Nina L. Shapiro

Parents often find themselves with many more questions than they originally anticipated prior to a child’s birth. There are most likely very few parents who anticipated an infant with pneumonia and fewer were probably curious about whether their child at age one would snore as loud as their grandfather. Some of these situations are obviously much more severe than others, but determining when to take action and when to wait it out can sometimes be the most difficult question. A parent’s number one source of information and advice is always their child’s pediatrician, but who couldn’t use a “go-to” manual? Take a Deep Breath: Clear the Air for the Health of Your Child by Nina L. Shapiro, MD is the premier guide book for parents looking to “clear the air” for their little one as well as themselves.

Initially I agreed to review Take a Deep Breath: Clear the Air for the Health of Your Child by Nina L. Shapiro because of our own family’s struggle with breathing problems with my son. What I didn’t expect was how wonderful a resource it would turn out to be. There were many points that Dr. Shapiro explains that we encountered during my son’s infancy that we never considered simply because we felt he wasn’t in any urgent distress. That’s not to say we simply let him suffer through most of his first year, but had we known that using Afrin coupled with Saline drops could have relieved his allergy symptoms we would have jumped to use it. This isn’t the only point, but now that he’s older and suffers with severe allergy problems we will now be seeking out specific allergy testing that I wasn’t aware was available until now. It also became clear to me that this would make an excellent gift to the parents of the new nephews we’re welcoming into our family.

One of the aspects of Take a Deep Breath that enjoyed the most was the wrap up at the end of each chapter. Dr. Shapiro breaks it down into summaries titled: “The Big Picture”, “Don’t Worry”, “Worry” and a “To-Do List”. These are so unbelievably helpful because, as it is with our own pediatrician, it can sometimes be difficult to get an appointment. There have been times I’ve “pushed” my way into an appointment only to discover that my daughter merely had a virus and ended up being better a day later. That’s not to say the book will resolve all of a parents concerns and you’ll never need to see a pediatrician again, but as a parent sometimes you just need a little bit of reassurance from an intelligent and reliable source to give you the peace of mind for the “waiting period”.

Also, I shouldn’t fail to mention Nina’s humor. Sometimes in medically based books it starts to read like a text book. For me personally, I don’t feel the need to take a walk down college year’s memory lane. Reading the sections in Take a Deep Breath were truly refreshing. Nina is not only a doctor with all the skills and education that comes with that title, but she’s a human being with a wonderful sense of humor. She’s obviously seen it all in her many years of practice and can find the humor in a two year old shoving a pea up her nose because it seems just like another “pocket” to put things in. I couldn’t help cracking up through this section because I’ve been there. My daughter has been found numerous times with little balls of cereal in each nostril. It simply doesn’t matter how watchful we are or how many times we’ve told her not to do it, she still loves sticking things in those tiny convenient holes. What was great though was to know the main danger rests in what she puts up there and never to joke around if she manages to stick a battery up there.

Respiratory and breathing issues in children is something most parents can’t avoid, but luckily Take a Deep Breath: Clear the Air for the Health of Your Child by Nina L. Shapiro, MD is the perfect go-to manual for parents looking for answers and reassurance. This is definitely a book I’d recommend to new parents as well as potential grandparents who may be spending any amount of time with young children. Nina Shapiro covers an extensive list of symptoms and issues, including CPR techniques, that sometimes may go overlooked and could easily provide not only your child with relief but yourself as well. Though our children are now almost ages three and five I still found a great deal of comfort as well as potential solutions to some of their respiratory issues that I’ll be seeking out in the near future with our own pediatrician. Take a Deep Breath: Clear the Air for the Health of Your Child by Nina L. Shapiro, MD is by no means a replacement for your child’s pediatrician but in a parent’s life when sometimes you need to seek out answers and find comfort on your own this is the go-to book for child respiratory issues!

Originally reviewed and copyrighted at my site There's A Book.… (lisätietoja)

Having a child with Asthma, I knew I wanted to jump on this book to review. Watching him go through the difficulty time of trying to catch your breath and you can't, is nearly unbearable on a mom who wants nothing more than to give him a good set of lungs. Hearing him say, help me, mom is sometimes more than I can take. But, with the help of inhalers it's controllable. Sometimes. Sometimes it's still hard. So, when I saw Dr. Shapiro's book, I thought yay!!

Sitting down and opening this book, I had it finished in one day. I read each page with awe and a better understanding of what children go through, and what, as a parent, I can do to help ease the issues. Through detailed discussions in the book, Dr. Shapiro shows parents who have children affected with breathing issues, and those who don't, what to look for, how to work through it, and the steps to help keep it under control.

I highly recommend this for every parent out there. No matter whether you have an infant or a teen with breathing issues, this is highly informative and easy to understand. I definitely give this book a 5 Book rating and will keep this on my shelf for further use. Well done, Ms. Shapiro, and THANK YOU for helping this mom understand!!!

This review originated on Reviews By Molly blog in part with a blog tour.… (lisätietoja)