Out of control emotions, compromised immune system, digestive issues, physical discomfort, lack of sleep, food allergies. Sound familiar?
Several years ago, my husband and I adopted two children. We were newly married, ready to start our family, and a bit naive as to the adventure we were about to embark on. Our adoption story is like so many others, a beautiful story of how God puts all the pieces together in just the right timing to create a beautiful family. I had done a bit of research before we adopted internationally. I was looking for specific physical signs of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. At the time, I did not realize that a child does not have to have physical signs to have FAS. There was not a lot of information about FAS that I could find at the time.
We traveled to meet our children and of course fell in love with them. A month later we were able to bring them home. It had been an exciting time! As we grew together as a family, we soon realized that some things were not quite right. Fast forward a few years, and we learned that we were dealing with FASD and Cerebral Palsy. We encountered emotional instability, digestive issues, sleep issues, food allergies, and learning disabilities. Our home was an emotional disaster!
If you have dealt with an invisible disability such as FASD, Autism, ADHD, etc., you know the amount of stress and trauma this brings to a family. You know what it is like to try to create a peaceful home, only to have it in constant turmoil. You try to do everything you can as a parent to bring stability and harmony to your home. You research to find that little extra something that is going to be just the right thing to support your child's emotional and physical health.
How do I know? I have been right there with you, crying out to God to help our family survive the emotional trauma that invisible disabilities present.
The answer? For our family, it was God's grace and essential oils! We have been able to utilize the amazing, medicinal effects of essential oils to help support our children and ourselves, both physically and emotionally.
So, let’s talk emotions and how to best support them.
When dealing with FASD or any other invisible disability, nothing is going to be a magic solution to make it all better BUT there are natural solutions that may help manage the emotions and support the body physically. Two things that made a huge impact on the emotional health of our kiddos were changing diet and the use of essential oils.
- Diet is a crucial part of balancing emotions. Limiting the amount of processed sugar and/or removing it completely from the diet was a major player in stabilizing emotions for my children. The difference was night and day. We started eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, less processed carbs, almost no sugar, and no food dyes. I also added supplements to our diet to make sure we were getting the vitamins and nutrients we needed.
2. Essential Oils have been a game changer for the health of our family. A trait I have noticed with FASD is that the individual may have an extreme amount of anxious feelings and because of how the brain processes information for these kiddos, they don’t always know how to ease those feelings. Consequently, feelings can become quite volatile very fast. Essential oils have been key in our home for easing anxious feelings.
Are you the mom of a child with an invisible disability? Are you curious about how essential oils might help support the health of your child? Maybe even calm the strong emotions that can overtake your peaceful home?
Let’s look at how I used these oils in our home.
First, getting the nutrition needed is foundational. We changed our diet to healthier and less processed foods, more fresh fruits and vegies. However, we aren't always able to get the nutrients that our bodies need and my kiddos needed more that just the healthy diet. I used 3 different doTERRA supplements,
Microplex VMz,
xEO Mega, and
Deep Blue Polyphenol Complex. This combination was very effective, for us, in easing the volatile emotions.
There are so many combinations of essential oils and blends that can ease anxious feelings and support healthy emotions, the key is being consistent and being willing to try different combinations until you find the right combo for your child. The end result is SO worth it!