Cure Your Child with Food: The Hidden Connection Between Nutrition and Childhood Ailments

Since he was an infant, my seven year old son, Henry, has been difficult. He was a colicicky baby, a violent toddler, and recently, an increasingly disruptive student. He also suffers from chronic, year round eczema and constipation, violent outbursts at times and general hyperactivity.When he was four, we put him on the Feingold program. It has been around since the 70s and is known to help kids with ADHD and ODD, which I suspected he had. That program eliminates artificial color, sweetener, flavoring, and petroleum based preservatives. For two years we followed the program exactly, with very little improvement. His eczema got a little better, but was still painful. His behavior improved slightly, but we still got notes home from teachers and he never had a "green" (problem free) day at school.I have long suspected that either dairy or gluten might be something problem for Henry, but the thought of eliminating these from our diet is overwhelming. I know just enough about nutrition and how to read labels to know that either dairy or gluten is hiding in just about everything, in some form. I work full time, I have other kids and I am 8 months pregnant - there are only so many hours in the day!A friend recommended this book, and I downloaded it immediately. I am so very glad I did.Kelly has written this book in such a way that it calmed this overextended mother's fears about the amount of work that will go into an elimination trial.She recommends a six week trial of what you suspect your child's problem food is. She stresses that you don't have to go all out, in most cases. For example, if you are eliminating dairy, don't stress about the small amount of milk that is in bread. if you are eliminating gluten, don't stress about the small amount that is in dressings and sauces (unless you suspect true Celiac disease). This was a huge relief to me! most of the other material I have read in the past insists you eliminate all traces from the diet.I love the way Kelly explains things. over the past decade I have often rolled my eyes at the gluten free movement, thinking of it as just another fad diet. In her book, she explains how wheat processing has changed since the late 90s, truly making the gluten we consume today much harder to digest than it was when I was a kid. She expands this in simple terms, with no hysteria or extremism.I love the supplement advice in this book. She has many practical tips on how to choose a good supplement for your child, what to look for and what quantity of each mineral is most beneficial. She is a big fan of fish oils, and has many great tips for finding one that your child will tolerate that is still effective. She never recommends any particular brand or formulas, which makes it easy to trust her advice, as she has nothing to gain by suggesting certain amounts of any one vitamin or mineral.I haven't begun our elimination trial yet, but after reading this book I am prepared to begin next week. I am going to go back through my highlighted notes and order the supplements I think would most help my child, and fill the family and school in on the plan. I will update this review in May with our results.If you have been considering an elimination trial for your child, but have been dragging your feet like me out of information overload, buy this book! It is an easy read and has no filler, just incredibly insightful, helpful information that she backs up with hard facts and research studies in the back of the book.

This is the book to buy your friend who's having a baby, or your friend who's child has medical issues that can't seem to be resolved with their doctors. This is the book to buy yourself, even if you don't have children, but especially if you do.I found that most of the medical issues are focused on newborns to elementary age children but I was actualy able to learn a lot about my own adult health so it can be useful for any age.Dorfman covers constipation, acid reflux, picky eaters, sleep issues, delayed speech, low muscle tone, how to pick a probiotic, and a lot more. She gives specific recommendations on what dietary changes to make or supplements to add, from her years of clinical experience with her patients. Along with her straight-forward answers Dorfman includes just enough of the information as to why a particular supplement is useful, what it's main purpose in the human body is, and how it fits into the bigger picture of overall nutrition. She also includes several "case studies" of her patients, which makes the book more interesting (in my opinion) but if you just want to get straight to her recommendation it's easy to skim over them.I found the book well-organized, although the table of contents could contain more about the medical aliments, symptoms, and advice and less about the names of the children in the case studies (which means nothing to anyone looking for medical advice.)However the index is solid, as is the references.Any minor complaints I have about this book aren't even worth mentioning when compared to how valuable AND ACCURATE the information inside the book is.I wish Dorfman was able to provide more descriptive recommendations for dosing some of the vitamins and supplements, and ideally provide recommendations on which specific brand of supplements to buy, but I'm sure she intentionally avoided that to reduce her legality risk. You know how everyone and anyone nowadays has so many disclaimers to go along with their medical advice telling you obvious things such as "to call 911 if it's a medical emergency" and "ask your doctor before doing anything, including a diet or exercise change." It's amazing Dorfman put so many specific recommendations in her book at all, really, given the medical climate.But one thing really upset me when reading this book.Why don't doctors give nutrition information to patients? Why don't they know this stuff? Why hasn't anyone told me this before!! Why are so many children suffering with medical issues that are safely treatable AND OFTEN CURABLE with a simple vitamin or supplement?I'm afraid I already know the answer.Who is funding the scientific studies on nutrition and dietary changes? Currently, almost no one is.Pharmaceutical companies only fund studies on things they can can patent, and that's why most of the studies that are being done are on pharmaceuticals. Who is funding the studies on the possibly MUCH more effective dietary, exercise, and lifestyle changes that can be made to actual CURE the underlying medical issues rather than mask the symptoms?/end rantAnyway, get the book and do what it says. It's not just for children's ailments as it includes Gluten issues, acid reflux, and sleep issues, and much more.

I read this book in about 3 days because it’s really interesting and full of good information. I will say that a lot of the general info I already knew, but it does go into more specifics about what kind of deficiencies your child (or you) may be having, etc.