Natural Healing Explorer
Kashvi suffered from frequent bouts of cold, cough, fevers and constipation throughout her childhood. Her mother, Shalu Goel was unhappy that things were not becoming better in spite of medications. Shalu began exploring other options and learnt about whole plant based lifestyle. She dropped dairy and included more fruits and vegetables in Kashvi’s diet. Soon enough she experienced the magical healing of her child’s conditions. Read their heart touching journey below.
Kashvi Goel
7 years, Student
New Delhi
(Kashvi’s story as narrated by her mother Shalu Goel)
Childhood complaints of cough, colds, fever and constipation
Back in 2016 when my daughter was 5 years old- we were often running to doctors- mostly due to her frequent episodes of stomach infections besides usual cough and cold and sometimes even high-grade fever. Every vacation we took since she was a toddler – we came back home with a sick child. I remember discussing this with her paediatrician to whom we were taking her since she was a newborn baby. He simply brushed our concerns aside saying that all kids undergo these episodes of frequent infections and this is all quite normal. My daughter also had a tendency to be constipated but again our concerns were not even acknowledged. The doctor said that girls usually have a tendency to be constipated and again it’s all very normal. And every time I brought up the issue of her poor appetite, he would say that all mothers feel this for their child. I was told to stop worrying about these things and that she will be a lot better once she is 5 years of age as by that time immunity will be sufficiently developed. We had immense faith in the doctor so we just followed all the medications he advised from time to time.
Things got worse
However, now my daughter was 5 years of age and her frequency of falling sick was only on the rise. Her constipation was also getting worse. She started experiencing pain while passing motion and often complained of stomach ache. She was often missing her school events and we dreaded taking vacations. On a friend’s advice, I took her to a renowned paediatric gastroenterologist. The doctor advised an aggressive treatment of giving her laxatives mixed in 400-500 ml of canned juice for a period of 6 months on daily basis. With this diagnosis and the treatment, I felt I was pushed to the wall. I didn’t know much about nutrition but had always avoided packaged products such as juices, biscuits, chips and sodas. I couldn’t imagine giving her packaged sugary drinks in huge quantity for such a long period of time. I desperately looked for an alternative.
The turning point
Coincidentally Dr Nandita Shah – founder of SHARAN India was coming to Delhi to conduct a day-long workshop, aptly named “Peas vs Pills”. Even though I was in the third trimester of my second pregnancy and was experiencing usual discomforts, I didn’t let this deter me and went with a determined mind to find a way out. It was an eye-opening lecture by her. It indeed became a turning point for us. I was amazed to find out that dairy can be so harmful. She also very clearly mentioned that the lack of fibre is the reason for chronic constipation. It made complete sense to me.
Implementing changes worked like magic
Being a picky eater that she was, left us with very little room to experiment with a variety of food and she hardly ate fruits and veggies in their raw form. The first change I made to her diet was to stop offering her cup of milk in the morning & evening. Those became brilliant opportunity windows to give her fresh fruits or green smoothies instead. I was surprised she took the change very positively. Slowly we brought in more changes. White rice was replaced with brown rice. A few pieces of cucumber, carrots, lettuce, etc were an integral part of her lunch and dinner.
Within no time she started having very regular motions. Her appetite improved. She started gaining some weight. She was now open to new tastes. We brought in another change. We completely eliminated her afternoon naps and she started sleeping by 9 instead of 10:30 PM. Even though all these changes took place one step a time. But it almost looked magical when in few weeks time she started waking up early in the morning with an urge to pass the motion.
Some setbacks
However when her younger sibling arrived 2 - 3 months later, it all became a struggle once again. Even though we were following all the healthier practices, she suddenly started falling sick quite frequently. It was all very confusing. By now we were going great lengths to procure all organic stuff and she was having the best possible diet for a child but doctors visits were just too many to handle. Severe skin allergies, recurrent eye infections, persistent coughing, high-grade fevers to name a few. It was exhausting to look after her besides caring for an infant. We had really helped her form the bond with her younger sibling even before he arrived and she never once complained after the baby’s arrival for the attention she might have been missing out on. She was in complete love with the baby. What was wrong? Was the root cause of the problem only physical or was it psychological as well.
New insights through nature cure
We were once again looking for answers. We came across the work of Mr Kalyan Sarkar, founder of PSYsolution–his work includes conducting seminars both online and offline on Nature Cure besides individual consultations. As per him, it was her body throwing out all accumulated toxic waste, now that we were giving her body a chance to heal from within by giving the best possible inputs. It was incredibly hard to accept this piece of insight as the results were just opposite to what we had hoped for.
I had progressed much ahead in my journey of seeking good health for myself and family. I had understood that in the long run, good health can be achieved by taking a natural and holistic approach. But it’s not easy to see your child suffer. So we did end up consulting doctors who gave the symptomatic treatment which relieved her of those discomforts.
Having said so, with the new diet and understanding, medication was more of an aberration than a norm for us.
Conclusion
We continued the same lifestyle for Kashvi. She is now 7 years old and it’s not that she is never ever unwell. However, the episodes have reduced in frequency quite significantly and even when she does fall sick– her recovery is super quick. In fact, we recently took 3 outstation trips back to back and she was absolutely fine. This is great progress from where we started just a couple of years back.
I feel fortunate to have come across and walked this journey. It’s a very fundamental shift to how one starts living and what one starts aspiring for. I now believe, food and nutrition, though very big, but still is a part of the whole picture. Living in urban spaces with not much access to sunshine and even clean air one has to make greater effort to bring the balance. We as a family are now in the process of simplifying our lives even further- how our older generations used to live - which respected the nature’s rhythm and harmony. We are not there yet but we are making progress slowly and steadily.
Thank you!
(About Shalu Goel: The above story is about Kashvi Goel, as narrated by her mother, Shalu. A resident of New Delhi and a proud mother of two beautiful kids, Shalu is a homemaker. She loves to read books and be out in nature when time permits).
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