Book Review: How to Raise a Healthy Child ..

How to raise a healthy child book cover

.. In Spite of Your Doctor by Dr Robert S Mendelsohn MD Random House, 1984

This book was published nearly 30 years ago and its author died in 1988, but I review it here because the lessons it contains are as true now as ever, his message has not been heeded in the intervening decades - and because this book should be required reading for every parent.

The author was a paediatrician and taught at first Northwestern University Medical College, and then the University of Illinois College of Medicine over nearly a quarter of a century. He was also an outspoken activist, serving as president of the National Health Federation (NHF) and speaking and writing extensively.

The problems with medical school training

He absorbed the orthodoxies taught in medical school, but later - often when he came to teach medical students - found that most of what he had been taught didn't stand up to scrutiny. He came to believe that there was a great deal of bad medicine practiced in the United States and that the fault lay with the philosophy and teaching of medicine rather than the individual doctors.

He considered doctors and patients alike to be victims of a system which promotes intervention rather than prevention; pharmaceutical and technological approaches; egotistical attitudes; and a rigid and largely irrelevant medical school curriculum and training.

In particular, he considered the majority of paediatric training to relate to obscure or outdated diseases and that the students were taught very little about pharmacology despite the fact that as a practising physician they'll "hook more children on drugs than the most diligent pusher in town."

Combine this with the fact that doctors are taught nothing about the principles of nutrition as a basis for sound health and that they either deny or are unaware of the fact that food allergies are the primary cause of many childhood ailments.

During their training the would-be paediatricians will see hospitalised patients and this can make them overreact in practice to simple illnesses with dramatic interventions. They are also taught very little about the risks of such drastic treatments - the side-effects of drugs, the risks of surgery, the inaccuracy of tests, or the shortcomings of the technologies they use.

He feels that most doctors do not honour the first part of the Hippocratic oath "First, do no harm" and that they are desensitised to the harm that they do by their medical school education. He recounts the common finding that when doctors have gone on strike (in California, Saskatchewan, Israel, etc) the death rate has gone down! Furthermore, other countries with less paediatricians produce better health outcomes than the US because there is less intervention and fewer drugs are prescribed.

Most trainee paediatricians will also work on 'well baby' clinics where they will not see sick children. So they get relatively little experience dealing with the common complaints of childhood. And they are taught nothing about nutrition, allergy, and the psychological and emotional factors that affect the wellbeing of the children they will see. He recalls receiving a one hour lecture on breastfeeding during training after which the formula manufacturers deluge the doctors with self-serving information for the rest of their careers.

Young medics are taught to scoff at what they regard as 'quackery' - which is anyone who hasn't been indoctrinated/trained like them and who doesn't have an MD after their name. But, he states, there is an abundance of quackery within conventional medicine - including prescribing drugs which turn out to be massively damaging such as Thalidomide.

"Modern Medicine's treatments for disease are seldom effective, and they're often more dangerous than the diseases they're designed to treat"

Americans assume they are being protected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but virtually all drugs are released without appropriate or significant human trials. This means that the immediate short-term effects in some patients and the cumulative long-term effects are not discovered until years or decades later when they may have caused untold harm. Even when the adverse effects of a drug become apparent, the FDA has practically no authority to force withdrawal of pharmaceuticals once they have been released onto the market.

When he was a young doctor the treatment for inflamed tonsils, ringworm of the scalp, and enlarged lymph nodes or thymus gland was to use x-rays. The harm done only subsequently emerged over the decades as it became apparent that treatment had caused the permanent failure of these individual's thyroid glands. Added to which enlarged lymph nodes and/or thymus gland are not even ailments, but the body's inbuilt response to infections.

Most things get better by morning

This is the title of his first chapter and he states that most paediatricians capitalise upon the fact that parents tend to be more concerned about the health of their children than their own health. He states that the vast majority of childhood illnesses do not require medical attention and that needless attention may do more harm than good.

He counsels that you avoid taking your child to the doctor whenever you can because at least 95% of childhood ailments heal themselves. He says that most of the time it is the parent who needs the attention and reassurance, but that the child gets needlessly treated anyway.

He estimates that at least 90% of the drugs prescribed by paediatricians are unnecessary and costly. And that since all drugs are toxic and therefore dangerous, pose a risk to the child.

He also estimates that at least 90% of surgery done on children is unnecessary and exposes the child to trauma, infection and the risks attendant with the anaesthetic.

Add to this the fact that doctors are taught nothing about nutrition and you may come to understand that as a parent you should take responsibility for helping your child to avoid illness using wholesome nutrition.

I know or know of several families that have raised their children 'outside the medical model' - no vaccines, no drugs, no doctors but good, healthy food, fresh air and activity. All have the most robust, best natured children you are ever likely to meet. And all their parents have faced massive pressure and judgement for being 'bad' parents from both the medical profession and society at large.

These parents often report that their children bounce back surprisingly quickly after some health drama, and often that their vigour is renewed after such episodes and that they might have a developmental spurt.

Parents know best

Dr Mandelsohn reflects fondly upon the days of the family doctor who knew their patients and their patients' family history often over a period of several decades. Often these doctors would provide reassurance but not intervene. However, times have changed and doctors now tend only to have a few minutes for a consultation and they haven't the time or interest to investigate the potential cause(s) of a problem.

He gives three basic rules to guide you as a parent:

Rule 1: If your child doesn't look, feel or act sick - they probably aren't sick.

Rule 2: Give the healing power of nature time to work before you expose your child to the treatment the doctor may want to administer.

Rule 3: Common sense is a useful tool. As parents you really are best placed to manage the health of your children, to spot changes in behaviour or appearance, and you are also familiar with their medical history and diet so can use detective work to identify the potential cause(s) of problems.

How doctors make healthy kids sick

Although critical of the entire medical profession, he has particular concerns about his own speciality: paediatrics. First, because the paediatrician serves as the recruiter for the entire medical profession so that children are indoctrinated from birth into a lifelong dependency on medical intervention.

This starts with needless well baby checks and immunisations and progresses to routine annual physical examinations. Children learn that there is a 'pill for every ill' and this early conditioning is directly responsible for the dependency of many adults on pharmaceutical drugs and indirectly responsible for the millions who use illegal drugs to treat their psychological and emotional problems. The paediatricians also have the power to have your child taken from you if you don't comply with their recommendations.

The author counsels staying away from the doctor other than for emergency care or serious illness. He cautions you not to take your child in for regular check-ups - in fact, not to take a well child to the doctor at all. He suggests monitoring your child closely if they are ailing, but giving the body time to repair itself as almost everything the doctor will want to do will interfere with these natural processes.

Pregnancy and childbirth

Dr Mandelsohn counsels that the future wellbeing of your baby is affected by the choices you make before and during pregnancy. He identifies preconception exposure to x-rays as being cumulative and one of the main reasons there is a greater likelihood of older mothers having babies with health problems. He counsels avoiding x-rays whenever possible.

He states that childbirth is a natural process and that doctors tend to interfere in this process for a variety of reasons. The way the birth is managed has the potential to cause neurological damage in the baby and to affect the child psychologically, physically and mentally for the rest of their life.

There is no evidence that hospital delivery is safer than home delivery. In fact the restricted amount of technological options available during a homebirth makes intervention less likely. Birth injuries, resuscitation of the baby and neurological damage are all more likely to occur with deliveries that take place in hospital.

He also takes issue with the fact that many pregnant mothers are now put under pressure to restrict the amount of weight they gain during pregnancy. Of the weight the pregnant mother gains, 9lbs. is estimated to be consumed during breastfeeding and calorie (and nutrient) restriction during pregnancy may lead to a low birth weight babies.

When the baby is born it is usually taken away from the mother and various checks and 'standard procedures' performed.

These include putting drops of silver nitrate in the baby's eyes in case the mother is carrying a sexually transmitted infection such as gonorrhoea. These drops are irritant and cause conjunctivitis in 30-50% babies. This has fallen from favour somewhat since the time of writing this book, but is still part of routine practice or mandated in many areas.

In addition, many babies have a blood sample taken from their heel which is tested for the inherited defect phenylketonuria (PKU). This is done to assess whether the baby has an enzyme in their body which is required for normal growth and development. The results of this test are unreliable, testing before the baby has even started feeding may not be advisable and the test is usually repeated later. Only those with a history of this disorder in the family are actually at risk.

Then the baby will also be given a Vitamin K injection in order to prevent the rare disease of Vitamin K deficiency bleeding (1 in 10,000 babies affected). Some pregnancies (eg: to epileptic mothers taking anticonvulsants) and babies (eg: premature or with liver disease) are more likely to be at risk. According to Dr Mandelsohn this is only likely to be an issue in mothers who are severely malnourished and the Vitamin K can produce jaundice in the baby for which they are then treated with a light (phototherapy).

And so the medical interventions start ..

Breastfeeding

Breastfed babies may not grow at the same rate as formula-fed babies. It is usually the manufacturers of the formula feeds that have helpfully provided the growth and weight charts. Even then, your child is being compared to a statistical norm which takes no account of whether you and your partner are tall or short, and your racial heredity.

The doctor compares your infant to these average values and then declares your baby to be abnormally short, tall, fat or thin. This is unscientific and like a lawyer they "seed doubts in the parent's mind that they can then resolved over long periods of time at great profit to themselves".

Breast milk provides the perfect nutrients for the growth and development of the baby in addition to creating a bond. Whereas formula milk can and historically has contained the wrong nutrients. Breastfed babies tend to grow more slowly than those that are bottlefed but this is normal and it is the bottlefed babies that are overweight.

In one study 60% of formula fed babies were overweight compared to 19% who were breastfed. Mothers who bottle feed are often encouraged to feed the baby the full bottle, but the child will feed until it is satiated and this practice can contribute to overfeeding too.

This recent love affair with formula feeding may be one of the factors in our growing obesity epidemic. It may also account for the growth in allergies and infections as babies immune systems are not primed in the way nature intended.

Cow's milk is deficient in iron and should not given to babies for 6 months. Even then the author estimates that approximately 15% of children are intolerant or allergic to cow's milk and that this is the cause of many childhood illnesses. Cow's milk and formula has 3.3% protein compared to the 1.3% of breast milk and this extra protein places a strain on the baby's kidneys and may cause them to retain water.

Fevers

We have been led to to believe that all fevers are dangerous, but unless they are accompanied by other symptoms - such as respiratory difficulty - a fever does not need treatment. Obviously where fever is combined with causes such as heat stroke, or consuming a poison, or where there is a change in consciousness, serious action needs to be taken, but by and large if the cause is internal then no action is necessary.

In fact, 98.6°C is not the normal body temperature for everyone but is an average. The body temperature particularly in children may vary by a few degrees and will also change throughout the day as a result of eating or as a side-effect of various medicines. The temperature also depends on how and where the temperature has been taken.

The vast majority of fevers are caused by bacterial or viral infections causing the body's own defence mechanism to produce symptoms such as a runny nose. There is no consistent relationship between the child's temperature and the severity of the disease.

Also the degree of fever is not a valid indicator of anything except the fact that the body is marshalling its resources to combat an infection. For reasons that aren't understood most fevers top out at 105°C and then start to fall. When you intervene to reduce a fever it does nothing to make the child well and is actively counterproductive.

If you must, sponging a feverish child may give you and them some comfort. But he counsels regarding fever as a component of the natural defence mechanism indicating that the body has switched into high gear in order to repair. He counsels doing nothing unless the fever continues for more than 3 days or the child is really sick. Fever in and of itself does not cause brain damage or convulsions.

Common childhood complaints

He covers these in some detail. In brief:

Headaches almost every abnormality can cause headaches including infections, allergies, metabolic disorders, and trauma. Some headaches are emotional, but these too are 'real' and the cause needs investigating.

Tummy aches are the leading cause of visits to the paediatrician. Dr Mandelsohn counsels that unless the ache is accompanied by other symptoms such as diarrhoea or vomiting, it is best not to seek professional help. In fact, most tummy aches are caused by food intolerances and especially lactose intolerance and addressing the diet and doing a bit of detective work will often help to root out the cause.

Colds and flus An in-joke amongst doctors is apparently that 'Without treatment a common cold lasts about 7 days; with treatment it lasts about a week'. The author says that one-third of patients attending their physician or paediatrician are given antibiotics (ie: antibacterial pharmaceuticals) mostly for infections the doctor believes to be viral. Actively resist giving your child antibiotics as they kill off the friendly bacteria in the gut and in truth, this probably never fully recovers.

Earaches Early in his career he held the orthodox line, but over the years he lost faith in administering antibiotics and inserting grommets (tubes inserted into the ear drum) and found that patients didn't subsequently lose their hearing as he had been warned. Recent research has shown that not only do antibiotics not improve the outcome of ear infections in children, they actually increase the chance of repeat infections.

Postural problems Many paediatricians intervene to correct 'pigeon toes' or 'bow legs' in childhood - but these are normal developmental stages (the bow legs of the baby become the knock knees of the toddler) and usually right themselves.

Asthma and allergies Doctors recognise the symptoms of airborne allergies including nasal symptoms, sneezing and wheezing. What they fail to recognise is the role played by food intolerances to foods such as cow's milk, corn, wheat, gluten, eggs, fish, tomatoes, garlic, citrus and sensitivities to food colourings, additives and stabilisers which make the immune system reactive. This can produce diverse symptoms including headaches, migraines, eye pain, blurred vision, hearing loss, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fatigue, muscle weakness, and bedwetting. Bottle fed babies are at least 20 times more susceptible to allergies than babies that have been breast fed.

Behavioural disorders Once a child has been labelled as 'hyperactive' they may be exposed to unacceptably risky counselling or drug treatments. None of the psychiatric labels have any scientific validity. And such children end up being prescribed depressive chemicals such as Ritalin which have a long list of dangerous side-effects including suppression of growth, and convulsions. He encourages parents to look for environmental factors including dietary intolerances and sensitivities if their children are hyperactive.

Immunisation

Of all the threats posed by childhood diseases, Dr Mandelsohn considered the greatest to be the dangerous and ineffectual efforts made by the medical profession to prevent them through mass immunisation. In America, doctors have successfully lobbied for laws forcing parents to immunise their children as a prerequisite for admission to school. He cites the following considerations:

There is no convincing scientific evidence that mass inoculation can be credited with eliminating any childhood disease.
The mass inoculation programmes in the US in the 1940s and 50s were thought to have eliminated polio in America, but the epidemic also ended in Europe where there had not been an extensive programme. The smallpox vaccination continued to be used 30 years after the there was no longer a threat of deaths and became the sole source of the illness. The same may be true of polio - that the vaccinations are actually maintaining the disease within the population.
There is a significant risk associated with every immunisation about which parents are usually not informed.
The long-term consequences of injecting foreign proteins into the body of a child are not known.
The immunisation programme is suspected by many of being responsible for the massive growth in autoimmune diseases.

He advises arming yourself with facts and figures and demanding that any health professional defend any immunisation they recommend.

And of all the vaccinations, he identifies the pertussis component of Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus (DPT) vaccination to be the most threatening of all. In particular two-thirds of the 2,500 US children who die of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDs) had been vaccinated using the DPT vaccine in the three weeks before their deaths according to a study in Reno, Nevada. Another study at UCLA found a third of SIDs deaths occurred within a month, and one-sixth within a week of the DPT vaccine.

Breastfeeding appears to offer some protection against SIDs.

Beware hospitalisation

There are 2 major categories of disease that pose a threat when you seek medical treatment requiring hospitalisation. The first is iatrogenic disease - that is, disease caused by doctors or other health professionals or the the treatments they prescribe. The second is nosocomial infections - that is, hospital acquired infections which pose a major threat.

At the time of writing, 2 million Americans admitted for one ailment ended up with another and these proved fatal in 20,000 people per year. Five percent of people who are admitted to hospital acquire infections and the mortality for patients with hospital acquired infections is 14 times greater than control groups. One in every six children admitted to hospital will acquire a respiratory infection.

The moral of this story is: Don't allow your child to be admitted to hospital unless they have a serious or life-threatening illness.

Further resources

For a copy of the book go to Amazon UK or US.

More information about the hazards of vaccination is available under Mercury & Medicine in the Print Media, Audio, Books and Video hubs. Click to watch Part 1 of Vaccine Nation listed under Mercury & Medicine in the Video hub.

Book review of How to raise a healthy child: Article summary

This article looks at the comprehensive book by the late US paediatrician, Dr Robert S Mendelsohn MD. In it he questions many of the orthodoxies of medical and paediatric practice and offers a reassuring and commonsense guide to dealing with the majority of the childhood ailments most parents face.

Click the icon to go to the blog version of this article

Click the icon if you would you like to republish this article

If you found this article interesting and would like to receive a FREE report and the regular monthly newsletter please fill in your name, email and country details in the box on the top left.

The Natural Recovery Plan Newsletter December 2011 Issue 24. Copyright Alison Adams 2011. All rights reserved
Alison Adams Dentist, Naturopath, Author and Online Health Coach www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com