The Holistic Pediatrician: A Parent's Comprehensive Guide to Safe and Effective Therapies for the 25 Most Common Childhood Ailments [Paperback]

Kathi Kemper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1996

Parents want to provide the safest, most effective care for their children by knowing about all their choices, not just one or two approaches. Different kinds of practitioners have different theories, rely on different treatments, and often compete rather than cooperate with one another. Rather than being therapy-centered, polarized and competitive, healing can be child-centered, integrated, cooperative and holistic. The Holistic Pediatrician was written to educate and empower parents to exercise their options in taking care of their children's health-care needs.

This is the only truly comprehensive and holistic book on childhood ailments written for parents by a pediatrician. Based on scientific evidence, not tradition or theory, The Holistic Pediatrician combines the best traditional and alternative therapies for the most common childhood ailments. Parents who want to know what's really going on and why recommendations are made by their doctors will have their questions answered in depth without being inundated with information about illnesses they are unlikely to encounter, nor besieged with technical medical jargon.

Based on sound, scientific evidence that covers territory usually ignored in medical school, The Holistic Pediatrician is sure to be indispensable for parents and caregivers concerned with all aspects of their child's health.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kathi J. Kemper is a pediatrician on the faculty of the University of Washington and on the staff of the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, helping to train family doctors in pediatrics.

She has a national reputation as a pediatric researcher and educator and currently serves as the chair of the Research Committee of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association as well as the first chair of its Special Interest Group on Holistic Medicine.

Kemper lives in Seattle, Washington.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006095177X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060951771
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,113,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent pediatric resource on herbal remedies!, June 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Holistic Pediatrician: A Parent's Comprehensive Guide to Safe and Effective Therapies for the 25 Most Common Childhood Ailments (Paperback)

I have often used The Holistic Pediatrician as a reference when patients/families have queried me regarding herbal remedies. As a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner I have noticed that more families are inquiring about herbal remedies and it is wonderful to have this resource handy. I have recommended this book to many of my PNP colleagues and parents.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars for anyone who wants proven therapies for children, May 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Holistic Pediatrician: A Parent's Comprehensive Guide to Safe and Effective Therapies for the 25 Most Common Childhood Ailments (Paperback)

If you have a sneaking suspicion that your pediatrician may not know about safer and more effective remedies for your child's illnesses that are natural or alternative, The Holistic Pediatrician is a wonderful reference -- for two reasons.

First, you'll learn about the most effective treatments for many common ailments facing kids -- irrespective of the ideology behind them. Dr. Kemper recommends medical intervention when needed, but she also endorses massage therapy, acupuncture, and other alternative therapies for specific problems. Her endorsements are based on clear reasoning and concrete evidence.

Second, this is a book that your pediatrician will love to learn from. Medical doctors are often skeptical of alternative therapies. But the Holistic Pediatrician presents such compelling evidence (with hundreds of scientific citations) that even the most conservative physician will appreciate most if not all of Dr. Kemper's recommendations.

In other words, the Holistic Pediatrician will allow you to have your cake and eat it too -- to use the best alternative medical therapies for your child without needing to sneak behind your doctor's back to do it.

Read a book on alternative therapy without a solid review of evidence, and you are gambling with your child's health. (For example, food allergy is not proven to be a major cause of ear infections, and changing your child's diet to prevent them may harm his or her growth and brain development!). Read this book, and you can have confidence about those alternative therapies that TRULY can improve the health of your child.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Your mainstream doc will LOVE this book..., April 18, 2002

By 

Kym "An adventurous unschooling mama" (Roaming the US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Holistic Pediatrician: A Parent's Comprehensive Guide to Safe and Effective Therapies for the 25 Most Common Childhood Ailments (Paperback)

Based on one of the subtitles of this book, "Integrating the Best of Modern Medical Science with Proven Therapies from Herbal Medicines, Homeopathy and Other Healing Techniques", I was quite eager to get a copy for my parenting library. What a huge disappointment to discover that Dr. Kemper is more concerned with protecting her reputation as a pediatrician than in supporting truly holistic methods of healing.

Nearly every alternative suggestion is prefaced with, "there are NO studies evaluating the effectiveness of..." or, "there are NO scientific studies evaluating herbs as treatment for...", etc.

You'll also find statements that keep her from being responsible for recommendations of herbal or other alternative treatments with wording like, "some parents swear by using..." or, "many mothers believe...", and then always finished with another disclaimer that "there are NO scientific studies evaluating...blah blah blah."

I was also disappointed to see that she does not even mention breastmilk as an ideal and economical treatment for conjunctivitis/pinkeye but instead highlights a handy dandy listing of recommended products such as Phenylephrine, Tetrahydrozyline, Naphazoline and Oxymetazoline.

The whole book is tinged with her underlying attitude that mainstream modern medicine is really the best option and the clear feeling that she does not wish to be held liable for anything should one choose to use something besides antibiotics, steroids and vaccines.

This author is obviously pro-vaccine and pro-mainstream medicine.

The bottom line: this book emphasizes conventional medicine, vaccination and pharmaceuticals. It also seems to have been co-authored by a defense attorney. For a much more comprehensive and helpful guide to holistic pediatrics, do yourself a huge favor and check out the excellent, "Your Vital Child" or "Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child".