Ease Your Kid's Anxiety With Natural Herbal Remedies

Is your child feeling the back-to-school stress? In this episode of The Herbalist's Path, we're diving into natural ways to help ease your child's anxiety with gentle, effective herbal remedies. We’ll chat about the common symptoms of anxiety in kids—like those pesky tummy aches and sleepless nights—plus, how lifestyle factors can play a big role in managing stress. Then, we’ll get to the good stuff: specific herbs like lemon balm, linden, and chamomile that can soothe nervous systems and bring some calm to your child's busy school days.

00:38 Understanding Stress and Anxiety in Children
03:31 Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Children
05:24 Causes of Stress and Anxiety in Children
09:24 Lifestyle Factors and Holistic Approaches
10:28 Herbal Remedies for Anxiety and Stress

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Chapters

• 1:44 Supporting Children With Herbal Remedies
• 18:13 Exploring Herbal Remedies for Anxiety
• 29:59 Promoting Responsible and Informed Herbalism

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:45

Hello and welcome to the Herbalist Path, a podcast where you'll discover how to make your own herbal remedies at home so that you can take better care of yourself, better care of your family and better care of our planet. I'm Mel. I'm a clinical herbalist, environmental educator and mountain-l living mama with this crazy passion for teaching more mamas and their little loves how to use plants as medicine in a safe, effective and tasty way, so that there can be an herbalist in every home. Again, it's an absolute honor to have you on the journey down the herbalist path with me so that together we can make herbalism Hashtag spread like wildflowers. Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode on the herbalist path. Again, I am so excited and honored that you are here for this episode. It's a really, really important one, and it's part two of a three-part series where I'm talking about some of the best herbs to support your children and help them thrive throughout the entire year. So the first episode was all about boosting the immune system and how to support the immune system throughout the whole year instead of just ramping it up and boosting it all the time, and today we're going to talk about herbs for those that are dealing with anxiety and excessive stress due to life. Right, because we've all got that, even our kids. Yes, this mom life journey is also very stressful at times Beautiful, stressful, a little of both, but our kiddos feel the stress too, and the bummer part about that is that stress is directly connected to lack of immune function. So when we are consistently stressed or chronically stressed, our immune system is weakened. So supporting the nerves and the brain is so incredibly important and thankfully, herbs can work wonders in this department. They're often gentle, can work wonders in this department. They're often gentle, yet extremely effective natural support, which, for me, is far superior than just throwing pills and other drugs on them that dramatically alter their chemical makeup and their brain function. So, yeah, thank you for being here for this episode. I really do hope that you are going to learn a ton, because this is really important stuff.

Speaker 1: 4:34

In fact, back in between 2016 and 2019, there were studies put out there and it showed that over 6 million of our children were diagnosed with ADHD. That's 9.8% of the children in the United States. Keep in mind this is pre-COVID, pre-pandemic For anxiety. 9.4% of the children were diagnosed and that's 5.8 million of our children diagnosed with anxiety, 8.9% of them that showed up as behavior problems in school and at home. 4.4% of our children were diagnosed with depression and the crazy thing is that these are very much on the rise. In fact, in 2003, depression and anxiety amongst our children was only at 5.4%. 2007, it went up to 8%. 2012, 8.4. So not a huge rise. 2019, 9.4% of our children were diagnosed with depression and or anxiety, and in 2020, there was a 21% increase in anxiety and behavioral problems related to that. That is huge. Now let's think about how much more that's increased since then. That was four years ago now and it's only rising. But we can really support our children. There is so much that we can do.

Speaker 1: 6:06

So I want to talk a little bit about some of the symptoms we'll see in our younger children that may be dealing with depression or anxiety. They may get stomach aches, little tummy aches all the time. They may be very irritable or just lethargic. Even they may get headaches a lot and you just may look at them and be like, oh, my baby looks sad, what's going on? And obviously, as a mom, our mama heart's going to have some empathy there, right.

Speaker 1: 6:38

For our older kids we might see just common complaints or frequent complaints about various physical issues. They may not be sleeping well, their weight may fluctuate. You can see it in school behavior and academic performance. They may refuse to attend school. They're like no way, I'm not going, and you have that battle in the morning. That is the worst thing ever.

Speaker 1: 7:02

You might even start to see aggressive or hostile behaviors in our older children, eating disorders. They may no longer care to hang out with their friends and you're like what's going on? You used to love your friends but then suddenly they don't even care at all. They may not care about what they look like, just like whatever. Who cares? You know, these kinds of things can really come up a lot and of course, the worst one for any parent's heart would be suicidal thoughts and behaviors. I mean even just saying that my whole body gets very sad to think about such thing like oh the heartache. Heartache is real and I hope that you never experienced that. I obviously hope that I never experienced that and I wish that no parent ever would experience such things. But the sad truth is that it happens, right. So why? Why are our kids feeling so much stress, feeling so much anxiety? Why are they depressed? Sometimes it's just lack of emotional support right, and that honestly lies on us as parents for the most part.

Speaker 1: 8:13

I used to do wilderness therapy with at-risk high school kids and the most common thing that I noticed among these kids is that they had parents that had all the money, because it was a very expensive program to go through. They could buy them all the fancy jeans and brand new cars at the age of 15, before they even had their license. But where they weren't supporting their kids at all was within their emotional support. So that's huge. Be there for your kids, listen to them, lend an ear, lend some compassion, some empathy. Try and put yourself into their shoes. Sure, yeah, we've all been children, but obviously times have changed a lot. It's been 30 plus years since I was my daughter's age, so to think about all the different changes that have happened in 30 years and the different things that these children have to adapt to and are growing up around is incredible and wild, right, totally wild. Divorce rates those are definitely still rising and that can definitely contribute to a lot of emotional upset and instability.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Excessively busy parents Ooh, when I say that one, I feel it entirely too hard. I feel that one big, big time Bullying, not getting any exercise, not sleeping well, not going outside enough. Maybe they're given too much homework in school and they've got all these responsibilities being thrust upon them but no time to just be a kid. Just be a kid, right? That's all we really need. Maybe they're addicted to social media, much like us as parents, right? Or Look at our society. There's so much hate spread across. School shootings are a regular thing, to the point that it's hardly even making the news anymore. When this happens, what? Why is this the norm? When did this become the norm? Then we've got stressed out, underpaid teachers who are trying so hard because they got into being a teacher, because they care, they care about these kids, and then they get into the system and they don't get to care. They're like taken away from the caring and that's sad. They want to care, right, but they can't. Yeah, overcrowded classrooms. Maybe your kid is just another little number in the classroom and not able to get the attention and love they deserve.

Speaker 1: 13:28

Poor diet definitely leads to it. Anemia, our gut health, because there is the direct gut-brain connection. In fact, it's said to be that there is a second brain within the gut. We have over 100 million neurons in the gut. That's wild. That's more than is in the spinal cord and our neurotransmitters things like dopamine, our feel-good neurotransmitter, produced in the gut. Serotonin, that's our happiness neurotransmitter, also produced in the gut. So we need to take care of these kiddos' gut health right. We need to make sure that they're getting probiotics. We need to stop feeding them so much sugar and unhealthy fats and processed foods. We need to give them more protein and complex carbohydrates, some folic acid, get them plenty of iron and B-complex vitamins. All of these things can play a huge, huge role, along with other lifestyle factors like making sure they're getting their exercise, making sure they're going outside and communing with nature right All of these things.

Speaker 1: 14:41

But I know this podcast is called the Herbalist Path and you're listening to this to learn what herbs can help. And I always like to start out with the lifestyle factors, because herbs are phenomenal. But if we're not going to tend to the holistic being of a person, including what's going on in their lifestyle, what's contributing to the stress, like, what else can we do to support these children? And then we just throw an herb on it and hope it works. You're not looking to use herbs. You're looking for an instant fix pill and herbs aren't that way. It is a holistic healing modality, right, body, mind, spirit, soul, all of it, all of it.

Speaker 1: 15:20

So, that being said, consider those lifestyle factors, and I know I listed a lot. So if you need to just pick one or two and start there, do that. It's okay. Just start somewhere, right, just start somewhere. And if it means that it's an extra two or three hugs a day, who wins there? Both you as the parent and the child? Yeah, I think it's great, okay.

Speaker 1: 15:45

So, when it comes to using herbs to support the nervous system and give them a little moment to breathe, the top herbs we're looking for herbal categories we're looking for are nervine herbs, which are herbs that are going to act on the nervous system and in this particular case, we want more calming or sedating nervines. We don't want green tea and coffee, right. We can look to some herbs that can support as antidepressant, so to speak. We can look at our adaptogenic herbs that help the body to adapt to various stressors throughout life. Some of my favorites we're going to start with one of my top favorite herbs. It's Melissa officinalis, and I love this herb for so many reasons. One, while I go by Mel and have since I was my daughter's age. I am a Melissa, so I've got the love for lemon balm in that way.

Speaker 1: 16:39

But lemon balm is also delicious. It's easy to grow if it doesn't completely take over your garden. You are lucky, though I'm trying to make it take over my garden and for some reason it doesn't. We just had this discussion in a live class I was doing a couple of days ago, like why does my lemon balm not just grow like crazy? Yeah, anyways, lemon balm is also really great.

Speaker 1: 17:06

It's it's known as nature's sunshine and it's known to really lift and boost the mood and the spirits. It is very specific for things like seasonal affective disorder, which you know happens when the days are shorter and the nights are long, and it's in my area in Oregon. Here it's rainy and cloudy all the time. That can be a bummer. It's also gently calming and soothing just to the overall nervous system. It can really really be specific for those that get quite irritable when they're dealing with anxiety and stress. Maybe somebody might have that overactive mind that's continuously racing, thinking of all of the what-ifs, what-ifs, what-ifs. This is when lemon balm can be really really helpful. And then if your kiddo, if you notice those headaches, remember how I talked about how that could be a symptom of some anxiety and depression and things like that, about how that could be a symptom of some anxiety and depression and things like that. Lemon balm is very specific to helping to relieve those stress-related headaches and it's so easy.

Speaker 1: 18:13

You can make a lemon balm glycerate. You can do a lemon balm tincture. I love lemon balm in a tea. You do want to make sure that your lemon balm for tea is relatively freshly dried, so like once it's past a year, it really does lose a lot of the volatile oils that make it taste so great. So make sure you know you're utilizing your lemon balm in a timely fashion.

Speaker 1: 18:37

Yeah, so that's Melissa, a Fisionalis, another one that I love so much, and I have perhaps developed such a deep relationship with this plant. It is a tree, actually, and it is phenomenal. It is linden or tilia species of trees and this particular plant, like as I'm speaking to you right now recording this podcast, as I'm speaking to you right now recording this podcast, and I'm thinking about Lyndon, and all I can imagine is these beautiful, loving tree branches wrapping around me and embracing my entire body, my heart and my soul, and squeezing and loving me, as if to say it's okay, mel, whatever you're going through, whatever it may be, it is okay, everything is going to be all right, and just squeezing the stress and the tension out of my body so that I can just go and have that delightful, pleasant smile on my face. That's what Lyndon does for me, just by thinking about it, just by talking about it. Now, when I take Lyndon and actually put it into my body, that's when really, really amazing things happen. If you've got those stress, tense, tight shoulders, or if your kiddo does, you can just feel the shoulders relax and just be let down. This is very specific for somebody dealing with anxiety. Maybe it's somebody whose heart races when they're nervous or stressed or anxious. This is also very, very specific for heart palpitations and acts as a cardiotonic. So when we see those two things coming together, that's a great, surefire sign that linden could be the right herb for that particular person. It's just such a lovely tree and I encourage you, if you have linden near you and you know that there's not an excessive amount of pollution, because this tree will uptake a lot of the pollutants nearby but grab one of those flowers in the spring and just place that gentle, delicate, lovely little flower on your tongue and you can feel the soothing yet mucilaginous properties of that flower that are just incredible it's so nice of that flower. That are just incredible, it's so nice.

Speaker 1: 21:11

So, yes, consider linden in your repertoire of herbs to help with anxiety and stress. Simple linden tea is great. Yes, you can do a linden flower honey. You could make a tincture with it, you could do a glycerite. You can even put the flowers and leaves in some food. That would be a nice springtime, early summer salad for you. Consider that that could be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 21:33

And then, of course, I can't go through this episode without talking about chamomile, and I know a lot of people think about chamomile instantly for the sleepy time herb, and that's because it is a fantastically sedating, nerving herb. But for me I need more than chamomile to knock me out. For younger children it can definitely really help, especially if they're dealing with insomnia and things like that. But it definitely is a powerhouse when it comes to calming the central nervous system and easing anxiety, and what I love about it.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Remember how I talked about the gut-brain connection, and when somebody's dealing with anxiety, oftentimes a tummy ache could be one of the common signs of that anxiety. In fact, this happens with my own daughter. She goes through some type of nervous or stressed out moment and is immediately like, oh, mommy, my own daughter. She goes through some type of nervous or stressed out moment and is immediately like, oh, mommy, my tummy hurts and I'm like, oh well, I'll make you some tea. And for her, when she hears tea she knows that I use chamomile a lot she used to always pick the flowers out of my tea and eat the little flowers in a cup of tea. So she's got this beautiful relationship with chamomile where I can just say I'm making a tea and she instantly calms down and that tummy ache goes away, because chamomile is also very specific for the digestive tract. So this is a really, really great herb for most children, and particularly when a tummy ache is coming alongside that feeling of anxiety and stress. So I love chamomile.

Speaker 1: 23:08

Again, a tea is great. A glycerite is great. You could do tincture if you want, but it's so simple to make a tea and it's so simple to get your child involved in making those teas with you so it can be really fun and they can develop that really beautiful, beautiful relationship. So a couple other things that you might want to consider, like lavender, a really good quality lavender and gastafolia essential oil, and just having a little bit of that. They could even take one of those small half-ounce bottles and just keep it with them and open the lid and smell when they're feeling stress and anxiety. That could work wonders. A little bit of lavender oil on the temples Heck. Yes, of course you could put it in a tea and things, but for me, lavender in a tea is a bit too floral for my liking.

Speaker 1: 24:00

Um, another herb you could consider that really acts like a very nourishing nervine that really helps to rebuild and restore the nervous system would be milky oats. So, um, this is the same plant that is what oatmeal comes from, and you want to take the fresh milky tops, the seed pod tops. You got about a week's window when these are being grown and are fresh, where you can get the milky latex kind of stuff coming out of it and make yourself a phenomenal tincture that is going to act as a trophic restorative for the nervous system. It's also just incredibly nourishing and soothing. So that is definitely another thing that I would recommend. And you know, have fun with these herbs. Teach your children about these herbs. Have them, smell them, have them taste them, make teas together, let them tell you what goes into the teas and just let them recognize that these plants are powerful and really, really here to help them feel so much better. It's so incredibly powerful what you can do with these kinds of things. So I love so many of the herbs that I just mentioned in this podcast and I really do hope that you're able to try them, this podcast, and I really do hope that you're able to try them and, if this episode is a helpful episode, that you are hopefully sharing it with other mamas who need to know this kind of stuff. And right now I'm using a lot of the milky oats. I'm using some linden flower.

Speaker 1: 25:38

We're doing a lot of changes here on the back end of the herbalist path, which I am so excited for. We are actually letting go of Apothecary Mama, my herbal mentorship, and making a few shifts and about to get a new website and just restructuring things on the back end to make the whole herbal learning path easier and more streamlined for you so that you can really put these things into practice. So in October we are opening up Naturally Healed Kids Save Herbal Remedies a program for you to do on your own, with loads of fantastic recipes. You're going to go even deeper into herbs to support the nervous system, herbs for all the cold and flu things, herbs for, like, what to do when your kid's constipated or has runny poo, like what do we do in those situations and what's safe for your kids right, what is actually going to work? Because all of the herbs that are safe for us or good for us as an adult are not necessarily good for our children. So this whole program is focused on those things and I can't wait to bring it to you. I am very, very excited for it.

Speaker 1: 26:56

And then, in 2025, we are beginning our first community herbalist program and really what happened is Apothecary Mama became so big and so much incredible content in there that it was a lot for a mom who just wants to know the basics right. You just want your medicine cabinet stocked. You just want to feel confident, knowing that you're doing the right dosage, you have the right remedies on hand for your kids. But then there's the people that want to become the healers in their community and really take care of everybody. So we've kind of split it up into those two things and I'm so thrilled and excited. If naturally healed kids, safe herbal remedies, is something that interests you, I will put the waitlist sign up in the show notes and we would love, love, love to have you join us and then the community herbalist program. All you need to do is reach out to me, either on Instagram, on TikTok, through email, at buddingherbalist, at theherbalistpathcom. I would love to help you on your journey to helping to heal more people in your community and in your family.

Speaker 1: 28:06

It's really amazing to watch some of my Apothecary Mama students talk about how they're helping their co-workers, their aunts and their cousins are reaching out and they're making a huge, huge difference in their health and their mental health and their physical health and so on and so forth. So that's kind of what's going on in my land and the herbalist path. So if you see a few little changes here and there, that is why I'm really excited about it. Basically, just taking like what I have learned over the past 13 or 14 years of teaching herbalism in person and the past five years of teaching herbalism online when are my students going, what are they learning, what are they needing? And listening to that? So I'm excited for the changes I know they're going to be amazing in all of the ways, and I'm also excited to bring you the next episode on this three-part series, where I'm going to be talking about herbs that can help boost brain function for our children. Yes, of course they can help boost brain function for you as well.

Speaker 1: 29:14

If you have not already listened to the one where I talked about supporting the immune system for our children, definitely go back and listen to that, because there's some pretty important insight. It's not always about boosting the immune system, so do tune into that and if this is really helpful for you, again, please reach out and let me know, share it with your friends and please leave me a review on your favorite podcast listening place. Hopefully it's a five-star review. I would love to hear from you and I thank you again so very much for tuning into this episode. I hope the rest of your week is phenomenal. Bye.

Speaker 1: 29:59

Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the Herbalist Path. Being on this journey with you is absolutely incredible. If you dig this episode, please leave me a review on your favorite podcast player and share it with your friends so that together we can make herbalism hashtag spread like wildflowers. On another note, I must mention that, while I know you're getting some good info here, it's important to remember that this podcast is purely for entertainment and educational purposes and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. While the information in this podcast is absolutely relevant, herbs work differently for each person and each condition. That's why I recommend you work with a qualified practitioner, whether that be another herbalist, a naturopath or your doctor. So thank you again. I am truly honored that you're tuning into these episodes and on the path with me to make sure that there's an herbalist in every home. Again, don't forget to share this episode with your friends so that we can make herbalism Hashtag spread like wildflowers.