# What Your Child’s Meltdowns Are Really Telling You \[with Dr Dusty Hess\]

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 21 Apr 2026, 19 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/89cc0925-555c-4aff-b7be-b41f008da12b/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

What if your child’s meltdowns aren’t misbehaviour… but a message? In this powerful conversation, Dr Dusty Hess flips the script on parenting struggles—revealing how sleep, food, stress, and screen time are quietly shaping your child’s emotions, focus, and behaviour. If you’ve been stuck in a cycle of reacting, correcting, and feeling exhausted… this episode will show you where real change begins. KEY POINTS • Behaviour is information, not defiance • Sleep deprivation impacts mood, focus, and even metabolism • Food isn’t just fuel—it’s brain chemistry • Chronic stress pushes kids into survival mode (not learning mode) • Screen time is linked to anxiety, aggression, and inattention • “Upstream parenting” focuses on prevention, not reaction • Small, consistent changes can transform your child’s regulation QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Sometimes a child isn’t acting out—their body is crying out.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • Upstream Health (Dr Dusty Hess) • Upstream Plus Membership & Magazine ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Prioritise sleep before trying to fix behaviour • Stabilise one daily habit (e.g. breakfast or bedtime) • Reduce overscheduling and protect downtime • Have ongoing conversations about screen use (don’t just restrict it) • Look for the root cause, not just the reaction • Start small—one upstream shift at a time See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:06] Speaker 1: Hello, this is the Happy Families Podcast, so good of
[0:08] Speaker 1: you to join us. Welcome if you're new to the plod.
[0:10] Speaker 1: Every Wednesday we have a chat with somebody who can
[0:14] Speaker 1: shed some light on topics that we talk about a lot,
[0:16] Speaker 1: but maybe have a different point of view to the
[0:18] Speaker 1: one that I bring Today. It's doctor Dusty Hess and
[0:21] Speaker 1: nationally recognized functional medicine doctor, author, speaker, founder of Upstream Health.
[0:25] Speaker 1: It's a transformative movement helping families reclaim their health through
[0:29] Speaker 1: his visionary leadership and resources including the Upstream Plus membership
[0:33] Speaker 1: and the Upstream Plus magazine. He's raising a new standard
[0:35] Speaker 1: of care rooted in functional medicine known for simplifying complex science.
[0:40] Speaker 1: Doctor Dusty is a sought after speaker at conferences and
[0:44] Speaker 1: health summits and wellness events. His message inspires families to
[0:48] Speaker 1: break free from chronic disease, lead with purpose and build
[0:51] Speaker 1: a legacy of health. I'm excited for today's conversation with
[0:55] Speaker 1: doctor Dusty Hess. Stay with us. That's next today. Welcome
[1:02] Speaker 1: to the Happy Families Podcast, where you get real parenting
[1:04] Speaker 1: solutions every single day. This is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast.
[1:07] Speaker 1: As you probably know, Clylie and I have been on
[1:09] Speaker 1: a bit of a health kick this year. One of
[1:11] Speaker 1: the hardest things has been trying to work out how
[1:13] Speaker 1: to not just avoid illness, but be genuinely healthy. So
[1:17] Speaker 1: we're going a little bit sideways from where we normally
[1:19] Speaker 1: talk on the pod. Normally it's all about parenting and
[1:21] Speaker 1: relationships and emotional intelligence and discipline. Today we're actually talking
[1:24] Speaker 1: about health with doctor Dusty Hess Upstream Health. You can
[1:27] Speaker 1: go online to Upstream Health to find out more about
[1:29] Speaker 1: what doctor Dusty does. But I'm absolutely delighted to have
[1:33] Speaker 1: him joining me on the podcast today. Where does this
[1:35] Speaker 1: conversation find you, doctor Dusty?
[1:37] Speaker 2: Yeah, justin I'm actually out in the Middlewest right now
[1:40] Speaker 2: in the United States.
[1:41] Speaker 1: Okay, and as opposed to Australia cold at the moment.
[1:45] Speaker 2: Yeah cool, that's actually snowing right now outside, So yeah,
[1:49] Speaker 2: in my office, that's for sure.
[1:50] Speaker 1: How many kids you have we are for let's crack
[1:53] Speaker 1: into this straight away. A lot of parents see meltdowns
[1:55] Speaker 1: and anxiety and irritability and a lack of focus and
[2:00] Speaker 1: inattention and all the other challenges that come with children.
[2:03] Speaker 1: They assume that it's a child who is struggling with
[2:06] Speaker 1: behavior like it's a behavioral issue. You argue that it's
[2:10] Speaker 1: not always just about behavior. There's a whole lot of
[2:11] Speaker 1: biological fact is that might be influencing how kids are
[2:14] Speaker 1: thinking and feeling and acting. Saying more about that.
[2:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, no, this is a great point justin I think
[2:19] Speaker 2: when we're talking about health, we're not just talking about disease, right,
[2:22] Speaker 2: We're talking about a foundation, and the family is a
[2:25] Speaker 2: huge network that is provides a foundation for what that
[2:28] Speaker 2: health looks like. So I think the first thing that
[2:31] Speaker 2: parents need to hear is that a lot of us
[2:33] Speaker 2: are looking for tips, hacks and quick fixes, you know,
[2:36] Speaker 2: for what is often a deep or physiological issue. You know,
[2:40] Speaker 2: we're trying to quiet the symptom without understanding the source.
[2:43] Speaker 2: But honestly, behavior is giving us information. We should see
[2:48] Speaker 2: it as information, not as disconnection, you know. And so
[2:52] Speaker 2: sometimes the child isn't acting out as much as their
[2:54] Speaker 2: body is really crying out. So if kids are eating
[2:58] Speaker 2: real food or enough food, if they're underslept, over stimulated,
[3:02] Speaker 2: living in constant stress state, that can absolutely show up
[3:05] Speaker 2: as irritability, meltdowns, poor focus, and emotional volatility. And those
[3:09] Speaker 2: body actions are something that we need to be listening
[3:12] Speaker 2: to and be in tuned to. So I think that
[3:14] Speaker 2: that's where we have to be careful because many parents
[3:16] Speaker 2: are disciplining with the goal of producing children who behave
[3:19] Speaker 2: well in public. But sometimes in that process we can
[3:22] Speaker 2: really unintentionally sideline the child's identity. You know, we can
[3:26] Speaker 2: we let outward performance become the target, but let cultural
[3:29] Speaker 2: shame really pressure us into surface level correction. But real parenting,
[3:34] Speaker 2: I believe is deeper than that. You know, we guide behavior,
[3:37] Speaker 2: we also want to shape the child's internal world. They're
[3:40] Speaker 2: understanding their buy and their physiology and their sense of
[3:43] Speaker 2: who they are. Because at the end of the day,
[3:45] Speaker 2: we're not just creating compliant kids or simply getting them
[3:49] Speaker 2: into adulthood. We're trying to raise future adults who have
[3:52] Speaker 2: understanding ownership and the ability to regulate well. People really
[3:56] Speaker 2: can step into the world and make it better, and
[3:59] Speaker 2: that's what we're looking for. That gets a whole lot
[4:01] Speaker 2: easier when we respect how they were designed.
[4:04] Speaker 1: I'll pick up on two things that you've said there.
[4:05] Speaker 1: Number One, I found that if my children are sleep deprived,
[4:08] Speaker 1: they are just going to be more difficult. Incidentally, that's
[4:12] Speaker 1: the same with me if I'm sleep I rarely, if ever,
[4:15] Speaker 1: look at Kylie and say, oh my goodness, we're so tired,
[4:18] Speaker 1: but we're nailing it today. It's not how that works,
[4:21] Speaker 1: So that's part of it. The other thing that I've found,
[4:24] Speaker 1: I know you said no hacks at this point. Anyway,
[4:26] Speaker 1: we can talk about some hacks later. But what I
[4:29] Speaker 1: have found is that if my children are irritable, if
[4:32] Speaker 1: they're hard to work with, if they're acting out, if
[4:35] Speaker 1: they're angry at each other or Kylie or I, it's
[4:39] Speaker 1: amazing what happens once we give them a little bit
[4:40] Speaker 1: of food. It's almost like their body, their body is
[4:43] Speaker 1: crying out for food, but they don't know how to
[4:44] Speaker 1: articulate that. They don't even have the awareness of it.
[4:46] Speaker 1: Once they've got some calories in their system, maybe a
[4:48] Speaker 1: little bit of protein, something reasonably healthy that has gone
[4:51] Speaker 1: into their body, all of a sudden, they become wonderful
[4:54] Speaker 1: humans again, and we can work with them once they've
[4:56] Speaker 1: got some food in their system.
[4:57] Speaker 2: It's so true. And on the same flip side, it's
[5:00] Speaker 2: hard for them to really understand what food is these days,
[5:03] Speaker 2: Like what actually is real food? Yeah?
[5:06] Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, I really like the idea as well, that
[5:09] Speaker 1: we're not just trying to survive hard moments, but the
[5:13] Speaker 1: way that you describe that, we're trying to build an
[5:15] Speaker 1: environment where those moments become less frequent and our kids
[5:18] Speaker 1: have more room to thrive this idea that we're developing
[5:21] Speaker 1: in them, the ability to regulate, the capacity to show
[5:26] Speaker 1: a level of control in their lives. You're upstream health, right,
[5:29] Speaker 1: that's what it's called. You talk about getting upstream? What
[5:32] Speaker 1: does that mean for a busy parent in everyday family life?
[5:37] Speaker 1: Because the kids won't eat anything unless it comes out
[5:39] Speaker 1: of a packet, or they don't have time to give
[5:41] Speaker 1: them anything unless it came out of a packet, because
[5:43] Speaker 1: they're so busy trying to just get ahead. Cost of living,
[5:46] Speaker 1: everything's getting harder, and they're just saying, I just I
[5:48] Speaker 1: just need to stick you in front of the television,
[5:50] Speaker 1: give you this stuff that's in a packet, because I'm done,
[5:53] Speaker 1: and I've still got four loads of Washington take care
[5:55] Speaker 1: of and i haven't done the shopping for three weeks
[5:58] Speaker 1: and all those kinds of things.
[5:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, that's really what I mean by getting upstream.
[6:03] Speaker 2: You know, it means we stop living only in reaction mode,
[6:07] Speaker 2: we stop asking how do I fix this behavior right now?
[6:11] Speaker 2: We start asking a more important question. You know what
[6:14] Speaker 2: in our everyday family life is either supporting this child's
[6:17] Speaker 2: capacity or quietly working against it. And for a busy parent,
[6:21] Speaker 2: that's exactly exactly what we need to be thinking, as
[6:25] Speaker 2: far as like the good news that is present, because
[6:29] Speaker 2: upstream usually starts much simpler than people think. You know,
[6:32] Speaker 2: a lot of people think it's so complicated and they're
[6:35] Speaker 2: trying to figure out all the things that they need
[6:36] Speaker 2: to do. But it's not about overhauling your entire life,
[6:40] Speaker 2: especially now overnight. It's about looking at the basics, like
[6:43] Speaker 2: we're talking about food, sleep, rhythm, overload, connection, like these
[6:48] Speaker 2: basic core principles, and asking where the biggest pressure point
[6:53] Speaker 2: is right now currently, what is the one thing in
[6:56] Speaker 2: this child's world that if we supported it better, that
[7:01] Speaker 2: could change a lot downstream? And if we look at
[7:04] Speaker 2: the individual, This isn't about all of our kids, because
[7:06] Speaker 2: every single one of them has their own personality, their
[7:09] Speaker 2: own things that make them tick. But maybe that might
[7:13] Speaker 2: be stabilizing breakfast for another. It might be protecting bedtime
[7:16] Speaker 2: for another, it might be reducing after school chaos. Or
[7:19] Speaker 2: cutting back on overscheduling. So much overscheduling going on right now,
[7:24] Speaker 2: especially within sports. It's no longer just show up for
[7:26] Speaker 2: tea ball, but it's like, hey, those tea ball athletes
[7:28] Speaker 2: have to have three practices a week and it just
[7:31] Speaker 2: gets so overwhelming. Upstream means we stop chasing every symptom
[7:35] Speaker 2: and start strengthening the foundations. Really, so when you do that,
[7:39] Speaker 2: you're often not just reducing meltdowns. You're increasing the child's
[7:42] Speaker 2: capacity to regulate, connect, recover, and grow. And that's exactly
[7:47] Speaker 2: what gives parents hope because you're not sitting in the
[7:49] Speaker 2: back seat. You're putting yourself into a position where you're
[7:51] Speaker 2: actually training them up in the way that they shall
[7:53] Speaker 2: go that that next step is going to be shaping
[7:57] Speaker 2: their future generations instead of waiting for symptoms to arise
[8:01] Speaker 2: and then to try to fix them.
[8:03] Speaker 1: So this requires a high level of proactivity and confidence
[8:06] Speaker 1: on the part of parents. Parents have got to be
[8:07] Speaker 1: able to stand back from what's going on and say,
[8:09] Speaker 1: let's take a big picture of you here. Maybe on
[8:12] Speaker 1: Saturday or Sunday, when the kids are occupied and I've
[8:14] Speaker 1: got half an hour to myself, I'm going to work
[8:17] Speaker 1: out a structure that is going to facilitate a better
[8:20] Speaker 1: flow through the week. I'm going to work out what
[8:22] Speaker 1: our meal list is going to be so we're not
[8:24] Speaker 1: panicking and buying fast food or opening a packet of something.
[8:27] Speaker 1: I'm going to talk with the kids about what their
[8:30] Speaker 1: mornings need to look like so that we can function.
[8:32] Speaker 1: To me, it seems as though your upstream model requires
[8:37] Speaker 1: parents to be able to create that distance from what's
[8:41] Speaker 1: going on in the moment so that they can create
[8:43] Speaker 1: better moments because of the distance they're created.
[8:46] Speaker 2: This is really important, really important, because I think one
[8:49] Speaker 2: of the biggest things parents mess is that behavior and
[8:52] Speaker 2: biology are not separate conversations. A child's ability to regulate
[8:56] Speaker 2: emotionally is not just about maturity or a discipline. It's
[9:00] Speaker 2: also about whether their brain and body have the conditions
[9:03] Speaker 2: they need to function well, and a lot of modern
[9:06] Speaker 2: life quietly works against that. So take sleep, for example.
[9:09] Speaker 2: We tend to think of poor sleep as just making
[9:12] Speaker 2: a child tired, but even an adults, one night of
[9:15] Speaker 2: severe sleep restriction around let's say four hours has been
[9:19] Speaker 2: shown to measurably impair insulin sensitivity the very next day,
[9:23] Speaker 2: almost to the point of a type two diabetic.
[9:25] Speaker 1: So talk more about that. What does it do if
[9:27] Speaker 1: you're insulin is affected that way because you've had allowsie
[9:32] Speaker 1: not sleep, you only had full, maybe five hours of
[9:34] Speaker 1: polk quality sleep.
[9:35] Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I mean speaking directly on the insulin front,
[9:38] Speaker 2: you think there's so many different drivers of insulin. Number one,
[9:41] Speaker 2: you're going to gain weight because when you're stimulating in
[9:45] Speaker 2: insulence days up, it doesn't matter how well you eat
[9:47] Speaker 2: or how much you exercise, you're not going to be
[9:49] Speaker 2: burning the fuel and you're subcutaneous fat. So a lot
[9:52] Speaker 2: of times what people are finding is they're burning the
[9:55] Speaker 2: midnight oil, exercising at night, they're only getting four hours
[9:58] Speaker 2: of sleep, they're eating perfectly throughout the day, and their
[10:02] Speaker 2: corzol rhythm is all over the place, and their insulin
[10:04] Speaker 2: still high. They're not losing the fact and so you know,
[10:08] Speaker 2: but instead of trying to control the insulin at that point,
[10:10] Speaker 2: because is what a lot of people are thinking right now,
[10:12] Speaker 2: what we need to do is slow down and get sleep,
[10:17] Speaker 2: and that right there could be the biggest mover for
[10:19] Speaker 2: that specific individual or that child that's going to help
[10:23] Speaker 2: them self regulate. And when we get that metabolic stress
[10:28] Speaker 2: under control, just after one bad night. You know, when
[10:31] Speaker 2: the biology is under stress, emotions usually get shakier too,
[10:34] Speaker 2: you know, like there's so many different things that happen
[10:36] Speaker 2: physiologically when that insulin or that cortisol or that circadian
[10:42] Speaker 2: rhythm is disrupted.
[10:43] Speaker 1: And while the kids probably aren't out exercising, they are
[10:46] Speaker 1: up on their screens. So kids might be getting four
[10:50] Speaker 1: to six seven hours of sleep a night, which is
[10:52] Speaker 1: not nearly enough for them because they've got access to
[10:54] Speaker 1: their screens. And that's going to have impact, like you said,
[10:57] Speaker 1: on their emotional regulation, on the insulin production, on their
[11:01] Speaker 1: metabolism generally, on their capacity to learn at school, They're
[11:04] Speaker 1: ability to be good with their friends. Like the flow
[11:06] Speaker 1: on from that one thing is an almost today it's
[11:15] Speaker 1: doctor Dusty Hess and nationally recognized functional medicine doctor, author, speaker,
[11:19] Speaker 1: founder of Upstream Health. It's a transformative movement helping families
[11:23] Speaker 1: reclaim their health. I want to spend a bit more
[11:25] Speaker 1: time on sleep. I know people know that things like
[11:28] Speaker 1: food and sleep matter, but not how deeply. We've done
[11:32] Speaker 1: several podcasts on the importance of sleep. But I love
[11:34] Speaker 1: the way you're talking about here. Let's talk about sleep, food, stress,
[11:38] Speaker 1: and screen time and the impact that that has on
[11:41] Speaker 1: motion regulation in kids, probably more than parents would be aware.
[11:45] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know what we were talking about previously,
[11:48] Speaker 2: where people don't even know what real food is anymore.
[11:50] Speaker 2: I mean, you're going into the grocery store, It's like,
[11:51] Speaker 2: is this real? You know, it's really difficult, and so
[11:55] Speaker 2: you can imagine what our kids and our future generations
[11:57] Speaker 2: are going to think unless we start to think more treatments,
[12:00] Speaker 2: unless we start to change their trajectory and train our
[12:03] Speaker 2: kids and what real food really is. You know, parents
[12:06] Speaker 2: often think about food in terms of growth, you know,
[12:09] Speaker 2: but food is also brain fuel. So we have to
[12:13] Speaker 2: train our children to decipher it way earlier in life.
[12:17] Speaker 2: If we plan to change fertility, if we plan to
[12:19] Speaker 2: change any trajectory when it comes to our kids having
[12:23] Speaker 2: a better life than we had.
[12:25] Speaker 1: So I'd love to get cat in this way more.
[12:27] Speaker 1: But in the interest of time and also to make
[12:30] Speaker 1: sure that other people that fall asleep, let's talk about that.
[12:32] Speaker 1: Let's talk about strength, and let's talk about stress.
[12:35] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, stress is another big one. You know. Chronic
[12:38] Speaker 2: stress doesn't just create, like it's not just from a
[12:40] Speaker 2: hard emotional day. I think that's what a lot of
[12:42] Speaker 2: people think of stress, like, Oh, I'm not stressed. It's like, no,
[12:46] Speaker 2: we have to think of stress from a totally different perspective.
[12:48] Speaker 2: Physiological stress is a totally different animal, and a lot
[12:52] Speaker 2: of people are being driven by this underlying stress that
[12:57] Speaker 2: they don't even know is going on. And a lot
[13:00] Speaker 2: of times within child development, especially in the literature, shows
[13:03] Speaker 2: that stress affects the HPA axis, which I'm not going
[13:07] Speaker 2: to put people to sleep with that, but it's the
[13:08] Speaker 2: hypothlamic pituitary adrenal axis and the communication between the amygdala
[13:13] Speaker 2: and the prefrontal cortex. So if I were to bring
[13:15] Speaker 2: that whole down just in to a simple way, it's
[13:17] Speaker 2: really just the core systems for threat detection, impulse control,
[13:21] Speaker 2: and regulation. And in plain English, when a child lives
[13:25] Speaker 2: under too much load, their brain gets pulled more towards
[13:28] Speaker 2: survival and less towards reflection. Right, So this is why
[13:33] Speaker 2: stress needs to be understood. It's not just like you know,
[13:36] Speaker 2: kids are in this environment. They're not like in a
[13:38] Speaker 2: high level corporate job, so they don't have stress. They're
[13:41] Speaker 2: just playing on the playground right now. We have to
[13:43] Speaker 2: be aware of their environment and support them in a
[13:46] Speaker 2: way with tools to be able to process that too.
[13:50] Speaker 2: And then I would say screen time, this one really
[13:52] Speaker 2: matters because it's just getting more and more. I mean,
[13:56] Speaker 2: i don't know about you, but I find myself on
[13:57] Speaker 2: a screen more and more these days, and I've got
[13:59] Speaker 2: to figure out strategic ways to get away from it,
[14:01] Speaker 2: to be able to manage it in a healthy way.
[14:04] Speaker 2: And you could imagine our kids growing up in it.
[14:06] Speaker 1: It's a constant conversation now in our family, constant absolutely, yeah, yeah,
[14:12] Speaker 1: and it needs to be.
[14:13] Speaker 2: You know, we have to be intentional with everything, right,
[14:15] Speaker 2: So you being intentional with your your health choices and
[14:18] Speaker 2: with your food, and with your stress, and with your
[14:20] Speaker 2: screen time and with sleep, like all of these things.
[14:23] Speaker 2: There's so many parents that aren't having those conversations, and
[14:27] Speaker 2: I think that that's the scary part. It's like we
[14:29] Speaker 2: have to have the awareness, but it's one thing to
[14:31] Speaker 2: be like, Oh, I know sleep is important, I know
[14:32] Speaker 2: stress is important. I know screens. You know, we got
[14:34] Speaker 2: to manage those a little bit more. But don't you
[14:36] Speaker 2: understand our situation, Like we don't have the time to
[14:38] Speaker 2: really talk about that, you know, or we don't have
[14:41] Speaker 2: we don't I mean, what do you actually have to
[14:43] Speaker 2: do as far as resources to be able to teach
[14:45] Speaker 2: that stuff? It's so basic. Do we have to teach it?
[14:47] Speaker 2: It's like, yes, we have to teach it. You know,
[14:49] Speaker 2: the screens these days. If we do not teach the
[14:53] Speaker 2: future and teach our next generation what to look out
[14:56] Speaker 2: for and how to manage it, it will consume them
[14:59] Speaker 2: because the traject is not healthy. So you know, there
[15:02] Speaker 2: was a twenty twenty two systematic review. It was a
[15:04] Speaker 2: meta analysis that covered eighty seven studies of more than
[15:07] Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty nine thousand children, and they found
[15:11] Speaker 2: that greater screen time was associated with more externalizing problems
[15:15] Speaker 2: like aggression and inattention, and more internalizing problems like anxiety.
[15:20] Speaker 2: And so these effects were small, but they were incredibly consistent.
[15:26] Speaker 2: So we have to see the underlying metabolic disturbances that
[15:30] Speaker 2: these screens are having on kids. But we can't just
[15:33] Speaker 2: keep it from them. We have to help teach them
[15:35] Speaker 2: and understand why. And that's really important.
[15:38] Speaker 1: That's the right challenge as well, because in spite of
[15:40] Speaker 1: what you've just said, a lot of parents are like, yeah,
[15:42] Speaker 1: I know, I need to have the conversation. I know,
[15:43] Speaker 1: we talk about it all the time, but I can't
[15:46] Speaker 1: get my kids to buy it. Like my kids just
[15:48] Speaker 1: say no, you don't know what you're talking about. My
[15:49] Speaker 1: kids think that they know better, They think that it
[15:51] Speaker 1: doesn't apply to them. I think that for a lot
[15:55] Speaker 1: of parents, hearing this can probably be a little bit
[15:58] Speaker 1: confronting because there is always room for improvement. For some
[16:02] Speaker 1: it might be a bit free. They're like, Okay, I
[16:04] Speaker 1: now know where I need to go. It's a conversation
[16:07] Speaker 1: that can really highlight just how exhaust and discouraged and
[16:12] Speaker 1: even blamed a lot of parents might also feel when
[16:14] Speaker 1: the kids are struggling. So, if we were to wrap
[16:16] Speaker 1: this up, what would you want to take home message
[16:19] Speaker 1: to be for parents who have heard our conversation about
[16:22] Speaker 1: creating this environment that's going to help our children to
[16:24] Speaker 1: behave better because the environment is more conducive to good health.
[16:28] Speaker 1: What is the most valuable thing that we can live
[16:31] Speaker 1: with parents? As we wrap our patchat.
[16:33] Speaker 2: Yeah, this is really important because when we see all
[16:37] Speaker 2: this dissonance, it's easy to get this victim maintainet. You know,
[16:40] Speaker 2: oh everything in my moderation like oh that you know,
[16:43] Speaker 2: we're all we're all going to be broken and dead
[16:46] Speaker 2: in no time any ways, you know, and they're just
[16:48] Speaker 2: throw in the white towel. And the first thing I'd
[16:51] Speaker 2: want parents to hear is this. You know, your child's
[16:54] Speaker 2: struggle is not proof that you feeled. You know your
[16:58] Speaker 2: exhaustion is not proof that is gone. That's the first
[17:02] Speaker 2: thing that I'd want parents to hear. You know, a
[17:04] Speaker 2: lot of parents have simply just been trying to solve
[17:06] Speaker 2: deep problems with shallow tools, especially from TikTok and Instagram. Yeah,
[17:12] Speaker 2: you know, and that's discouraging for anyone. But you know,
[17:15] Speaker 2: when you begin to understand that behavior is information, that
[17:19] Speaker 2: physiology matters, that small upstream shifts can change a lot downstream,
[17:27] Speaker 2: you start to get your footing back. You start to
[17:29] Speaker 2: feel like you're more in control because your child doesn't
[17:33] Speaker 2: need your perfection. You know, they need your understanding, your steadiness,
[17:38] Speaker 2: and your willingness to just really keep building. So we're
[17:43] Speaker 2: not just trying to get kids to adulthood. We're really
[17:46] Speaker 2: raising future men and women who can bring strength, wisdom,
[17:48] Speaker 2: and goodness into the world. So don't despise the small steps,
[17:53] Speaker 2: take the time, invest in them, one step at a time,
[17:56] Speaker 2: And if there's something that you don't know, learn about it,
[18:00] Speaker 2: Find areas that you can be able to grow in
[18:02] Speaker 2: so that you can help shape them with wisdom and knowledge.
[18:05] Speaker 2: You know they matter more than you think, and there
[18:08] Speaker 2: is more hope here than many parents can see in
[18:11] Speaker 2: the middle of the struggle.
[18:13] Speaker 1: Doctor Dusty Hess, I appreciate your goodness. Thank you for.
[18:16] Speaker 2: Shure, Thank you so much, Thank you so much for
[18:18] Speaker 2: having me.
[18:18] Speaker 1: Doctor Dusty Hess is a nationally recognized functional medicine doctor, author, speaker,
[18:24] Speaker 1: and founder of Upstream Health. For more, we will link
[18:28] Speaker 1: to Upstream Health in the show notes. What a great
[18:31] Speaker 1: and informative and helpful conversation. The Happy Family's podcast is
[18:35] Speaker 1: produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media, with additional support
[18:39] Speaker 1: and help from Mim Hammonds. If you'd like more in
[18:41] Speaker 1: foto make your family Happier, you'll find it all at
[18:43] Speaker 1: happy families dot com dot I back tomorrow

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