Underlying Stressors of ADHD
Table of Contents
Our latest podcast highlights the work of “Thriving with ADHD: A Guide to Naturally Reducing ADHD Symptoms in Your Child,” author, Dana Kay. Dana is an expert in ADHD as a mother, Board-Certified Holistic Health and Nutrition Practitioner and the CEO and founder of the ADHD Thrive Institute.
When her son was put on his fourth medication with side-effects impacting his personality, she knew something else needed to be done. In this candid interview, Dana shares about what it was like to feel like she was being a “bad mom” and how she took charge to find a new path to helping him thrive.
Dana was not only successful in helping her child but has taken what she learned and created the ADHD Thrive Institute that has now helped thousands of families.
Listen or read (the transcript below) to find out more about Dana’s new book (which you can pick up here today) and how she helped her son and the ADHD Thrive Institute families she works with too.
- Dana’s story with her son’s ADHD journey
- The underlying stressors in ADHD and how families can get started
- What Dana wishes she would’ve known at the beginning of her own journey with her son
- How to get started with using nutrition to resolve ADHD symptoms
- And much more…
Show Notes for this Podcast
- Dana’s story with her child and how her son’s ADHD ruled their lives. (3:48)
- The motivation behind writing the Thriving With ADHD book. (12:09)
- The underlying stressors in ADHD. (14:23)
- The biggest thing that families can do to get started. (18:56)
- The results that Dana has seen in her work. (24:33)
- The two things Dana wishes she knew when she first start working with her son with ADHD. (26:49)
- How to find Dana’s resources, book and podcast. (32:50)
Resources and Links
ADHD Thrive Institute on Instagram
ADHD Thrive Institute on Facebook
Dana’s Book: Thriving with ADHD: A Guide to Naturally Reducing ADHD Symptoms in Your Child
Articles Related to Underlying Stressors of ADHD
How to Use Traditional Chinese Medicine to Help Your Child with ADHD, Anxiety and Autism
Are Mast Cells the Missing Piece?
More about Dana Kay
Dana Kay is a Board-Certified Holistic Health and Nutrition Practitioner and the CEO and founder of the ADHD Thrive Institute and the creator of the ADHD Thrive Method 4 Kids program. As a mother of a child with ADHD, she knows firsthand the struggles that come with parenting a neurodiverse child, but she also knows the freedom that is possible once parents learn to reduce ADHD symptoms. Dana has been featured in Forbes, Authority Magazine, Medium, Influencive, Thrive Global, and various others. She has also been a guest on multiple parenting and ADHD summits and podcasts. Her mission is to help families reduce ADHD symptoms naturally so that children with ADHD can thrive at home, at school, and in life.
0:00 Tara Hunkin:
This is My Child Will Thrive and I'm your host, Tara Hunkin, nutritional therapy practitioner, certified GAPS practitioner, restorative wellness practitioner and mother. I'm thrilled to share with you the latest information, tips, resources, and tools to help you on the path to recovery for your child with ADHD, autism, sensory processing disorder, or learning disabilities. My own experiences with my daughter combined with as much training as I can get my hands on, research I can dig into and conferences I can attend, have helped me to develop systems and tools for parents like you who feel overwhelmed trying to help their children. So sit back as I share another great topic to help you on your journey.
A quick disclaimer before we get started. My Child Will Thrive is not a substitute for working with a qualified healthcare practitioner. The information provided on this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat your child. Please consult your healthcare practitioner before implementing any information or treatments that you have learned about on this podcast. There are many gifted, passionate, and knowledgeable practitioners with hundreds, if not thousands of hours of study and clinical experience available to help guide you. Part of our goal is to give you the knowledge and tools you'll need to effectively advocate for your child so that you don't blindly implement each new treatment that comes along. No one knows your child better than you. No one knows your child's history like you do or can better judge what is normal or abnormal for your child. The greatest success in recovery comes from the parent being informed and asking the right questions in making the best decisions for their child in coordination with a team of qualified practitioners in different areas of specialty.
Today's podcast is sponsored by the Autism, ADHD, and Sensory Processing Disorder Summit. In order to learn more about the summit and to sign up for free, please go to mychildwillthrive.com/summit.
2:03 Tara Hunkin:
Hi everyone. I wanna welcome you back to the My Child Will Thrive podcast. I am very grateful to have with me today author. And I'm gonna say author first today. She has written, Thriving with ADHD, A Guide to Naturally Raising, sorry, Naturally Raising too, and Reducing ADHD symptoms in your child. And Dana Kay, I am so thrilled that you've written this book and that you've joined us here today. I'm just gonna tell you a little bit more about you.
She is also a board certified holistic health and nutrition practitioner. She's the CEO and founder of the ADHD Thrive Institute and the creator of ADHD Thrive Method for Kids Program. And as a mother of a child with ADHD, she knows firsthand the struggles that come with parenting a neurodiverse child, but she also knows the freedom that is possible once parents learn to reduce ADHD symptoms.
Dana has been featured in Forbes, Authority Magazine, Medium, Influence, Thrive Global and various others. She's also been a guest on multiple parenting podcasts and ADHD summits. And her mission is to help families reduce ADHD symptoms naturally so that children with ADHD can thrive at home, at school and in life. So she is a kindred spirit and I am really,
really grateful to have you here with me today.
3:43 Dana Kay:
Thank you so much, Tara, for having me. I'm really excited to be here.
3:48 Tara Hunkin:
I think the best place to start is to talk about your journey with your child because I think that those that are listening are really gonna relate to your story.
4:00 Dana Kay:
Yeah. And can I just say, I love the way that you say about, I love that little twang accent in there. It's amazing. So completely off track there.
4:12 Tara Hunkin:
Canadian, eh?
4:13 Dana Kay:
Yeah. So look, I have been through a long journey and believe it or not, I was actually completely removed from the health and wellness space. I was actually an accountant. Oh, you too.
4:28 Tara Hunkin:
I too, once upon a time was in finance and an accountant. There you go. There you go.
4:34 Dana Kay:
And look, probably the same as me. You probably actually planned to continue in that field like I did. And I probably would've done so if my concerns over my son's health hadn't grown as much as they did.
I always used to dream when I grew up that I was gonna be a business woman with an office and I got that dream. But then my son was born and that dream totally changed. He was a gorgeous boy, but I always sort of felt that there was something a little bit different. He was the one in the playground at the age of two that would be just burning through the grass,
banging into kids. He was the one with the most epic meltdowns and that just ruled our lives. He seemed to have so much energy more than any other kid his age. Yes, he was two, yes, he was a boy. But there was always just that something going on in my gut telling me that there was something different.
I would ask his teachers, what do you think? Oh, he's just a typical boy. Don't worry about it. I'd ask the pediatrician, Oh, he's too young to even think about that, he's just a boy. But eventually the tantrums and meltdowns became more severe. He would get more hyperactive and that's when the teacher started noticing the difference too.
And he was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of four. And we were immediately handed a prescription medication for Dex Methylate, which is a stimulant medication. And honestly, between you and me, I remember feeling relieved. Oh my gosh, I wasn't a bad mom. It wasn't my parenting. And I was actually excited to go to the drugstore to fill that prescription because that was going to be the pill that was gonna fix my family.
I never had thoughts that family life and parenting would be this way and I would dread getting out of bed every morning. What mood was he gonna be in? I would not want to go out during the day in case he'd have a massive meltdown. We couldn't plan holidays because I was worried about what the change in routine would do to him.
Our life revolved around him and I was depressed, I was angry and it had to change. So when I got that prescription and I filled that prescription, I was so excited and relieved. I gave him the medication and at first everything was okay. But then things started to turn south, his dosage increased and he started to get all of these side effects.
He was a shell of himself. He had no personality. It disappeared. He lost weight, he couldn't sleep, he didn't wanna eat. And the doctor prescribed another prescription medication to counteract the side effects that were occurring from the first. And then this continued until my son, who was now five, was on three very strong medications. And the doctor handed us a prescription for the fourth. And that's when I took that prescription, I thought, this is not okay. This is not okay. He's five and he wants my son on four strong medications and that's when my career path completely changed. And I began learning that ADHD symptoms can be reduced naturally.
And I began learning about how food can affect so many aspects of our lives and once I learned about this, I couldn't keep this information to myself. And we went on this journey. I changed his diet. I started to look at what was going on inside of his body that was creating these symptoms. My son's now in middle school, he's just about to turn 13. He's thriving. He hasn't been on meds for years. I never once get a call from the school. He's got straight A's and I think the most important thing, it's not about the academics for me, I didn't really care about that. It's more the fact that he's happy and my family is happy.
I don't dread waking up in the morning anymore. I mean, I used to say to my husband, I don't like my son. What mom says that? The guilt that I feel with that. But now I can actually say I love him. I like, I always loved him. I just didn't like him. But now I like him.
He's actually really cool. And my favorite part of the day is driving him to football practice every single day of the week cuz that's how often they train because I get to have a conversation with him and he's awesome. So, I didn't want anyone else to have to go through those struggles that my family went through. I've now been lucky enough to help close to a thousand other families get to the same place as me, but just so much quicker because I did go back to school. I did my holistic health degree, multiple specific certifications in this particular area so I could help other families cuz it just doesn't need to be that hard.
9:42 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah. It's so great that you have taken the time to then share this with so many, so a thousand families, like that is a massive, massive impact. Yeah. Because it is not just those families, it's like you said, it's like everybody within those families and adjacent to those families in terms of how we interact. And so that is such a huge accomplishment and I'm so glad that you chose to do what you're doing and share beyond just your own family because it is so important.
Which is why you and I are both here, because it is frustrating to realize that still, I mean, my daughter is now 18 and graduated from high school, but we started our journey obviously back when she was quite young. So when the internet was more in its infancy in terms of these things. And even the holistic health industry was certainly not at the forefront, which is in the way I believe it is now, but there's still so many families that don't have this information.
So thank you for doing that and for writing this book, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to, many reasons I wanted to speak with you today, but because you have now, and I had mentioned to you before we started recording, and I say this all the time when we speak authors, if you're watching this on the website or YouTube or something, you'll see, I'm just holding up her book right now.
And the reason why I wanted to talk to you is that because you have created this book, and I was saying to you that one of the very first things I did when I started the My Child Will Thrive website was write an article on why I believe that books over blogs are the way to go.
Which is, there's irony obviously in that because I was writing a blog post. But it's because the path to having completeness and answers, the internet is fabulous to help you start to get ideas and start to pull things together and to get that last minute current information. But there are great books like yours out there that give people a complete picture of what's going on.
And in your case too, and actions oriented step by step process. Yeah. Which is so incredibly helpful. So someone can pick up your book and read all about it, but also take action on it at the same time so they can get the results that you did with your child as well.
So why don't you tell me, I mean, this is why I'm glad you have this book and you created the book, but what was your motivation to take the time and energy to put into a book?
12:15 Dana Kay:
Yeah, no, that's a really good question. And it's a couple of reasons and one of them was years ago, I wanted a book on ADHD that would clearly spell out exactly what I needed to do to support my son with ADHD naturally,
but I could never find it. And I was constantly googling for something, just anything that might actually help us get some relief from my son's challenging behaviors. And when I was looking for that book years ago, I struck out like over and over again, there was no book out there that gave me the information I needed in a way that I could actually understand it and implement it effectively.
And there's this novelist, Tony Morrison, he had this quote that said, If you find a book you really wanna read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. So that's what I did. And I still can hardly believe that I am saying that it's an international bestseller in multiple categories, including children's health.
I've been an author in a chapter in another book, but this is my first book and the feedback that I've had has been amazing. It's my life's work. It's the guide that I needed when I started this journey with my son, but couldn't find. And it is really different from other books out there because I am not only a practitioner, but I'm also a mom who gets it. And so that's why I did it, but also I know that I'm not gonna be able to help as many families as needs help out there.
And so with this book, it allows to touch so many more lives and even if I just touch one life, that life is gonna touch another life and it's gonna be this domino effect out there in the world. So that's the reason that I wrote it and I'm so glad that it's out there and getting the feedback that I'm getting.
14:08 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah, like I said, I'm very grateful that you've done that. Let's talk, there's so much information in here, but one of the things that I wanted to highlight today is talking about those underlying stressors in ADHD. So you go into that and many other things in here, but what do you think are the guiding or the main underlying stressors that can be addressed naturally in ADHD?
14:36 Dana Kay:
Yeah, look, and there can be multiple underlying stresses. And I actually like to talk about underlying stresses kind of like as a bucket because when I say a big part is obviously diet, I talk very much about a low inflammatory diet and I actually held a live masterclass last night, probably not last night when this goes live. But one of the questions I got asked is, well, why would some people be sensitive to gluten and dairy, but not others? And I like to look at it as a bucket.
So we're all born with this metaphorical bucket and the goal is for us to keep the load on that bucket low. Okay? We wanna keep low toxins in our life. We wanna keep everything low, inflammation in our body low. But when we are born, some kids actually already have stuff in their bucket,
bad stuff in their bucket. Like my son for example, he was born, he was induced early at 38 weeks cuz they were worried about the growth of him. And so immediately put on medication, he went into the NICU, he was on a Cpap machine, he wasn't breastfed straight away. And so his bucket already started to have this stuff in it, this bad stuff in it. And then over time, his bucket started to fill up even more. Now we all have genes and some of those genes are compromised. Some of us are able to empty our bucket out of our body on regular occurrences, which is what we wanna do. We wanna keep it low.
So meaning some people have optimized detoxification pathways, but others, their genetics actually stop them from having optimized detoxification pathways and they have compromised detoxification pathways so they can't effectively empty their bucket outta their body. And what happens when a bad diet, heavy metals, environmental toxins, EMFs, all of this stuff, medicine, just bad food.
It fills up this bucket and then all of a sudden the bucket gets so full that it tips over inside our body and all of that stuff is in our body and that's when symptoms come out. Okay. So underlying stresses, it's not just gonna be one thing and it can be multiple things.
And so, what I said was there's obviously a bad diet that could be contributing to it, nutritional deficiencies contributing to it, food intolerances. It could be from pharmaceutical medications, it could be from inflammation, it could be from environmental toxins and heavy metals, dysfunctions in the body systems. It could even be cultural or lifestyle factors. Leaky gut, I could go on and on and on.
But really at the end of the day, the goal is to keep the bucket low, the load on the bucket low and live a low inflammatory life. And we do that in multiple different ways. Yeah. Does that explain it okay?
17:45 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah, it does. Well so I think actually what's really important to know, so sometimes when you listen to that and you go, oh my goodness, they're all of these things. The good thing is that I know that when you go through the book, you talk about them in a step by step process. Yes. And you even talk about once you've done all these steps and you're still finding that not everything is righting the ship the way you want cuz a lot of times our kids have what we is unfortunately called comorbidities, which is they've got a lot of other issues going and they may have more than one diagnosis, which means that it maybe more than just the typical ADHD triggers that are there and what's the next step.
So yeah, I think that's it is a great way to describe because it can be many different things for each child and each child is different and unique depending on their environment and all the things you talked about. But it is also good to understand that you really have simplified it in terms of your step by step process. And as you said, you talk about food a lot and you also talk about where to start.
So let's talk about that. So you've got all these underlying stressors, where do you start?
19:01 Dana Kay:
Yeah, look, I will always say that diet is the foundation of everything. And just like when you're building a house, the house is not gonna be very solid if it doesn't have a strong foundation. So I will always say you wanna start with diet, but I will say at the same time, Rome was not built in a day. Okay, You don't need to make all of these changes. I know it might seem overwhelming to the listeners, you don't need to make them all at once. You can take one little step at a time and that's definitely what my book guides you through.
But for me, I think the biggest thing that families could do when you're experiencing a lot of these symptoms is remove the top three inflammatory foods and they are gluten, dairy, and soy. Because these three foods are the top culprits that are driving the inflammation in the body. All these symptoms that are coming out are basically inflammation in the body. And these foods are highly inflammatory and can lead to all of these symptoms.
They can lead to an immune response, they can lead to leaky gut, which I can talk about in a bit, I'm sure you've probably talked about many times on this podcast. But I also recommend families with children with adhd avoid artificial flavors and colors and excess sugar and focus on natural sugars instead. And so, but then it's not just about what to take out, it's also what to put back in. Now I don't know if you want me to go into why those foods are so bad, but they really affect the body. They create leaky gut and as I said, gluten is harmful for everyone. It triggers increased intestinal permeability in everyone, which means that leaky gut, which means the breakdown of the intestinal walls.
And when functioning properly, the walls of the intestine form this barrier and allow water and nutrients to pass through, but blocking other things from entering the bloodstream. So when a person has this increased intestinal permeability, it can lead to leaky gut, which basically means the tight junctions in the gut that are supposed to control what passes through the lining of the intestines aren't doing their job very effectively and they allow toxins, all these other stuff that I was talking about can go in your bucket.
It allows toxins and other harmful substances to enter the bloodstream that really aren't meant to be there. And when these toxic substances enter the bloodstream, the body fights them off and tries to get rid of them. It turns on this inflammatory response. And so, the body's trying to rectify this issue. So gluten leads to increased intestinal permeability, which leads to leaky gut, which leads to inflammation, which leads to ADHD symptoms. So that's why gluten in particular, I could go on and on about dairy and soy and all this other stuff, but I won't today. But gluten in particular is a huge change for kids. But as I said, you don't have to take everything out on day one.
22:05 Dana Kay:
Maybe start with breakfast, let's make breakfast better, let's make it gluten, dairy, soy free, let's make more whole and start feeding the body and getting it off on the right foot when it starts it's day. Then when you're comfortable with that, maybe do one dinner a night, one dinner a week, I mean.
Change one dinner a week, you'd be surprised, most of the common dinners out there can actually be made gluten and dairy free. So it's actually not that hard, but just give yourself permission to go slow. If it's one package at a time that you're replacing, that's okay. If it's one change every two weeks, that is okay. Listeners really need to give themself permission to go at a pace that's doable for them. But it's really not just about what to take out, it's also about what to put back into the diet because if you're gonna replace packaged foods with gluten-free and dairy-free packaged foods, you're definitely not gonna get to where you need to go.
So my best tip is to really focused on whole, nutritious, fresh fruits and veggies, grass fed animal protein such as meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, and also plenty of healthy fats such as avocado and coconut oil and olive oil, but also drinking plenty of spring water. Water is awesome. It avoids, obviously spring water avoids harmful chemicals that are in some waters but also helps detox the body and remove toxins that are already in there. And so those foods can definitely provide the body with the nutrients it needs so that it can function at its best.
23:42 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah, I mean I think it, there's lots, obviously lots in what you just said to take away from there, but I think that what is great again about your book is that you do take people through that step by step process address things like picky eating because that is a big challenge with all of our kids.
Yes. Especially since a number of foods that you're talking about removing have an addictive quality to them so they become very attached to them and really find relief and joy in them the moment of eating them. So they are really not interested in letting go of those things. So it's great that that's a whole different conversation. Picky eating is a huge thing to tackle for most people.
When you do go through that process, so once people do the things that you're talking about in the book and take these steps with their child, give me an example of some of the results that you've seen. You've worked with a thousand families, we've talked about your family and your results. Is there a particular story of a family that really sticks out in your mind that you could share with everybody to tell them what can happen?
24:44 Dana Kay:
I have got so many stories and I am just amazed every single time. I actually like get, honestly get tears in my eyes almost on a daily basis because just to watch a family going from utter pain to just relief is just amazing to watch. And when families remove those inflammatory foods from their child's diet and replace them with all the goodness, sometimes within a couple of weeks their child's a different kid. The tantrums start to weaken and be fewer and farther between.
Their palettes start to open up so that picky eating starts to get easier when they're trying all these new foods, they're able to sit still at school, they can focus better, manage their emotions. One mum even told me that her son's handwriting even improved literally within 12 weeks. And it's just so amazing just how much the body and reducing inflammation and gut health can affect so many areas of our life. One mum in particular had the most amazing story.
Her children, she had three children, two had ADHD and one had autism and the two that had ADHD had been suspended 37 times in the previous year. And after going through my program and removing those inflammatory foods from their diet and adding in some base supplements, the next year they had zero suspensions and were actually being awarded for their good behavior. I mean that is huge. So that was probably one of the big ones, but I've got so many I could tell and I'm sure listeners don't wanna be here all day.
26:20 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah, no, I know you have have lots of people that have sent the praises of using your method, but that is an incredible story because it shows you how comprehensive the behavior change can be and the impact on that child's life and their family's life and the students around them and the teachers and everything else so it is really exciting to hear results like that for sure. And it does give everybody hope. If there was one thing that, when you first started your journey, I think I probably know some of this answer, but started your journey that you wish you had known or done or considered, what would be that thing that you would say to people if they're just starting out or if they're stuck? They've tried things and they're stuck and they have to restart or revisit what they're doing with their child.
27:13 Dana Kay:
So there's probably two things there. The one thing that I wish that I would've known back in the day was that Rome wasn't built in a day. And there are many challenges that you can come up with, but for me, I tried to change everything on day one. I took out gluten, dairy, soy and 40 food sensitivities on day one. That was not the approach that I teach in my program. Transforming a family's diet won't be complete in a day. I had multiple panic attacks and just like it was wrong.
It's not a race, it's a marathon, it's okay to take it slowly and it's okay to take it one step at a time and so you need to give yourself permission to take things slow. It is not a diet, it's not a phase, it's a permanent lifestyle change and when it becomes part of your life, it becomes second nature. We don't even think about it anymore.
We go out and eat out. We don't even think about it because we know that we're always able to get food that we're gonna be able to eat and changes don't seem as hard or overwhelming anymore. If someone's stuck, they can be stuck at so many different stages in their journey.
So it really does depend on what part of their journey that they're at. But I would say take a step back and reset. Go back to the beginning and reset where you're at and really take note and audit what you've been doing. Okay. How long you've tried it. I've got lots of families that come to me even being three years gluten and dairy free.
And I actually do a test, we do functional lab testing as well, which we haven't really talked about today, but we did this test called the wheat zoomer and it looks at over like about 30 to 40 different peptides inside gluten and wheat. This kid was red everywhere, meaning they weren't doing a gluten-free diet very effectively.
And so, what we did was we actually just took it back to day one and we said let's start again. Let's go through everything that they're eating and check to see where they're getting it cuz they're obviously getting it. They had something, this kid had an IGA reaction to many different parts of gluten and wheat, meaning that they ate that food within six to eight days of taking the test.
So it's not like they were still reacting from years ago. It was like that kid is getting gluten on a daily basis. So, just stop and go back to the basics because sometimes you just need a reset. We need a reset as well. I've done it many times. We, mid pandemic, we sold our house because we were like all of a sudden, with the two kids at home, the husband at home, me at home, we're like, we need a bigger house. So we sold our house and we moved out a little bit further, but it took us three months to find a house and we actually had to stay in a hotel for three months.
And so our diet, it went a little bit off and my kids were suffering from it. And so, when we did eventually get our house, we did a full reset and went back to basics. But also find someone that can help you through that roadblock because there is, I wish that I had found a practitioner back then that could have helped me the way that I help families.
There was no roadmap for me. What I teach in my program is that roadmap, that blueprint, that three step blueprint to reduce symptoms, restore all of the nutrients and really renew the body and the mind and the family and I didn't have that blueprint back in the day. And so it's finding someone that is particular for what your child's suffering with, whether it's ADHD or autism or sensory processing or things like that. So finding someone that can actually help you break through those obstacles and those barriers.
31:11 Tara Hunkin:
I think all of those things are actually excellent advice. I kind of chuckle because I think it might, maybe it's the finance mind where you gotta do everything at once because I did the same thing. Yeah. I always talk about the fact that cuz we had done the GAPS diet and that's an extreme decision because it's a very, very different way of living from the way we were living at the time. Everybody's got a different personality and I think that stepping in is probably the best for most people and especially for most children.
31:42 Dana Kay:
Yeah, yeah. Cause it's not just about the parents, it's about the children. Yeah. You've gotta take them on the journey as well. Yeah. And if you just throw them into it on day one, they are gonna revolt.
31:52 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah. Yeah. And it depends on the ages and it depends on all the different circumstances that you're dealing with.
So I think that having that personalized and also more measured approach is a really great idea. You brought up testing and I think that that's really great that we got to cover that. I know you covered that in the book too, is that when is functional testing appropriate because it is an additional cost and when you're stuck is a perfect time.
If you haven't done some already it is a great time to do that because it really can be insightful for that as well. So, and to know that we all sometimes need a reset and then going back to the basics, I talk about the exact same thing too, which is so I love that about that which is is going, I call going back to your base camp, but those are the basic things, sometimes we need a breather. Yeah. You just need to take a little bit of a break.
I am so glad we've had an opportunity to have this conversation here today. I wanna encourage everyone there's links in the show notes so that you can find all the resources that are available over at the ADHD Thrive Institute.
Correct that I said that's that correctly I'm hoping. And we also have a link to the book, Thriving with ADHD, A Guide to Naturally Reducing ADHD symptoms in Your Child. You can find it at all the typical areas, but on Amazon obviously is probably the easiest for most people. And there's a link in the show notes or you can just go over to Amazon and find it there.
Thank you again so much for taking the time to join us today. Oh, actually you also have a podcast. Do you wanna just mention the name of the podcast as well so that people can go and find your podcast as well?
33:34 Dana Kay:
Yeah, it's called The Soaring Child because every child should be able to soar just like any other child. And so yeah, no, we launched that about six months ago now and it's going great and I'm sure interviewing experts that can help kids with ADHD thrive naturally. Tara was my second guest there, so you should definitely go look up that.
33:59 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah. So we'll make sure we have a link to that as well in the show notes. Again, thanks for being here with me today and I hope we get to do this again in the future as things progress.
34:11 Dana Kay:
Thanks so much Tara. It was lots of fun.
34:13 Tara Hunkin:
So that's a wrap. Thanks for joining me this week on My Child Will Thrive. I'm so passionate about giving you the tools and information you need to help your child recover and as they say, it takes a village. So join us in the My Child Will Thrive Village Facebook group where you can meet like-minded parents. And stay up to date on everything we have going on at My Child Will Thrive. This is Tara Hunkin and I'll catch you on the next podcast or over at mychildwillthrive.com.
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0:00 Tara Hunkin:
This is My Child Will Thrive and I'm your host, Tara Hunkin, nutritional therapy practitioner, certified GAPS practitioner, restorative wellness practitioner and mother. I'm thrilled to share with you the latest information, tips, resources, and tools to help you on the path to recovery for your child with ADHD, autism, sensory processing disorder, or learning disabilities. My own experiences with my daughter combined with as much training as I can get my hands on, research I can dig into and conferences I can attend, have helped me to develop systems and tools for parents like you who feel overwhelmed trying to help their children. So sit back as I share another great topic to help you on your journey.
A quick disclaimer before we get started. My Child Will Thrive is not a substitute for working with a qualified healthcare practitioner. The information provided on this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat your child. Please consult your healthcare practitioner before implementing any information or treatments that you have learned about on this podcast. There are many gifted, passionate, and knowledgeable practitioners with hundreds, if not thousands of hours of study and clinical experience available to help guide you. Part of our goal is to give you the knowledge and tools you'll need to effectively advocate for your child so that you don't blindly implement each new treatment that comes along. No one knows your child better than you. No one knows your child's history like you do or can better judge what is normal or abnormal for your child. The greatest success in recovery comes from the parent being informed and asking the right questions in making the best decisions for their child in coordination with a team of qualified practitioners in different areas of specialty.
Today's podcast is sponsored by the Autism, ADHD, and Sensory Processing Disorder Summit. In order to learn more about the summit and to sign up for free, please go to mychildwillthrive.com/summit.
2:03 Tara Hunkin:
Hi everyone. I wanna welcome you back to the My Child Will Thrive podcast. I am very grateful to have with me today author. And I'm gonna say author first today. She has written, Thriving with ADHD, A Guide to Naturally Raising, sorry, Naturally Raising too, and Reducing ADHD symptoms in your child. And Dana Kay, I am so thrilled that you've written this book and that you've joined us here today. I'm just gonna tell you a little bit more about you.
She is also a board certified holistic health and nutrition practitioner. She's the CEO and founder of the ADHD Thrive Institute and the creator of ADHD Thrive Method for Kids Program. And as a mother of a child with ADHD, she knows firsthand the struggles that come with parenting a neurodiverse child, but she also knows the freedom that is possible once parents learn to reduce ADHD symptoms.
Dana has been featured in Forbes, Authority Magazine, Medium, Influence, Thrive Global and various others. She's also been a guest on multiple parenting podcasts and ADHD summits. And her mission is to help families reduce ADHD symptoms naturally so that children with ADHD can thrive at home, at school and in life. So she is a kindred spirit and I am really,
really grateful to have you here with me today.
3:43 Dana Kay:
Thank you so much, Tara, for having me. I'm really excited to be here.
3:48 Tara Hunkin:
I think the best place to start is to talk about your journey with your child because I think that those that are listening are really gonna relate to your story.
4:00 Dana Kay:
Yeah. And can I just say, I love the way that you say about, I love that little twang accent in there. It's amazing. So completely off track there.
4:12 Tara Hunkin:
Canadian, eh?
4:13 Dana Kay:
Yeah. So look, I have been through a long journey and believe it or not, I was actually completely removed from the health and wellness space. I was actually an accountant. Oh, you too.
4:28 Tara Hunkin:
I too, once upon a time was in finance and an accountant. There you go. There you go.
4:34 Dana Kay:
And look, probably the same as me. You probably actually planned to continue in that field like I did. And I probably would've done so if my concerns over my son's health hadn't grown as much as they did.
I always used to dream when I grew up that I was gonna be a business woman with an office and I got that dream. But then my son was born and that dream totally changed. He was a gorgeous boy, but I always sort of felt that there was something a little bit different. He was the one in the playground at the age of two that would be just burning through the grass,
banging into kids. He was the one with the most epic meltdowns and that just ruled our lives. He seemed to have so much energy more than any other kid his age. Yes, he was two, yes, he was a boy. But there was always just that something going on in my gut telling me that there was something different.
I would ask his teachers, what do you think? Oh, he's just a typical boy. Don't worry about it. I'd ask the pediatrician, Oh, he's too young to even think about that, he's just a boy. But eventually the tantrums and meltdowns became more severe. He would get more hyperactive and that's when the teacher started noticing the difference too.
And he was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of four. And we were immediately handed a prescription medication for Dex Methylate, which is a stimulant medication. And honestly, between you and me, I remember feeling relieved. Oh my gosh, I wasn't a bad mom. It wasn't my parenting. And I was actually excited to go to the drugstore to fill that prescription because that was going to be the pill that was gonna fix my family.
I never had thoughts that family life and parenting would be this way and I would dread getting out of bed every morning. What mood was he gonna be in? I would not want to go out during the day in case he'd have a massive meltdown. We couldn't plan holidays because I was worried about what the change in routine would do to him.
Our life revolved around him and I was depressed, I was angry and it had to change. So when I got that prescription and I filled that prescription, I was so excited and relieved. I gave him the medication and at first everything was okay. But then things started to turn south, his dosage increased and he started to get all of these side effects.
He was a shell of himself. He had no personality. It disappeared. He lost weight, he couldn't sleep, he didn't wanna eat. And the doctor prescribed another prescription medication to counteract the side effects that were occurring from the first. And then this continued until my son, who was now five, was on three very strong medications. And the doctor handed us a prescription for the fourth. And that's when I took that prescription, I thought, this is not okay. This is not okay. He's five and he wants my son on four strong medications and that's when my career path completely changed. And I began learning that ADHD symptoms can be reduced naturally.
And I began learning about how food can affect so many aspects of our lives and once I learned about this, I couldn't keep this information to myself. And we went on this journey. I changed his diet. I started to look at what was going on inside of his body that was creating these symptoms. My son's now in middle school, he's just about to turn 13. He's thriving. He hasn't been on meds for years. I never once get a call from the school. He's got straight A's and I think the most important thing, it's not about the academics for me, I didn't really care about that. It's more the fact that he's happy and my family is happy.
I don't dread waking up in the morning anymore. I mean, I used to say to my husband, I don't like my son. What mom says that? The guilt that I feel with that. But now I can actually say I love him. I like, I always loved him. I just didn't like him. But now I like him.
He's actually really cool. And my favorite part of the day is driving him to football practice every single day of the week cuz that's how often they train because I get to have a conversation with him and he's awesome. So, I didn't want anyone else to have to go through those struggles that my family went through. I've now been lucky enough to help close to a thousand other families get to the same place as me, but just so much quicker because I did go back to school. I did my holistic health degree, multiple specific certifications in this particular area so I could help other families cuz it just doesn't need to be that hard.
9:42 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah. It's so great that you have taken the time to then share this with so many, so a thousand families, like that is a massive, massive impact. Yeah. Because it is not just those families, it's like you said, it's like everybody within those families and adjacent to those families in terms of how we interact. And so that is such a huge accomplishment and I'm so glad that you chose to do what you're doing and share beyond just your own family because it is so important.
Which is why you and I are both here, because it is frustrating to realize that still, I mean, my daughter is now 18 and graduated from high school, but we started our journey obviously back when she was quite young. So when the internet was more in its infancy in terms of these things. And even the holistic health industry was certainly not at the forefront, which is in the way I believe it is now, but there's still so many families that don't have this information.
So thank you for doing that and for writing this book, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to, many reasons I wanted to speak with you today, but because you have now, and I had mentioned to you before we started recording, and I say this all the time when we speak authors, if you're watching this on the website or YouTube or something, you'll see, I'm just holding up her book right now.
And the reason why I wanted to talk to you is that because you have created this book, and I was saying to you that one of the very first things I did when I started the My Child Will Thrive website was write an article on why I believe that books over blogs are the way to go.
Which is, there's irony obviously in that because I was writing a blog post. But it's because the path to having completeness and answers, the internet is fabulous to help you start to get ideas and start to pull things together and to get that last minute current information. But there are great books like yours out there that give people a complete picture of what's going on.
And in your case too, and actions oriented step by step process. Yeah. Which is so incredibly helpful. So someone can pick up your book and read all about it, but also take action on it at the same time so they can get the results that you did with your child as well.
So why don't you tell me, I mean, this is why I'm glad you have this book and you created the book, but what was your motivation to take the time and energy to put into a book?
12:15 Dana Kay:
Yeah, no, that's a really good question. And it's a couple of reasons and one of them was years ago, I wanted a book on ADHD that would clearly spell out exactly what I needed to do to support my son with ADHD naturally,
but I could never find it. And I was constantly googling for something, just anything that might actually help us get some relief from my son's challenging behaviors. And when I was looking for that book years ago, I struck out like over and over again, there was no book out there that gave me the information I needed in a way that I could actually understand it and implement it effectively.
And there's this novelist, Tony Morrison, he had this quote that said, If you find a book you really wanna read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. So that's what I did. And I still can hardly believe that I am saying that it's an international bestseller in multiple categories, including children's health.
I've been an author in a chapter in another book, but this is my first book and the feedback that I've had has been amazing. It's my life's work. It's the guide that I needed when I started this journey with my son, but couldn't find. And it is really different from other books out there because I am not only a practitioner, but I'm also a mom who gets it. And so that's why I did it, but also I know that I'm not gonna be able to help as many families as needs help out there.
And so with this book, it allows to touch so many more lives and even if I just touch one life, that life is gonna touch another life and it's gonna be this domino effect out there in the world. So that's the reason that I wrote it and I'm so glad that it's out there and getting the feedback that I'm getting.
14:08 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah, like I said, I'm very grateful that you've done that. Let's talk, there's so much information in here, but one of the things that I wanted to highlight today is talking about those underlying stressors in ADHD. So you go into that and many other things in here, but what do you think are the guiding or the main underlying stressors that can be addressed naturally in ADHD?
14:36 Dana Kay:
Yeah, look, and there can be multiple underlying stresses. And I actually like to talk about underlying stresses kind of like as a bucket because when I say a big part is obviously diet, I talk very much about a low inflammatory diet and I actually held a live masterclass last night, probably not last night when this goes live. But one of the questions I got asked is, well, why would some people be sensitive to gluten and dairy, but not others? And I like to look at it as a bucket.
So we're all born with this metaphorical bucket and the goal is for us to keep the load on that bucket low. Okay? We wanna keep low toxins in our life. We wanna keep everything low, inflammation in our body low. But when we are born, some kids actually already have stuff in their bucket,
bad stuff in their bucket. Like my son for example, he was born, he was induced early at 38 weeks cuz they were worried about the growth of him. And so immediately put on medication, he went into the NICU, he was on a Cpap machine, he wasn't breastfed straight away. And so his bucket already started to have this stuff in it, this bad stuff in it. And then over time, his bucket started to fill up even more. Now we all have genes and some of those genes are compromised. Some of us are able to empty our bucket out of our body on regular occurrences, which is what we wanna do. We wanna keep it low.
So meaning some people have optimized detoxification pathways, but others, their genetics actually stop them from having optimized detoxification pathways and they have compromised detoxification pathways so they can't effectively empty their bucket outta their body. And what happens when a bad diet, heavy metals, environmental toxins, EMFs, all of this stuff, medicine, just bad food.
It fills up this bucket and then all of a sudden the bucket gets so full that it tips over inside our body and all of that stuff is in our body and that's when symptoms come out. Okay. So underlying stresses, it's not just gonna be one thing and it can be multiple things.
And so, what I said was there's obviously a bad diet that could be contributing to it, nutritional deficiencies contributing to it, food intolerances. It could be from pharmaceutical medications, it could be from inflammation, it could be from environmental toxins and heavy metals, dysfunctions in the body systems. It could even be cultural or lifestyle factors. Leaky gut, I could go on and on and on.
But really at the end of the day, the goal is to keep the bucket low, the load on the bucket low and live a low inflammatory life. And we do that in multiple different ways. Yeah. Does that explain it okay?
17:45 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah, it does. Well so I think actually what's really important to know, so sometimes when you listen to that and you go, oh my goodness, they're all of these things. The good thing is that I know that when you go through the book, you talk about them in a step by step process. Yes. And you even talk about once you've done all these steps and you're still finding that not everything is righting the ship the way you want cuz a lot of times our kids have what we is unfortunately called comorbidities, which is they've got a lot of other issues going and they may have more than one diagnosis, which means that it maybe more than just the typical ADHD triggers that are there and what's the next step.
So yeah, I think that's it is a great way to describe because it can be many different things for each child and each child is different and unique depending on their environment and all the things you talked about. But it is also good to understand that you really have simplified it in terms of your step by step process. And as you said, you talk about food a lot and you also talk about where to start.
So let's talk about that. So you've got all these underlying stressors, where do you start?
19:01 Dana Kay:
Yeah, look, I will always say that diet is the foundation of everything. And just like when you're building a house, the house is not gonna be very solid if it doesn't have a strong foundation. So I will always say you wanna start with diet, but I will say at the same time, Rome was not built in a day. Okay, You don't need to make all of these changes. I know it might seem overwhelming to the listeners, you don't need to make them all at once. You can take one little step at a time and that's definitely what my book guides you through.
But for me, I think the biggest thing that families could do when you're experiencing a lot of these symptoms is remove the top three inflammatory foods and they are gluten, dairy, and soy. Because these three foods are the top culprits that are driving the inflammation in the body. All these symptoms that are coming out are basically inflammation in the body. And these foods are highly inflammatory and can lead to all of these symptoms.
They can lead to an immune response, they can lead to leaky gut, which I can talk about in a bit, I'm sure you've probably talked about many times on this podcast. But I also recommend families with children with adhd avoid artificial flavors and colors and excess sugar and focus on natural sugars instead. And so, but then it's not just about what to take out, it's also what to put back in. Now I don't know if you want me to go into why those foods are so bad, but they really affect the body. They create leaky gut and as I said, gluten is harmful for everyone. It triggers increased intestinal permeability in everyone, which means that leaky gut, which means the breakdown of the intestinal walls.
And when functioning properly, the walls of the intestine form this barrier and allow water and nutrients to pass through, but blocking other things from entering the bloodstream. So when a person has this increased intestinal permeability, it can lead to leaky gut, which basically means the tight junctions in the gut that are supposed to control what passes through the lining of the intestines aren't doing their job very effectively and they allow toxins, all these other stuff that I was talking about can go in your bucket.
It allows toxins and other harmful substances to enter the bloodstream that really aren't meant to be there. And when these toxic substances enter the bloodstream, the body fights them off and tries to get rid of them. It turns on this inflammatory response. And so, the body's trying to rectify this issue. So gluten leads to increased intestinal permeability, which leads to leaky gut, which leads to inflammation, which leads to ADHD symptoms. So that's why gluten in particular, I could go on and on about dairy and soy and all this other stuff, but I won't today. But gluten in particular is a huge change for kids. But as I said, you don't have to take everything out on day one.
22:05 Dana Kay:
Maybe start with breakfast, let's make breakfast better, let's make it gluten, dairy, soy free, let's make more whole and start feeding the body and getting it off on the right foot when it starts it's day. Then when you're comfortable with that, maybe do one dinner a night, one dinner a week, I mean.
Change one dinner a week, you'd be surprised, most of the common dinners out there can actually be made gluten and dairy free. So it's actually not that hard, but just give yourself permission to go slow. If it's one package at a time that you're replacing, that's okay. If it's one change every two weeks, that is okay. Listeners really need to give themself permission to go at a pace that's doable for them. But it's really not just about what to take out, it's also about what to put back into the diet because if you're gonna replace packaged foods with gluten-free and dairy-free packaged foods, you're definitely not gonna get to where you need to go.
So my best tip is to really focused on whole, nutritious, fresh fruits and veggies, grass fed animal protein such as meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, and also plenty of healthy fats such as avocado and coconut oil and olive oil, but also drinking plenty of spring water. Water is awesome. It avoids, obviously spring water avoids harmful chemicals that are in some waters but also helps detox the body and remove toxins that are already in there. And so those foods can definitely provide the body with the nutrients it needs so that it can function at its best.
23:42 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah, I mean I think it, there's lots, obviously lots in what you just said to take away from there, but I think that what is great again about your book is that you do take people through that step by step process address things like picky eating because that is a big challenge with all of our kids.
Yes. Especially since a number of foods that you're talking about removing have an addictive quality to them so they become very attached to them and really find relief and joy in them the moment of eating them. So they are really not interested in letting go of those things. So it's great that that's a whole different conversation. Picky eating is a huge thing to tackle for most people.
When you do go through that process, so once people do the things that you're talking about in the book and take these steps with their child, give me an example of some of the results that you've seen. You've worked with a thousand families, we've talked about your family and your results. Is there a particular story of a family that really sticks out in your mind that you could share with everybody to tell them what can happen?
24:44 Dana Kay:
I have got so many stories and I am just amazed every single time. I actually like get, honestly get tears in my eyes almost on a daily basis because just to watch a family going from utter pain to just relief is just amazing to watch. And when families remove those inflammatory foods from their child's diet and replace them with all the goodness, sometimes within a couple of weeks their child's a different kid. The tantrums start to weaken and be fewer and farther between.
Their palettes start to open up so that picky eating starts to get easier when they're trying all these new foods, they're able to sit still at school, they can focus better, manage their emotions. One mum even told me that her son's handwriting even improved literally within 12 weeks. And it's just so amazing just how much the body and reducing inflammation and gut health can affect so many areas of our life. One mum in particular had the most amazing story.
Her children, she had three children, two had ADHD and one had autism and the two that had ADHD had been suspended 37 times in the previous year. And after going through my program and removing those inflammatory foods from their diet and adding in some base supplements, the next year they had zero suspensions and were actually being awarded for their good behavior. I mean that is huge. So that was probably one of the big ones, but I've got so many I could tell and I'm sure listeners don't wanna be here all day.
26:20 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah, no, I know you have have lots of people that have sent the praises of using your method, but that is an incredible story because it shows you how comprehensive the behavior change can be and the impact on that child's life and their family's life and the students around them and the teachers and everything else so it is really exciting to hear results like that for sure. And it does give everybody hope. If there was one thing that, when you first started your journey, I think I probably know some of this answer, but started your journey that you wish you had known or done or considered, what would be that thing that you would say to people if they're just starting out or if they're stuck? They've tried things and they're stuck and they have to restart or revisit what they're doing with their child.
27:13 Dana Kay:
So there's probably two things there. The one thing that I wish that I would've known back in the day was that Rome wasn't built in a day. And there are many challenges that you can come up with, but for me, I tried to change everything on day one. I took out gluten, dairy, soy and 40 food sensitivities on day one. That was not the approach that I teach in my program. Transforming a family's diet won't be complete in a day. I had multiple panic attacks and just like it was wrong.
It's not a race, it's a marathon, it's okay to take it slowly and it's okay to take it one step at a time and so you need to give yourself permission to take things slow. It is not a diet, it's not a phase, it's a permanent lifestyle change and when it becomes part of your life, it becomes second nature. We don't even think about it anymore.
We go out and eat out. We don't even think about it because we know that we're always able to get food that we're gonna be able to eat and changes don't seem as hard or overwhelming anymore. If someone's stuck, they can be stuck at so many different stages in their journey.
So it really does depend on what part of their journey that they're at. But I would say take a step back and reset. Go back to the beginning and reset where you're at and really take note and audit what you've been doing. Okay. How long you've tried it. I've got lots of families that come to me even being three years gluten and dairy free.
And I actually do a test, we do functional lab testing as well, which we haven't really talked about today, but we did this test called the wheat zoomer and it looks at over like about 30 to 40 different peptides inside gluten and wheat. This kid was red everywhere, meaning they weren't doing a gluten-free diet very effectively.
And so, what we did was we actually just took it back to day one and we said let's start again. Let's go through everything that they're eating and check to see where they're getting it cuz they're obviously getting it. They had something, this kid had an IGA reaction to many different parts of gluten and wheat, meaning that they ate that food within six to eight days of taking the test.
So it's not like they were still reacting from years ago. It was like that kid is getting gluten on a daily basis. So, just stop and go back to the basics because sometimes you just need a reset. We need a reset as well. I've done it many times. We, mid pandemic, we sold our house because we were like all of a sudden, with the two kids at home, the husband at home, me at home, we're like, we need a bigger house. So we sold our house and we moved out a little bit further, but it took us three months to find a house and we actually had to stay in a hotel for three months.
And so our diet, it went a little bit off and my kids were suffering from it. And so, when we did eventually get our house, we did a full reset and went back to basics. But also find someone that can help you through that roadblock because there is, I wish that I had found a practitioner back then that could have helped me the way that I help families.
There was no roadmap for me. What I teach in my program is that roadmap, that blueprint, that three step blueprint to reduce symptoms, restore all of the nutrients and really renew the body and the mind and the family and I didn't have that blueprint back in the day. And so it's finding someone that is particular for what your child's suffering with, whether it's ADHD or autism or sensory processing or things like that. So finding someone that can actually help you break through those obstacles and those barriers.
31:11 Tara Hunkin:
I think all of those things are actually excellent advice. I kind of chuckle because I think it might, maybe it's the finance mind where you gotta do everything at once because I did the same thing. Yeah. I always talk about the fact that cuz we had done the GAPS diet and that's an extreme decision because it's a very, very different way of living from the way we were living at the time. Everybody's got a different personality and I think that stepping in is probably the best for most people and especially for most children.
31:42 Dana Kay:
Yeah, yeah. Cause it's not just about the parents, it's about the children. Yeah. You've gotta take them on the journey as well. Yeah. And if you just throw them into it on day one, they are gonna revolt.
31:52 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah. Yeah. And it depends on the ages and it depends on all the different circumstances that you're dealing with.
So I think that having that personalized and also more measured approach is a really great idea. You brought up testing and I think that that's really great that we got to cover that. I know you covered that in the book too, is that when is functional testing appropriate because it is an additional cost and when you're stuck is a perfect time.
If you haven't done some already it is a great time to do that because it really can be insightful for that as well. So, and to know that we all sometimes need a reset and then going back to the basics, I talk about the exact same thing too, which is so I love that about that which is is going, I call going back to your base camp, but those are the basic things, sometimes we need a breather. Yeah. You just need to take a little bit of a break.
I am so glad we've had an opportunity to have this conversation here today. I wanna encourage everyone there's links in the show notes so that you can find all the resources that are available over at the ADHD Thrive Institute.
Correct that I said that's that correctly I'm hoping. And we also have a link to the book, Thriving with ADHD, A Guide to Naturally Reducing ADHD symptoms in Your Child. You can find it at all the typical areas, but on Amazon obviously is probably the easiest for most people. And there's a link in the show notes or you can just go over to Amazon and find it there.
Thank you again so much for taking the time to join us today. Oh, actually you also have a podcast. Do you wanna just mention the name of the podcast as well so that people can go and find your podcast as well?
33:34 Dana Kay:
Yeah, it's called The Soaring Child because every child should be able to soar just like any other child. And so yeah, no, we launched that about six months ago now and it's going great and I'm sure interviewing experts that can help kids with ADHD thrive naturally. Tara was my second guest there, so you should definitely go look up that.
33:59 Tara Hunkin:
Yeah. So we'll make sure we have a link to that as well in the show notes. Again, thanks for being here with me today and I hope we get to do this again in the future as things progress.
34:11 Dana Kay:
Thanks so much Tara. It was lots of fun.
34:13 Tara Hunkin:
So that's a wrap. Thanks for joining me this week on My Child Will Thrive. I'm so passionate about giving you the tools and information you need to help your child recover and as they say, it takes a village. So join us in the My Child Will Thrive Village Facebook group where you can meet like-minded parents. And stay up to date on everything we have going on at My Child Will Thrive. This is Tara Hunkin and I'll catch you on the next podcast or over at mychildwillthrive.com.
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