A new book designed for parents helps them better understand the diseases their children could face and the weapons to fight them, while offering practical advice for preventing infections in their kids without going overboard.
Germ Proof Your Kids: The Complete Guide to Protecting (without Overprotecting) Your Family from Infections, released this week by ASM Press, is the inside source on germ defense – from antibiotics and vaccines to health foods and home remedies. Written by internationally respected pediatrician and infectious disease specialist Dr. Harley Rotbart, the book offers an accessible, comprehensive handbook for parents and physicians.
“Parents feel incredible anxiety about their children contracting nasty germs and untreatable diseases. News sources are increasingly filled with stories of contaminated hamburger, Bird flu, common colds, and the West Nile virus. In a world seemingly full of microscopic danger, where can concerned parents turn to protect their kids" Germ Proof Your Kids guides them in protecting, without overprotecting, the ones they love from the invisible enemies all around them,” says Rotbart, who is Professor and Vice Chairman of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and The Children’s Hospital of Denver.
By combining the latest scientific findings on disease prevention and treatment with the ages-old wisdom of Mom and Grandma, Rotbart demystifies childhood infections in four parts:
- “Part One: Worthy Enemies” introduces the germs by name and reputation, as well as to the ways in which they travel in and out of children. Rather than present them in alphabetical order, though, they are organized into the diseases that parents most hate, those that they most fear, and those that they used to hate and fear but are now mostly gone.
- “Part Two: Weapons in the War” is the good news to counter all the bad news in Part One. These chapters describe kids’ natural immunity to infections, as well as the armamentarium doctors and scientists have amassed to combat germs.
- “Part Three: Wear your Boots in the Rain” contains the reconciliation chapters – how do mom’s ideas of infection prevention jive with those we have been taught by modern medicine"
- “Part 4: Wisdom of the Ages” contains a single but important chapter that puts it all in perspective. How should parents balance phobia with prudence in protecting their kids" How much prevention is too much"
While written for parents, this volume also serves as a perfect office manual for physicians, providing the up-to-date, concise information that doctors need to educate parents about germs and the best available treatment options.
More information on the book, including Rotbart’s GERMBlog™, can be found online at www.germproofyourkids.com.
Germ Proof Your Kids has a list price of $29.95 and can be purchased through ASM Press online at http://estore.asm.org or through other online retailers.
ASM Press is the book publishing arm of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the oldest and largest single life science membership organization in the world. The ASM's mission is to promote research in the microbiological sciences and to assist communication between scientists, policy makers, and the public to improve health and foster economic well-being.