As a pediatrician, my job is to medically treat infants, children, adolescents, and young adults; provide patients, parents, and other caregivers with sound advice and reassurance; and ensure evidence-based preventive measures are offered to families to support their children’s lifelong health. It is a calling, not just a job, a very special craft that hinges on relationships with patients and caregivers.

I am touched every day by the way caregivers trust me to care for their children and feel that they can share their most intimate details with me, even when they have never met me before. I am honored to do the best I can to support them and provide excellent care.

As you might imagine, after being a pediatrician for more than 20 years, my practice has changed over time. Not only has the variety of medical conditions I see changed— today, I see more behavioral health concerns and early-onset chronic conditions such as hypertension, obesity, and prediabetes—but the way I approach families has changed, too.

For much of the first half of my career, my practice was focused on fixing problems: providing solutions to immediate concerns or symptoms, offering advice for issues that families may not have been particularly concerned about, and performing assessments for common medical conditions as I had been taught in training: ADHD, depression, asthma, abdominal pain, and so on.

While families generally seemed happy with the care they received and often thanked me for taking great care of their children, the primary care workload, and my desire to fix every problem, took a great toll on me. In retrospect, I don’t believe I was having as much of an impact on long-term child health as I had hoped.

In 2016, I was feeling exhausted and struggling with some of my own health problems: high cholesterol, terrible sleep, being overweight, and constant fatigue. After seeking medical treatment from my doctors and not feeling any better, I went on a hunt with Dr. Google (doctors do it, too, I guess!). I am so happy to say that what I discovered significantly changed the course of my medical practice, and the long-term trajectory of my own health.

You can read more about my personal journey in the book How Healers Heal, published in 2023. It is a collection of personal stories from 33 board-certified women physicians in Lifestyle Medicine about how they have changed their lives and the lives of their patients using the six pillars of health: eating more healthy whole plant foods, getting regular physical activity, avoiding risky substances, prioritizing quality sleep, building healthy relationships, and managing stress.

With regard to my pediatric practice today, I screen practically every patient for lifestyle factors that may be contributing to their health concerns, even patients who do not have symptoms or specific concerns.

My goal is to identify habits or environmental factors that may be putting my patients at risk for future health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression. Because, let’s face it: three in four U.S. adults have at least one chronic health condition, and the percentage increases as we age (1). If I can help change the trajectory of my patients’ health, and perhaps that of their family members, too, then it is a great day.

One area we talk about a lot in my clinic is the importance of fiber and how to get more of it.

Nutrition organizations have been sounding the alarm about the fiber gap for decades: the vast majority of Americans do not consume enough fiber. And I’m seeing the consequences of low-fiber eating patterns daily in my practice. Parents frequently tell me that their children consume only one (or sometimes zero) serving of fruits and vegetables each day.

In my mind, that is a four-alarm fire!

A diet consistently low in fiber and plant foods can have important implications for gut health, metabolic health, and long-term disease risk, even when a child feels perfectly fine. So we spend time talking about fiber, why it matters, and strategies for increasing it in the real world circumstances families are navigating: resistant taste buds, financial constraints, busy schedules, lack of cooking skills, and more.

We brainstorm ideas for reaching their fiber goals, and often families leave excited and motivated to begin. And if they’re not quite ready to start, that’s okay, too. We table the conversation and check in about it at the next appointment.

I like to think that I have transformed into more of a partner for my patients, parents, and caregivers, a resource who mostly listens, asks questions to get a full sense of their concerns, and offers advice when it is welcomed.

I focus heavily on the root causes of their concerns, weaving the six pillars of Lifestyle Medicine into practically every appointment. Together, we uncover challenges and discover realistic solutions that may not only address the immediate concern but may also help in other ways: improving how children feel, resolving connected concerns, and paving the way for better health for the whole family for years to come.

Counterintuitively, while this approach may sound time consuming and difficult, especially in a busy pediatric clinic with limited appointment time, it has actually become less tedious and more rewarding for both my patients and me.

Families have reported that their children have more energy, sleep better, and experience improvements in mood. Using these strategies, I have seen patients improve their blood pressure, blood sugar, and weight related health. I have also seen improvements in symptoms associated with ADHD, depression, and chronic fatigue, as well as long-standing constipation, gastroesophageal reflux, headaches, and other concerns.

Perhaps most importantly, families tell me that they feel more confident using lifestyle strategies to improve their health. They are motivated to keep going because they feel the difference.

Practicing medicine this way for the past eight years has reinvigorated my passion for this calling and given me back the joy I once felt in the work.

I am so grateful that I took the time to search for a solution when I needed one, and that I stumbled upon answers that changed my life and my practice.

I’m also deeply thankful to my patients and their families for their trust and willingness to explore the root causes of their concerns, and for being open to my probing questions and frequent discussions about the power of plants, including fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

Because ultimately, this isn’t about perfection. It’s about helping families discover small, realistic changes that can move their health in a better direction—one meal, one habit, and one day at a time.