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Carrie

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A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America's Children

by Beth Lambert

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Carrie said: " This book is a fascinating look at the etiology of many of the issues which plague our young children. While allopathic medicine does not offer any answers to conditions like ASD, eczema and digestive disorders, and asthma beyond medications that mig This book is a fascinating look at the etiology of many of the issues which plague our young children. While allopathic medicine does not offer any answers to conditions like ASD, eczema and digestive disorders, and asthma beyond medications that might mitigate the symptoms, functional and holistic practices are untangling the complicated and interconnected underlying causes of these disorders. Once a parent understands the underlying causes, it gives her options to go about healing the child instead of just treating the symptoms. I would say if you keep taking your child to a pediatrician and allergist for a chronic condition and keep getting more of the same band-aid approach, this is a great jumping off point to actually start helping your child get better on your own or with the help of an integrated physician.

Some of the interconnected pieces of the puzzle of chronic disease which are covered in the book are:
1) The digestive system, and how the health or dysbiosis of the microbiome impact over-all health and especially neurological health. (Also included are ideas on how to protect the microbiome and how to rebuild a healthy microbiome in the case of dysbiosis).
2) How environmental toxins play a part on chronic disease, and steps that can be taken to lessen the toxic burden for your child. It is important to note that even prescription medicines and OTC medicines like Tylenol can contribute to the toxic burden and impair detoxification pathways for vulnerable children by using up critical stores of glutathione, leaving the body unable to handle other toxic exposures effectively.
3) How our food system and our Standard American Diet plays a role.
4) How immune system dis-regulation can leave certain people more vulnerable to infections from pathogens.

The book is very well-researched and contains 34 pages notes and references, mostly from peer-reviewed science and medical journals.
There is a final chapter included with many reference on what we can do to prevent these issues in our children, and also to help our children who are currently suffering. This section is rather thin, but does give several resources for parents. There is no step by step plan for recovery, because each child who needs holistic treatment will respond to different interventions and need different support.

I recommend this book for all parents who have a child with a chronic illness, or all prospective and new parents who want to avoid these kinds of illness for their children. On a personal note, I wish I had read this book before I had my first child. I would have been able to avoid some of the issues that he developed in part because of his genetics but also in part because of the bad medical advice I got from his first pediatrician, which only served to compound his problems and make him much much worse. It has taken three years of effort on my part, and consultations with a Bio-Medical MD and an Integrative MD to start to re-balance his body ecology, and I still have a huge amount of work to do to get his digestive system healthy. The two approaches could not be more different. For example, son #1 began having chronic ear infections at age 6 months: Allopathic solution: antibiotics, Tylenol for the pain, then stronger antibiotics when his re-check showed the infection did not go away. Result: antibiotics destroyed the healthy microflora in his digestive system, leaving him prone to re-infection. Tylenol weakened his detoxification system, leaving him more vulnerable to environmental toxins. This vicious cycle continued for a year until he got tubes put in, but by that time, his digestive system was in terrible distress. And as the majority of our immune system in in our digestive system, he had many other problems. For my second son, I knew better than to use anti-biotics for ear infections, and both of his cleared with garlic/mullein oil by the time I went for a re-check (which never happened with my older son and only led to broad spectrum antibiotics for him). Son #1 also had terrible sleep disturbances and erratic energy levels. Pediatrician #1 blamed me for this, and her only solution was to let him CIO. Which did not work, because there was an underlying reason for his chronic night-wakings. When I fired her, pediatrician #2 had no solutions for me either. Finding this underlying reason through trial and error (it was a severe gluten intolerance) solved the problem overnight for him, and for son #2. Where allopathic medicine dismissed the possibility of food intolerances, my Integrative MD looks at this as the very first thing he wanted to test for, and the first course of action toward healing. While my allopathic pediatricians blamed my poor parenting skills for my older son's behaviors, my IMD looked at my notebook full of tests, the charts I have made, and my notes and listened to what I had already tried and what my results were and said, "You are really on the ball, aren't you?" So for parents like me who know that the run-around they are getting from their pediatrician is simply not helping their child get any better, this book offers another path, and resources to find a doctor who will guide you along this path and work with you, not against you. ...more "

Aug 09, 2012 06:55AM · see review

Carrie is currently reading

Super Nutrition for Babies: The Right Way to Feed Your Baby for Optimal Health

by Katherine Erlich MD

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in July 2012

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Carrie said: " If you aren't familiar with the traditional food and real food movement, some of the information in this book may be surprising. This books looks at how feeding practices have evolved over the past few decades, and how children's health has suffered If you aren't familiar with the traditional food and real food movement, some of the information in this book may be surprising. This books looks at how feeding practices have evolved over the past few decades, and how children's health has suffered as a result; with epidemic rates of chronic illnesses such as asthma, eczema, allergies, neurological disorders, auto-immune disorders and immune system dysfunction.

Instead of following the standard advice for feeding babies, which was influenced by baby-food companies, this book looks at traditional feeding practices and at the actual science, and tells parents exactly what to feed their children and when, taking into account when a baby is actually ready to digest certain foods. For example, in modern culture, one of the first foods we give to babies is cereal (recommended by many sources at 4 months) however a babies' digestive system does not contain the enzyme to properly digest grains until after 2 years old or even later. Feeding grains earlier than baby can actually digest them can be to root cause of autoimmune responses like eczema as well as digestive issues.

Because my older son has many digestive and some neurological issues, I have been reading up on healing and holistic nutrition for the past three years in an effort to get him better. This book does a fantastic job of condensing most of the information I have learned in those years into one easy to follow guide. I have mostly feed my younger son according to these guides for his entire life, and he is much healthier, and will start right from the beginning with the baby I am currently carrying on this path of super nutrition in the hopes that I can prevent some of the issues that have popped up for my older children.

This book also has an excellent list of resources for further reading. Many of the books that have helped me unravel the health issues facing my family are there in the Recommended Reading section. Written by a CNC and a practicing pediatrician, this book is the one feeding baby book that all new moms should buy. It will probably become my standard baby shower gift. ...more "

Jul 30, 2012 05:30AM · see review