Supporting the healthy development and constitution of adolescents~

[Guest guest]

Greetings,

I'm searching for sound advise and recommedations on the continuing support for my "pre-teen" daughter, age 12 through home remedies and combined ayurvedic sources.

She is both a dancer and athlete, and along with the stresses of academics, especially in these middle school years, coupled along with the female development and maturity, can be overwhelming upon the entire body- ask any parent of a girl!

She has done quite well throughout the beginning of Sept until now, but as a ballet dancer, with upcoming major holiday performances, and exams at school, along with the usual angst of these years, she is coming down with a cold, nasal congestion, and mild cough- which seems to be everywhere as well in the school.

I'm particularly interested on how to keep her healthy female development blossoming, since she has become increasingly critical of her physical appearance: weight, slight acne, and budding hormones. As a dancer, this can prove incredibly difficult since the girls are constantly critiquing themselves, and measuring their skill level among eachother in class. She has a great teacher, and supportive family, friends, but are there additional herbs, sources that can also help sustain her through this milestone of puberty as well?

She's very healthy conscious, which I'm happy about, and we eat a predominantly Indian diet, but do need to balance our lives (I am American, my husband is Indian) in the world we live in as well. She is "label" crazy, and will scrutinize every ingredient on everything; which I do as well...and we all know the horrors of commercialized and over-processed foods here in the states is just mind boggling! But there also has to be a balance struck that one can live and coexist within the environment one is in to the best of our abilities, etc.

I think much of this will take time- like the label reading, and continuing to build her own self-confidence and esteem. It's so much different, even today, than it was for me (I'm 40) and both girls and boys of adolescent age are bombarded with so much, that as parents we want to buffer and help guide them to the best of our abilities.

Many gracious thanks for your patience in reading through this post and I look forward to others' experiences and wise recommendations to pass along to another parent.

Blessings and Peace~ Tracey Saari-Bhatia