About Cherelle
Hey there, I'm Cherelle First-Wax, a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Holistic Health Coach, and Aromatherapist. I came to this work the way most parents do — through love, exhaustion, and a system that kept failing us.
My son was diagnosed with a congenital brain defect at birth. At three, autism. At five, ADHD. For years we cycled through specialist after specialist — appointments, evaluations, second opinions, IEPs — navigating a system that moved slowly and listened even more slowly. We were told what our son would never do. We were given a path and expected to follow it without question.
When he was put on an ADHD medication, I watched my sweet, smart, curious boy disappear. Within months he was slamming doors and punching me. That wasn't my son. That was a child whose body was telling us — loudly — that something was wrong.
So we stopped. We took him off the medication, and I started asking different questions.
"Within weeks of starting omega-3s, I had my boy back. Himself, but calmer. Present, but more regulated. Not sedated. Not flattened. Him — just supported."
The gap no one told me about.
Here's what I discovered that no specialist had ever mentioned: 75% of U.S. medical schools have no required clinical nutrition classes. The doctors we trust with our children's brains average just 19 hours of nutrition training across their entire four-year education. They aren't withholding information — they genuinely were never taught it. That's not a criticism. It's a gap. And it's why so many families like ours don't know they have options.
I will never tell you what to do. Every child is different. Every body is different. Medication works for some families, and that is completely valid. What I believe is that every parent deserves to know all of their options — and most of us aren't given that chance. I wasn't.
He was told he would never walk, talk, or feed himself.
That's what the maternal-fetal medicine specialist said at birth. My son is now twice-exceptional and academically gifted. He started homeschooling this year — not because he was falling behind, but because the school system couldn't keep up with him. He'll be doing an accelerated program next year. He is, in every sense of the word, a miracle. And nutrition is part of why.
My daughter brings her own beautiful complexity — a physical diagnosis at birth, and we're now navigating dysautonomia, POTS, and a possible EDS diagnosis. Her gut and her emotions are deeply connected in ways I understand more fully every day. Our family doesn't live in textbook cases. We live in the complicated, layered, real-world version — which means I understand yours, too.
I wanted to be the guide I never had.
I spent years as a health insurance agent — I know how the system works from the inside. Then I spent eleven years as a full-time caregiver: sitting in waiting rooms, reading studies at midnight, advocating in IEP meetings, and learning to trust what I was seeing in my own children even when the paperwork said otherwise. I'm also navigating my own health journey, which has given me something no textbook could — firsthand experience of what nutrition does to a brain and a body in real time.
I went back to school and earned my certifications because I wanted to be what I needed most: someone who actually listens. Who helps you navigate picky eating without shame. Who meets your family exactly where it is, and helps you find what works — gently, sustainably, and on your terms. Not someone who hands you a plan and tells you everything you're doing wrong.
That's what Happy Home Holistics is. And if you've made it this far, I have a feeling you're exactly who I built it for.
