Healthy Child, Whole Child: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine to Keep Your Kids Healthy
"According to a Harvard study, Americans now pay more visits to alternative practitioners in a year than they do to primary care physicians.... They're spending $250 million a year on homeopathic remedies, and close to $4 billion on nutritional supplements.... But is this stuff safe for kids?" Yes, claim physicians Ditchek and Greenfield, practitioners of "integrative pediatrics" (as derived from Andrew Weil's Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona). In this  clear and compassionate guide, the authors combine the best of alternative and conventional treatments, medications and lifestyle choices to bolster children's immune systems, address health questions with the least invasive but most effective treatment available from the pantheon of global medical practices, and offer recommendations for common illnesses like ear infections and asthma. They conclude with a 12-month program whereby families can incorporate integrative choices into their lives. Seeking to address the "whole child," Ditchek and Greenfield's expansive reach includes issues like societal messages, physical fitness and environmental dangers and their impact on children's health. For quick reference, call boxes highlight critical topics, including "Ten Reasons Our Kids Are Couch Potatoes" and a "Summary of Useful Herbs for Children," and a comprehensive appendix of resources for everything from vaccinations to ADHD, with an array of Web sites, is included. Friendly, balanced and commonsensical, this demystification of nontraditional medical practices and options will be appreciated by parents of children of all ages. Agent, Richard Pine.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.