Pathways to Family Wellness

I'd like to tell you about a resource that may not be familiar to you. It's a magazine called Pathways to Family Wellness.

Pathways is a quarterly publication that offers parents articles and resources to make informed health care choices for their families. It provides thought-provoking information from the holistic health perspective (which is why I like it) and invites parents to explore options for family wellness. Among the articles in the latest issue are:

• Why Light Matters
• Fundamental Problems with Maternity Care in the United States
• The Importance of Skin-to-Skin Contact (about moms and babies)
• Children Who Feel Loved Are More Loving
• Guided Imagery for Children Dealing with Stress
• Baby Crawling: How Important It Really Is (a favorite topic of mine!)

The featured article is titled "How We Are Making Our Children Sick." Quoting from the table of contents:

The purpose of the immune system is to allow us to live in harmony with our environment. In fact, most of the trillions of foreign cells present within our body coexist peacefully, and in some cases even contribute to our health and well-being. In spite of this, chronic diseases such as allergies, asthma, and eczema, which were rare several decades ago, have risen exponentially, especially in children, quadrupling during the last two decades.

A subscription for the magazine is $25 for a year and $45 for two years. For more information, and to subscribe, click here.

Comments

[WendyZ]

Thanks so much for sharing this!! The article "The Importance of Skin-to-Skin Contact" really caught my attention. Since our daughter was a 29.5 weeker, I did Kangaroo Care with her as much as possible. I truly believe in its power.

[Rae Pica]

You're very welcome, Wendy!

I'm a big believer in skin-to-skin contact as well. Wrote an article about it, in fact, called "Skinship(which is the Japanese word for it): Better Bonding with Baby." You can find it here: http://www.movingandlearning.com/Resources/Articles.htm.

[Heather]

I hope you'll share more of what you think about baby crawling with us.

[Rae Pica]

Heather,here's a link to an article I wrote called "Getting Down & Dirty with Baby": http://www.movingandlearning.com/Resources/Articles33.htm.

It's very brief and only touches on the importance of crawling. Let me just emphasize that the cross-lateral movement involved in using the left arm and right leg, and the right arm and left leg, in unison is essential to healthy brain development as it stimulates communication between the two hemispheres!

An excellent resource for understanding this is Carla Hannaford's book, Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head.

[WendyZ]

I contacted the magazine via their site, and they are sending a free trial copy! No doubt I'll be sharing it.