Brain Power with Dr. Eko

EP. 29 | Discover Glow Pediatrics: Our Mission and Services.

• Dr. Hokehe Eko • Season 1 • Episode 29

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Can early intervention in ADHD and autism truly revolutionize a child's development? In this episode, I passionately discuss the critical importance of timely evaluations and the comprehensive process my practice implements to support families. From filling out forms and submitting videos to engaging in virtual appointments, I unveil the detailed journey toward diagnosis. Following a diagnosis, what happens next? I break down the subsequent steps, including referrals to occupational therapy, speech therapy, and ABA therapy, and I address the frustrating reality of waitlists. To bridge these gaps, Glow Pediatrics is launching the Glow Circle, a support initiative designed to ensure children and families thrive during the waiting period.

But that's not all—discover how Glow Pediatrics is redefining pediatric care through integrative and holistic approaches. I explain how combining conventional treatments with evidence-based complementary therapies allows me to address the root causes of health issues. By evaluating a child's overall well-being, I emphasize the connections between brain health, gut health, environment, and emotional state. Specific testing and personalized care plans are crucial, particularly for conditions like ADHD and autism. Additionally, these Circles offer invaluable support to parents who are either awaiting services or not yet ready for membership, providing expert guidance and resources. Tune in to learn how Glow Pediatrics is committed to fostering health and well-being from the inside out.

Find the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel!

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If you want to schedule an ADHD/Autism appointment for your child, you may contact Glow Pediatrics:

🌐 Website: www.glowpediatrics.com
📱 Instagram: @drhokeheeko / @glowpediatrics
📧 dreko@glowpediatrics.com
👍 Facebook: Dr.HokeheEko / glowpediatrics
💼 LinkedIn: hokeheeffiongmd

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Hello, hello everyone. How are you today? It's me Dr Eko, your happy brain pediatrician, here to talk to you today about Glow Pediatrics. So first of all, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who sends messages. Thank you for spreading our mission around the world literally. Thank you for telling others about our big mission, which is to help as many children as we can get the support, get the help that they need now, rather than in two years or in 27 months or depending on where you are and how long the wait list is, because it's not just about the child, it's about the entire family, because once the child, once your child, is thriving, that means your entire family is thriving, and that's our big mission here at Glow Pediatrics. So thank you again, and please keep sharing with family and friends and whoever needs to hear about the services that we offer. So I'm going to just dive into what we do at Glow Pediatrics.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

So where does the name Glow come from? Let's start from the beginning. It comes from a play on my name, which means light of God. So Hokehe means light of God, and so I wanted something to describe that, and so I came up with the name Glow, and so really, our motto is that why we really exist as a practice is so that every child that we come in contact with can glow with health from the inside out. And we know for certain that if children are glowing with health from the inside out, the parents are as well, and the community at large so, and that's why we continue to do what we do every day. So what do we do? Great question, and I'm glad you asked. So.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Glow Pediatrics has several services. First one is that we offer virtual ADHD and autism evaluations for children aged ages 18 months all the way up to 10, maximum 12 years of age. Right, and so what does that entail? It means that if your child needs, if you suspect or your pediatrician suspects that your child has ADHD or has autism, you can contact us. Currently, we are in the states of Oklahoma, georgia, maryland and Minnesota, and adding more states as we speak, and so if you're watching this and you're in a state where you haven't been able to get access to care, please leave us a message. We'll be sure to work on adding your state to our list so that we can provide care for you, because that's really our big mission is to provide care for you, because that's really our big mission is to provide care for as many children as possible, and thank you for helping us in that mission. And so so that's the first service that we offer offer evaluation services.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

But we don't stop there, because that's that's the tip of the iceberg, because the most common question I get is so what's next, doc? Now you've told me my child has either ADHD or autism, or both, as sometimes we see, because ADHD and autism occur a lot of times together. So what's next? That's a great question, and there's often a myriad of things that parents have to navigate through, like where do they get referrals from to go to what therapist and what does their child exactly need? And often, so often, in my office I hear the question will my child be able to perform well in school? Will my child be able to live a fulfilling life? And those are great big, which I will address at the end, but in the immediate time after we do the evaluations.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

So the first, the two-step process, right? So we, first of all, we send you forms, you fill those out, you return those to us, we ask for some videos from you, we get those back, we schedule your appointment and we do the evaluation, where we spend an hour, an hour and a half or however long it takes to do like a complete evaluation so meaning from when you were pregnant all the way to current day for your child, and we get all of that done. And then we have a second visit that's also done virtually where we discuss the results of the evaluation, right, and so at that meeting we also will offer or we'll discuss what's the next steps, right? So what are the usual next steps that we see? So a lot of children with us talk about autism. So a lot of children with autism may have things like this. So if your child is clumsy, falls a lot, if your child is unable to tie their shoelaces according to whatever age they are, if they're unable to use utensils to eat with, so things like that, that may be an indication that your child doesn't have enough motor strength, which could indicate that they need an occupational therapist right To help strengthen their muscles and help teach them the skills that they need. And so that's one referral that you will possibly need, right?

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Another referral could be speech. Lots of children who have been diagnosed with autism may or may not be able to speak right, and so there's a need for speech therapy. There's also applied behavior analysis therapy, which is also called ABA therapy, and that's specific behavioral therapy that's used for children with autism, and so that's another kind of referral, right? So that's three so far, and often those referrals depending on the state you're in you need your pediatricians. For the most part, you need your pediatricians, or for the most part, you need your pediatricians, you need your pediatrician to send a referral to those providers to get the services you need, right? But unfortunately, there's often always a wait list too, and that's where Glow Circles comes in, right, because there is such a wait list for services we're creating Actually, we're starting next week we're creating what we call the Glow Circle, which is while you wait for the services that you need for your children.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Wouldn't it be amazing? Because I thought of this, because I kept hearing so many parents say what's next? What do I do while I'm waiting for the speech therapy? What do I do with my child while I'm waiting for the occupational therapist? What do I do with my child while I'm waiting to get on the ABA wait list, right? So we decided that we had a solution.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

So what's the solution? That we will bring in the experts speech therapists, the occupational therapists, the ABA therapists bring them in in front of you. You show up to your small group class maximum 20 people in there so you can ask all the questions, and we're going to do those sessions like on a regular basis, right, so that the experts are in front of you, you can ask all the questions. Experts are in front of you, you can ask all the questions. They can show you strategies and things that you can start working on at home with your children while you wait to get into the speech therapist. Now tell me in the comments if you think that that's an amazing thing and you would like to be a part of that, because I would like to know how many parents would be interested in that.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Because I feel like if you can sit in front of somebody who does this on a daily basis and you can ask them your questions, then that's a no-brainer right, and then that way you feel more comfort and hope as a parent, because now you have an idea and a sense of what to expect when you do get into speech therapy. But then you've already started working on on things that hold while you wait, right, so no time is wasted and really my goal and my mission is to shrink the amount of wait time we have right for between recognizing symptoms and then getting a diagnosis, and then after diagnosis, how do you get support. So my mission is to shrink that time so that you're already in front of the people that you may need their help, right, and you can ask all the questions and you can get help at home. So again, leave it in the comments if this is something that you'd be interested in and we will contact you. So same thing for ADHD, with the ADHD evaluation. It's also a two-visit process where we ask all the questions again, from pregnancy all the way to current day for the child, and we're asking all the person in question. We'll give you some forms to fill out and then at the second visit we will discuss what the diagnosis is and question how long between first visit and second visit Right now it's about a week so that we have enough time to look over the evaluations that have been done and then we can follow up with you. So it's about a week between the two and so we go over that, over the results of the evaluation, and then also we make a plan plan of action for your child.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

So that brings me to the second major service that we offer at Glow Pediatrics, which is integrative or holistic medical ongoing care, right? So what does that mean? Integrative care basically means it's a combination of conventional medical care and evidence-based which is key complementary therapy. So meaning I, the integrative pediatrician, looks at your child from the inside out, your whole child. I look at the brain health of your child. I look at the gut health of your child. I look at your child's environment physical, virtual, what's going on at school. I look at the emotional health of your child. So I'm looking at your entire child, right?

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

So I'm not just saying, oh, here's a symptom, here's a medicine. I'm asking why? Why do you not sleep? Why are you so constipated? Those are the questions. That's the way I look at it. I'm like a detective, asking the why question so I can get to the root cause and address it, of what creating the symptoms that we see in your child, right? So, for example, for a child that doesn't sleep, the question is not going to be oh, you don't sleep, here's some sleep medicine. The question is going to be the questions are going to be what time do you put your child to bed? What's your sleep routine? How cool is the room or not cool? Are there any devices in your child's room? The light on in your child's room? What does the child do before bed? How often does your child wake up from sleep? And on and on. So it's just questions that help us figure out what we need to change. That often will change the way the child is sleeping.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

My goal is not I'm not against medication, let me say that again I'm not against medications. I just will not. That's not the first thing I will do. The first thing I will do is figure out why, why we have the symptoms we have and, if possible, address those symptoms. Because even if I gave you medication and I don't address those symptoms, I'm simply putting a band-aid on what is going on with your child and I refuse to practice that way any longer. So now I know better, I do better, right? So that's what we do. We come up with a plan. We ask all the questions, come up with an ongoing plan for you, the parent and the child. We do do testing, specific testing, especially around food sensitivities, because in my experience and my training I have, we found that and lots of research shows that we are literally what we eat.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Gut health is critical to brain health. Adhd and autism are both brain-based disorders, so it's critical to investigate what's going on with the child's brain, what's going on with their gut, and often it starts with what's going on with their gut, because there's so much research to show that a lot of the underlying issue with ADHD and autoimmune inflammation and inflammation in the gut, that's where it often starts. So it makes sense to address that what's going on with the gut health so that we can address the overall child as well, the overall health of the child. So that's the way the process works. And then we have an ongoing membership If you decide to work with us, where we have experts and you will get to see a nutritionist and all of that, and just trying to provide whole child care is what our mission and our goal is, and so there's difference I mean.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

So back to the glow circle. So the glow circles are for parents who are waiting and may not necessarily want to join the membership, but you have access to the experts to get your questions answered while you wait and while you decide what it is you're going to do so, for example, if we're not in your state yet, that would be a great place to join so that you can get the answers and the help you need while you wait. So I hope this was helpful. Please leave any questions and I will be sure to answer them, and it was a pleasure talking with you. I wish you an amazing rest of your day. Take care everyone.