With childhood obesity on the rise and in the news on a daily basis, along side nonstop advertisements for junk food and a growing sedentary lifestyle for families, there's no denying the fact that more parents are concerned about their children's health than ever before. In response to the growing interest in these topics, the well established group Weight Watchers has recently released Eat! Move! Play! A Parent's Guide for Raising Healthy, Happy Kids. Part lifestyle advice, part workbook, and part recipe guide, Eat! Move! Play! is a fabulous comprehensive guide for families trying to be conscious of how they stay healthy in their eating and exercise habits. This book includes information and thought-provoking sections on the contemporary challenges to healthy living. Solid advice and points to consider when making personal decisions are ...
Category Archives: Health
We’ve Got Issues
As soon as I read about Judith Warner's new book We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication in a magazine article, I immediately knew this was a book I needed to read. I hoped to find information, but even more important to me was the desire to find validation. You see, my husband and I are parents of a nine year old boy who was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) at the young age of four. We have worked with psychologists and a psychiatrist for all of these years, and he began medication at four and a half years of age. It isn't easy to make these statements, for fear of judgment and disapproval from others, especially with the too common belief that today's children are being grossly overdiagnosed and unnecessarily ...
Cole. . . I Love you to the Moon and Back
It's a fact of life: bad things happen. When bad things happen to a child, it's almost unbearable. This often leads to many questions like, "Why? Why would God let this happen?" But those of us who have endured trials realize that there is one reason that becomes readily apparent -- trials help us focus on what's really important. This is what happened with Aaron and Moireen Ruotsala found out that their 3 year old son Cole had a very serious cancer. In his book Cole...I love You to the Moon and Back, Aaron looks back on those months before the illness and wonders, "Why were we always waiting for the next big thing? Why couldn't we just enjoy each day for what it was?" And in listening to his story, ...
Healing Hearts
In writing Healing Hearts: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon Kathy Magliato, MD has two purposes: to share what is it like to be one of the few heart surgeons who happens to be female, and to raise awareness about the impact of heart disease on women. Anyone who has aspirations to be a surgeon or enter the medical field will find that part of the book interesting. She shares why she wanted to go into medicine, her path there, and specifically why she chose thoracic surgery as a specialty, and then how she went on to become a transplant surgeon. Part of the memoir leans a bit too far into the self-indulgent for my tastes, but I also recognize that when one is writing about one's life, it's hard not to come across in ...
The Water Giver
Have you ever had to stand by your child's side as he or she recovered from a devastating accident or illness? The closest I've come is holding my normally active toddler boy who is rendered still by a high fever, or comforting my healthy tween daughter as she is wracked by a violent stomach bug. This is nothing compared to what parents of special needs children, children with chronic illness, or those involved in serious accidents are dealing with in hospitals in every city every day. In The Water Giver, Joan Ryan shares her experience of nursing her teenage son back to health after he suffers a traumatic brain injury. It's something that no parent wants to face, and about which many parents choose to remain blissfully ignorant instead of facing their worst fears. However, I find that reading stories ...
Pure Foundations
As a Christian parent, I know how important it is to help my kids develop a healthy understanding of their bodies, to explain how special marriage is, and to let them know how babies are made. Even though I know how important these topics are, I admit that I don't like discussing them at all. I am sure I am not the only parent that feels this way. Because of my reticence, I truly appreciate well-written books that can aide me in conversations with my kids. Jim Burns's new Pure Foundations books help parents present difficult topics in a straightforward, kid-friendly way. The photographs of children and families are visually appealing, and the writing is direct, but age appropriate and warm at the same time. God Made Your Body is ...
Short Takes: Non-Fiction
Here are some bite-sized reviews or previews of books that our team has recently taken a look at: My (Jennifer's) husband is a huge sports nut. Right now he's all about football -- college football, professional football -- and he even tried to talk our daughter into going to a high school football game with him. A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football is a neat little book that not only gives insight into the hows and whys of the game, but what might interest women even more -- some behind-the-scenes personal interest stories from the author Mark Oristano's life as a sports broadcaster. Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor is the first major biography of noted Southern author Flannery O'Connor. Author Brad Gooch looks beyond the talent and delves into the relationships ...
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Jennifer Donovan
Managing Editor -
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