Deborah Bain, M.D., founder of Healthy Kids Pediatrics, has earned integrative medicine board certification from the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS). The ABPS is the official certifying body of the American Association of Physician Specialties, Inc., and is the third-largest nationally recognized, multi-specialty certifying organization in the United States.

By achieving this high standard, Bain is double-board certified in pediatrics and integrative medicine, a higher level of accomplishment than certification through various organizations. Bain says this board certification can help her better serve patients by giving children the gift of health they deserve. Requirements for board certification include knowing all facets of both conventional and holistic care for children and adults.

“We as physicians, along with the children’s parents, need to do all that we can to raise the healthiest child possible so they have the best chances in life. From birth, children don’t have voice—we are their voices. With this great responsibility, it takes the extensive education to back it up,” says Bain. Having Integrative Medicine Board certification also allows Bain to implement new treatment protocols learned through the integrative medicine coursework she completed.

As an integrative pediatrician, Bain focuses on nutrition deficiencies and the root causes of disease. She offers specialized testing and screening for autoimmune disease, food sensitivities and vitamin deficiencies, and to identify genetic triggers. Bain notes that integrative physicians must know both Eastern and Western medicine philosophies. That includes being knowledgeable of which pharmaceuticals to use for certain conditions, but also knowing the natural, holistic equivalents that can achieve results. Bain specializes in treating eczema, asthma and autoimmune diseases.

“In conventional medicine, an ear infection might be treated with antibiotics, but other ways of treating that same illness in an integrative fashion would be using things like garlic oil eardrops, colloidal silver or lymphatic drainage,” Bain explains. “For severe cases, I can pull that antibiotic while I’m also using garlic oil. It’s about having more tools to treat the same condition.”

In addition, Healthy Kids Pediatrics carries an extensive selection of nutraceutical supplements, essential oils, probiotics, detoxification support and homeopathic remedies for the whole family.

Bain recently expanded Healthy Kids Pediatrics by adding an additional nurse practitioner. As children head back to school this fall, Bain realizes families will be concerned about the health of their children during the ongoing pandemic. “We are expanding some of our recommendations on how to keep families well during this time,” Bain says. “Those include homeopathy and an expanded list of protocols to help keep kids well as they go back to school.”

Because recent research has shown that brain development does not reliably reach adult levels of functioning until well into the third decade of life, The American Academy of Pediatrics identifies adolescence as up to age 21; Bain will now see her established patients through their college years up to age 23.

Although Bain recently achieved this high standard of integrative medicine board certification, she’s continually expanding her knowledge by completing coursework for homeopathy certification through the Center for Education and Development of Homeopathy and will take the certification exam this summer. She is also taking a comprehensive functional immunology course through Cogence for further certification.

Bain is one of few pediatricians in Texas that has achieved board certification in integrative medicine. “We physicians have such time constraints that we have to choose wisely on what our education looks like,” Bain concludes. “For the health of my patients and their families, I chose to pursue wider range of education that goes far beyond my pediatric board certification.”

Bain is accepting new patients and sees people for in-person appointments and virtually through telemedicine visits and consults.

Healthy Kids Pediatrics is located at 4851 Legacy Dr., Ste. 301, in Frisco. For more information, call 972-294-0808 or visit HealthyKidsPediatrics.com.