A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally (2 page)

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Authors: Sue Frederick

Tags: #Health & Fitness, #Women's Health, #test

BOOK: A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally
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Page xii
To my dear girlfriend, Crissie, I offer a great big hug and a warm thank-you.
There are no words to express my gratitude for my spiritual teacher, Swami Shambhavananda, and the great work he has shared with me.
Mostly I am grateful to you, the reader. Over the years, the feedback I've received from you, your sincere questions, and your loving support have assured me that this message of good health is indeed helpful.
 
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INTRODUCTION
During my seven years as editor of
Delicious!
magazine and now as editor of healthshop.com, a Web site devoted to natural health information and products, I've heard from many new parents seeking advice about raising their children. Parents are faced with numerous health decisions, from immunizations to antibiotics, and sorting through all the books, magazines, and advice to find the best information can be an overwhelming experience.
As a new mother myself, I often turned to a number of experts during the first years of my daughter's life. In these pages I offer the information that is most helpful and practical, gleaned from my own experiences and from the opinions of top expertsthe ones I trusted to help me in making my choices. I've put together this user-friendly guide because I understand your questions, concerns, and fears, and because I want to help you raise your baby in good health.
First, let's look at what conventional medicine has to offer you as a parent. Your pediatrician certainly will be helpful when your child is sick. Presumably, he will give you an accurate diagnosis; often an antibiotic will be prescribed as part of the treatment plan. Antibiotics are not the answer to every illness, however. Using antibiotics when your child has a minor ear infection, for example, can weaken the immune system, leaving the child more vulnerable to the next illness and to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Your pediatrician probably will not explain how to boost your child's immunity to prevent future illness.
On the other hand, practitioners of natural medicine will teach you how to strengthen your child's immunity to disease through nutrition, herbs, and vitamins so that she either won't get sick at all or will recover more quickly with fewer complications.
Think of this book as a holistic health conference for your child. Imagine yourself sitting around a table with the most brilliant, insightful practitioners
 
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of complementary medicine today, from Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., nutritional biochemist and chief executive officer of HealthComm International, a health education company in Gig Harbor, Washington, to health practitioner Janet Zand, N.D., L.Ac., O.M.D., author of
Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child.
Imagine being able to ask these experts how to keep your child as healthy as possible. You'll find their answers here. You won't hear them saying that antibiotics are the solution.
Natural medicine does hold the answers we're looking for. It offers a noninvasive, practical approach to preventing and treating disease using time-tested remedies such as herbs, vitamins, homeopathy, and a healthful diet. I've long been a believer in this system of health care, spurred in part by a traumatic experience in my thirties when my first husband died of colon cancer. Thus began my search for a different kind of medicineone that
prevents
disease.
Many of us are fed up with expensive, risky, and ineffective conventional medicine and have taken charge of our health by consulting practitioners of natural medicine. During 1990, Americans made more visits to alternative practitioners than to primary care physicians, according to the
New England Journal of Medicine.
Furthermore, curing rather than preventing disease is costly, notes Joseph Pizzorno, N.D., president of Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington, and co-author of the
Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine:
''Many physicians realize they've come to the limits of technologically oriented disease intervention, and those limits aren't only scientific, they're financial. We can't afford the conventional medical system anymore. We need a new healing paradigm, which promotes health rather than treats disease."
Fortunately, that new healing paradigm can be found in natural medicine, which focuses on prevention. It's clear that the cost of preventing disease is much less than the cost of treating disease, says Robert McCaleb, president of the Herb Research Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization in Boulder, Colorado. "Yet, the Food and Drug Administration has approved only three preventive medicines for over-the-counter use: fluoride toothpaste, sunscreen, and motion sickness pills."
Natural practitioners such as McCaleb recommend several preventive remedies that are time-tested and have been proven effective in numerous European studies. "It's well documented that immune stimulants such as the
 
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herbs echinacea and astragalus defend against colds and flu," he explains, "while garlic, reishi mushrooms, and hawthorn berries help protect the cardiovascular system and lower blood pressure. And green tea extract, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, and antioxidants help protect against cancer."
McCaleb and other natural health proponents also find fault with modern medicine's approach to curing disease. "Most physicians know that the herb echinacea is more effective than antibiotics for treating bronchitis in children, and that antibiotics will interfere with recovery" he continues. "Yet they still prescribe antibiotics frequently, and we're all paying the price."
Since my husband's death twenty years ago, I've used primarily natural medicine to care for myself and my family. I'm more convinced than ever that preventing disease is the only path to good health, and the key to prevention lies in having a healthy immune system. We must find a way to raise our children to have strong immune systemsstrengthened by breast-feeding and a nutritious diet, and not ravaged by the side effects of unnecessary vaccinations or weakened by antibiotics and poor diet. I believe children raised on low-sugar diets with few processed foods and abundant fresh, organic vegetables, who take vitamins and herbs instead of antibiotics, have a good chance of living a long, healthy life free from serious disease.
We have begun to clean up our planet, and now we must also clean up our health care. If we are to give our children the best possible chance to survive in this polluted world, it's imperative to begin making informed decisions, such as whether to breast-feed, even before a child is born. The choices you make now will inevitably impact on your child's future health.
 
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PART 1
THE BASICS:
GETTING OFF TO A HEALTHY START
 
Page 3
Chapter 1
The Benefits of Breast-feeding
When I was born in 1951, my mother was not encouraged by her doctor to breast-feed me. In that era, breast-feeding was considered unnecessary and exhausting for the mother. Nowadays, the benefits of breast-feeding over formula-feeding are widely recognized, and most doctors encourage a new mother to breast-feed. Still, only 44.5 percent of America's mothers exclusively breast-feed in the hospitalquite a drop from 90 percent in 1920, but better than 21 percent in 1957.
New mothers need support and education when they start nursing their infants. It was a great relief to me when the hospital nurses did everything possible to help me get started breast-feeding after my daughter was born; they taught me to listen for the special gulping sound that signaled she was indeed getting my milk, and they allowed her to "room in" with me through the night.
Depending on the hospital in which your child is born, you may or may not receive the necessary lactation support. It's essential to prepare yourself ahead of time by reading books such as the La Leche League's
The Womanly Art of Breast-feeding,
which shows you how to avoid the pitfalls of nursingsuch as sore nipplesand make the process a mutually satisfying one for mom and baby. It's also helpful to speak directly with someone from the La Leche League, a national organization dedicated to helping mothers breastfeed. They can be reached at 1-800-LALECHE.
 
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It's Your Choice
When making your decision whether to breast-feed, please remember that it's your personal decision, and you should not feel guilty if you decide breast-feeding is not for you. Breast-feeding can be exhausting to the mother, and the baby often becomes more dependent on her. This doesn't work for some moms, especially if they must return to work right away.
If you do choose to breast-feed, there are other important considerations. Everything you eat and drink makes its way to the baby. That means no caffeine or alcohol, and whatever gives you gas will give the baby gas too. This can be frustrating, especially if you're craving that cup of coffee, glass of wine, or highly seasoned food.
Some mothers keep their babies in bed with them at night to facilitate nursing. I found that sleeping and breast-feeding went together quite well. Keeping my daughter in bed next to me was easiest for everyone. When she woke up crying, I simply rolled over, nursed her, and we both fell asleep again quickly. Other mothers are uncomfortable with this option. Whatever suits your family style, make sure that safety is your primary concern and that the infant is not at risk of falling out of bed or being rolled upon by an adult.
First, let's discuss the benefits of breast-feeding. Breast milk contains all the nutrients your newborn needs and is more easily digested and assimilated than any other infant food. Indeed, research has shown that mother's milk provides protective factors not found in any formula, actually inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria and viruses in your baby's maturing body, and promoting the development of a healthy digestive system.
Every time your baby breast-feeds, she gets a healthy dose of antibodies to bolster her immunity to disease. As a result, she probably will get fewer colds, ear infections, and other illnesses than will bottle-fed babies. If a breast-fed baby becomes ill, recovery time may be quicker and with fewer complications. A recent study also suggests a decreased risk of childhood cancer in breast-fed babies, according to the authors of
What to Expect the First Year.
There are great emotional advantages for both baby and mother during the nursing process. Your baby instinctively needs your smell, your closeness, your nurturing. The physical act of cradling a baby in your arms while you
 
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nurse fosters an emotional intimacy that is quite unique. You may be surprised by the depth of love and comfort you feel. I found it to be a very soothing experience for both my baby and me. Some women, however, find it difficult to relax while nursing. Breasts may be sore, tender, and engorged, making it painful when the baby clamps down on the nipple. Whenever I experienced this difficulty, I visualized angels wrapping us both in soothing light, sending love to my baby through my body. This visualization helped both of us relax, and my milk began to flow.
Kathryn Dewey, professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis, has spent years researching the nutritional composition of breast milk and its effects on children's health. "Our studies have shown that even here in Davis, California, we have a significant difference in illness rates between non-breast-fed and breast-fed babies under two years old. Breast-fed babies just don't get sick as much as non-breast-fed babies," she explains.
Breast milk has a variety of antiviral and antibacterial components that protect against infection, reports Dewey. "The reduction in illness associated with breast-feeding is of sufficient magnitude to be of public health significance," she notes in her study, reported in the
Journal of Pediatrics.
Dewey compared growth, nutrient intake, illnesses, and activity levels during the first two years of life between infants who were either breast-fed or formula-fed until at least twelve months of age. She found that formula-fed infants were twice as likely to get severe diarrhea than breast-fed infants during the first year of life. She also found that formula-fed babies who attended day care were extremely susceptible to diarrhea, while breast-fed babies in day care were not.
In addition, prolonged ear infections lasting more than ten days were more frequent in formula-fed babies, and the percentage was 5 times higher in the first year of life and 3.6 times higher in the second year. Breast-fed babies are held in a semiupright position to feed, whereas bottle-feeding can be done while the baby is lying on his back. In this horizontal position, the liquid (formula or milk) easily flows into the child's eustachian tube where it can become blocked and create an ideal environment for bacterial growth. It is likely, explains Dewey, that although the feeding position of breast-fed versus bottle-fed infants and toddlers may explain part of this difference in ear infection rates, secretory IgA and prostaglandins in human milk reduce ear infections by affecting the ability of pathogens to cause an inflammatory

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