Kate Willis knows what it’s like to live with a chronic health condition.
The Rockhampton naturopath, who specialises in paediatric nutrition and feeding therapy, lives with the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis.
It has led her to a career in helping others facing health issues.
“Growing up I had a genetic disorder called cystic fibrosis that led me to have a double lung transplant,” she said.
“Although that wasn’t a cure, I always looked at supplements and nutrition as food therapy and keeping us healthy.”
“I’ve had really good results over the last 14 years.”
“My own health has led me to naturopathy, and then to nutrition, dietetics and feeding therapy with kids.”
She says knowing what it’s like to be chronically ill is why she knows it’s possible to improve health outcomes by combining treatment with natural remedies.
She says she’s seen an increase in paediatric cases through her clinic Wilder Kids.
Kate says symptoms vary but many are suffering from gut related issues.
“I see a lot of kids that say they have pains in their stomach all the time and it may not be food,” she says.
She says anxiety is often to blame.
“They get bloated, they get diarrhoea, constipation. Constipation is a big one,” she said.
Kate says many parents are surprised their children are facing gut related problems.
“It used to just be adults who were sick and now its kids as well as adults,” she said.
“It’s all these chronic issues and I think the main problem is from our processed foods.”
She says her approach is always to look at food first, unless they have an autoimmune condition.
Then if there’s still no improvement, supplementation and functional testing is done to get to the root cause.
Kate says no one was specialising in children in the area, which is why she wanted to do more.
“I did adults for so long and then I just started doing kids but I felt they were easier to treat and they got better really quickly,” she said.
“Kids are coming mainly for gut issues, autism and ADHD.”
“When they come in, we always do functional testing to see what the underlying issues are and then treat whatever comes up in testing,” Kate says.
“I see them probably for three months and then they’re on their way, back to where they were.”
She says the most common deficiencies seen in children are Vitamin D, iron and zinc.
“Then it’s gut issues,” she said.
“They don’t have a lot of deficiencies, just gut issues from processed foods, life stress, gluten and dairy.”
Kate says just 10 years ago, families rarely sort health assistance outside the medical system but that’s drastically changing now.
“Over the years, people have had to really come around because they’re going to GP’s or doctors and there’s nothing they can do apart from put them on an antidepressant,” she said.
“Now they’re going down the food path, supplements or therapy path and seeing great results.”
In case you missed it, you can read last month’s article on Naomi Buckley who shared her experience of Stillbirth.
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