In this podcast, we cover:

0:36 Joette on pediatricians: “Yikes!”

2:17 How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor

7:54 Examples of drugs that are dangerous to us

12:04 Trust in your ability to mother

18:07 “I’ve had enough!”

22:12 Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa believed in the powers of homeopathy

25:26 Be a defiant mother 

Today’s podcast is a bit more personal than previous ones.

I offer no apologies. I am a defiant mother.

While raising my children, my thinking went something like this: If I was going to bring children into the world, I ought to be able to identify whether they were well or not.

In fact, not unlike any of you mothers reading this now, I checked my baby (who was generally in my arms anyway) pretty much by the minute so I felt pretty capable of conducting my own well baby check-ups.

I also read unceasingly.

Additionally, I put a lot of time into homemade, organic, pasture fed foods, so it seemed stupid (excuse the sophomoric word, but it’s so fitting!) to forget all that when the baby got a common illness and defer to someone with whom I fundamentally disagreed.

I hate drugs, he loved ‘em. Ultimately you have to be willing to buck the system. Listen to the podcast for more reasons why mothers need to be vigilant and defiant.

And why my parting word is NO!

 

You are listening to a podcast from JoetteCalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Jendi: This is Jendi and I’m here with Joette Calabrese. Hello, Joette! How are you?

Joette: I’m doing well, Jendi. How about you?

Jendi: I am good. I am glad for a nice, sunshiny day today.

Joette: Finally.

 Joette on pediatricians: “Yikes!”

Jendi: I’ve been looking at your site and I am particularly interested in how you raised your children. I know that your children are adults now and out of the house but my children are still at home and I am interested in learning how others who have already been through this did it successfully. So did you ever give your kids any medicine and what did your pediatrician think about this?

Joette: Well, for any mother, the most important aspect of their lives is, of course, their children. And then let me say most emphatically, pediatrician, yikes! I’m being a little flippant here but there’s a measure of truth to my reaction. I didn’t need a pediatrician. Those ubiquitous well-baby checkups were something I never bought into. Excuse my skepticism but they’re just a calendar-building technique for an otherwise not very busy medical specialty. Perhaps they fulfill a need in mothers who don’t trust knowing whether or not their children are well.

But I always felt that I was happy to buy things when I needed them but I don’t really like to buy services and products that are redundant. And I found from years previous to having children and having been married to a doctor back in my 20s before I remarried and then had my children a decade later, you can learn a lot in a decade of going to doctors, that they’re always looking for something to do. And I interpreted that something to do meant prescribing drugs or ordering tests and I was already clearly against that from the very onset.

How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor

I guess I don’t care for nor do I trust drug fundamentalists and I prefer those who are looking to protect the sanctity of the human body and not taint it with questionable drugs, particularly during the susceptible years of childhood. And I think a drug fundamentalist is someone who says, “Ear infection? Oh, antibiotic. Eczema? Oh, steroid. Got a little issue here on your skin? Let’s remove it.” So the more I read, the more I found this medical specialty to be a disappointment.

I loved Dr. Robert Mendelsohn and his book, How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor. Love that book.