Healthy Living Books Books

Rating: - Inspiring!
This is a truly inspirational book, which helps all of us to understand what we really know already; that we are the best judge of what is right for our children. We can be guided, but in the end our decisions can make the most difference, and we cannot rely on experts to know everything about the people that we live with 24/7; that can only be observed by us as we live through their pain and symptoms.

Melanie Gow has shared her experiences with us to hopefully make a difference to other people's lives, as she did to her son's. The book is intelligently and wittily written, and it is obvious that Melanie knows her subject thoroughly through painstaking research and observation.

I am happy that Ben is better and living a healthy, happy childhood, and thank Melanie for sharing her story.

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Rating: - Great book loved it......
I have been very much inspired by this book to ask more questions, and generally take responsibility.

I too had a very sick child at age 3, armed with this book I am sure I could have done so much more than to just fall to pieces and hand over responsibility to a random consultant...........I admire Melanies strength, and how Melanie kept her sense of humour. I thank Melanie from the bottom of my heart for giving me such a rare and intelligent read...I do hope there will be more.

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Rating: - Mums and Dads read this!
Having a son that was ill and using the normal methods of cure didnt work. Certainly this book would have helped me in this situation and maybe I would have tried alternative ideas to make my son better. He did get well again but reading this im sure that I could have reduced his suffering!. Great book and even now on the NHS doctors are being training in accupuncture, who would have believed that 10yrs ago!!!

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Rating: - Great Book
This is a great book. I am amazed at how some mothers actually do work hard to help there children in this day and age. Here we have a mother who against all odds and our failing health care plus world wide polution has now got 2 healthy energetic normal young children. Hooray to her for sharing her hard work with us and I hope that all mothers read this book so that they can find the help and courage to question The System.
A Cartwright

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Rating: - An informative book, a pleasure to read as well as instructive
I found this book easy to read, full of valuable information without being preachy and would recommend it to everyone, not just young parents.
Melanie Gow writes intelligently with great humour, insight and empathy. She has a story to tell, one that ordinary people can relate to, and she tells it well. Toasters Don't Roast Chickens made me smile, feel emotionally involved and brought tears to my eyes in places. Above all Toasters Don't Roast Chickens got me asking questions!
It was the wording on the cover of Toasters Don't Roast Chickens that caught my eye. "The story of an ordinary mum who challenged conventional medical thinking and transformed the health of her chronically-ill child." My daughter has a chronically sick son. Over the past two years she has sunk into a round of the GP surgery, Emergency, hospital appointments and consultants, doing as she is told in order to keep her son alive, resigned to living with a pharmaceutical company in her house and a mindless list of drugs. She can rattle off all the medication he is on, but couldn't tell me what each does, apart from "it manages his condition mum."
I bought the book, read it and asked myself "why is my daughter just managing her son's condition?" Is it because the medical doctor and the consultants know best? By prescribing what they do, with the alloted time for each patient that they have, and under the umbrellas of the drug companies and the government's recommendations, they are managing disease, not necessarily curing it. As Melanie Gow says "Looking at a lump of cheese does not tell you much about milk." I gave the book to my daughter, and then bought another copy for myself, so that I can show friends who are in the same position as my daughter.
Melanie Gow, how right you are and thank you for making me sit up and think! After reading your book I have to ask myself why do we leave one of the most important aspects of our lives in the hands of people who see us in medical terms only, as a condition, for "7 minutes" of appointed time and who all too often turn to the pharmaceutical companies for a quick fix for their patients because they're too tired, too burdened with statistics and paper work and quite frankly don't know what else to do. Their training does not include anything outside the accepted medical curriculum and if they want to investigate other methods of health care they have to do this in their own time - of which they have none to spare!
I've just looked again at her list for responsible choices for drug smart parents. I can't be the only one who has taken a prescription from a doctor in blind faith, relying on his or her educated knowledge to cure me, or at least make me feel a bit better. I've trusted my doctor even when, in the past, I've been made worse by the drugs I've used. I didn't think there was an alternative, and it has never occurred to me to ask questions as to why I'm being given a particular drug, what it's side effects are and do I really need it? I've never asked if there is an alternative, another way of treating a chronic condition.
After reading this book I'm far more aware of the questions to ask when it comes to my health and that of my family, and I am encouraged to feel I can take control.