Is It Safe to Heal? Or Are We Asking the Wrong Question? | 177

Links from episode . . .

Subscribe to Follow Your Gut with Juniper Bennett wherever you listen to podcasts

Transcript:


There is one question underneath almost every message we receive.


Is this safe?


Is it safe for my child? Is it safe during pregnancy? Is it safe while breastfeeding? Is it safe if I am sick? Is it safe after chemo? Is it safe to keep taking the supplements when my child has an ear infection?


My friends, we are asking the wrong question.


In this episode, we are going to dive deep into the safety of rebalancing, and just as importantly, the flip side of that conversation, which is what actually happens when we leave bad bacteria, yeast, mold, fungus, parasites, heavy metals, and toxins in the body.


Most people who find their way here have tried just about everything. You have likely tried every elimination diet, tried so many different supplements, you’ve spent hours and hours at appointments with different practitioners hoping someone would finally connect the dots, you’ve been told to wait it out, you’ve been told it’s normal, you’ve been told that your child will outgrow it or that your symptom will just go away with time, and you’ve probably been handed prescriptions for medications that suppress your or your child’s symptoms but don’t actually address the root issue. 


So of course you’re skeptical, because when you’ve tried so many things and nothing has truly worked, it’s easy to start losing hope.


I know because I was you. I was in your exact place when I was trying so desperately to heal my son. I remember thinking, if it’s really as simple as his gut needing to be rebalanced, why didn’t one of the seventeen doctors I took him to tell me about this sooner? And underneath that question was a lot of fear.


I was pregnant and breastfeeding when we met with the naturopath who would ultimately change everything for us. I remember sitting there listening while my mind raced through every possible worst case scenario. I was thinking about my baby in my belly, my two and a half year old at my breast whose symptoms had completely taken over our lives, and all I could think was, what if this is too much? Is it really safe for my tiny boy to take these supplements? Would the silver turn him blue? Would it cause brain damage? What are the real risks here, and do the benefits actually outweigh the horrifying scenarios my mind was creating? All of this happened in about thirty seconds while this naturopath calmly and confidently answered questions no one had ever answered before.

He was the first person who had real explanations for my son’s colic, reflux, sour smelling poops, undigested food, mucus and blood in his poop, allergies, eczema, speech delays, and behavioral outbursts. I had been desperately searching for answers his entire life, and here was someone who was completely confident that his gut simply needed to be rebalanced. My mind wanted so badly to believe him, but my heart, that had been crushed by disappointment so many times before, naturally leaned toward skepticism and fear.

There is no way it could really be this simple. How could we have struggled for so long and it be this simple?

I remember it feeling like time stood still. I was going in and out of hearing what the naturopath was saying as my fear got so loud it drowned everything else out. “Is it really okay for me to rebalance while I’m pregnant?” “Is it safe while I’m breastfeeding?” “Will this harm my unborn baby or my nursing son?” “Will it be too much for my son to rebalance and also receive support through my milk?”

My mind was so loud.

And then something shifted.

For the first time, someone wasn’t trying to manage my son’s symptoms. He wasn’t offering another label or another medication or another wait and see approach. He was actually explaining what was happening inside my son's body, why and how his symptoms were all connected, and how his gut was at the center of it all.

That was the moment I realized that the fear I was feeling wasn’t intuitive, it was conditioned. Even though I was already natural minded and open to holistic support, I had this almost out of body experience where I could seel how deep the programming runs in all of us, this illusion that real safety comes from what is mainstream, what is widely accepted, what is approved by the system, and anything outside of that is automatically risky. And what made that moment so confronting for me is that the same system I was trained to trust had watched my child suffer for years without answers, without improvement, and without a path forward.

So I had to ask myself a different question. Was it actually safer to keep doing what we were doing, leaving his immune system constantly activated, his body inflamed, and hoping he would eventually grow out of it, or was it safer to trust what this naturopath was teaching me, to support his body in clearing what didn’t belong, and to give his gut and immune system the chance to do what they were designed to do.

Before I ever said yes, I asked every fear out loud. I asked all the questions racing through my mind. And I want to share with you exactly what my naturopath taught me, what my midwife fully supported, and what ultimately led not only to my son’s complete healing, but to a healthy pregnancy, birth, postpartum season, and eventually the creation of ōNLē itself.

The first thing he helped me understand is that silver is not what most people think it is. Silver is not automatically dangerous, and it is not classified as a heavy metal in the way people fear. What matters is the form, the structure, the dose, and how it behaves in the body. Alkaline structured silver does not accumulate in tissues, does not cross the blood brain barrier, and does not indiscriminately wipe out the microbiome the way antibiotics do. It selectively targets pathogenic organisms while allowing beneficial bacteria to remain and repopulate, which is why silver has been used safely for centuries in wound care, burn units, and healing applications.

He explained that the stories people hear about silver turning skin blue or causing damage come from very specific misuse cases, often involving people making their own silver solutions and taking extremely high amounts over long periods of time, sometimes literally drinking gallons a day. Just like with anything, not all silver is created equal, and poor quality products used improperly can lead to poor outcomes. What he recommended to me was high quality alkaline structured silver designed to work intelligently with the body. That silver is what eventually became our Cleanse supplement.

He also explained why it wasn’t just my son who needed to rebalance, but me as well. I had likely lived most of my life with a gut imbalance without knowing it, and during pregnancy and birth, those imbalances are often unknowingly passed from mother to child. This is incredibly common. And as a way to not risk passing this same imbalance onto my third child, it was important for me to rebalance. 

And because I was still breastfeeding, healing only my son while leaving my own gut imbalanced would mean I would continue passing those imbalances through my milk. And because I was pregnant again, I had the opportunity to either pass imbalance to my third child or strengthen the foundation being built before he was even born.

That reframe changed everything for me. Rebalancing myself wasn’t about doing too much. It was about interrupting a cycle that had been happening silently for generations.

I asked what felt like a billion questions to make absolute certain there were no risks to rebalancing while pregnant? And are you sure it’s okay while breastfeeding? It isn’t going to be too much for my son to rebalance directly while also receiving support through my milk?

What he taught me and what my midwife also fully confirmed, is that supporting the gut and immune system during pregnancy and breastfeeding does not harm the baby. It strengthens the foundation being passed to them. When a mother’s gut is supported, her immune system is stronger, her nutrient absorption improves, inflammation is lower, and the microbiome being transferred to her baby is healthier.

This is one of the most misunderstood parts of healing, because we’ve been taught that pregnancy and breastfeeding are times to pause, to be careful, to do nothing. But in reality, this is one of the most powerful windows we have to restore balance, support the immune system, and change the trajectory of health for both mother and child.

I also asked about long term use of the rebalancing supplements, because it was clear that my son’s healing timeline would not be short. He had lived his entire life with a significant imbalance, so of course his body would need time to heal. It was so hard for me to accept and really understand that there are no risks to taking these supplements, even long term.

They don’t suppress symptoms, and they don’t create dependency. They are designed to support the body in clearing harmful overgrowths and restoring balance, which means continued use supports deep healing.

I want to be very clear here. I would never give my child something that could harm him. I would never rebalance while pregnant or breastfeeding if I was not 1000% confident in the safety of it. This naturopath was the first person who offered me real answers and a real healing path that did not come with negative side effects.

And this matters, because up until that point, every pediatrician we had seen had either told us to wait it out or sent us home with prescriptions for things like steroids, and medications with a mile long list of potential side effects, risks, and long term consequences, none of which addressed the root cause of what was happening in my son’s body.

So when parents ask me if rebalancing is safe, I understand deeply. But after walking this path, and after supporting tens of thousands of families through healing, I can see that we are all asking the wrong question.

The question is not, is it safe to rebalance.

The question we need to be asking is, what are the risks of not rebalancing. What happens when bad bacteria, yeast, mold, fungus, parasites, heavy metals, and toxins are left in the body. What happens when the immune system stays activated, inflammation becomes the baseline, and the nervous system never fully comes out of survival.

There is no time, no season, and no stage of life where leaving bad bacteria, yeast, mold, fungus, parasites, toxins, and heavy metals in the body is the better option. Not in childhood. Not in pregnancy. Not during breastfeeding. Not during illness. Not while aging. Never.

These are the questions that still make me emotional. Because I can’t begin to imagine where my family would be if we had never rebalanced. Our life was a mess. We weren’t sleeping. My marriage was under constant strain. We lived in survival mode for two and a half years, and every day my son’s dark circles got a little darker, he made less eye contact, and I could feel, deep in my body, that if something didn’t change, I was going to lose him.

And I don’t say that dramatically. I say it honestly. I watched his light dim while we waited, while we managed, while we were told to give it time.

The answer to what happens when the body is left overburdened with overgrowths and toxins looks different for everyone. For some, it shows up as autoimmune disease. For others, it looks like chronic skin issues, anxiety, digestive dysfunction, hormonal imbalance, developmental delays, or nervous system dysregulation that never quite resolves. Sometimes it looks like one diagnosis. Sometimes it looks like many smaller symptoms that never add up to answers, but together paint a picture of a body that is overwhelmed and asking for help.

This is why this conversation matters so much to me. Because healing isn’t about chasing perfection or fixing something that’s broken. It’s about giving the body the support it needs to come out of survival and back into regulation.

And when I look at my son now, healthy, present, regulated, and fully himself, I know with every cell in my body that the real risk was never healing.

The real risk was waiting.

And I want to say this part clearly, because this is where so many families get stuck.

What happens when imbalance is left alone isn’t always dramatic at first. It can be subtle. The body adapts. It compensates. It finds ways to function around the imbalance. But adaptation is not the same thing as health. Over time, that constant internal stress starts to show up in ways that feel familiar to so many of you listening. Symptoms that come and go. Illnesses that linger longer than they should. Skin that flares, calms, then flares again. Unhealthy stools. Behavior that doesn’t align with who you know your child truly is.

In children, this often looks like recurring ear infections, eczema that won’t fully clear, frequent viruses, sensory sensitivities, speech delays, behavioral outbursts, anxiety, and disrupted sleep. In adults, it can look like autoimmune symptoms, hormonal imbalance, anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, persistent skin issues, constipation or diarrhea, and a constant feeling that something isn’t right, even when labs come back normal. Sometimes one thing improves and something else shows up. This is the body trying to communicate.

This is why waiting is like letting a wildfire burn. Imbalances don’t clear themselves. And when there is too much bad bacteria, yeast, mold, fungus, parasites, heavy metals, and toxins, beneficial bacteria don’t stand a chance to restore balance on their own.

The body will keep adapting for as long as it can, but eventually adaptation turns into breakdown.

And this is where the conversation comes full circle. Rebalancing is not about doing something extreme. It is about giving the body the opportunity to finally reset, regulate, and heal instead of continuing to survive around a problem that will not resolve on its own.

Healing is not the risk.
Ignoring what the body has been asking for is.


Transformation of the week:

This is why I will forever shout about rebalancing from every rooftop.

Because what she’s describing here is deep foundational healing after years of struggling. 

Rebalancing definitely is not a quick fix. But this transformation is such a beautiful reminder that it is never too late to heal. 


Now for our question of the week:

  • I had a question about your recent post! What is the effect of Pitocin on the baby's gut? And mine too I guess. 

This is such a great question. So pitocin is synthetic oxytocin, and while it can absolutely be life-saving in situations like preeclampsia, it does have downstream effects on both mama and baby. 

Oxytocin isn't just a labor hormone. It also plays a role in nervous system regulation, gut motility, immune signaling, and the gut-brain connection.

For babies, high or prolonged exposure to pitocin can impact how their nervous system and gut communicate in those very first moments of life. That can show up later as unhealthy poops, immune dysregulation, and skin symptoms like eczema. 

For mamas, pitocin can also disrupt the body's natural hormone signaling and stress response, which directly affects the gut microbiome. And because your baby's microbiome is seeded from yours it means the implications really go full circle.

If you have needed pitocin, none of this means you did anything wrong. You made the best choices you could in situations that required medical support. It just means rebalancing will be really important for you and your baby no matter how old your baby is when you learn this information.