Recovering the Health of [Foster] Children
Each foster child is so incredibly unique, beautiful, challenging, sick…and desperate for a real, genuine love.
The Beginning
As a child, I spoke often of adopting children. While in college, my volunteer time was spent helping orphans. But when my husband and I went to adopt, we were thrown a “curve ball”. It’s another story that you can read about on our here.
Suffice to say we landed in a foreign world of fostering children that could not stay in their birth parent/s home. The reasons vary; but 90% of these parents are addicted to drugs and have fallen into a pattern of domestic violence.
We are shocked at what these orphan children have experienced in their lives. After fostering for several years, we now volunteer in local Group Homes. Through these years, we have experienced death from cancer and elation from adoption.
Love is easy the easy part, it is the “sick” part that requires a bit more effort with these foster kids.
Our Experience with Foster Children
- Our very first foster son has major behavioral issues. He throws things, scratches faces, and only wants processed food. We clean his gut and his behavior improves, but we discover he has a cancer at 2 years old!
- We receive a sweet little 9-month old girl who has drugs in her system. She needs a detox, to get it all out of her system.
- Next, we are asked to take a 3-year old and an 18-month old; they are half sisters. These two have horrendous allergies to foods.
- The sweetest, most quiet little 1-year old comes to us and she is scheduled to have gum and teeth surgery within 6 months.
- An amazing little girl is full of life but she eats like she has a tape worm. She literally eats the equivalent of 3 adult portions for every meal, and she is a 1-year old.
- Once we get a call to take a little girl that needs a place until a judgment. She has been hit by a car in her driveway and arrives from the ER with bandages on her head. She refuses to sit down and climbs the walls. She can’t focus or follow any instructions way beyond normal.
- Then there was this girl who has an incredibly small stature. She is below the 3% range for her age group and at 4 years old she appears as a 2 year old.
- One child is missing 4 permanent teeth and apparently this is becoming very common according to the pediatric dentist.
- Another girl is missing an ovary and her other ovary is not developed properly. At a very young age, the hormones are affecting her health.
Coincidence
Many times I wonder if all these sick children we foster is a coincidence or if this is just the case with children today….are these foster children are more sick than other children. Based on our experience, 100% of foster children are sick!
Yet, statistics show that in 1992, approximately 31% of children had a chronic illness (source).
Today the number has skyrocketed to 1 in 2 children with a chronic illness according to the CDC and research through the Documenting Hope organization. Our society should be screaming at these numbers!
The Encouraging Part
The most wonderful news is that there is hope. Although there are around 500,000 children in the Fostering System in the USA and 10 million worldwide, we have had tremendous success with our few children.
Therefore, I know that others could help themselves and these children! By following a real food diet like the one presented in Nourishing Traditions and the Weston A. Price Foundation, we have seen improvement for 100% of our children.
Because of our experience we feel so compelled to share our story and encourage you to reduce the processed foods and see if you can notice an improvement in your family’s health.
Incredibly, it only takes just a couple of weeks to turn around taste preferences. Children heal very rapidly if only given the proper nutritional support!
Furthermore, in two months we notice tremendous benefits to both physical and emotional issues. And within a year, all of our foster children are nearly completely healed! Amazing! Some of the chronic issues are still being worked on, but the battle for health is a world of difference once we put this bit of effort into it.
Protocol for recovering the health:
- Drink a glass (or more) of clean filtered water first thing in the morning,
- Enjoy bone broth {almost} every morning,
- Eat real nonGMO food, both raw and cooked,
- Make a vegetable juice for a natural detox periodically,
- And something we see missing in many homes…We eat a lot of cruciferous greens and sauté them,
- Be choosy and buy; grass-fed, organic beef, chicken and wild-caught salmon,
- We always have some sort of fermented food or beverage every day {and strive for every meal}.
Remember that learning is not a destination, it is a continuous journey!
Nothing is more exciting than the power to see a child heal and be all he/she can be!
This article can also be seen on The Healthy Home Economist.
~Mandy
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What a great post. That is so awesome that you are able to help these kids and get the word out for others.
I am wondering how much kids fight you on the food changes. So often sick children with food issues don’t want to eat anything healthy. Have you had trouble with this?
Thank you, Jennifer! It would be so wonderful to help families get a child…and a child get a family. In our experience, each child is different. You are right, though. The sicker the child, the harder it is to get them to eat healthy. We persevere. The first few days are the hardest. They have to eat a little bit of the food. Eventually hunger wins and they eat. We don’t have junk in our home, so it is tough. When they won’t eat an apple, I blend it and add honey and they will eat applesauce. Since our first child had cancer, I find the food to be as important as the love. Together their behavior improves so quick! We spend time planting a garden. Even if a few herbs and so far, every child loves eating what they grow.