Taking Charge of Your Child's Allergies: The Informed Parent's Comprehensive Guide

The number of children with allergies is astounding-nearly one child in six is said to suffer from some sort of allergy. The problems of these allergic children can be as mild as occasional attacks of hay fever or as severe as disfiguring eczema and life-threatening bronchial asthma. In addition to the obvious health problems associated with having allergies, affected children may experience recurring colds, painful ear infections, and other allergy­ linked conditions, all of which cause frequent school absences. Childhood allergies affect school performance adversely; they may be instrumental in reducing attention span, and they are certainly a major social, psychologi­ cal, and financial burden for children and their parents. This book is a complete guide to childhood allergies presented in simple jargon-free language. It provides parents with comprehensive, up-to-date, and practical information and advice on how to help their allergic children. It identifies the many allergic symptoms, tells what they look like, how prevalent they are, what causes them, and what to do about them. It outlines steps parents can take to help their children understand, manage, and control their allergies. Its goal is to help parents and children cope effectively with a major childhood problem.

What Can a Parent Do when a Child Suffers Terribly from Allergies?

There is a lot you can do to help, according to leading allergy researcher M. Eric Gershwin, MD, and psychologist Edwin L. Klingelhofer, PhD. Drawing not only on their professional knowledge, but on their daily experiences with their own and their children's severe allergies, Drs. Gershwin and Klingelhofer present an easy-to-understand A-Z guide to effective home treatment of children's allergies. Their comprehensive book contains all the latest information and advice you need to effectively manage your child's symptoms, and to help him or her understand and control their own allergies.
Here you will find in simple, jargon-free language the best and most up-to-date counsel on how to deal effectively with asthma, hay fever, eczema, food allergies, contact dermatitis, hives, headaches, rhinitis, latex allergies, and more. For each allergy, Drs. Gershwin and Klingelhofer fully describe and discuss how it is treated, the strategies for its avoidance, its risks and consequences, and also debunk the prevailing myths. Concerned parents will learn how to identify their child's allergic symptoms, how to distinguish these from nonallergic symptoms, and what to do about them. They will also find out what tell-tale signs to look for, which symptoms of allergic disease require immediate attention, and what they can do to survive under managed care. Numerous step-by-step treatment charts lead them to the correct decision about the next step to take.
If your child suffers from allergies and you want to know more about these often cruel afflictions-and what can be done to avoid or treat them-Taking Charge of Your Child's Allergies is just what your doctor would order!

M. Eric Gershwin, MD is Chief, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Clinical Immunology at the University of California Medical School, University of California, Davis. Dr. Gershwin has worked as a clinical allergist and is currently involved in clinical research and practice.

Edwin L. Klingelhofer, PhD is a counselor and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at California State University, Sacramento

Dr. Gershwin and Dr. Klingelhofer have written many books and articles, both as a team and individually. Together they wrote the much praised Living Allergy Free (Humana, 1992). Dr. Gershwin is author of Diseases of the Sinuses (Humana, 1996).
Dr. Klingelhofer is author of Coping with Your Grown Children (Humana, 1989).