GROW HEALTHY BABIES
The Evidence-Based Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy and Reducing Your Child’s Risk of Asthma, Eczema, and Allergies
A practical, easy guide for expecting parents, Grow Healthy Babies provides clear and simple steps for a healthy pregnancy and preventing chronic diseases including asthma, eczema, and allergies. Written by lifelong allergy sufferers who wanted their own children to grow up healthy, this is the comprehensive guidebook every parent needs.
Praise for Grow Healthy Babies
“One of the best books I have read! As scientist, obstetrician, and a trainer - it's essential reading for anyone working in pregnancy health to be able to give the right advice to women to nurture their baby and optimise their future. A must read too for every pregnant person to understand how to switch on the best genes with nutritional guidance.”
- Dr Karen Joash, Head of School for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, NHS England
“A fantastic accomplishment. It is easy to read, incredibly well researched and has enough history, personal touches, and detail to make it an exciting read, not just a simple guideline for new parents. As a physician, I understand the difficulty of explaining very complex issues in a way that can be understood by new parents seeking out the best information to raise healthy children. And as a parent I know how important this information is. This is a truly excellent book and I will definitely be getting copies for all my friends planning to have children.”
— Dr Lowan Stewart MD, former Clinical Assistant Professor, Oregon Health & Science University; Emergency Physician & Medical Researcher; CSV Regional Medical Center, Santa Fe
“This is an impressive book. With the depth and quality of information, logical flow, consistency and balance, this is something that everyone planning a family urgently needs to read. It goes straight to the top of my recommended book list for our students!”
— Richard Burton, Founder and Director, Irish Institute of Nutrition & Health
“This book is a brilliant feat. Michelle and Victor take a huge amount of research and sift through it in a logical way, with a structure that flows clearly. Here's to growing healthy babies and children!”
— Simone Davies, Bestselling Author of The Montessori Toddler
“Grow Healthy Babies is a great starting point for those who want to understand how to avoid one of the most mysterious and troublesome trends in modern life: kids that are, with each new generation, more and more allergic—and more vulnerable to inflammatory conditions in general. Many of the recommendations it contains have achieved something like “common sense” status among microbiologists (...) This book is a good evidence-based guide to get parents thinking about how to better play the odds of their children developing allergic and other chronic diseases.”
— Moises Velasquez-Manoff, Author of An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies And Autoimmune Diseases
About the Book
Lower Your Baby’s Risk of Chronic Disease
In many Western countries, a baby born today is more likely to develop a chronic condition than to stay healthy. According to the latest WHO and CDC statistics, about half of all babies will develop allergies, and up to a third will become asthmatic or suffer from eczema.
You don’t have to accept these odds. Through simple diet and lifestyle choices during and after pregnancy, you can lower your baby's risk of developing a chronic condition by up to 90 percent. Referencing over 660 scientific studies, Grow Healthy Babies is the comprehensive guidebook every parent needs.
This book shows you how to let both your and your baby's health flourish, thus increasing your baby's chances of growing up happy, strong, and free from the burden of chronic illness.
Learn What Really Matters for Your Baby’s Health
Distilling the latest medical evidence into a practical, easy guide, Grow Healthy Babies shows you:
How your baby's immune system develops, and how you can strengthen it to prevent chronic illness.
How friendly bacteria, your microbiome, shape both your and your baby's health, and how to protect and improve your microbiome.
Which food choices and supplements during and after pregnancy make a real difference to your baby's health, according to scientific studies.
Why environmental factors and certain household products can trigger chronic disease, and how to choose healthier alternatives.
How birth choices and breastfeeding can influence your baby's long-term health.
or see the Table of Contents and read Sample Chapters
About the Authors
Michelle Henning
Michelle is a certified Nutrition & Health Coach, writer, and graduate of the Irish Institute of Nutrition & Health. Her articles have been featured in WIRED Magazine, Pathways to Family Wellness, BabyCenter, and many other outlets.
Dr. Victor Henning
Victor is an award-winning scientist, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and founder of Mendeley, a leading scientific collaboration platform. He is a former Adjunct Associate Professor at the Free University of Amsterdam, has published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has been featured in The New York Times and The Guardian.
Michelle and Victor have suffered from a long list of chronic conditions since their early childhood - between them, they combine food allergies, asthma, eczema, hay fever, dust allergies, and dyslexia.
When they decided to become parents, they began investigating a mountain of medical literature on how to prevent chronic illness so that their baby would grow up healthy. In Grow Healthy Babies, they are sharing their research with other parents.