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Natural Health for Kids
Feb. 10th, 2009 08:04 pmI finally got around to reading this after noticing it on the new book cart a couple of years ago…
Natural Health for Kids by Sarah Wilson Parent and health journalist Wilson talks about combing standard and complementary health care in this handy reference guide. First, she goes over a whole host of different complementary treatments, from more well-known ones like nutritional therapy and standard Western herbalism to relatively obscure ones like iridiology and kinesiology, including homeopathy and essential oils along the way. She starts with a summary of each kind of alternative therapy, but the real meat of the book is a page-by-page listing of 50 common complaints – eczema, teething, colds, and more. For each issue, she lists possible symptoms and causes, conventional medical treatment, and treatment in what she’s determined to be the most relevant complementary therapies. Both conventional and complementary include when you can treat yourself and when you need to take your child to a practitioner. The British origins are obvious from such things as her saying that homeopathy is considered mainstream, if you didn’t get that from the article on nappy rash. The usefulness is limited, however, as Wilson does not include references for anything, neither books about the therapies she’s discussing nor citations when she occasionally says, that studies have shown xyz effective at reducing abc. On the one hand, it’s novel and useful as a reference to have different treatments together in one book. On the other hand, readers will either have to take her at her word or do their own research on her recommendations.
Natural Health for Kids by Sarah Wilson Parent and health journalist Wilson talks about combing standard and complementary health care in this handy reference guide. First, she goes over a whole host of different complementary treatments, from more well-known ones like nutritional therapy and standard Western herbalism to relatively obscure ones like iridiology and kinesiology, including homeopathy and essential oils along the way. She starts with a summary of each kind of alternative therapy, but the real meat of the book is a page-by-page listing of 50 common complaints – eczema, teething, colds, and more. For each issue, she lists possible symptoms and causes, conventional medical treatment, and treatment in what she’s determined to be the most relevant complementary therapies. Both conventional and complementary include when you can treat yourself and when you need to take your child to a practitioner. The British origins are obvious from such things as her saying that homeopathy is considered mainstream, if you didn’t get that from the article on nappy rash. The usefulness is limited, however, as Wilson does not include references for anything, neither books about the therapies she’s discussing nor citations when she occasionally says, that studies have shown xyz effective at reducing abc. On the one hand, it’s novel and useful as a reference to have different treatments together in one book. On the other hand, readers will either have to take her at her word or do their own research on her recommendations.
