May Thrive Guide
Education
What is a naturopath and should you see one?
Naturopathic doctors are educated and trained in accredited naturopathic medical colleges. They diagnose, prevent, and treat acute and chronic illness to restore and establish optimal health by supporting the person's inherent self-healing process. Rather than just suppressing symptoms, naturopathic doctors work to indentify underlying causes of illness, and develop personalized treatment plans to address them.(1)
Many babies are just dealing with a genetic factor when it comes to infant food allergies. However, babies can also be dealing with chronic gut issues, or gut dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is a condition when the gut bacteria become imbalanced. As a result, a wide range of digestive disturbance symptoms occurs, including diarrhea, cramping, constipation, bloating, and indigestion. (2) Dysbiosis can occur from any number of environmental factors. Often we hear feedback from mothers that symptoms started after a round of antibiotics, vaccines, etc.
A naturopath focuses holistically on the entire body of both your baby AND yourself, since you both play a role in determining the root cause of what is going on. Often a naturopath will ask thorough questions even back to pre-conception and pregnancy. They will likely want to know what is going on with your stress levels, normal activities, etc.
Naturopaths will typically spend at least an hour during initial visits to comprehensively assess your situation and they may refer to you others in their office who specialize in nutrition or lactation.
“I have talked to quite a few parents about how a naturopath has been a game changer for GI issues and allergy struggles! (myself included!) Even though elimination diets have their place, there are so many alternative treatments that are available to try too.”
-
Is a naturopath legit?
People often have preconceived notions about naturopaths being “quacks” or the assumption that naturopaths are only superficially trained in medicine. Below is a great article about 10 myths surrounding naturopaths.
-
Naturopath vs naturopath doctor
There is a difference between someone who is certified as a naturopath and someone who is a naturopath doctor. The article below does a good job explaining the difference, so that you can be informed before finding a provider. I, Susanna, happen to go to a practice where many of the providers are actually trained as physical assistants, so they are still able to prescribe medicines etc, they have just chosen to specialize in holistic medicine, but didn’t go the traditional naturopathic doctor route. You may be able to find someone who is highly qualified but is not necessarily a “naturopathic doctor.”
How do I find a good naturopath?
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to find someone! Join your local Facebook group for moms and ask there. Even better if it’s a “natural” or “crunchy” group since these tend to have more people already seeing a holistic provider.
You can also use the search feature from a number of organizations for naturopaths and holistic providers. Below are a few. Try and look up reviews!
The Institute for Natural Medicine (USA)
American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (USA)
Pediatric Association of Naturopathic Physicians (USA)
Australian Naturopathic Practioners Association (AU)
Sources
(1) https://naturopathic.org/page/WhatisaNaturopathicDoctor
(2) https://www.news-medical.net/health/Dysbiosis-Diagnosis.aspx