No parent likes to see their child sick, but in Kim Pitcher’s case it was borderline traumatic.

She went from doctor to doctor trying to find out what was wrong after she learnt her three-year-old daughter was bleeding internally.

When that didn’t work, the 32-year-old mother looked for a natural solution.

“I was about to fly my daughter out to a specialist overseas when a herbalist got in contact with me through a family friend who explained my situation,” she said.

“I was working at a law firm at the time as a compliance administrator. When we talked on the phone I told her all the symptoms and what was going on with my daughter and she gave me the clearest assessment of what was happening.

“She sent us some herbs that my daughter would need and I saw things improve after the first dosage.”

Ms Pitcher noticed her daughter’s spirit immediately lifted; her appetite also returned soon after.

She removed all dairy from her daughter’s diet and gave her more natural, whole foods, as well.

“As things progressed her body healed and she got stronger,” Ms Pitcher said. “She’s now ten years old and whenever anything with her health seems to go south I go online and do some researching for natural remedies and she’s good.”

Since then, Ms Pitcher has been a huge believer in natural alternatives.

She even offers them to residents at Living Well Senior Centre, a rest home she owns in Somerset.

In the short while since mixing up some client’s diets, she has already noticed improvements in their health.

“Last year I built a raised garden in the yard with all sorts of plants,” she said. “Now we have banana and pawpaw trees and grow pumpkins, beets, kale, tomatoes, broccoli and cucumbers when we can.

“The best part is the residents can have salads every day for lunch. We use romaine lettuce or spinach and top it with carrots, tomatoes and garlic, which is a big thing for us here.

“If you saw us making the salad you might think we were using too much garlic, around two tablespoons in each, but once you put the salad dressing on you can’t even taste it.

“Since we’ve been doing that no one gets sick. There is no flu, no colds. That’s because garlic is a natural antibiotic and good for killing viruses.”

Ms Pitcher collaborated with a local naturopath to institute more changes.

“We wanted more live foods like sprouts and different things because I’ve done a lot of reading and we have a diabetic here at the home,” she said.

“He shouldn’t have too much bread or pasta and if you take that out of our old menu he wouldn’t be able to eat much except the salad, so we contacted Kuni Frith to find out what we could do and she gave us some advice.”

The result? The home now uses more organic ingredients and has a full gluten-free menu in place.

Ms Pitcher and her mother, Grace Smith, took over the rest home two years ago. She’s now operating it on her own, with the help of staff.

In addition to changing what the residents eat, she’s also given them the option of using alternative medicines.

“So one thing I do is give the residents aloe,” she said. “Sometimes I make them aloe and ginger water. We also give them cucumber, lemon and ginger water and that’s good for inflammation.

“Then a few months ago I started giving one of the ladies coconut oil because I read of how it is good for dementia and I’m in the right environment to test it out. It works. She used to sit all day and watch TV. She wasn’t able to identify colours or complete a sentence, whereas communication is definitely easier now.

“She wasn’t one that wanted anything, but getting her to do the whole process of brushing her teeth was hard.

“Now she will see her toothbrush out and is able to do that by herself. You can have a conversation with her. She takes a bath on her own.”

Some research has shown that coconut oil helps with brain function.

Ms Pitcher has also used it on a woman with an itchy scalp.

“I have already completed a course in how to use aromatherapy for joint and muscle pain,” she said. “I have put together a pain-relieving lotion and used that on one client who had joint pain. I would use this on her and within 15 minutes that joint pain was gone. It’s been a substitute for Tylenol and Advil, which can cause stomach irritation, so instead of a pain reliever there is the natural alternative.”

Ms Pitcher said raw foods had also changed her life for the better. While doing a recent cleanse she dropped 15lbs in 20 days, without any additional exercise.

“Even after I came off the cleanse for two months I still eat raw and the weight stayed off,” she added.

“I had more energy and was able to think clearer because my body wasn’t congested. I also found when I could get more things done and didn’t need to go back to my bed to rest until it was time to go to sleep.”

Ms Pitcher has signed up for other natural courses online. She plans to one day open her own natural health facility, so she can make her services available to the public. Contact Living Well Senior Care on 238-0863.