I have never completely agreed with the western approach to medicine. I think there are many doctors with good intentions. Unfortunately the western view of medicine is exactly that, medicine. If something is wrong we need medicine. A pill for every ill, or so we've come to believe. Once Asher was born I was no longer able to simply avoid going to the doctor. I found myself doubting I was doing the right things for my child. Even more frightening if nothing was going horribly wrong with Asher my pediatrician really didn't care. She never even cared to know my name, to her I was, hold on let me look at the chart...oh Asher's mom. Now I must say not all pediatricians are like the one I had...in fact I am sure there are some wonderful ones out there! But the fact remains they do not promote health. They can be great when something does go wrong, but that is sick care, my child is healthy, so what I'm left with is a doctor who is constantly trying to find something to fix with some medicine or a shot.
Yes, I will admit I am a bit, okay extremely obsessed with everything that affects Asher. Especially things that go in his body (food, vaccines, supplements, and medicine). This is where naturopathic medicine comes in to our new and improved health care plan for Asher (sounds official right?). After hours and hours of research I managed to find the only naturopathic doctor in South Korea (maybe there are more and if so let me know but as far as I can tell she is the only one). She is the complete opposite from his previous pediatrician. She emailed me herself, she came out of her office when we got there to introduce herself and spent an hour going over everything that affects Asher. Not just medical history (she did look over all of his medical history including my prenatal care and how I felt during my pregnancy), she wanted to know how our family was doing, how he sleeps, what his personality is like, how he is developing, and the stress levels of each person in the household. Turns out that the parent's stress levels directly effect the child's stress level. She had info on feeding that she took the time to put together. Not only are a bunch of foods listed, but the reason why you should start with them is also listed. For example at 6 months she lists lots of iron rich veggies. At 9 months foods rich in zinc to promote a healthy immune system. We had previously talked about how I was concerned about the current vaccine schedule and she took time to discuss this, along with providing me information from both sides of the argument.
At his next appointment we are going to talk about ways to support his immune system before and after vaccines along with some more info on feeding. Until then Asher and I have homework...well not so much Asher. I have to keep a food diary for the next four days, read the articles she gave me and look at changing some of his foods. In case you haven't gathered it so far, I am loving the approach naturopathic medicine takes. There is so much that affects are lives and causes our bodies to react in different ways. Dr. Oh was respectful, and knew her stuff. She took time to understand Asher's unique needs. Plus Asher liked her. So in the end she gets two baby thumbs up and two mommy thumbs up!
Here is the website incase anyone wants to check this place out! http://www.createwellnesscenter.com/
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