“Merlene Dilger”
·
Tell us a little bit
about you and your family?
Hi, my name is Merlene. I am a practicing Chiropractor with a special
interest in pregnancy, babies, and children. I also have qualifications as a
Clinical Nutritionist, and I’m a Counsellor for the Australian Breastfeeding
Association. I own my own practice – Better Health Practices – with my husband
Ron (also a chiro) and I have 2 beautiful children – Murray is 9 and Tarni is
6. We have a Herbalist, 3 Chiros, a Massage Therapist, a Pilates instructor,
and run Gymbaroo/Babyroo classes from our premises. My son Murray has food
sensitivities (wheat and dairy) and after pulling wheat out of my diet I have
realised how bad wheat is for me, so I suppose that makes me wheat-sensitive
too! Murray tends to get really snotty and his ears fill with fluid if he has
any significant amount of wheat, whereas I just bloat up. It’s terrible stuff
for most of us, really.
·
What one ingredient can
you not live without and why?
This is a bit of a tough one – my cooking patterns are constantly
evolving as I learn more about we should (and shouldn’t) put into our bodies. I
am really getting into using Coconut Oil now instead of the old favourite olive
oil – and really enjoying the taste. Coconut oil is the most stable oil – it
does not degrade at all when heated. So all the other oils (olive, avocado, nut
oils etc) are great for us as long as we don’t heat them up.
·
If you had half an hour
to cook dinner and realized you didn’t have anything planned, what would you
cook?
If I have access to my Thermomix, then I could do a few of my favourites
– a mushroom risotto, or perhaps tempeh bolognaise with gluten-free spaghetti.
If I didn’t have access to my Thermomix then I would probably do some toasted
‘rollies’ as they are known in my house – mountain bread (not strictly
wheat-free I know) wrapped around some avocado, mayo, smoked salmon, whatever I
have in my fridge really, and then toasted (I add cheese for my daughter as she
doesn’t have a problem with dairy). In half an hour I could probably also whip
up Collette’s Apple Crumble – so easy and sooo yummy!
·
What is once piece of
advice you can pass on to other busy mums?
It is fine to be busy, but when you are with your kids – be with them –
be present in mind as well as body. I have learnt this by trial and error
really. Having my mind elsewhere when I am with my kids is a sure-fire way of
getting bad behaviour out of my daughter. And even if I haven’t had a great
quantity of time with my kids, if I am truly present when I am with them, this
makes me feel a lot more connected with them, and I carry that with me when I
am busy and not with them.
·
If you could have dinner
with any 3 people in the world, who would it be and why?
Only 3! Ok, Anita Roddick (founder of the Body Shop, author, and
amazingly ethically responsible entrepreneur), Edmund Hilary (first man to
climb Everest), and can I say my hubby? I would really like to share meeting
these people with him – and we don’t get much of a chance to get out to dinner
these days!
·
You own “Better Health
Practices” at Kariong, you are a Chiropractor yourself, plus more....I would
love to more of what you do and what started this passion?
I fell into Chiropractic really – I knew I
could never sit at a desk so I looked at studying physio versus chiro and liked
the chiro philosophy – the way it looks at the whole
picture, rather than looking at symptoms. Ron and I started the Chiro part of Better
Health Practices in 1997 when we moved to the coast. Chiro kept me healthy and
functioning as I trained to compete in the Ironman Triathlon the following
year. A few years later our first child was born, and that is probably where my
desire to work with kids began. My confidence in caring for children with
Chiropractic grew as my family did, but I still feel quite a weight of
responsibility in looking after kids. And wellness is more than just having a
well-functioning spine and nervous system, so I decided to complete a grad dip
in clinical nutrition, which I finished a couple of years after my daughter was
born. I also qualified as a Breastfeeding Counsellor during this time, as
supporting women to breastfeed really gets to the bottom of health and
well-being for children. The Breastfeeding Association were a constant source
of support and encouragement as I breastfed both my babies into toddlerhood.
In line with this philosophy of supporting
wellness from the beginning, I have recently added Gymbaroo to the services I
offer at my clinic. Gymbaroo is a movement-based class activity for babies to
pre-schoolers. It aims to educate parents on the importance of each
developmental stage that children go through, whilst having fun! From tummy
time strategies, to cementing pre-reading skills such as good upper body
strength and smooth eye tracking across a page, it is a fantastic programme and
I am really enjoying watching the kids in my classes conquer new motor skills,
knowing that it is not just good for their body, but great brain food as well!
As always, my family are my constant
inspiration. My son has really led me down a lot of the professional pathways I
have gone down over the last few years, he is my greatest teacher really. My
oft-neglected husband is always so supportive of my work, and my daughter
reminds me how good it feels, and how important it is to laugh and smile every
day.
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