ways to make better options and there are ways to make better choices and ways to implement at least what we're doing at home. And if all you can do is what you're doing at home, then more than anything, it's just so important to educate yourself so that you understand why these three ingredients that have just really taken over the American food supply are hurting our children.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

And a last one for you, for me, is the question about applying what you've recommended to adults, and that's decluttering of the mind and also some of the other products at home. Um, do you apply this to kids too? And like I know that it, you know, that's an interesting line because you're not like you mentioned before, like you'd have to, you know, consult with the parents and stuff. But what about like all the stuff we talked about before with like social media and um just a very like a home that's maybe not organized and stuff? I mean, I don't know how far you can go with advice because again, it's like kids.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

So yeah, I mean, I think mental health again is such a huge part of being healthy and food is the easiest thing that we can control, you know, what we do every day, waking up and seeing the sun and waking up and not picking up a screen instantly, and you know, not being a victim to all day coffee and things like that. It's like when you start talking about it, there's so many things. Um, but again, the screens are a huge, huge problem. And mental health is such a neglected subject, again, in the US systems that we are just constantly hoping will evolve. Um but small changes that are gonna last are making small changes that are going to turn into rituals, you know? Like everybody's on their screen. It's like it's inevitable. We can't not be on our screen, whether it's our computer, our TV, our phone. So for me, I try to make sure that there's family time and turn off my screen at a certain time. And I mean, screens have caused issues in my relationship and in my relationship with my stepdaughter. It's like a constant struggle because I don't want her to be on her screen, but I'm always on my screen. I'm always working. So just setting boundaries, like really making it a ritual to put your screen down and spend time with the family. And, you know, that's like a small piece that you can add to a positive change in your mental health. And I don't think people, again, realize these small things and um children being on screens at a young age, it's such a problem. And I'm actually reading a book right now, and it's talking about light and natural light and the artificial light and how it affects us. And it's just, it's it's a book about sleep, and it's like, I thought I slept well and I don't know what's going on right now. I'm actually giving up coffee, which we've talked about in the past. And today is my first solid day with no caffeine, but I've had some green tea the last few days, and I've been sleeping like crap. So I'm reading this book about sleep, and I'm not sleeping well the last few days, and I'm just like, what is going on? But we're on this chapter of children and how children's Zarcadian rhythm changes. Pretty much it changes when we go through puberty. So children are used to going to sleep early, and then once they go through puberty, their Zarcadian rhythm actually changes and it puts them in a position where they should be going to sleep later and should be sleeping in later. So I've been thinking a lot about that and the mental health struggles on our adolescents and especially our teens, and how sleep alone is such a big, big piece of mental health and being able to, you know, wake up refreshed and ready to conquer the day. And so right now, what I am focusing on is diet and sleep. But it's it's just so many things, and we're just so programmed to live a life that I just don't believe we're supposed to be living as an animal, you know, we're an animal. We have to remind ourselves of that. Like we're humans, we're animals, we're supposed to be outside, we're supposed to be eating whole foods, we're not supposed to be on screens. So yeah, just I think the biggest point to touch on on that subject is making small lasting changes. You know, you can't just conquer the world in one day. And if you make every change in one day and you go to the gym six days a week, then you know, by week four, you're you're gonna be so burnt out, you might not even make it to week two. Um, so I really preach just educating yourself and making small lasting changes that work for you because there's so much information on the internet, and what works for one person might not work for another.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Well, Marissa, thank you again for breaking that down so clearly and covering a broad topic. We appreciate you, you know, looking at all aspects of it.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Julie.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

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