Page 55 - Special Issue: Healthy Baby

food sources of vitamin C, which helps the ac- the mainstays of our “sick” diet. Hot chicken soup based on homemade
tivity of the white blood cells. I also give thymus broth—the famous “Jewish penicillin”—with cooked vegetables and a
extract, as the thymus is the organ that makes T bit of cream or coconut milk is perhaps the ideal sick meal. Generally
cells, which participate in overcoming infections. sick children are not very hungry so the warmth and nourishment of
This preparation helps keep the illness brief as frequent bowls of hot soup is the perfect diet for them. Smoothies made
the thymus gland is responsible for making the with egg yolks, fresh fruit and whole yogurt, cream or coconut milk are
antibodies that are part of the recovery process. another good choice, although they should not be served cold. Of course,
The dose here is 1-2 tablets every 2 hours for children should be given 1/2 to 1 teaspoon high-vitamin cod liver oil at
about 1 week, or until the child is completely all times, but especially when they are sick. It can be mixed with a little
better. water or fresh orange juice, or given with an eye dropper.
The rest of the medicines that I use are We started this exploration of the proper treatment of illness in
specific to the site of the infection. There is childhood by examining the difficulty in changing some of the ways
Bronchafect for bronchitis/pneumonia, Urico for in which we think, or in today’s parlance, the paradigms in which we
infections of the urinary tract, Apis/Levistecum believe. In my view, there is perhaps no paradigm that is in such urgent
for ear infections, and Euphrasia comp for throat need of revision as our approach to the illnesses of children. In our almost
and sinus infections. These herbs are available messianic quest to wipe out childhood disease—through vaccinations,
through Mediherb. antibiotics and fever-reducing drugs—we have produced a generation
of children who are chronically sick and tired, spending lives feeling
FOOD AND DRINK uncomfortable in their untransformed skins. It is as if we have prevented
Finally, a few notes on the diet for sick chil- caterpillars from becoming butterflies because the time of immobility as
dren. The food and drink should all be warm to a chrysalis can be dangerous. Well, it is dangerous, at least a little, but
hot, to encourage the warmth principle. During it is more dangerous—in fact deadly—not to allow a child to fulfill his
sickness, the protein content should be reduced or her destiny and become a butterfly. We urgently need to respect the
because the waste that we are eliminating during transformative power of illness, to pluck up our courage and not succumb
illness is coming from the protein in our diets. to those who promise better health through injecting us with poisons, or
However, fats encourage the healthy production harsh anti-life medicines that become less and less effective. And more
of needed warmth. Fat transports vitamin A, than anything, we need to believe in the healing powers of our children’s
the main nutrient needed to help our immune bodies, so we can give them the gift of confidence in their own strength
system. Healthy fats and soup broth should be as they embark on the challenges of adulthood.

(Fetal Development, continued from page 49)
to questionnaires about their eating habits and supplement intake before of vitamin A per day. Some participants con-
7
and during pregnancy. Researchers found that cranial-neural crest defects sumed up to 300,000 IU vitamin A daily during
increased with increased dosages of vitamin A; but neural tube defects de- pregnancy with no birth defects in the offspring.
creased with increased vitamin A consumption, and no trend was apparent An average of 50,000 IU vitamin A per day is
with musculoskeletal, urogenital or other defects. consistent with our recommendation of cod
This study is a poor rack on which to hang the myriad warnings that liver oil to supply 20,000 IU per day plus addi-
have kept pregnant women from eating liver and taking cod liver oil. Re- tional vitamin A in liver, butter, seafood and egg
searchers made no distinction between synthetic vitamin A derived from yolks.
multivitamins and processed food like margarine, and natural vitamin A
from food; nor did they take blood samples to determine vitamin A status. REFERENCES
Food recall surveys are a notoriously inaccurate method of determining 1. J Nutr. 2001;131:705-708.
nutrient intake. 2. Nephr Dial Trans. 2002 Sept;17(Suppl9):
Subsequent studies found that high levels of vitamin A did not increase 78-80.
the risk of birth defects. A 1998 study in Switzerland looked at vitamin A 3. www.news-medical.net/?id=9979.
in pregnant women and found that a dose of 30,000 IU per day resulted in 4. Brit J Nutr. 2000 July;84(1):125-132.
blood levels that had no association with birth defects. 6 5. NEJM. 1995 Nov 23;333(21):1414-5.
A 1999 study carried out in Italy found no congenital malformations 6. Int J Vit Nutr Res 1998;68(6):411-6.
among 120 infants whose mothers consumed an average of 50,000 IU 7. Teratology. 1999 Jan;59(1):1-2.

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