Mood:
brightTopic: Child Rearing
Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child, 2nd Edition.
By Janet Zand, N.D., L.Ac., Robert Rountree, M.D., & Rachel Walton, MSN, CRNP
A medical doctor, a registered nurse, and a naturopathic physician all together wrote this book!
It is a practical A-to-Z reference to Natural and Conventional treatments for Infants & Children. (and i would say pregnant women as well - there is a section on healthy pregnancy and what herbs can be used during pregancy as well as newborn care).
Their philosophy is that all of the various types of health disciplines like herbal medicine, homeopathy, diet, nutrition supplements, and acupressure, and including modern medicine, can be used, even together, to help the child when they are sick. This is called Complementary Medicine.
The authors state: "Some of the most important decisions parents have to make in caring for their children concern health care. Yet often thay are not aware of the full range of choices available to them. The goal of this book is to offer you information on a variety of approaches that will help you create vibrant good health for your child. The authors believe in an integrated approach to health care that considers all treatment possibilities and draws on what works. Sometimes this will be an herb, sometimes an antibiotic, sometimes both. We believe it is just as significant that a particular therapy has been used effectively for hundreds or thousands of years as it is that a scientific paper substantiates a particular approach. Taking advantage of one form of knowledge does not necessarily preclude using another."
The first part of the book details the various elements of health care, the history of it, and description of each type of treatment, benefits and drawbacks.
Part two is A to Z reference guide. For each condition, let's say Fever, it has a very detailed description of it. I was impressed with all the information and i learned several things i didn't know before.
Then it lists:
1- Conventional Treatment - this refers to modern medicine: tylenol, ibuprofen usage, side effects, etc.
2- Dietary Guidelines - what the child can eat/drink while he has a fever (water, soup, diluted fruit juice)
3- Nutritional Supplements - the vitamins that would be helpful (C)
4- Herbal Treatment - the herbal remedies, such as chamomile, lemon balm, peppermint, ginger, (and that a nursing mother could drink these teas and it would pass to the baby) garlic, wrapping the child's feet with a cloth that was soaked in lemon juice to bring down the fever.
5- Homeopathy - for each kind of fever there is a suggestion on homeopathic elixers and how to give them. these are available in natural health stores but the common ones can now be found in pharmacies like the teething, coughing ones etc.
6- Acupressure - it tells you the locations in the body that can be massaged to effect the particular area in the body that is sick. For fever it is the left hand and left foot.
7- General Recommendations - other info, like dressing the child in cool pajamas under a light sheet, sponging child with warm water or a tepid herbal bath (pour several capfuls of fever-reducing tea of the ones mentioned above and chamomile tea). not to add rubbing alcohol to the bath water, not to sponge with cold water (this i didn't know!), not to give a bath with cold water and why.
8- Prevention - things you can do to prevent it from occurring. (not much when it comes to fever but other conditions could be prevented)
So please, go and get this book! We need to get out of our brainwashing by the medical industry and use the natural remedies that people have been using since the beginning of time and not just rely on drugs completely, though they are important too ofcourse, but it's not the only solution, nor the best solution in most cases, when our kids are sick. But i'm so excited that there's finally a book that is all-inclusive to help us decide what is the best thing to do in each case.
This book also opened my eyes to Naturopathic medicine & Complementary Medicine. The homeopathy was stuck in my mind and i didn't realize there are other, more inclusive disciplines out there. My voyage of self-discovery through reading, rather than jump into formal study and courses, is going slowly but surely and inshaAllah will lead me to the right path of study. But all us mothers need to be 'doctors' in a sense, for the sake of our children and families. So let's be informed ones!
