Episode 79 – Your Gut Health and Sleep with Dr. Katie Sherer

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

Welcome to the kids sleep show, where we help tired parents from around the world to get their children to fall asleep independently, sleep through the night and build healthy sleep habits for life. I’m your host, Courtney Zentz. Now let’s sleep together. All right. Hello, everybody. And welcome back to the kids sleep show. I am very excited to be joined today by Katie shear. She is out in pod free Illinois and owns her own practice for both chiropractic care as well as nutrition. And I am most excited to chat all things, both maternal health as well as children’s health around nutrition because it’s a super topic, near and dear to my heart. So I want to take a moment allow Katie to introduce herself and then we are going to just dive right in with lots of conversations about the foods we eat, and how it impacts us every single day. So thank you, Katie, I’m excited to have you here today on the show. Yes, thank
you for having me. I’m excited as well. So like you said, my name is Katie shear. I’m a chiropractor by trade originally. But I also specialize in nutrition. I have a couple master’s degrees, one in nutrition and one in sports rehab. So I work with, you know, athlete nutrition, just normal people, nutrition post bariatric, and a lot of perinatal and children as well. So, you know, kind of a full gamut. And yeah, I just, I think it’s cool. We’re going to talk about kind of sugar and the microbiome today. And all those good things that everybody needs to learn about, it’s kind of on the cutting edge of the research now. So,
and I’ve been hearing a lot recently, obviously, about this word microbiome. And I’m obviously near and dear to it, because I don’t have a stomach. So my whole internal system works differently. But that’s for another. Another episode, I want to talk about first and foremost, for parents that hear the term microbiome or don’t really know what that means. Maybe take a few minutes to explain the microbiome in both, you know, mothers, when they’re pregnant, as well as you know, children and how that microbiome kind of impacts them. From a birth standpoint, and then growing up and how we as adults, I’ll have to try to manage and keep a healthy
one. Yeah, yeah, that’s, like I said, this is on the cutting edge of research. Japan actually does most of the microbiome research that I’ve been familiarized with, I feel like they are 25 years ahead of us as far as this goes. But we are seeing more and more research on this. The microbiome is everything about the immune system, it is everything about genetics, and DNA as well. You pass your microbiome to your children, especially the mother, you know, you’re you’re growing this baby inside of you. So the microbiome is this basically invisible layer of bacteria in every single area of your body, your mouth, your skin, your mouth, all the way through to your anus and your vagina if you’re female. And whenever you have a microbiome that is off or deficient, you’re going to have some sort of symptom. And what’s fascinating is you may have the same microbiome deficiency as somebody else, but have a completely different symptom. So that’s why it’s so hard to understand and study, we only know up to 65% of the gut bacteria that inhabit our gut, because we can’t even culture the other, you know, 35%, because we don’t understand what substrates they grow on, because they’re so dependent of the bacteria around them and the metabolites that those bacteria make. So this bacteria is everywhere in your entire body, and it develops as early as they think conception. So they used to think that amniotic fluid in the placenta were a sterile thing, and now they realize how, you know, it’s so full of these good bacteria. When a woman has a baby, and she burst the baby vaginally, that is the best case scenario, because then the baby is passed through the vagina and picks up also the microbiome that is in the vagina as well. So not only are you developing it, you know, some of these bacteria are you no genetically programmed into you, maybe some of them cross the placenta, who knows or, you know, the amniotic sac. But we know that the vaginal births definitely promote good bacterial balance, you know, I unfortunately, had a C section. And that is something that I was reading about, which I didn’t do this I read about later is you should take some of that stuff that comes out, rub it all over the baby, because that helps develop their microbiome, since they missed that. So the mother’s microbiome is again, you know, started from infancy so just you know, myself in general, you know, I’m sure a lot of women my age I’m about 35 can say this, you know, my age group got a lot of antibiotics. A lot as growing up, you know, we were handed augmented for everything. So now they know how damaging that is, it used to be, oh, your vetro bounces kill it, well, then they realize that, okay, that’s also killing the good as well. So if you have a history of antibiotic usage, if you have a history of a high sugar, high processed diet, sodas, refined flours, lots of grains in your diet, those things promote lower stomach acidity, meaning that is a higher pH. So not enough stomach acid. And when you promote a high stomach acid, pH, you actually denature the probiotics that are in your system. So you know, if you have this history of this, and then you go your through your life, and maybe you have Candida or yeast overgrowth, or maybe you have SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, maybe you have no gi dysfunction, all but you’re obese, we know that you have a, you know, disruption of your gut bacteria. So then you get pregnant, and you then pass that on to your baby. So, you know, we were talking about earlier, the mom shaming, and it’s a hard pill, a pill pill to swallow to think maybe you set your child up for failure. That’s what I kept saying about my kid, Oh, my gosh, I’ve had candied overgrowth for years. And I’ve set my kid up for failure. You know, he came out with cradle cap, I’m like, Oh, that’s yeast, you know, and I’ve tried so hard to kill it. But there’s only so much, you know, you can do to, you know, once you disrupt that, so that’s kind of in a nutshell, what, you know, what the microbiome is? And
I’m sorry, just a question on things like probiotics, right? So for me, I take a chewable children’s, because everything in my life is chewable since I don’t have to get to be so it can get absorbed before I pee or poop it out. Um, and I give my kids a chewable probiotic, you know, and I’m very specific about the type that I buy, based on the research I did. You know, what are your thoughts on that? As far as like, you know, if a mom’s listening to this and goes, Oh, like, maybe I don’t do anything, maybe I should do some things. Maybe I’m noticing some things where it may make sense. Like, if a parents listening to this and goes, should I be giving my kid a probiotic? Does that make sense? Does it? Does it even help? or do anything with that balance of the bacteria? You know, talk a little bit about that? Because I’m you know, I’m fascinated with just the fact that as a parent, you’re passing this on to your kid, and I don’t want any parents to feel like should I set my kid up for failure, but at the same time, it’s like, Alright, well, maybe if some of this stuff is going on, here’s how we can start to make positive choices to correct some of those things that may be going on or causing other things like I’ve seen linkages to a lot of different diagnoses based on what we’re intaking, which we’re going to talk about.
Yes. So yeah, probiotics are awesome. Um, there are certain ones that are better than others, like, you know, the the Philips colon health, that’s kind of a low grade, very specific one, strain bacteria. You know, that’s not a great full spectrum probiotic. For an adult, you know, they found that some of the most popular populated strains in our gut are lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. So if you are as an adult going to take a probiotic, which I definitely would recommend, especially while pregnant, because they have shown some relationship between taking a probiotic while pregnant and some children’s issues. So bifidobacterium, and lactobacillus are two of the best Do you want to take a very wide spectrum one. So if you look at the back of the bottle, if it lists like lactobacillus this, like the cells that lactobacillus this, and then bifidobacterium and has two or three, those are going to give you a greater type of, you know, damage of bacteria, so those are good number one. For children, there’s different bacteria that populate which is really cool at different stages in life. So up to one year, that’s the infant stage. b infantis is one, it’s bifidobacterium. infantis is one of the most common gut bacteria that they find and there is actually a really awesome probiotic on the market that is heavily researched. And it’s called in vivo. e vi, vo and that’s what we’ve given my son especially you know, because I said I had the the C section I had to have antibiotics because I had infection during the you know, during labor, yada yada. And so you know, women who have strep B and have to have in you know, antibiotics are free. Yeah, yeah. So I didn’t have strep me because I used vaginal probiotics for two weeks before my test, and I always a strep carrier, and I tested negative and I know that’s why. So your mouth and your vagina are everything. They’re connected, you know, and so those those bacteria in your mouth and in your gut and your vagina are all the same.
You know? I just Hold up the I take what’s called yum yum de filius. It’s a chewable kids probiotic. And I just looked it up, you know, because I know you’re supposed to look at more than just the 1 billion this are two sides of that, or whatever. You know, and mine is two different lacto basileus and then q different of the
FIFO.
So does that have sugar in it? Um, that’s, that’s something you really have to watch. I had a patient come in the other day, she was laughing. She was like, you’re going to hate all my vitamins. She brought him in so I can look at what’s his take. And they were all gummies like, girl, you’re taking up freakin probiotic with sugar in it. Like, yes. So, you know, counterintuitive, throw that away.
So now I have no
sugar, no artificial sweeteners or anything like that. And it’s chewable, which again, like I have to take, but there’s just I was just curious, as we’re chatting through them, like, Oh, I
better check mine. Yeah, sure. So, you know, the microbiome, you know, and in the brain, you know, are connected to, you know, that that gut brain access. And so that’s, you know, what I was talking about earlier, there’s so many different diagnoses that can go along with an immature or an imbalanced gut bacteria, you know, microbiome, and it’s fascinating. You know, the more I learned about Candida specifically in yeast, I’m like, Oh, my God, everybody’s rampid with it, you know, anxiety, national yeast infections, thrush, low progesterone levels, and women with infertility, skin conditions. I mean, the list goes on and the auto immune system, diseases and even joint pain, and brain fog and back pain. I mean, it’s just shocking. It’s shocking. And the gut brain access and and mental health as well, like, the depression, the anxiety that so many people might God, I think, probably 85% of people I talked to is on Zoloft or something like that.
And I know You talk a lot, you see a lot of folks that are like postpartum Yes, in the chiropractic side, but then also from a nutritional standpoint to say like, hold up, right? stop the clock, like you have a baby. And he just, you know, and now you have your own health. So you got to worry about both of them. Like, what does a typical? like? What does it look like for that type of compensation? like where do you even start with that to go Alright, let’s do some tests. And then see, like, get a baseline and figure out what’s going on. Because, you know, the, to your point, autoimmune diseases, diagnoses are through the roof, right? autism through the roof, like,
sure there
is a capacity that some of this stuff is connected, right? Yeah, my kid is a psychopath. If they have sugar, then they don’t get it. And it is like, what kind of drug is this? Right? And yeah, I’m not a total jerk, where I’m like, not going to give you ice cream ever, because it has sugar in it. But like, I’m super conscious about everything that I do with my kids, because I’m so scared of the addiction that I see with something even as simple as sugar, let alone like, you know, alcohol and adults or, you know, like eating heavily processed foods and stuff like, but as a mom, like you, you kind of come and somebody comes to see you and where do you even start, right? And as a parent, how do I know I should start somewhere? Like I feel fine. Like,
right? Yeah, you know, it’s hard to because especially if you are a new mom, and you’re struggling with exhaustion, I mean, if you’re listening to this, you’re probably also struggling with sleep, let’s be honest, because, you know, that’s kind of what you do. So, you know, being completely exhausted, I was so grateful that I had figured out the food prep thing before I got pregnant. Because it was really kind of easy for me to transition into, you know, I have a husband to that’s very, very helpful. And I’m very lucky to have a partner that was so helpful. But I’m able to still food prep, I was food prepping, people were making me food, they know how I eat, so they weren’t making me and bringing me process things after I delivered. But you know, there’s always the starting point of I’m always like, you know, start with one meal. If you’re eating processed food for every meal, let’s just start with dinner. Let’s start with trying to cook dinner or prepare dinner, or I even offer a meal prep service. Those are all over meal prep services that make clean food, and some of them are not that pricey. So check into that, especially if you’re used to eating out a lot. Look into that and try to start Okay, let’s eliminate sugar out of the diet for dinner. Are you snacking? Are you going three to four hours, five hours between meals? You know, too long are you driving your cortisol levels up which creates disruption of the microbiome because then your blood sugar stays higher than normal? You know, those small changes? Okay, let’s just snack and let’s change dinner first, and then they come back a few weeks. Okay, I’m doing better. all right now let’s tackle lunch. Then we’ll tackle breakfast. And I am not unrealistic. Like I let my patients let you know. tell my patients they can have things like chick pea crisps and blue corn tortilla chips and brown rice pasta and you know those some of those are grains but they’re unrefined. So they’re better than the alternative, you know. And while those things could still feed some of the bad bacteria, they’re a hell of a lot better than your sugar, and your soda and your cookies and the stuff you were eating before just to power through the day.
Yeah,
so that’s where I start, like,
you have a better energy level to based on like what that intake is, you know, I, I sometimes like I’m up at 5am every day. So in like three in the afternoon, I’m like, gosh, I kind of need something. And for me, it’s a beef stick. Like I get grass fed beef sticks, they’re 100% grass fed beef, they’re very tiny, but I get grass fed beef sticks, and I’ll eat two pieces of mango. unsweetened dried mango that I get at Costco, it’s the only place I can find like a massive bag of it that crushes my like, hunger side with protein gives me a little bit of the sweet from the mango, right? And it gets me through that like slump where I’m like, I don’t drink caffeine, because I can’t sleep then that night, you know, so I have coffee in the morning. But in the afternoon, I’m kind of just chilling on like flavored water. And sometimes I’ll drink like a hot tea. But you know, it’s like, it gets me through that slump without slamming seven cookies, you know. So that
slump you’re feeling what that is, is is cortisol and adrenaline changes that happened right? Naturally at 3pm 3am and 3pm, or liver time. And so at those times, those are the cortisol spikes. So if you ignore that spike in blood sugar at around 3pm, you’re going to crash and you’re going to feel like crap. So I always tell my patients, if you’re eating dinner at six, or after you should eat at two and four and six small things like that, a B stick a couple pieces of mango, I’ll do a little Greek yogurt, you know, with some nuts and berries in it, or I’ll do like a protein shake and some peanut butter. Just something that those two times because if you do that, that I can’t tell you how people will call me and come in and be like, Oh my god, I’m sleeping better. I’m not I don’t nap anymore. Like Yes, it’s your hormones, you know. So your blood sugar is everything with that. And so back to the microbiome, if you are going too long between meals and you’re driving your cortisol levels through the roof like that, your blood sugar is then going spiking. And that feeds the bad bacteria and the East and the Candida. So if you have low stomach acid content coupled with high cortisol levels, your microbiome is a hot disaster.
Now, how does somebody know like, how do they know they’re a disaster? Right? Yeah.
I just had a concert with a girl in California. And she told me that her doctor did stool testing. I’m like, Oh, my gosh, this is so cool. Like, they don’t do anything like this around here. I mean, we’re Midwest hub of, you know, barbecue sauce and beer, you know. And so that’s people, doctors around here. Don’t even talk about gut health. I mean, I saw three gi specialists before I figured myself out. Nobody even mentioned Candida and microbiome, not one. And so you know, they’re the testing that they have is so infantile, you know, they don’t, they don’t do most doctors, what should be done of looking at the microbiome in the stool. Now, that being said, just looking at stool still doesn’t tell you everything about the microbiome. But we know, people with depression, people with autoimmune disease, people with chronic pain and chronic fatigue syndrome, every single one of those have low bacteria count in their stool, like 100%. And this one study, I was like, holy crap, that’s so cool. So we know that that is effective. So there’s really to answer your question, no way to tell Oh, Courtney, you need this specific probiotic. Unfortunately, there’s breath tests, they’re still testing. Some doctors do more of the holistic ones. But they’re still you know, not super, you know, they don’t cover the full gamut of the bacteria. So that’s, have you ever heard of fecal transplants? Hmm.
So those are super cool.
I actually I called three doctors trying to get a fecal transplant thinking that that would fix all my problems before I realized Candido was it. And my best friend, she’s super healthy. She’s nutritionist. I was like, I want your poop. He’s okay. So we’re like, no, yeah, but I thought, you know, that could maybe help and control some of the symptoms and they do them for people. And it’s pretty cool. The the lowered autoimmune disease. I watched one thing too, on a lady who she had been healthy. She got really sick. She got CBOE. So she started getting fecal transplant from her daughter, who was like 14, but her daughter was obese, and she became obese, she’d never in her life become obese. She started looking exactly build wise, like her daughter. So that shows you how much your bacteria have to do with your DNA.
It’s amazing. It’s amazing class. donating to on like with children, right? Like, yeah, I am very conscious of what my kids eat, you know, as we’ve talked about, and, you know, you kind of see like, okay, now it’s the keto diet, or, oh, it’s this paleo lifestyle or whole 30, you know, and because I don’t have a stomach, I’m very in an up on this, because I can’t process stuff, it makes me sick, which then tells me like, you shouldn’t eat that, because your body’s rejecting it, basically, like, my body just rejects processed stuff, because it shouldn’t be processing it per se, right? And, you know, you start to look at Whole grains versus white flour versus refined sugar versus Apple, or honey and maple syrup and natural sugars. And, you know, I mean, you could Google any perspective, like with any things like training included, right, and everybody’s gonna have a different approach or opinion on it, but I would love your overall professional opinion on what should we be feeding ourselves and our kids, right? I don’t I don’t want to call it a specific diet. Because I think that just it’s like this diet culture. And I want to stay out of that. It’s like your body with the things your body wants to be its best, right? I want to be the healthiest person without a stomach. I want my kids to be the healthiest kids with out all the crap, right? And you know that craps gonna be different for everybody. But you know, like, where do you Where do you start with that? Like, what’s your perspective on things like the grains and the sugars and the natural sweeteners and, you know, all of the above, if you will, dairy?
Yeah. When I work with with people all the time, I say, My way of what I’m going to tell you to do, is not the epitome of health, because most people aren’t going to do what really needs to be done, myself included. I ate cheese this morning, should I choose? No, we know that dairy disrupts the microbiome, but I frickin love cheese. And so I’m going to eat cheese every once while just like you were talking about the ice cream. So the epitome of health would be no grains, fruits and vegetables, some meat. If you are going to do I think lentils are okay, in my opinion, like beans, chickpeas, things like that. No dairy other than, you know, good whole yogurt. Absolutely no cow’s milk that goes for everybody. I’m a big no cow’s milk person. But and nuts, and seeds. Those are the those are the best. Now, again, I blue corn tortilla chips rather than white flour. I eat coconut flour tortillas rather than white flour. I eat brown rice pasta rather than just quote gluten free or white pasta. So there are alternatives that are quote better and why are they better? Number one, they’re not refined. Number two, they have a lower glycemic index. So high glycemic index foods disrupt bacteria, we know that just like when your cortisol levels are high. So that’s something to consider too. When you’re eating and you’re feeding children. Are they? Are I allowing them to snack? Are they getting protein and low glycemic foods at every meal? That’s what you need to focus on with kids. That, you know the microbiome is really cool. With that to tie it into sleeping. They show that children who have a high sugar diet and have a disrupted microbiome have less of the good sleep hormones and children who don’t get enough sleep have a disrupted microbiome so it goes both ways. It’s like the chicken in the egg. You know so if your kids drinking Capri Suns and eating, you know, Lunchables with the white cracker flour and they don’t sleep well well maybe you should consider you know, changing those those refined foods, add ADHD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, aggression, you know, all these things are linked to an improper microbiome balance.
It’s so fascinating I use it’s called simply Mills. And it’s almond flour based so instead of buying Wheat Thins which are 100% whole grain right? I buy the almond flour ones it’s five ingredients cassava flour, almonds that are ground up and then like salt, pepper and oregano, right? Like cool like I would much and they look just like Wheat Thins but like my kids get you know they can make their little lunchable but they do it with pepperoni and then you know the simply Mills crackers have been good for me to to get like a guacamole so for me it’s like I’ll use the little crackers with the guacamole because I need the fat you know so I don’t look like I’m emaciated at this point. Yeah, without having a sound I feel like I’m conscious but I tried even in that example like you know make those substitutions and I got my husband off cow’s milk a couple of years ago and now we can’t go back
you know? Yeah, yeah, it tastes weird now. Yeah. And that and those are the best things you can do is make those substitutions and what’s so cool is those are out there. Trader Joe’s all the all the is amazing. I don’t know if you guys have all the Yeah, we do. All these unbelievable. They have yogurt dressings, they have cauliflower pizza crust, they have all kinds of really awesome grain free brown rice, pasta stuff that you can get in it’s not expensive. It is not expensive to eat healthy if you do the research and you figure it out. Yeah.
Now, I mean, I know I like between Costco and you know, between Costco and all the and then I whole foods like I buy like my jelly I get it whole foods because it’s just fruit with no other crap, you know? Yeah, yeah and so like stuff like that, you know, I mean, I think As parents, we all just have to do our best like I you know, one of the things that I know is, there’s obviously a connection for both women and men, right as well as our children in that adage of you are what you eat, right? And so if you’re struggling with something today that has to do with your child’s behavior, or sleep or frustration or aggression, or you know, autoimmune autism, I mean, ADHD, like start with the basics of stripping some things out of the diet that are heavily white, refined and processed, right? And see what impact that makes because I know for my daughter, like, you know, if there were a period or two over the past five years, where she’s having, like, you know, she’d have a piece of chocolate for Christmas, and it would be just like, you know, all hell breaks loose. And we stripped out every aspect of refined sugar and she’s like a new child in about three days. And it’s amazing because I’m very conscious of it, but it sneaks in and catch up. It sneaks in in, you know, yogurts and stuff. So like I make my own yogurt. Now I buy a specific, unsweetened ketchup. You know that?
Having a kitchen
ketchup? That’s what we use. Yeah, Primal kitchen.
I accidentally bought the spicy.
newsflash, kids. Whoops.
Oh, here it is.
I’ll grab it. And then my husband’s like, holy crap.
This is hot. I didn’t know the head. spicy.
Spicy one. Yes. And it is delightful for adults, not for children. But that’s what all their salad dressings remain. Yes.
Loved?
One, you know? Yeah, I think if people understand that there’s options out there. You know, it’s helpful. Because, you know, even for our kids, like we’re setting them up for failure in so many capacities. None of us are trying to right, like, we all as parents have that struggle, I think with our own personal like finding the time to do the research and the meal prep, and, you know, but also to be educated on like, what do we do and where do we go? And what should that look like? So definitely, like, as we’re kind of chatting, and I know you have a hard stop. And so too, I want to like help parents to understand like, what would next steps be, you know, or if they were interested in saying like, Hey, I’m a bit of a dumpster fire, and I kind of need some help. And Katie sounds like great, and I want to talk to her right? What does that look like to to chat with you to understand if it’s even appropriate to you know, set up a consultation or make an appointment to learn, like, I want to do better because I want to be better. And you know, what does that look like?
Yeah, so I do lots of virtual coaching lots I do, you know, zoom calls or FaceTime, or even just over the phone, and we just talk, people like to have a plan written. So I do write little written plans, like breakfast here, some options, snacks, here’s some options. Here’s some specific brands of things that you can look for. Here’s how much you should eat, here’s, you know, for your child or you or whatever, because portion sizes are another thing you know, if you overeat the carbohydrate portion and under eat the protein portion that affects the blood sugar and the insulin and the cortisol levels as well. And again, with sleep if you’re feeding your kid, you know ice cream before bed, and their blood sugar goes through the roof, their insulin goes through the roof, then they crash and their cortisol goes up and your cortisol supposed to be down. You’re not going to signal some of those good sleepy time hormones. So you know those those little tricks help. Um, but yeah, I just kind of tell parents, you know, let’s make small changes at first if you know I just had a girl come in for my last consult. She was already eating clean. She just needed help with balancing when to eat what and because she wasn’t losing weight, but then I have other people come in and they’re eating McDonald’s for three meals a day and not snacking. So you know, there’s the whole you’re not too far gone. You can make small changes at home. Do you have to cook? Yes, you do. You have to cook. If you don’t like to cook, tough shit. Figure it out. You know what I mean? If you want to make changes, you have to prepare foods at home. Because even if you’re like Panera salads or I don’t know if you guys have been air out there Yeah, when they’re salads you know, they say their chickens antibiotic Free Will you taste it? It’s like this doesn’t taste like regular chicken like what is this? What is what is in the seasoning that goes on there? What is in your dressing, you know? So making small changes the pesticides and stuff they put on the lettuce? Oh my god to keep it from going Brown. That alone is awful. So you know, I know I
buy $9 a pint or quart whatever, like the strawberries and the guy at the store is like you must really like strawberries and like, or I just really don’t like chemicals, you know? Yeah.
And it’s like God, are those even chemical free? You know, it’s so it’s like, what am I paying for you know that the cage free eggs in store have a little plus sign and it’s a cage free raising barns like so if you don’t buy in from the farmer that you know, you know, you’re there’s only so much you can do. I don’t To buy organic meat, you don’t have to spend a lot of money I spend for my husband and I and my son now, you know, $100 a week, maybe on groceries, that’s not that bad, you know? Yeah. And we eat a lot. We eat a lot of food and we, you know, a lot of meat and probably shouldn’t eat as much meat, but we do. And so, you know, there’s just there’s small changes you can make, like you said, those those, those almond flour crackers, and a lot of this stuff is super good. It really
was they’re actually delightful. My kids love Yeah, I love them, you know?
Yeah. And you know what your kids probably, especially if they’re old enough to have an opinion are gonna put up some resistance at first. Well, my kid won’t eat anything that mac and cheese and chicken nuggets? Well, that’s because oh, you gave your mac and cheese chicken nuggets and you gave it and you know, you’re the parent, you know, you have to put your foot down and say, Sorry, you’re not getting that. Like, my son wanted some of my vanilla Greek yogurt that was flavored yesterday, because I actually bought it. Sorry, you’re not getting that it has flavoring in it. You’re not getting that, you know, I don’t even want that in his palate. So, you know, it’s just making those changes and sticking to it. And it’s it may be held for a couple of weeks, but they get used to it. And you know, a lot of kids don’t even know the difference between the brown rice pastas and stuff like that, too. So those are delicious. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried brown rice pasta, but I have read a lot of noodles.
I zoodle.
Yeah. So they’re kind of used to that, I guess. Yeah. But it’s interesting. I’m so fascinated to because I didn’t even get the chance to chat, which I’m sure we’ll have follow up conversations on things like melatonin to your point like, yeah, so many parents supplement with melatonin, because that’s what the doctor told them to do. But that’s because the doctor doesn’t have any sleep training knowledge or understanding around what’s actually happening in the home as far as behavior most of its behavior based your kids making melatonin, but your hormones are all over because their diets off which triggers the melatonin not firing, which triggers them to be nightmares, because you’re laying with him for three hours. And you allow that. So back to your point of like, some of its boundaries. And yeah, havior, right. And you’re the parent. So demanding, as a three year old is not an adjective that I would have with a three year old, you know, demanding they do this. It’s like, No, no, it’s time to go to bed. And here’s the consequence, if you don’t, you
know, yeah. You know, real quick on that melatonin thing you said, you know, just like testosterone replacement therapy and all these post bodybuilders and professional sports players who use testosterone. Well guess what happens to their testosterone later, they quit making it because their body doesn’t think it needs it. And if you don’t cycle properly, often on melatonin, and you give it all the time, you’re really setting yourself up in your childhood for failure, because then your body’s thinking, oh, I’ve got it. Exactly. Honestly, I don’t need to make it anymore. You know, so you’re driving those insulin levels up. You’re you’re you’re decreasing melatonin, and then you’re exogenously giving it to your body. I mean, you’re that’s a bad, bad thing.
I don’t think people realize Melatonin is a hormone. Yeah. You know, like, it’s the only hormones that’s available over the counter because it’s derived naturally in cherries, as well. So it’s allowed but like, I don’t think people realize that you’re you’re messing with hormones. This isn’t like an innocent you know, here’s the thing and you have to be careful because there’s no long term studies with kids on prolonged use of melatonin so cutting
out sugar will be way better for you than melatonin I promise. Firstly, promise.
Amen, sister. Well, I know you have a hard stop. I appreciate the time today I will have all of this information on how to get in touch with Katy out in the notes. We’ll definitely do this. Again. If you guys like this topic, let us know because we can chat for days about healthy eating. And you know, just start from give yourself some grace and make one choice to change one thing, and from there, you’ll see exponential results. So I appreciate Katie coming on today. And thank you everybody for tuning in. Until next time, leave the rest of us and enjoy some time with your family. Have a good day. Hold on one more thing before you go. As the value listener of the kids sleep show, I want to help you build a great sleep or not just in the times you’re listening to the show. But all day every day. Every week of the year. I have a new Facebook group called slumber Made Simple. It’s a place to gather with other parents looking for sleep support, laughs and the latest in sleep research to build a family that is rested and at their best
day in and day out.
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