Discerning Parenting

071 - From Sick Days to Play Days: 3 Pediatrician-Approved Natural, Homeopathic Strategies for Your Child’s Wellness with Dr. Mia Medina

• Victoria Ang-Nolasco, MD • Episode 71

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"My child is sick almost every month."
"We've had so many rounds of antibiotics."
"My toddler brings home endless viruses from daycare."

In this enlightening episode, we dive into an intriguing alternative remedy: homeopathy. During my residency training in pediatrics, I was fortunate to have incredible mentors who shaped my medical journey. One of those mentors, now practicing homeopathy, joins us today to discuss its potential benefits for children - Dr. Ma. Ysabel Lesaca-Medina, a pediatric oncologist, homeopathic pediatrician, and mom. 

As a podcast dedicated to parenting and child development, we explore how frequent illnesses impact a child's growth and development. Dr. Mia shares insights on how homeopathy can serve as a complementary approach to traditional medicine, potentially reducing the frequency of these common ailments.

Tune in to learn about homeopathy's role in preventing illness and supporting your child's overall well-being. Whether you're a skeptical parent or someone curious about alternative remedies, this episode promises to offer valuable perspectives and practical advice.

Learn more about Homeopathy:


⭐ Our book Learning by Heart: Teach Your Child to Read, Stress-Free is now on Amazon! Click here to learn more about Dr. Victoria Nolasco's books.

⭐ Check out our FREE Discerning Parenting Toolkit and Resource Library.

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The Discerning Parenting Podcast is a free informational resource for parents. As a valued listener, you acknowledge that any information you get from this podcast is for your general guidance only, and ​​must never be considered a substitute for the advice provided by a doctor, therapist, or other qualified medical professionals who know your child specifically. Read our full disclaimer policy here.

 Okay, so not just homeopathically speaking, no, because homeopathy is more like a remedy when you're sick. Although there are like homeopathic cell salts which help you get stronger, that's another topic altogether. But what I recommend is, first of all, stop the bad food  and give them a lot of good food.

So what are the bad foods? All these fast foods.  All these junk foods, all the  carbs. But we have the andi rice, all the bread, all the pasta. I realized from my own experience, that's what made me sick.  And the Coke and all the sweetened drinks.  So stop that and then pour a lot of vegetables, pour into them a lot of vegetables.

 Welcome to Discerning Parenting, the podcast for parents of kids age 12 and under who have learned the hard way that a one-size-fits-all all approach to parenting won't shift the needle for you, your child, or your family. Together, We'll explore intentional strategies that see both you and your kids thrive. 

Parenting strategies based on well-conducted research in the areas of child development, brain science, and neurodiversity need practical for you.  What if you let go of perfect and embrace discerning parenting in your family instead?  If you feel like you've been stumbling your way through. And you're ready to leave behind fight or flight mode parenting.

Then, this is the podcast for you.  I'm Dr. Victoria Angolasco, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician and Positive Parenting Coach, on a mission to help you release your parenting guilt so you can become laser-focused on what will truly work for you.     

When I was doing my residency training in pediatrics, I was very fortunate to have had so many amazing mentors. That's why when I heard that one of them is practicing homeopathy, I thought I really have to get her on this podcast because I know many parents are curious about other remedies that they may turn to.

when their kids are sick, or even to prevent illness in their kids. I've heard about, many parents who say that my child is sick almost every month, I've already given my child so many rounds of antibiotics, or my toddler brings home so many viruses from daycare, or my nursery school child gets sick every time one of his classmates gets sick.

Now, This is a podcast about parenting and child development. So why am I talking about this? Because Being sick does affect your child's development. Like if your child gets a viral illness and misses several days of play or learning every year, well, don't get stressed or panic about it, but it also has a relation on your child's development and it also adds to your stress and even the mom guilt.

So it does affect parenting. So today I'm very proud to I would like to invite my mentor, Dr. Mia Lesaca Medina, she's a pediatrician oncologist and one of the people who trained me during my residency in pediatrics, and she's going to talk about from sick days to play days - three pediatrician-approved natural homeopathic strategies for your child's wellness. So, hello Dr. Mia, thank you for taking the time to be here. I know that you have a very busy schedule. So, can you please tell us what is homeopathy and how is it different from conventional medicine?  Hi, Toyang, and thanks for inviting me.

So Homeopathy is actually a branch of natural medicine. So in there you have herbalism and  Ayurveda. So homeopathy is much like acupuncture in the sense that it's energy medicine. So it affects not just the physical aspect of the human being, but also the mental and emotional, which we thought is the more important aspect of the individual because from there stems your physical symptoms. 

So I was thinking about that, and oo nga no, everything starts mental emotional,  and then that leads to our physical illness. So homeopathy is holistic,  I'm comparing it to how we were trained in Western medicine. Although Western medicine has its strengths also, but in terms of treating the whole person, homeopathy is more akin to that.

It treats the whole individual. When we are taking the case, let's say in Western medicine, we pay no attention to their emotional state or their dreams or their  stresses, mental stresses, but in homeopathy that is key. That's what we have to get in order to  get the right remedy for them.  So the kinds of medicines that we use are things from nature, like plants, minerals, and animals even, that is potentized.

We call it potentization or it's energized, and no material dose is left. For example you take onion, And you dilute that several times such that there's no material substance of the onion left, but just the energy. They call it the energetic imprint.  So the diluent has that energy of the onion.

And when the person takes that, they don't get the side effects of what an onion would have given, but it cures the person of the symptoms that they have.   So, how do we choose the remedy is we have a book called Materia Medica that lists all the symptoms of all the substances. There are like 1, 500 plus and more,  remedies that we can use.

And actually there's computer programs for it now, so it's easier to diagnose. We list down the,  Symptoms of the patient, mental, emotional, physical. And then the computer finds the most, the highest pointer. And then we choose from those high points, the remedy to the high points. And that's the remedy we give. 

And compared to Western medicine, I found that it works really fast when the remedy is the correct one. For example, I was telling you now when I had a headache and I took the In one minute,  my headache dissolved. It disappeared. What would take 30 to 40 minutes for Alaksan to deal with.

In one minute, it was done. So I said, there's some truth to this. So thank you for sharing that. And we'd love to hear your story about why you decided to add homeopathy to your medical practice. So when my mom died, I was under a lot of stress. I had a newborn. It was very difficult to take care of them.

And so I hardly had any sleep and adding on to the emotional stress, I got sick. I got vitiligo.  Still remnants of my vitiligo there. And so I got, I panicked. I would see people in the mall with all, you know, puti puti ng halos, their whole face.  And how am I gonna, what am I gonna do? So I went to the derma, a very good derma in Makati Med, and said, oh, that's easy, UVB lang yan. And the pigment will come back. It's like, okay, but what's gonna prevent my spots from appearing? Because then I was getting one spot a week. He like gave me a blank stare. She didn't know.  I went home. I was so scared. And then I went to Google, answer was there. So it was food, all these, it isn't, this is an autoimmune disease and I was inflamed.

And so my body was attacking my own body because I was eating a lot of cake and Coke and junk food and pasta.  All these things that was inflammation. So I stopped that and within a month I had no more spots. okay, there's another way for that to cure illnesses other than Western medicine, because all we know about we're just,   when we take up medicine and we studied it for so many years, that's all we know and that's all we think.

That's correct.  But I tried it on myself and there is another way, for example, one's food. So then doors opened, and then people told me about Denise Eldran, who was the daughter of a very famous pediatrician, very good pediatrician, my, my, my pediatrician actually. And she was giving lectures on homeopathy, workshops on homeopathy.

It's like, oh, why not give it a try? So I paid, I had to pay a big amount of money for the three day seminar, and then I went home with a kit.  And I didn't believe it because what the heck, this is like water, water, and I, I, I wasted 10, 000. But then when I got home because of the, the whole, the workshop that was quite long, I had a headache.

Maybe it was because of the stress.  So  I tried to pick the right remedy for my headache by matching it by what, how I was taught. And I took it, 30 seconds, my, my headache was gone. What would you, should you take?  30 minutes nga for Alok's son to do. 

So since then, I had my kid and whenever my kids would complain about something, they have a headache or a tummy ache and I'd give them  what I thought was the right remedy. And after five minutes, they,  They'd just be playing na, and then I said, Oh, what, what happened to your tummy? Yeah, no more mama.  Okay, there is there's some truth to this.

I have to get into this. So that began me looking for a school, and I found a school in the UK that would, a very good school that was teaching it online. So it's usually four years, but I'm now in my eighth year. I took I took Pero enjoy, eh. So. It also teaches you about self discovery. Parang as you study, you also get to understand yourself.  

Thank you so much, for sharing your journey. A lot of parents worry because their kids, especially those who are just starting school or those who are in daycare, seem to get sick so often and they may end up taking antibiotics frequently. 

Can you share with us what parents can do to promote their child's wellness?  Okay, so not just homeopathically speaking, no, because homeopathy is more like a remedy when you're sick, although there are like homeopathic cell salts which help you get stronger, that's another topic altogether. But what I recommend is, first of all, stop the bad food and give them a lot of good food.

So what are the bad foods? All these fast foods.  all these junk foods, all the carbs. But we have the rice, all the bread, all the pasta.  I realized from my own experience that's what made me sick.  And the coke and all the sweetened drinks.  So stop that and then pour a lot of vegetables. Pour into them a lot of vegetables.

 So for a time, we were taking veggie juices.  And I got quite expensive, but I plan to return to it, so we have beets and carrots, and I put fruit in it, and celery, and even garlic.  And I ask my kids to take a glass every day. So they fight with me, but at the start, I give them a price. But now, parang, I just have to tell them.

And they realize that it's good for them because they notice when they don't take it, they're like They're more easily fatigued and they get sick more easily and their skin, because I have teenagers now, and when they take the juice, they notice that their pimples clear even.  So actually like they can't, they don't like the taste so much.

Like for example celery juice, we take celery juice also and that's their hate. Yes.  So that's one food. And then second is all these things make us,  it's lifestyle. It's, You know, exercise. The kids have to go out. They just cannot exercise their two thumbs on the gadget. They have to go out like kids are meant to do.

Run in the field, climb trees fly kites,  play in the dirt. You know, dirt is good. We get good bacteria from dirt, actually.   Sleep well.  At least eight hours of sleep. And then I also tell them that I have Patients who are in college and they have to study because school is so toxic. So I tell them they have to get the 10 to two sleep, at least the 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM because that's the most recharging sleep. 

And then they can just wake up at 3:00 AM Their mind is refreshed. What they could study  for one hour, if they were making PU yet until 11 o'clock, or they were not sleeping until 11 o'clock, they will be able to study that in 15 minutes when they wake up at 3:00 AM and then.  Study then. So when they come back and they, they tell me, yeah, doctor, you're right.

It's really, it really worked. The get to sleep, 10 to two and then just wake up later. And then third is, you know, all these things. Sunlight. We need sun to heal us. We're like plants. Actually. We also need the sun. We can't just  be indoors. So when I go to the beach, I don't even put sunblock, I put castor oil, and.

 Sunlight, sleep, exercise, good food, and de stressing. So we need a way to de stress. For example, for me it's Bible study. For others it can be like yoga or meditating. Because our world is so stressful nowadays, not enough for our kids, right?   It's important that they have good social connections.  my teenagers now they don't.

I am like second and on a  second level connection now. So they're, they more reliant on their friends now. So it's important that they have my, my son has three bible study groups. My daughter doesn't like to attend bible study, but she has her own third friend,  so those help them the.   Yeah, that's so true.

And that's not just based on Dr. Mia's experience, but there's actually research on how kids who are more connected  have better mental wellness, which also translates into better physical health. And one of the, and that's one of the ways that  kids can remain connected with others in this age group. 

Feel disconnected because the, the way that they interact the most with the outside world would be through a, would be through a gadget. And thank you for sharing these with us. So it's basically a balanced diet and a healthy and  balanced lifestyle. And I love how you talk about the diet that is balanced, so it's not about going on an extremely restrictive,  diet, but it's about focusing on what is healthy  and removing the excess of the things that would not be considered healthy for our kids.

I think that's what I learned, Dorian.  All the foods pala are acidic except for vegetables. And when you cook vegetables, it loses its alkalinity somewhat.  So it's important that we have a lot of bula and we have a lot of raw gole. 

So that would be juicing and salads and you know, seeds and nuts.  Or mushrooms. Mushrooms, though you can cook,  but gole, you have to have them also roll.  Hmm. So how can parents evaluate the information on homeopathy and natural remedies that are all over the internet? Because I know you, you shared that you did the Google search and then of course you have your medical background to evaluate the claims there.

So could you share. How you know what are the reliable sources and how can they safely follow homeopathic,  practices at home? Because I'm sure we've all seen examples of information that claim to be homeopathy or natural treatment based  that's on the internet that might not be safe.  Yes. So I guess I, personally speaking, I follow what the people I trust follow.

So, I can share with them the link to my school, the School of Homeopathy in the UK, and share, like, websites that I trust regarding homeopathy because, yes, a lot of people may read up and, find out, find people saying that homeopathy exists.

Homeopathy is quackery, that it is just like placebo.  Homeopathy are used for plants and babies, so that is debunked by that. It's effective.  They have such a thing called agrohomeopathy.

 They use homeopathy to treat plants. So how can that be a placebo effective?  So, so yeah, and I think if you follow the site, or the people that people you already have proven to be real and true, then I guess you're safe. That's how I did it.  Before we started the episode, Dr. Mia and I were also discussing about the evidence base of homeopathy because in how we were trained, We were really trained to look for evidence.

So it's not just what one person did that worked for that person. Although we did share some of the stories with you here in the episode, but it's also really about what the evidence says. So be sure to check out the show notes where Dr. Mia shares the links to websites that she has.  Yeah. what, where can parents go if they want to learn more from you online? Yes. Mm-Hmm, . Okay. I put up a Facebook page just so that they can connect with me there. It's called homeopathy workshops for mommy's pH.  So I'll send the link also there and yeah, we'll also link it to that in the show notes.

Yeah. Okay. So you can message me there through messenger.  I'll be sure to answer you as soon as I can. Yeah, and it's very interesting that you were also talking about energy. So in a way it is like an integrative healing method because you look at the whole of a person and this is something that I have been exploring myself, like the heart healing modality, which is a meditative journey.

So it's meditation and hypnotherapy based to help uncover those subconscious thoughts. And it also helps with both physical and mental wellness, not just with the emotional state, because we can really see that our emotions and the stress does affect our physical wellness.  So is there anything else that you'd like to share?

 There's,  considering you're in developmental pediatrics now, there are, there is homeopathy cure for these developmental problems like autism. There's a group of homeopaths and they follow this protocol called CEASE therapy. I know there's one in the Philippines, I just forget her name right now, and she treats autism using homeopathy.

But there are like homeopaths abroad that you can connect to through Zoom. Because the homeopath doesn't even have to physically examine you because it's the thoughts and the delusions and the emotions that are important. So the, when we take the case, it's just talking. It's the patient just tells you about their life right now, their life before, and we pick out the things that keep repeating.

They call it the golden thread in the patient's life. And that's how the remedy is chosen. So it's a very cheap remedy. I was telling you that it's very, correct or very suitable for the Philippines considering our economic state, the economic state of the majority of our countrymen. It's compared to Western medicines and functional medicine and other stuff.

It's So,  I want to do outreaches and, and community, poor community. I want, I did one, I did one in Cavite, in a church in Cavite. And I taught around eight moms how to treat with homeopathy. And I gave them kits. And they're now healing the community through homeopathy. And they're so, they tell me when they're so happy with their cure, they message me.

I was able to cure this and that, just did homeopathy. And it's safe. Give them a lot of money and a lot of time so that they can focus more on their work.  So,  that's one of my missions.  My, my vision, mission, vision is because I started this year and I like sort of launched my career in homeopathy this year. And I, my kids said, I have to have a mission vision.

So my mission vision is a homeopath mom in every Filipino home by 2035.  Ah, that's a wonderful mission, ma'am. Yeah.  Moms will be the healers. Actually, the moms are the healers, but we just have to equip them more. Yeah. That was actually sort of my mission also. I was hoping that every home would have a parents who are trained in positive parenting, who use positive parenting strategies and have this kind of support.

So I think it all ties in, ties in together because using positive parenting can also ease the stress. and the negative emotions in a home for both the parents and the kids. 📍  And talking about that, the kids love to take the homeopathy medicine because they're like sugar pills.  I have a three-year-old son here, 

finishes all the homeopathy medicines. Yes, yes.