My brother and I grew-up on a golf course, and we have since learned that our well water was full of pesticides. My brother developed an aggressive choriocarcinoma at age twenty-nine. He lives, after over a year of brutal treatments, but it's hard not to wonder why this happened. After an initial round of chemo and a 13-hour surgery didn't get rid of my brother's cancer, the doctor said it was time to “bring in the big guns,” otherwise known as high-dose chemo. It seems counter-intuitive to use something so deadly and toxic to save a life, but, in brother's case, it was necessary.

The other day, I took my daughter to the doctor for the buzzilith time this year, and, since she's already had four rounds of antibiotics in the last six months, the doctor said it might be “time to bring in the big guns.” I almost got sick. I don't want to think about using any kind of “guns” on my 18-month-old. All I want, like all parents want, is to do right by my child—but sometimes, particularly in the mainstream world of medical care, it can be difficult to determine what that is. After some discussion about whether to give my daughter yet another round of higher-dose antibiotics for her latest (albeit mild) ear infection, I finally asked the doctor what she would do. She'd already written the script, but she told me “personally, I'd wait and see if my child's fever went away by itself before starting another round.” That's all I needed. After twenty-four hours and a little garlic oil in the ears, my daughter was on the mend.

I try to provide my family with a healthy diet and environment. I recognize there is a difference between letting my girl subsist on goldfish for the afternoon versus driving her home to make a fruit smoothie, although I have on occasion resorted to the goldfish. I purify our water. We don't eat a lot of processed foods. I use homemade cleaning solutions. These things are not difficult; most just seem like common sense. But, I'm suddenly faced with the authority of an MD, and all my resources fail me. Now that I have a toddler in daycare at a Montessori school, surrounded by more than a hundred other snotty youngsters, we have a new challenge. Every other week brings a cold, and every other cold develops into an infection.

Let's just say, I'm mighty glad the big guns exist when we need them. Sometimes our health is so far gone that some nasty blasting must be done to bring the body back to relative stability. Still, I think there's also a time to take a step back and find some alternative first line defenses. Many pills come with a cost to both our individual and community health.

So, I've started reading, but with a critical mind toward the science and safety of alternative health practices. I found a local naturopathic pediatrician. I've discovered that homeopathy is as silly as leeches (from a scientific perspective), although other food and herbs can be quite useful if applied with care. My daughter now takes Omega-3s, probiotics and a daily whole-food vitamin, and we use the garlic oil and mullein in her ears at the first onset of a cold. A couple of books I've read recently are The Well Baby Book, by Mike Samuels and Nancy Samuels, and An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants by Mary Bove. Both books still necessitate a bit of mama-sense (like it's unwise to use honey before your child is one), but at least they offer a thoughtful alternative to being a little too trigger-happy.