DR. COWAN’S LATEST BOOK

Quite simply, Dr. Tom Cowan has had a profound impact on my life experience. He introduced me to the book Nourishing Traditions and the Weston A. Price Foundation when I went to see him for my first office visit back in 2004 in San Francisco. His wife Lynda Smith was one of a small group of us that named this educational initiative Nourishing Our Children in June of 2005. She introduced me to Nonviolent Communication that has greatly influenced the way I perceive myself and others, and is very clearly present in her husband’s latest book. I was very happy to receive a copy from Tom! The book is available on his website, as well as on Amazon. His team has very generously offered to give away 5 copies that will be randomly chosen. I’ll cover those details at the bottom of my review!

In short, I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it. Tom explores how we might raise a healthy child in a toxic world, and his focus is not primarily on them being physically healthy, which he has written extenisvley about in the book Nourishing Traditions for Baby & Childcare co-authored with Sally Fallon Morell. He writes to us from his experience as a parent and a grandparent, as well as his observations as a doctor over the course of more than thirty- five years. He shares that his experience as an observer of Waldorf schools and his understanding of his fellow human beings gained over sixty-eight years of life also informed his perspective. Tom states that he hopes to make the case that your child is a unique and gifted human being who deserves to be treated as such. His book is filled with many pearls of wisdom that I have decided to focus my review on from each chapter, many of which I’ve read more than once.

PEARLS OF WISDOM

Following are some of the pearls of wisdom that struck me from each of the chapters. The chapter tiles are listed in bold. I think this will give you a sense of the book and I hope it will pique your curiosity to learn more! All quotes are directly from the book, with some of my comments in brackets:

  1. Choosing Sides. If you want to raise a healthy child in a toxic culture, get on your child’s side and stay there, no matter what. [From what I understand having read the book, this doesn’t mean that we must always approve of our children’s behavior, but rather that our approach to raising them is based on empathy for the needs they are attempting to fulfill.] The publisher, Steiner Books, has given me permission to include this first chapter for you to read!
  2. Trust. “Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives.” — Rudolf Steiner. Free human beings, human beings who trust themselves, human beings who are happy, independent, and seek their unique destiny. Human beings who think deeply, who actively seek to understand how they and humanity in general fit into the larger world. Human beings who seek wisdom, justice, and compassion. Human beings who can love and be loved. Human beings who at the time of their death can look back on their lives without regret. Those are some of the qualities of a human being encompassed by the word “healthy.” These qualities, and many others besides, should and must be the goal of our attempts to raise healthy children.
  3. Rhythm — Every parent and adult who interacts with children should attempt to cultivate the art of telling stories, singing songs, and creating games from their own experience and childhood. Rarely can a small child resist being drawn into these tales. The next best approach is to read stories from books or sing common children’s songs. Both are fine, but children, like all people, find it most rewarding to interact with other fully engaged people. If you are telling your own story from your own life, you will be engaged—less so reading from a book.
  4. Perseverance — A child who never gets acutely sick, never has a fever, cough, runny nose, never has flu-like symptoms will become a weak, chronically sick person in many cases. When our children go through fevers, chickenpox, measles, etc., they get stronger, their detoxification pathways get exercised, and research has shown that these children end up with less susceptibility to all the chronic diseases from which many of the adults in our society suffer.
  5. Play — Your primary job, besides keeping the child safe (i.e., not allowing them to cut their nose off with hedge clippers), is to expose them to as many of these types of activities as you can muster. With enough diversity, it is rare to find a child who doesn’t find their niche. Some children focus on one activity, some change activities and interests seemingly by the minute. As far as is practical, either way is fine.
  6. Integrity — The words, “You should be ashamed of yourself,” words I clearly remember hearing as a child, should be stricken from the vocabulary of all those who even get near a child. Shaming, in words or actions, is the opposite of being on your child’s side.
  7. Food Fights — Most parents will have to take the uncomfortable step of presenting their child with food for dinner and the child refusing to eat it. At that point, inwardly and outwardly, you have to be totally at peace with this choice. That doesn’t mean you have to give them something else to eat. After all, you planned and executed a perfectly good dinner (hopefully), with lots of delicious fats, many flavors and food groups. You have no need to make something different. This can be quickly and easily explained. At that point, their choice is to eat or not, with no hint of any consequences at all (except maybe their own natural feeling of hunger). This is the hard part, the inward stance that this is all good—I did my part, and my child is doing their part. In my experience, this may result in a hungry child one night, but almost never for more than two days. Once they trust that you got the message, it’s simply time to eat and move on.
  8. Punishments and Rewards — There is nothing more absurd than physically, verbally, or emotionally punishing children so as to prevent them from growing up to be physically, verbally, or emotionally abusive to others. American culture, if nothing else, is a dramatic example of how this mindset clearly doesn’t work and only results in a violent, warlike, abusive way of life. That is not what I mean by healthy children.
  9. School — “Do not train children in learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” —Plato
  10. Radical Monopolies: The Hidden Curriculum — Radical monopolies, such as the school industry, always rob the less advantaged to support the more advantaged members of society. They often do this in conjunction with related radical monopolies to fleece us of our resources.
  11. Education — Don’t be afraid to let your child be “bored.” Most people in traditional cultures spent a fair amount of time just walking around, sitting around, or doing other “non-productive” activities. Often this is when the most profound ideas are hatched.
  12. Learning to Read — “It is harmful when children learn to read and write too soon.” — Rudolf Steiner
  13. Electronic Devices — “In your own home avoid installing any wireless system, and if you must use electronic devices, use them only on wired systems that go through your phone line.”
  14. Returning to Life — There have been over a thousand rigorously studied cases of young children, usually between the ages of three and six, who have clear and verifiable memories of past lives. We must realize that our children come with strengths, weaknesses, intentions, fears, goals, and a path. It is our job, in our quest to raise healthy children, to honor and, as far as possible, to understand this unique path. [This chapter was fascinating to me and I will definitely follow up to learn more about this body of research!]
  15. Envisioning a World Fit for Our Children — Instead of showing them Disney movies of ridiculous, phony, talking animals, go to a local park and watch the squirrels climb the trees.
  16. Vaccines and Animals — Our animal guides also need the best food, appropriate to their species, a safe and loving home, and no vaccines, ever.

Appendices:

  1. Electromagnetic Frequencies — If you ever touch your cell phone, plug it in your ear, strap it to your wrist, or push the restart button, you have violated the agreement, and the manufacturer is no longer liable for any damages.
  2. Tylenol — Tylenol use in large amounts, all at once, kills people from liver damage. The routine use of Tylenol for acute, febrile ill- ness prolongs their suffering and makes them have a higher likelihood of a poor outcome from their illness. Tylenol appears to be a potent neurotoxic substance and is associ- ated with damage to higher functions in the brains of young children. Given these clear facts, tell me again why we are using millions and millions of doses per year on our young children and pregnant mothers?
  3. Diagnostic Ultrasounds — To be clear, I am not against the use of DUS in cases in which the results of the examination can and will lead to a clear therapeutic intervention that delivers benefit to mother or child. But I am completely against the use of an unsafe examination for any routine pregnancy unless and until this test is conclusively proven to be safe, which in my opinion will never happen.

Again, this book is on Dr. Cowan’s website, as well as on Amazon, and I found it to be very worth my while, even as someone who doesn’t have children! I will add my own review to the 42 5-star reviews on Amazon to support the 100% 5-star record to date!

To stay in touch with Dr. Cowan, subscribe to his newsletter! Also, follow him on social media and see links to his key content.

GIVEAWAY

We will randomly pick 5 people on Wednesday, May 28 at 8:00 AM PT to ship the book to within the United States. Update – we have changed the date to Friday, May 30 at 5:00 PM PT due to the Memorial Day holiday, so more folks can learn about and enter this giveaway. We will notify each recipient in order to get your postal address and also post the names here on this blog. Please read and follow the directions below carefully!

  1. Write a comment below on this blog post, at least 4 sentences, letting us know why you have an interest in receiving this book complimentary! Alternatively, you may also let us know what pearls of wisdom I have chosen to highlight that resonated with you or peaked your interest!
  2. Subscribe to this blog via the ” > subscribe” button at the top of this page on the side bar if you are on a computer, and at the very bottom of this page if you are on mobile view.

Results: Dianna, Meghan, Deborah, Claudio, and Marlene were randomly chosen and notified!

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