American Academy of Pediatrics Guide to Your Child's Allergies and Asthma: Breathing Easy and Bringing Up Healthy, Active Children (Paperback)

by Michael J. Welch M.D. (Author), American Academy of Pediatrics (Author) "Every fall, 5-year-old Timmy develops a runny nose, itchy, puffy eyes, and attacks of sneezing..." (more)
Key Phrases: asthma treatment plan, call your pediatrician, allergic child, United States, Killer Allergies, Skin Allergies (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From the foremost authority on children's health--a vital guide for parents whose children suffer from allergies and asthma

Asthma and allergies are the most common chronic childhood diseases. Asthma affects nearly 5 million American children, while allergies affect about 50 million. This comprehensive book is an invaluable resource for parents who want answers and information about their children's allergies and asthma. This user-friendly volume is filled with up-to-the-minute advice from pediatricians on how to
 ¸  Identify allergies and asthma
 ¸  Prevent attacks
 ¸  Minimize triggers and avoid allergens
 ¸  Understand medications and choose them wisely
 ¸  Explain allergies to young children
 ¸  Help children of all ages manage symptoms

As with all AAP Guides, the layout and writing style make information easy to find, with real-life case studies, sidebars, and tables to help parents raise healthy, active children.

From the Inside Flap
From the foremost authority on children's health--a vital guide for parents whose children suffer from allergies and asthma

Asthma and allergies are the most common chronic childhood diseases. Asthma affects nearly 5 million American children, while allergies affect about 50 million. This comprehensive book is an invaluable resource for parents who want answers and information about their children's allergies and asthma. This user-friendly volume is filled with up-to-the-minute advice from pediatricians on how to
¸  Identify allergies and asthma
¸  Prevent attacks
¸  Minimize triggers and avoid allergens
¸  Understand medications and choose them wisely
¸  Explain allergies to young children
¸  Help children of all ages manage symptoms

As with all AAP Guides, the layout and writing style make information easy to find, with real-life case studies, sidebars, and tables to help parents raise healthy, active children.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 191 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (June 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067976982X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679769828
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #821,480 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #25 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Personal Health > Children's Health > Asthma
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Informative, August 1, 2000

By	Mary Benoit (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews

After finding out my daughter was diagnosed with Asthma I read this book. It was very informative and it clearly described Asthma. It was very helpful in explaining different treatments, medications, and steps to take to limit Asthma attacks. I have a much better understanding of Asthma and how to control it.

4.0 out of 5 stars Pediatrician Recommended, May 26, 2005

By	Katie A. Kleven "Katie K." (Issaquah, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just attended a lecture given by my pediatrician's office and this book was recommended as a guide by the doctor facilitating the lecture. I haven't read the book yet but it was referred to quite a bit during the lecture and I do plan on purchasing it as it sounds like a good reference.

12 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Guide You to Your Pediatricians Waiting Room, April 7, 2003

By	Heidi M. Hawkins "heidimo" (Bellingham, WA: City of Subdued Excitement) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just because mainstream pediatricians can't cure allergies or asthma does not mean that they are incurable. Nowhere in this book is any understanding about why people get allergies and asthma in the first place, aside from a genetic tendency. What brings out this tendency in your child? Apparently, the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't know. This book is dedicated to keeping allergy medicine in the dark ages of throwing drugs at the symptoms without much attempt to understand their cause. Environmental approaches to allergy and asthma are almost entirely ignored, or contradicted in another part of the book.

The lies in this book about the dangers of allergy and asthma pharmaceutical medications are criminal. The lies about complementary (natural, alternative) medicine are just as criminal. Though the forward of the book promises to review alternative treatments and therapies, natural medicine in its entirety is given only two pages in the entire book, labeled as "not scientifically proven" (a blatant lie for many types of natural medicine) or vaguely implied to be somehow dangerous or threatening, which is immensely exaggerated and generally unfounded. Only pediatricians who push toxic protocals are actually threatened by natural medicine, whom they view as competition when laypeople wise up to the vast failings of pharmaceutical-based medicine, especially when it comes to allergies, asthma, and other chronic illnesses. The party line is hammered home in this book as you are reminded time and again to seek your pediatrician's advice, especially when it comes to alternative modalities he or she may know nothing about, may view as threatening competition, or may be brainwashed into lying about. You must not make any choices on your own if there's a pediatrician to be consulted!

It is curious that nobody even claims authorship of any specific part of this book-typical for propaganda. There is a list of "contributors and reviewers," with no reference to who did what, or with what part. This book's aim is to get your child into the pediatrician's office frequently, and to get and keep your child on medications, some of which are extremely toxic. Steroidal medications are some of the most toxic pharmaceuticals available today, and the thought of poisoning an infant with such things, without even considering natural options, is simply heartbreaking. It almost goes without saying that iatrogenic causes of allergy and asthma are not even mentioned anywhere in this book, though it does admit that allergies to antibiotics do occur.

"Guide to Your Child's Allergies and Asthma" inadvertently demonstrates just how little the American Pediatric experts in allopathic biomedicine really understand about allergies and asthma. The results are frustrating: loading children up on toxic meds indefinitely, treating the symptoms without "wasting time" trying to understand the cause, and a drastic, all-around failure to relieve the suffering of children. Preventing the onset of allergies in the first place doesn't even seem to be an option, aside from the advice to breast-feed your babies-just what natural health professionals have said all along! Perhaps the infant formula companies haven't been keeping up on their membership dues?

If you would like to think like a mainstream, conservative MD does about allergies and asthma, and view allergies from the narrowest possible definition; if you prefer to ignore all the progress made in modern times and in other cultures around allergy theory and treatment (such as by Theron Randolph, MD, whose books I highly recommend, or Doris Rapp, MD-a pediatrician, or Dr. Firshein's "Reversing Asthma" book which details the hazards of asthma medications and a variety of alternatives, or Bob Flaws' book "Curing Hayfever Naturally with Chinese Medicine" for example); if you can stomach the case studies of children's suffering which is hardly alleviated by the poisonous chemicals they ingest, inhale, and absorb through their skin; if you can sort through the shocking and baffling combination of sound advice, half-truths, misinformation, blatant lies, and cover-ups of the truth; if you can fathom the bizarre claims that global pollution is improving and that allergies and asthma may inadvertently result from people being too healthy because of modern accomplishments in allopathic medicine, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, there are other books on allergies, asthma, and pediatrics that are much more accurate, vastly more insightful, and far closer to the truth.