Healthy Kids, Happy Moms: 7 Steps to Heal and Prevent Common Childhood Illnesses

by Sheila Kilbane MD, Tamela Rich (Primary Contributor)

In Healthy Kids, Happy Moms, integrative pediatrician Sheila Kilbane, MD, shares the methodology she’s developed over almost twenty years of practicing medicine: a seven-step process that can begin to heal your child’s chronic illness from the inside out.

This book will equip you with the information and tools you need to transform your child’s health, including:


how to understand your child’s medical history and how seemingly different issues are related
the role of inflammation in recurrent childhood illnesses
how to uncover the root of your child’s inflammation, which drives recurrent illnesses
the important role gut health plays in overall health
what nutrients your child might be deficient in and what foods he or she may need more of
how to find good quality supplements for your child when needed
thirty-two kid-friendly recipes to help even the busiest families make significant changes
If you’re weary from dragging your child to endless doctor appointments and administering medication after medication, let Dr. Kilbane help you take control of your child’s health.

Genres: Health, Parenting

304 pages, Hardcover

Published September 14, 2021

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughtful approaches that have helped us navigate food allergies. Really needs a good editor.

[Lgordo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a big book with very little content. It's basically the same info over and over with some very excellent illustrations. If you want an introductory primer on functional medicine and how it might be for your family, this is a good book to take out of the library. I took it out of the Little Free Library so it's been sitting on my shelf and I do occasionally look at it. But the truth is, it's not very detailed.

If you read this book and think "Wow, what's the next step?!" Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT go to Dr Kilbane's website. Turns out she's a pill-pusher of the first order and will attempt to sell you on some kind of supplement package that you probably don't need. I get at least 1 email a day from her. During the week of Thanksgiving it was more like 3 a day, all trying to impress me with the urgency of subscribing to some sort of package that will solve all my problems. I have used Claude to reverse engineer her private-labeled supplements (spoiler, most are from Ortho-Molecular) and I have two conclusions: (1) some of her stuff is really over-kill once you see what's inside and (2) you can get basically the same thing for cheaper elsewhere. I cannot see her profile photo anymore without imagining her smirking from a Caribbean island while people subscribe to her "multivitamin."

Okay so what is the next step? I'm sure there are a ton of great functional medicine books out there. I found Healing the New Childhood Epidemics to be the opposite end of the spectrum -- almost too much information. I don't know what's in between. I do believe that understanding how your body works and taking some targeted supplements can really make a difference. So go ahead and read this book, but don't make it your last book, and definitely don't let it funnel you into the author's income stream.

[Megan Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great resource. It compiles much of what I’ve learned and researched through the years all in one place. She has a doable, slow action plan for families that need help transitioning from and inflammatory, standard American diet to wholesome & nourishing diet as well as how to begin the basics of supplementation.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I loved the ideas behind this book and fully support integrative medicine I think this book could use another round of editing for grammatical errors and a little less religion.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think every parent should read this book whether your kid has chronic health issues or not. In fact, I think this book would be worth the read for adults too.

[Achu Aswathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book as it gave a lot of insights how we can change one's condition or improve from illness having nutritional food that are right for the person. I got to know more about the dairy and food that cause inflammation and allergic foods to stomach of few. We can improve our health and our kids looking at what we eat the day and how it affects in the morning or causing any health issue like indigestion, infection etc.,

We all know doctors give medicine for the symptoms and may forget to find the main underlying cause behind it , the nutrition requirement, environment, stress which are causing inflammation. Making small healthy changes one by one can more effective that we can lessen the visits to our doctor.

Kudos to author Sheila for bringing out her experience as paediatrician and naturopathic doctor. The way she observed each her patient and her thought process to bring some changes into their lives and enlighten the mothers with her knowledge is great and thanks for the insights.

The book is right read for moms and mom to be, to understand how they should hear their gut feeling when it comes to their children. The diet mentioned with the plan and the receipts are very helpful.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE this book! Such an informative guidebook for those looking to heal their gut and prevent common illnesses.

I started my "crunchy mom" journey ~5 years ago while pregnant with my first .... But even with all the positive changes we've made as a family, my 2nd has always had gut issues, skin issues, food sensitivities and allergies. Knowing that it's related to her gut and the food she's eating is one thing, but actually having a plan? Cut out this, replace it with this, add these supplements, and watch for improvement of symptoms, continue for 6 months, how to reintroduce, etc. Priceless.

We've done several elimination diets at different times, but for the most part, we've been flying blind on which foods to tackle, for how long, and what TO eat as we're cutting things.

Dr. Kilbane has all those answers .... and more! in this book. (Which is doubly refreshing in a world where people sell classes and courses on social media. It's now so common to get little tid bits here and there, but not a complete picture, unless you purchase the course! But this book has got it all) Excited to tackle this as a family, and hopefully avoid some of these same issues with my newborn.

[Olivia Finlayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do think this was well organized and easy to follow. I regret having the audiobook rather then a solid copy since she has multiple sources along with the book that help the reader.

My 1 complaint is I figured she would go over the diet plans in more depth, but that could also be in the extra sources she has online.

The concept that your boy has a certain level of inflammation and that if it’s overflowing there is no way to process anything else really stuck with me.
So far I haven’t had to deal with any thing severe like this with me kids🤞🏼but this will make me think twice about feeding them dairy/ inflaming food during that time especially.

Also find it so fun she grew up outside of Cleveland and talked about her family gardening and fresh fish from the lake. Such a serendipitous connection.

[So · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written and informative book - we found this to be incredibly beneficial for our whole family. The book is easy to follow, helpful illustrations with reasonable guidance that is very doable. I highly recommend this book for parents/families alike.

[Amber Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. Listed on Libby. Common sense stuff but a good reminder of how important healthy choices are.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how Sheila provided a blueprint on how to combat inflammation. This is certainly something that makes a huge difference to our health. I know that this book is for kids and helping them to relieve chronic inflammation, but I will certainly be implementing some of these strategies in my own life! She included case studies that showed a before and after, letting us see that these changes do in fact work. The plan was laid out in easy to follow steps with plenty of visuals to help out in the process. There were some pretty yummy recipes in the last chapter (not enough!) that will be staples in my rotation. I would highly recommend this book to all mothers, not only those that have a chronically ill child.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an indispensable resource for taking a holistic health approach focused on children's health. The author focuses heavily on inflammation and gut health, which are intricately tied to all diseases. While medicine can sometimes be necessary, her book seems to mainly follow the old adage that prevention is the best medicine. It is heavily researched with resources in the back of the book, as well as an appendix with RDAs, recommendations, further reading, and many more resources. She challenges the standard American diet and suggests easy lifestyle changes that can make a drastic difference in the health of a child. She includes a number of natural recipes that look healthy and yummy, as well as list of prepackage items that make the health cut as well. This is a fantastic and much needed book on the subject of pediatric health and nutrition.