Natural Baby – Healthy Child:

Alternative Health Care Solutions from Pre-conception Through Childhood, from Allergies to Autism, Aslthma, Ear Infections, Colds, Flus, and ADD/ADHD

By Murray Clarke, ND., D.Hom., L.Ac.

Every would-be, soon-to-be and veteran parent should read this book. Better yet, anyone who works with children should have a copy of Natural Baby – Healthy Child in the home, the office, and every local school, clinic and public library. Follow this link to Dr. Murray Clarke’s website to order this book directly, then finish reading my review while you wait for it in the mail.

The first thing to look for when it comes to medical advice is authority – especially when it comes to our children.  Murray Clarke has a lot of letters after his name, which gives you the first clue as to what kind of authority he has and what kind of advice he is about to give. “ND” is Naturopathic Doctor: this is someone with equivalent training to an MD with an emphasis on healing without chemicals or invasive procedures, using tools that promote each individual’s self-healing capacity. “D.Hom” means Doctor of Homeopathy, which is one of three internationally recognized certifications for professional homeopaths (the other two being RSHom and CCH; there is as yet no officially recognized licensure for Homeopathy in the United States).  In Natural Baby – Healthy Child Dr. Clarke aptly describes Homeopathy as a “spiritual medicine” that works on the energetic plane to catalyze healing from the inside-out. “L.Ac.” stands for Licensed Acupuncturist, a profession requiring several years of specialized training in Traditional Chinese Medicine, an ancient and complete system of healing unto itself. How Murray Clarke has managed to garner so much expertise in one lifetime is impressive, how he skillfully balances these three systems into his clinical practice and articulates that practice in one book is really incredible.

What counts more than special training and important degrees, however, is Dr. Clarke’s twenty years of clinical experience helping children to become healthier and stronger without the vaccinations, steroids and antibiotics that are the mainstay of current allopathic pediatrics. In this book, he takes on the most important topics in children’s health today: vaccination, antibiotics, childhood obesity, diabetes, ADD/ADHD and autism. He brings extensive scientific research and personal clinical experience to bear out these hard facts: there is no such thing as a “safe” vaccine; the routine use of antibiotics weakens the immune system rather than strengthening it; obesity and diabetes are direct results of poor lifestyle choices and can be reversed by eating better and exercising more; the dramatic increase in the most common and devastating learning and behavioral disorders that afflict our children today – ADD/ADHD and autism – clearly and incontrovertibly correlate to the increase of chemicals, preservatives and artificial ingredients in our food supply and the dramatic increase in the number of vaccines (over 36!) that American children currently receive.

We are reminded again and again throughout the book that “today’s children are the unhealthiest generation of children in modern times.”  As a parent – this is a hard pill to swallow.  “What?! I can only do so much…I know organic is better, so I buy organic when I can…we hardly ever eat sugar, but how can I control what my child eats when I’m not watching?” It seems like we can never do enough to keep our kids free from toxic chemicals, preservatives, pesticides and sugar.  Luckily, the point is not to try and be perfect parents, or to make perfect kids – there’s no such thing! The point of this book is not to tell every parent how they’ve been raising their children wrong – rather, this book is an empowering tool to help parents make better choices for their children’s overall health and optimal development. Owning this book is like having a manual to understanding how and why our children get sick and knowing what we can do about it.

Natural Baby – Healthy Child is extremely well organized, thoroughly cross referenced, outlined, annotated and indexed. Dr. Clarke holds your hand through every tricky topic, reminding you again and again to use common sense when making important decisions for your children: whether or not to vaccinate and which vaccines are more dangerous than others; organic vs. non-organic; why and how to introduce which specific supplements into your child’s diet.

“First of all we must acknowledge the reality of today’s world.” What is that reality? Our environment is increasingly toxic, our food supply is less nutritious and the whole world is sicker for it.  Fortunately, with Natural Baby – Healthy Child we have a concise and accessible resource that offers achievable solutions for the health of our children and our world.