Townsley, Raising a Healthy Child

¶ … Townsley, Raising a Healthy Child

Review of Cheryl Townsley, Kid Smart: Raising a Healthy Child

(Lifestyle for Health, 1996)

This sensible book is about ways to change and increase family health. Townsley is appalled at the unhealthy practices of most families and believes strongly in a process of moving through steps in the direction of health. Her book does well to point out the impact that a parent's choices of food has on their child. The chapters are short, clearly written guides with helpful hints. They are largely geared toward dispelling fears and motivating change in the realm of household nutritional choices. She divides the book into four parts: (1) "Changing More than Diapers," (2) "A Word about Total Health," (3) "Powerful Alternatives," and (4) "Resources."

The initial chapter tackles five of the most common excuses that families give which prevent them from changing their eating patterns. These obstacles -- like "My schedule is too busy," "My kids are picky eaters," or "Health food is too expensive" -- are mind-sets that de-prioritize health. She gives motivational advice on how to overcome these resistance areas. Here, and at the end of most chapters, she lists motivators and applications to help change.

Chapter two provides grim statistics on the state of children's health related to the nutrition of what they eat and don't eat, and a test to indicate one's health levels. She believes that parents often ignore warning signals of poor health and susceptibility to disease in their children.

Chapter three is important. She outlines the steps necessary (in her mind) to move the family toward nutritional health. It starts with a decision, continues with the agreement of both parents (unity) and inclusion of children, and leads ultimately to persisting in the established plan that is conscious of its food traditions and has counted the cost of change. She then suggests adding more fruits and vegetables, organics, whole grains, beans, nuts, pure water, and other such things to the family's diet. Townsley goes on to recommend what foods to subtract (for example, chemically-processed foods high in MSG and nitrates, hydrogenated fats, "whites," canned foods, dairy products, and meat with antibiotics and hormones) and the reasons why.

Chapter four is about how to introduce healthy foods to a child without rebellion through the various stages of their development, from prenatal on through teens. This chapter is loaded with helpful suggestions about what to consume, how to monitor food choices, and how to push them onto the child in a way that is not off-putting. She gives suggested feeding patterns and basic hints (such as make food look and taste good). it's practical advice that any parent can manage.

Chapter five traverses the world of additives, pesticides, household toxins, and the microwave. Her main point is to show how exposure to such things damages the immune system and has negative consequences in the life of the child. She takes her information mainly from Poisoning Our Children by Nancy Sokol Green.

Chapters six through ten give more advice on nutrition and health. These are the most informative chapters, chock full of facts about the effects of food and products to avoid. She discusses how to control allergies, what the nutritional requirements (vitamins and minerals) are for children at various ages, what family activities to do with children that build fitness, and how to identify and handle common childhood ailments (such as colds, rashes, ADD, and obesity).