We recently connected with Carissa Stanton and have shared our conversation below.
Carissa, appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a time when the advice you provided to a client was really spot on? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)
A pregnant mom who had a difficult breastfeeding journey with her first child, I encouraged the mom to bring the infant to myself and a lactation consultant. When the infant was born, the consultant and myself evaluated the baby and found a restrictive tongue tie. With a holistic team of providers, she was able to get help with breastfeeding and her infant’s tongue tie. She was then able to successfully breastfeed the child for 15 months, when her first child she was only able to breastfeed for 2 months. She said this changed her whole mothering experience with her 2nd child: since there wasn’t a struggle with feeding she could enjoy being a parent. And we may have prevented problems that her older child has developed, such as picky eating and asthma.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am the physician and owner of Mindful Pediatrics. Through my practice, I provide holistic pediatric care through a membership based, direct care model. I also provide infant and child wellness consultations: focusing on gut health, maternal factors affecting baby’s health, feeding, tethered oral tissues, and functional breathing. I treat each patient individually and holistically: taking into account the mind, body, spirit and environment. I also focus on getting to the root cause of problems instead of just covering up symptoms. I use an approach called integrative medicine: natural treatments before and/or in addition to modern medicine. My goal is to make children more well, not just less sick. I am also the founder of The KC Well Nest, along with Liz Levy, IBCLC with Lactation Liz and Cody Skinner, MOTR/L with Flourishing Babies. We started KC Well Nest as a collective of holistic, like-minded providers working together to help families be more well. We focus on individualized care to help get to the root of our client’s problems. The collective providers can collaborate to contribute their expertise to make holistic and multidisciplinary care. Other members of the collective are Stephanie Risinger, LCMFT with Hopeful and Whole Counseling providing Perinatal mental health counseling; Kendra Rose, APRN with Growing Pediatrics providing general pediatric care; and Jennifer Osgood, APRN with Wellness Pediatrics KC providing pediatric functional medicine.
“The Nest” is a place where families can be nurtured in a relaxing and welcoming environment. Parents can grab a cup of tea and children can play. There is a nursing room if a family needs to feed their infant in private. There is a relaxation room available: I often “prescribe” this room for parents and/or kids who seem overly stressed or worried. Our goal is to make it less like a stressful medical clinic, and more like a nurturing home setting. We believe families get better care and services when they are relaxed and comfortable!
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
Being genuine to your clients and colleagues: about your intentions, living the wellness lifestyle you promote, accepting your own strengths and weaknesses, humbly working with colleagues, and having genuine concern to help others. If you’re doing things for the right reasons in the right ways, then you will always be successful. The providers at KC Well Nest have this in common: they walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
Liz Levy, Cody Skinner and I have worked together the last couple of years to help many moms and infants who were struggling with feeding and gut health. It became apparent that families needed a convenient, comfortable, and centralized location to see their team of providers helping them. This location needed to have a home-like feel so families felt comfortable and calm while getting their care and treatments. So we decided to open KC Well Nest centered around these goals. Families are loving the convenience of being able to see multiple providers in the same location, and feel nurtured in a space centered around family’s needs. The providers are able to collaborate and share their expertise which improves patient care.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thekcwellnest.com
- Instagram: @thekcwellnest
- Other: www.mindfulpediatricskc.com www.flourishingbabiesot.com www.lizslactation.com www.hopefulandwhole.com www.growingpediatrics.com www.wellnesspediatricskc.com