By Scott M. Shannon, M.D., with Emily Heckman; 284 pages. Subtitle: Break the Doctor-Diagnosis-Drug Cycle and Discover Safe, Effective Choices for Your Child's Emotional Health.
More accurately, the title should be Please Don't Label YOUR Child, because the author is directing his message at parents who are quick to seek a label and a prescription, rather than doctors and educators who are quick to offer them. If you can keep from getting defensive over that, there's some good information on how adjusting nutrition, environment, and lifestyle may be more effective than meds for many kids.
- Offers hope that children who appear mentally ill may really not be
- Proposes changes in nutrition and environment instead of medications
- Discusses the way temperament mismatches can cause problems between parents and kids
- Suggests reducing stress and increasing sleep to relieve symptoms
- Text is upbeat and easy to read
- Parents may feel that the author is laying the blame on them
- Case studies involve doctor magically making everything alright
- Would have been nice to have more details about nutritional supplements and diets
- Gives little practical guidance on how to make schools a better fit for your child
- Labels aren't really the enemy, but they're a pretty big scapegoat here
- Chapter 1: The High Cost of Labeling
- Chapter 2: How Your Child's Brain Grows
- Chapter 3: Relationships and the Young Brain
- Chapter 4: Feeding Your Child's Brain for Emotional and Mental Health
- Chapter 5: Environmental Causes of Disharmony in Our Kids
- Chapter 6: The Family System and Fit: School, Intelligence, and Learning Style
- Chapter 7: School, Learning, and the Young Brain
- Chapter 8: Understanding Trauma
- Chapter 9: Parenting for Emotional and Mental Health
- Appendixes: Common Labels, Therapies, Supplements, Family Stress Index, Trauma Questionnaire, Resources, Choosing a Doctor
The labels under discussion here are for psychiatric disorders like ADHD, depression, and Bipolar. Shannon, a holistic child psychiatrist, feels that most of the children given these diagnoses have nothing wrong with them that better nutrition, sounder discipline, and a less-stressed environment can't fix. Using case studies from his own practice, he illustrates how ditching labels and drugs, and getting to the real unrest in the child's life, has made a huge difference for his patients and their families.
That advice is a double-edged sword for parents. On the one hand, it's empowering to know that what afflicts your child is not something big and scary -- an illness to be treated by doctors and medicines -- but something that lifestyle adjustments can erase.
On the other hand, what it all basically boils down to is: Parents, this is your fault.
I don't think that's the message the author meant to convey, but after reading case study upon case study in which the doctor removes a diagnosis from the child by identifying dysfunction in the parents, it's hard not to feel defensive. That's the risk of using case studies in books like this -- they can make information easier to relate to, but they can also make an author look a little full of himself. The case studies here are of the "magical doctor" variety, and after a while, it almost seems as though the book should have been titled You're Driving Your Kid Crazy!
Still, if you can take it in the spirit in which it was likely intended, there's a lot of good information here. The recommended approach to discipline, temperament, and family management is similar to the one I've used successfully with my own kids, and though I haven't tried nutritional interventions, the book made me want to look into it. I just wish it wasn't so willing to label parents as the problem.
