Chocolate Banana Power Smoothie Created To Promote Focus, Attention, & Mineral Balancing in Children!

This delicious, *kid approved* smoothie nourishes attention, focus, and mineral balancing in children who need it the most!

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Note from Renee :: I am so honored to introduce Lydia Shatney guest posting this week! Lyida is an NTP with a background in working with families to naturally work through adrenal fatigue, thyroid disorder, chemical and metal toxicity, and childhood diagnoses like ADD/ADHD. I was blown away when I heard how she helped her son work through ADD-like behaviors using very non-invasive, natural means. I asked her if she would be willing to share her story with you on the blog, and I hope her story resonates with you.

My heart is truly to see this post go viral with sharing because our kids are so worth it – this can be done without more chemical medications!

Welcome to RGN Lydia! We are so happy to have you!

I am a mom of four boys and also a nutritional therapist, and by using hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA), along with my past studies through the Nutritional Therapy Association, I was able to better understand my youngest son’s hyper and volatile behaviors and create a plan to help him. Through his hair analysis I was able to see that he was in an extremely fast rate of oxidation. Meaning both his adrenals and thyroid were working on overdrive due to lacking sedative minerals (like calcium, magnesium and zinc) and extremely elevated sodium and potassium.

Kids in this pattern would be consider hyperkinetic or likely labeled with AD/HD.

To set the stage a bit, when I was pregnant with him, I went through the most difficult season of my life. The most stress EVER, and the first 2 years (while breastfeeding) of his life were just as stressful. I was already depleted when I conceived him – and my magnesium was probably quite low (I had numerous health issues that correlate with magnesium deficiency most of my life). Mineral deficiency in mom is carried to her unborn children.

In kindergarten he had a lot of behavioral issues in school – 1st grade was a nightmare. So bad that it took several adults to manage him on a daily basis we then had to get him an IEP and move him to a different school. (first of all, I think that the first grade curriculum and structure is ridiculous in it’s expectations of boys but that is another story – he was clearly volatile). We switched him to a small school with a behavioral program where he had to go through an evaluation with the school psychiatrist.

The school psychiatrist clearly told me she did not think he had AD/HD or any diagnosable issue. Yet, she still recommended I get him on meds to better ‘manage’ his behaviors.

I firmly said NO.

It wasn’t until he began his 2nd grade year that I ran an HTMA on him. When I got the results back – I was shocked. I grieved a bit and was really softened to the why behind his struggles and then I was relieved. I now knew what he needed.

His pattern was a severely hyperkinetic one – sky high tissue sodium and potassium and extremely low tissue calcium, magnesium and zinc, elevated manganese and aluminum, very low copper. His ratios were scary extreme to me at the time because I was new to it. BUT it gave me hope anyway and a plan of action -something which I really did not have up until then.

You see even though I was an already practicing NTP (nutritional therapy practitioner) and had plenty of knowledge about health – I had no idea what HIS biochemistry even looked like. I had run blood tests and allergy panels and saw some improvements with our efforts to that end -but nothing like I got from the HTMA.

Here are some of the behaviors he had:

• Extreme volatility – fly off the handle rage – cursing -not able to calm down without physically assisting him out of a room into a place where he could finish his melt downs.
• trouble sleeping through the night or going to bed on his own
• poor social skills, he could not be trusted around peers without supervision (it was difficult for him to make friends or have play dates)
• refusal to write/writing was a huge labor
• challenge to read -would give up and throw fits out of embarrassment.
• would come home from school and throw his back pack down and throw fits about how terrible school was.
• non-stop movement (literally bounced off the walls)
• EXTREME appetite/voracious was never satiated
• eczema
• severe bed wetting – through a pull up and a bed mat
• extremely loose bowels that were whitish gray
• numerous sensory issues, including extreme fear of stickers
• verbal issues – fast utterances and a slight lisp and also he would say a sentence then repeat himself not out loud but with his lips

Within 2 weeks he started calming down a bit with the new supplements and the changes in his diet – I could tell.

He was just a sweet kid in a minerally depleted body.

I’m happy to report that ALL of the above is now gone. He is still active and still eats a fair bit but nothing compared to before.

Kids in this fast oxidation pattern need a lot of fat in their diet, so I use this chocolate banana mineral smoothie as way to get more fat in to him. Cocoa powder has minerals in it and we manage to avoid adding any additional sugar because the bananas are sweet. Thankfully, he loves smoothies and these go a long way to keeping him full, keeping my budget in check and also are a great way to get the bulk of his supplements into him.

Chocolate Banana Power Smoothie

Lydia Shatney

This delicious, *kid approved* smoothie nourishes attention, focus, and mineral balancing in children who need it the most!

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 5 minutes mins

Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Servings 1 serving

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 frozen bananas
• 1 TB organic cacao powder
• 1-2 scoops grassfed collagen
• 1 capsule Mega SporeBiotic or whatever probiotics you may be using Optional. Note from Renee :: The MegaSpore is only available through a practitioner like Lydia.
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups of whole fresh milk or coconut milk or whatever 'milk' you tolerate -even water would work or coconut water
• 1-2 TB fat Coconut oil or raw egg yolks. Optional but good for fast oxidizers, or kids with AD/HD patterns
• 1/4 cup of cooked frozen chopped kale
• vanilla stevia drops to taste Optional
• pinch sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. camu camu or other whole food c powder THIS SOURCE and THIS SOURCE are good options

Instructions

 

• Throw all ingredients into your blender or Vitamix.
• Blend for 2 minutes on high speed. This makes one large serving that Christian has right away as maybe his first breakfast or a snack and then we make 2 popsicles for him to have later as a snack, since he eats probably 6 times a day.

Keyword chocolate banana smoothie, chocolate banana smoothie recipe

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Approximate Mineral Content of this smoothie (makes 2 servings):

• Calcium: 410 mg
• Magnesium:  140 mg (+ 24 ionic magnesium)
• Sodium:  112 mg
• Potassium:  1590 mg
• Iron:  2.5
• Copper:  .4 mg
• Zinc:  2.1 mg
• Manganese :  1.3 mg
• Chromium : 100 mcg added from ionic chromium drops)
• Selenium:  13.3 mcg
• Phosphorous:  320 mg

(Note from Renee :: Lydia also shared with me that she adds in the rest of his supplements that are specific to his mineral needs. Since every child’s nutritional/mineral needs are different, it is very important not to just add any supplements without working with a professional like Lydia who can look at exactly what your child’s body needs! You can start working with Lydia to get your child’s specific mineral levels and needs by clicking through this link.)

Ok! Back to Lydia!

I share Christian’s story very openly because I know there are other kids out there that have similar struggles and parents don’t always know what to do or how to help them. A child with this kind of behavior can put a huge strain on the family. And often the only recommended help is therapy or medication.

It does not have to be like this.

It used to hurt my heart so much because he was ‘that kid’ in public – the kid that everyone stared at and thought ‘what is his deal?’

This is why I do what I do – I started learning HTMA to help my family and it indeed has. We all are on a game plan and I test my boys every 2-4 months. It is not EASY but it’s it worth the effort above and beyond the work it takes.

Kids respond well to mineral balancing – and it does not take as many supplements or time to help them feel better!

For more information about mineral balancing and hair tissue mineral analysis, you can start the conversation with Lydia HERE!

Note from Renee :: While thankfully my kiddos at home don’t display ADD-like behaviors, children do tend to run on the faster metabolism side, and in one of my kids especially there is a noticeable change in mood when her blood sugar is low. Kids really do need more fat in their diet to be stable, so I have been using this smoothie over the last week for the girls as an afternoon snack. 1 recipe is enough for all 3 of them (my kids are younger – this is 2 servings for older kids), and they really do love the flavor!

Lydia is a Nutritional Therapist and a single mom of four fabulous boys, on a mission to share her passion for whole, healthy, real foods with the world! She enjoys living life one day at a time, from the inside out! Lydia believes that health is a choice, a right and a gift that we cannot take for granted, and in this day and age, unfortunately, must fight for!

Lydia started Divine Health From the Inside Out to log her journey with food and evolving food philosophies, along with her own personalized recipes. Along the way shifting over to a more traditional, real foods way of eating and incorporating the most natural, organic, nature intended foods possible. Thus ultimately leading to a more nourishing way of life!

You can find Lydia on Facebook and Twitter. Lydia offers Hair Mineral Analysis to help with healing.