Description
Sometimes doctors don’t know best. Luckily, mom and doctor Susan Markel is a pediatrician who questions conventional wisdom and instead partners decision-based medicine with the best ideas of attachment parenting.
Too often, parents ignore their instincts and better sense to follow their doctor’s advice, such as overtreating vulnerable children, letting babies cry themselves to sleep and giving their children cow’s milk for strong bones, even though strong evidence shows none of these practices is the best route.
Revealing the medical industry’s gaps in knowledge is Dr. Susan Markel, formerly a frequent contributor to BabyCenter.com, the world’s most popular parenting site; and a La Leche League International medical liaison, and Linda F. Palmer, D.C., author of Baby Matters, in What Your Pediatrician Doesn't Know Can Hurt Your Child. This new work combines the latest research with solid advice from a pediatrician who dares to defy her rote education and big-industry-supported dogma and seek out parent- and child-centered choices in all aspects of child care. As a mother and a pediatrician with 30 years’ experience, Dr. Markel has come to find that less intervention in the natural processes generally brings superior outcomes.
While providing helpful how-to natural parenting ideas throughout, What Your Pediatrician Doesn't Know Can Hurt Your Child gives parents insight into many instances where standard pediatric dogma is in conflict with the best research. Parents will find comprehensive solutions to specific health concerns and issues affecting children, such as:
- Nutrition, including breastfeeding
- Shared sleep
- Common illnesses and drug usage
- Allergies and asthma
- Attention deficit disorder
- Emotional health
- Discipline
In a reader-friendly, succinct format, not bogged down by scientific digressions, this book will assist parents in making the best possible choices for the mental and physical health of their children.
About the Author
Dr. Susan Markel is a board-certified pediatrician, skilled in all aspects of general pediatric care. A graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, she has been a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1981. She became certified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 1997. During her years in private pediatrics practice in central Connecticut, she served as an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut Health Center, teaching pediatric residents. She left Connecticut to serve as the medical director of pediatric clinics in Hilton Head Island, S.C., as well as South Florida, and Huntsville, Ala. She has spoken about attachment parenting at conferences in Birmingham, England; Dublin, Ireland; and Amsterdam. She is a sought-after expert witness in custody cases involving separation and divorce.
Dr. Markel served as a medical liaison for breastfeeding support organization La Leche League International for 20 years. She currently has a private consultative pediatric practice specializing in attachment parenting and child health.
She is medical adviser at Attachment Parenting International, a nonprofit parenting organization promoting "peaceful parenting for a peaceful world." Dr. Markel has appeared on several live television broadcasts, discussing topics related to lifestyle issues, nutrition, infant sign language, divorce, stress, fever and disciplining with love. She is a regular columnist for BabyCenter.com and the ClubMom Web site and is a spokesperson for Ergo Baby Carriers, which features her on its Web site.
Dr. Linda Palmer is a doctor of chiropractic, a consultant and speaker on pediatric nutrition and natural parenting challenges, a science writer and a mother. She left her chiropractic practice shortly after the birth of her son, when she was confronted with his serious health complications and astounded by the lack of accurate or helpful information from doctors or books. For her son’s sake, she delved deeply into the scientific and medical literature to find answers, which led to further questions and some astonishing realizations.
