Child care and upbringing: advice for parents Books

Book SynopsisIn The Spiritual Child, psychologist Lisa Miller presents the next big idea in psychology: the science and the power of spirituality. She explains the clear, scientific link between spirituality and health and shows that children who have a positive, active relationship to spirituality: * are 40% less likely to use and abuse substances * are 60% less likely to be depressed as teenagers * are 80% less likely to have dangerous or unprotected sex * have significantly more positive markers for thriving including an increased sense of meaning and purpose, and high levels of academic success. Combining cutting-edge research with broad anecdotal evidence from her work as a clinical psychologist to illustrate just how invaluable spirituality is to a child's mental and physical health, Miller translates these findings into practical advice for parents, giving them concrete ways to develop and encourage their children's--as well as their own--well-being. In this provocative, conversation-starting book, Dr. Miller presents us with a pioneering new way to think about parenting our modern youth.Trade ReviewHundreds of books discuss parenting issues, but The Spiritual Child is special resource with a focus on fostering children's spiritual lives. Perceptive, thought-provoking, and heavily researched, this is a valuable book for anyone interested in spiritual development in children, adolescents, and families * Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project *Who can take the elusive subject of spirituality, subject it to rigorous scientific inquiry, and teach us more about it than we ever imagined? The answer is Lisa Miller. While honoring its depth and complexity, she shows in this important book how and why spirituality nourishes our children's well-being. And most important of all, she shows parents how to help this happen * Carol Dweck, author of Mindset:The New Psychology of Success *A reassuring and instructive lesson in spiritual parenting . . . nurturing spirituality in your children may save them a world of pain * Kirkus reviews *Provides thoughtful advice on encouraging the quest for meaning and purpose in a child's life . . . full of teaching moments, plenty of families' stories, and lots of sage advice, this highly readable volume should prove useful for unaffiliated and observant parents alike * Publishers Weekly *Not since Paul Tough declaimed on the importance of 'grit' in his 2012 best seller How Children Succeed has a book made a bigger argument on behalf of an amorphous personal quality without which children are sunk * New York Magazine *

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Book SynopsisLouv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists to find ways for children to experience the natural world more deeply.

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Book SynopsisNew York Times Bestselling author! Over a decade ago, following a rise in developmental disorders such as autism and ADHD, the mercury-containing preservative Thimerosal was widely believed to have been eliminated from vaccine supplies. However, dangerous quantities of Thimerosal continue to be used, posing a threat to public healthIn this groundbreaking book, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Dr. Mark Hyman examine the research literature on Thimerosal and make a very clear statement about its potentially dangerous effects.In the past, the CDC, FDA, NIH, and AAP, as well as the US Congress, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the US Department of Agriculture, the European Medicines Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency have expressed concerns over the use of Thimerosal in vaccines. But despite the many voices calling for action, the media and policy makers have repeatedly failed to adequately address the issue.Now, with Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, the goals are to educate parents, doctors, and health policy makers; to eliminate this toxic chemical from the world’s vaccine supplies; to move toward safer alternatives; and to maintain or increase vaccination rates critical to the United States and developing nations. With safer options available, parents shouldn’t have to worry about the devastating effects of vaccinating their children.Trade Review“Would you expose the unborn child or infant of a loved one to a vaccine containing mercury,a known neurotoxin, if you knew there were other safer alternatives? Does it make any sense that even though Thimerosal is banned as a topical antiseptic and is considered hazardous waste that can’t legally be thrown in the garbage, it is somehow safe to inject into pregnant womenand babies?” —MARK HYMAN, MD, founder and medical director, UltraWellness Center;chairman of the board, Institute for Functional Medicine“The evidence of Thimerosal’s neurotoxicity is so overwhelming that anyone who is willing to read the science must conclude that Thimerosal can cause brain damage.” —ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., JD, LLM, clinical professor of environmental law; codirector, Pace University School of Law Environmental Litigation Clinic“When vaccines contain the potent toxin mercury, they can harm public health while they protect it.This is a serious paradox and an error. I hope and implore that this book’s overwhelming scientific evidence moves us all to do whatever it takes to correct this error, because it is unnecessary,and it can and must be corrected.” —MARTHA R. HERBERT, PhD, MD, assistant professor of neurology, Harvard Medical School; pediatric neuroscientist, Massachusetts General Hospital“Many of the CDC’s own studies have demonstrated a link between increased Thimerosal exposures and the development of vocal and motor tics, which are generally recognized as autism-like features. This alarming association has been downplayed to the public. Sadly, public health agencies’ insistence on Thimerosal’s safety has effectively inhibited objective investigations intoresearch misconduct and conflicts of interest within health agencies and the vaccine industry.” —CONGRESSMAN BILL POSEY, four-term congressman in Florida“It’s no easy task to counter the well-funded astroturf campaigns and endless misinformation passed along by propagandists (and even the well-intentioned-but-misinformed). But Bobby Kennedy continues to do just that—confronting corruption, censorship, and a federal government co-opted by the pharmaceutical industry.” —SHARYL ATTKISSON, investigative journalist; author, Stonewalled“Kennedy shows in great detail how the pharmaceutical industry has completely brainwashed the mainstream media and medical community… As the parent of an autistic child who obviously developed brain damage as a reaction to a vaccine, I ask you to throw away your preconceptions and read the facts.” —AIDAN QUINN, actor“Would you expose the unborn child or infant of a loved one to a vaccine containing mercury,a known neurotoxin, if you knew there were other safer alternatives? Does it make any sense that even though Thimerosal is banned as a topical antiseptic and is considered hazardous waste that can’t legally be thrown in the garbage, it is somehow safe to inject into pregnant womenand babies?” —MARK HYMAN, MD, founder and medical director, UltraWellness Center;chairman of the board, Institute for Functional Medicine“The evidence of Thimerosal’s neurotoxicity is so overwhelming that anyone who is willing to read the science must conclude that Thimerosal can cause brain damage.” —ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., JD, LLM, clinical professor of environmental law; codirector, Pace University School of Law Environmental Litigation Clinic“When vaccines contain the potent toxin mercury, they can harm public health while they protect it.This is a serious paradox and an error. I hope and implore that this book’s overwhelming scientific evidence moves us all to do whatever it takes to correct this error, because it is unnecessary,and it can and must be corrected.” —MARTHA R. HERBERT, PhD, MD, assistant professor of neurology, Harvard Medical School; pediatric neuroscientist, Massachusetts General Hospital“Many of the CDC’s own studies have demonstrated a link between increased Thimerosal exposures and the development of vocal and motor tics, which are generally recognized as autism-like features. This alarming association has been downplayed to the public. Sadly, public health agencies’ insistence on Thimerosal’s safety has effectively inhibited objective investigations intoresearch misconduct and conflicts of interest within health agencies and the vaccine industry.” —CONGRESSMAN BILL POSEY, four-term congressman in Florida“It’s no easy task to counter the well-funded astroturf campaigns and endless misinformation passed along by propagandists (and even the well-intentioned-but-misinformed). But Bobby Kennedy continues to do just that—confronting corruption, censorship, and a federal government co-opted by the pharmaceutical industry.” —SHARYL ATTKISSON, investigative journalist; author, Stonewalled“Kennedy shows in great detail how the pharmaceutical industry has completely brainwashed the mainstream media and medical community… As the parent of an autistic child who obviously developed brain damage as a reaction to a vaccine, I ask you to throw away your preconceptions and read the facts.” —AIDAN QUINN, actor

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Book SynopsisMany babies are fussy and spit up milk, and in recent years it has become common for them to be diagnosed with ‘reflux’ and medicated with antacids, thickeners and acid suppressants. However, research tells us that reflux is normal in young babies and that many of the symptoms associated with it may in fact be misunderstood baby behaviours rather than clinical symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD). In Why Infant Reflux Matters Carol Smyth provides a simple and practical guide to understanding reflux that will help you avoid unnecessary medication if a simple change in feeding technique or care can help reduce your baby’s symptoms. She explains what reflux is, why it happens, the difference between reflux and GORD, the role of stomach acid, and what research tells us about treatment. The book also explores the symptoms commonly attributed to reflux and looks at whether they might have other causes, and includes a plan you can work through for your individual baby to help you make informed decisions about their care.

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Book Synopsis‘The cold reality of my gender was dawning on me. It was motherhood that forced me to understand the timeless horror of our position. The reason women had not written novels or commanded armies or banked or doctored or explored or painted at the same rate as men. The cause was not, as I had been led to believe, that women had been prevented from working. Quite the opposite: We had been doing all of the work, around the clock, for centuries.’ After her first book was published to acclaim, journalist Megan K. Stack got pregnant and quit her job to write. She pictured herself pen in hand while the baby napped, but instead found herself traumatised by a difficult birth and shell-shocked by the start of motherhood. Living abroad provided her with access to affordable domestic labour, and, sure enough, hiring a nanny gave her back the ability to work. At first, Megan thought she had little in common with the women she hired. They were important to her because they made her free. She wanted them to be happy, but she didn’t want to know the details of their lives. That didn’t work for long. When Pooja, an Indian nanny who had been absorbed into the family, disappeared one night with no explanation, Megan was forced to confront the truth: these women were not replaceable, and her life had become inextricably intertwined with theirs. She set off on a journey to find out where they really came from and to understand the global and personal implications of wages paid, services received, and emotional boundaries drawn in the home. As she writes herself: ‘Somebody should investigate. Somebody should write about all of this. But this is my life. If I investigate, I must stand for examination. If I interrogate, I’ll be the one who has to answer.’Trade Review‘Every woman who has experienced the conflicts of motherhood, or is contemplating them, should be grateful for her unflinching addition to the contemporary literature on the subject.’ -- Stephanie Merritt * The Observer *‘Megan Stack is willing to confront hard questions that so many of us flinch from: the relationships between women and the women we hire to take care of our houses and our children, to do the traditional women's work that gives “liberated women” the time to do traditional men's work. Women’s Work is a book of vivid characters, engrossing stories, shrewd insights, and uncomfortable reflections.’ -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO of New America, and author of Unfinished Business‘Women’s Work is an incredible follow-up to Megan Stack’s celebrated book of war reportage, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar. It is a fierce and furious and darkly funny book about the costs of motherhood: the psychological costs, the costs in time and energy and spirit, and finally the costs imposed on other women, most of them also mothers, who leave their own children so they can take care of ours. I can’t think of a work that speaks more directly to our age of increasing inequality, starting with housework and child care, the oldest inequalities of all.’ -- Keith Gessen, author of A Terrible Country‘It’s gripping … admirably honest … a clear-eyed microcosm.’ -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * The Oldie *‘Women’s Work hit me where I live, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The discomforting truths Stack reveals about caretaking and labor transcend cultural and national boundaries; this book is relevant to everyone, no matter how or where they live. Stack uses her reporting acumen to illuminate domestic workers' struggles, but also fearlessly reveals the most vulnerable details of her own life in order to make her point. The masterfulness with which she tells these intertwined stories makes this book not just a work of brilliant journalism but a work of art.’ -- Emily Gould, author of Friendship: A Novel and And the Heart Says Whatever.‘A self-critical and heartfelt narrative ... beautifully written, informative, and sometimes harrowing as she recounts the joy, fear, and exhaustion of becoming a mother. What women — and men — can learn from Stack's story is that “women's work”, in all of its complexity and construction, should not be only for women.’ STARRED REVIEW * Kirkus *‘If Karl Ove Knausgaard himself were a woman and had given birth, he might have written a book a little like Women’s Work. Megan Stack’s mastery of language and attention to detail make magic of the most quotidian aspects of life. But the subject matter here is hardly banal. Stack goes beyond her own experience of motherhood to focus on the Chinese and Indian nannies who helped her raise her children at the expense of their own. She brilliantly dissects the contradictions of motherhood by analyzing how motherly love becomes a commodity in this modern, globalized word.’ -- Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea‘Megan Stack obliterates the silence that upholds one of our greatest taboos: our universal reliance on domestic labor that women — women of colour especially — are expected to supply freely or cheaply. With journalistic rigor, Stack centres the complicated lives of women who clean our homes and care for our children, but it’s her willingness to shine a light into the dark, typically untouched corners of her own family, privilege, and ambition that makes this book soar.’ -- Angela Garbes, author of Like a Mother‘Memoirs about motherhood are exceedingly common, but Women’s Work dares to explore the labor arrangements that often make such books possible ... Stack writes sharp, pointed sentences that flash with dark insight ... ruthlessly self-aware [and] fearless.’ -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *‘Stack writes, unflinchingly, about what it was like for her world to shrink and her life to entwine with the lives of her hired help — who left their own kids behind in order to work in her home ... Stack’s writing is sharp and lovely, especially in the first section of the book as she deftly describes her plunge into new motherhood and year-long journey to find herself again.’ -- Erica Pearson * Minneapolis Star Tribune *‘Stack truly becomes aware of the hardships facing the women she employs: alcoholism, domestic violence, poverty. She delves into their stories with searing honesty and self-reflection … Women’s Work is a brave book, an unflinching examination of privilege and the tradeoffs all women make in the name of family.’ -- Amy Scribner * BookPage *‘Stack’s engaging style will have women everywhere nodding in recognition.’ FIVE STARS -- Robyn Douglas * Adelaide Advertiser *‘Stack, who had stints in Jerusalem, Cairo, Moscow and Beijing for the Los Angeles Times, is a natural storyteller with an eye for detail ... This is a painfully honest investigation of what kind of compromises women make by hiring other women to do the grunt work ... Stack confronts a reality that many try not to think about: Who are the women who care for my children and clean my house? ... a double-edged indictment: of those, including Stack, who exploit domestic helpers in their desire to remain relevant in work but also of the men who abdicate responsibility ... In an unflinching way, Stack pulls the curtain back on the truths of women’s lives, especially the domestic part: how women make it work.’ -- Debra Bruno * The Washington Post *‘Stack is admirably honest about her reactions and responses. Her prose is often a joy to read: sharp and full of insight.’ -- Henrietta McKervey * The Irish Times *Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: ‘Every Man in This Village is a Liar is a courageous report from the front lines of the hostilities between the West and the Muslim world. Journalist Megan Stack sheds the customary pretenses of her profession to show us — with blistering eloquence and her own raw nerves laid bare — war’s impact on the non-combatants who bear the brunt of its horrors. You’ll be thinking about this book long after you turn the final page. I hope it finds a wide audience. My congratulations to Ms. Stack.’ * Jon Krakauer, author of Where Men Win Glory *Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: ‘[Stack's] soaring imagery sears itself into the brain, in acute and accurate tales that should never be forgotten by the wider world, and yet always are … Anyone wishing to understand the Middle East need only look into the faces of war that Stack renders with exceptional humanity — the bombers as well as the bureaucrats, the rebels and the refugees, the victors and the victims.’ STARRED REVIEW * Booklist *Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: ‘Every Man in this Village is a Liar is an electrifying book by an extraordinary foreign correspondent. Megan Stack has braved the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, decoded the secrets of Israel and Egypt. She shows us what war and terror have done to humanity in the 21st century. Read it if you have the courage to care about your country, its allies and its enemies.’ * Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes *

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Book SynopsisToddlerhood is a time of tremendous growth and development. It is also a time of tantrums and conflict. Knowing what constitutes normal toddler behaviour will help you accept and respect this and go a long way towards effective, guilt-free and realistic parenting. Your toddler learns though his senses -- to guide him, you need to practise wisdom with sense. Now fully updated and expanded to include the latest relevant research, this ever popular follow up to Baby Sense tells you how to: Recognise and understand your toddler's unique sensory profile; Manage stimulation to avoid overload; Solve bedtime battles with age-appropriate sleep-training; Discipline with love and a sense of humour; Follow a sensible approach to toilet training; Monitor and encourage development; Feed your toddler and manage fussy eating in the toddler years; Recognise learning disorders for early intervention.Trade Review"Consulting with Ann Richardson on Toddler sense has enriched a friendship born from common interests. Our shared mission was to empower parents through knowledge in understanding their children's sensory system and its impact on their development." Kerry Wallace (Occupational therapist) "With a most relevant chapter of sensory profiling, as well as other additions, Ann Richardson has managed to improve on an already amazingly comprehensive book, which now covers any possible subject any parent may have. It is written in a style that every parent will understand. I very highly recommend this as the number one toddler parenting bible." Lynette van Wyk, early childhood development specialist, owner of Toddlers' Workshop, Port Elizabeth "... an infinitely useful guide that'll help you through the tricky toddler years. You will find out everything you need to know about managing the toddler years, including nutrition, potty training, sleep, behaviour and discipline." Child Magazine "An invaluable resource for parents. " True Love Magazine "... an excellent source for parents, grandparents and caregivers to help them to understand their toddlers better. I recommend Ann's Toddler Sense to all our clients as a manual for positive parenting in the toddler years." Liz Victor, early childhood development specialist and owner of TOPTOTS Early Learning franchise. "As an educationalist, I am so impressed with Ann's revised edition of Toddler Sense. The book is written in such a wonderfully informal, yet very informative way - excellent teaching at it's best! Any parent who reads it will learn to understand their young child in a very "sensible" way ... Invest in your child's future and educate yourself in the world of Toddler Sense. Jayne Eurelle, Headmistress Cedarwood School, Johannesburg, South Africa "This book is a must have for all parents who want to facilitate healthy sensory development in their child. Ann makes the complex concept of the sensory world easy to understand. She shares her wisdom and deep understanding of toddlers and offers practical solutions to common problems. She provides valuable tools to promote healthy attachment. As a mother of a toddler, this book has a permanent spot on my bedside table." Justine Loewenthal, Neurotherapist, Bella Vida Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.

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