Empowering kids to heal
Conventional medical treatments are not always enough to allow kids receiving treatment to live their fullest lives. Our integrative medicine clinic gives kids and their families the opportunity to select and choose complementary strategies that will benefit them.
We ask kids, “What are some signs that mean you’re getting better?” They might say feeling less sleepy, being able to play with their friends or experiencing fewer headaches. Their answers may differ and that’s OK. Based on each child’s goals, our experts mindfully select treatments that will meet each patient’s needs.
From breathing techniques to aromatherapy, we teach children strategies that they can practice themselves. Kids and teens are given a voice in their own health and wellness. The result is often a major boost in well-being, which improves coping and helps kids get back to their normal lives. The skills they learn in our program follow them from the hospital out into the world.
Integrative solutions for a wide array of conditions, including but not limited to:
Outpatient population
- GI conditions: functional abdominal pain, cyclic vomiting, rumination syndrome
- Chronic pain conditions (including sickle cell)
- Headaches
- Strategies for stress or anxiety management
- Sleep disturbance
- Chronic fatigue
- Non-medication symptom management for patients with complex medical needs
- Non-medication symptom management for hospice or palliative care patients
- Patients followed by IM while inpatient who wish to continue care as outpatients
Inpatient population
- Post-operative symptom management
- Supportive care for mental health (e.g., eating disorders, anxiety, depression)
- Chronic medical conditions (e.g., sickle cell anemia, arthritis, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, EDS syndrome, cardiac conditions)
- Chronic or acute pain (e.g., abdominal pain and musculoskeletal pain)
- Distressing symptoms and conditions (e.g., fatigue, sleep issues, headaches, migraines and nausea)
- Management of symptoms and side effects associated with pediatric cancer treatment
- Sudden significant illness (e.g., car accident, broken bones, brain injuries)
- Management of symptoms in NICU (e.g., irritability, stomach discomfort)
- Management of symptoms in palliative care
We have a thorough understanding of traditional medicine, integrative medicine and ways to interweave both to create comprehensive, safe and effective treatment plans to help kids heal.
Integrative medicine approaches
Learn more about other non-medicinal strategies you can try at home or ask about:
- Acupressure: Using touch or pressure to create a healthy sensation throughout the body.
- Breathing exercises: Techniques that promote physical, mental, and emotional relaxation.
- Biofeedback: Computer games aimed at improving health by monitoring how breath changes and muscle tightness affect the body and mind.
- Clinical aromatherapy: Using essential oils to produce a positive effect on the body and mind.
- Diet/nutrition: Choosing foods that improve how the body and mind feel.
- Exercise: Physical activity improves energy and health.
- Healing Touch/Reiki: Techniques to reduce pain and improve healing, physical, emotional and spiritual health.
- Hypnosis/imagery: Using mental imagery, concentrated attention or unconscious exploration to relax the body and mind to boost healing, reduce pain and improve sleep.
- Meditation and mindfulness: Using the mind to feel calm and comfortable.
- Stress management: Using strategies such as deep breathing, hypnosis, meditation, mental imagery and more to minimize or manage stress.
