YOU: Raising Your Child

September 1, 2008
This follow-up to Roizen and Oz's current bestseller YOU: Staying Young
, targets three dimensions of beauty: looking beautiful, feeling beautiful and being beautiful. True to their holistic vision, they provide tools, tips and quizzes on physical appearance—caring for hair, skin, nails, teeth, etc.; forming healthy diet and exercise habits; reading labels and selecting products; and choosing cosmetic enhancements (breast implants, Botox, tattoos, piercing and LASIK, for example).They also include practical ways to manage energy levels, ease aches and pains, prevent injury, cope with mood disorders, end addictions and create positive home and work environments. Identifying work and finances as major stressors and loving relationships as key to health and happiness, they offer insights and suggestions for developing a big-picture, spiritualized view of life. A 24-hour “ultimate beautiful day” shows readers how to implement changes into their typical schedule. The blend of beauty advice with love, work, finances and spirituality could be smoother, and the impish humor throughout is a bit strained. Still, this volume is as entertaining and challenging as other titles in the series.

September 6, 2010
This seventh volume in the YOU series (following YOU: Having a Baby) by Oprah's favorite physician-authors continues yet further dilutes the well-known brand. Apparently making full use of the data collected for the previous books, radio show, and Oprah programs, the book lacks structure and is uneven and scattershot, providing advice on a select number of not especially essential child health topics in chapters on the biology of infant education; child gastrointestinal issues; infectious diseases, allergies, and the immune system; and preventing childhood accidents and dealing with doctors and hospitals, thus forgoing the traditional structure of most parenting resources, which present information along developmental ages and stages. Some useful material may be found in a section entitled "YOU Tools," which features minimal hands-on instructions for diaper changing, interpreting infant cries, and the like; a number of short lists of required gear—but this section seems more an afterthought, a place to put all the good stuff that didn't fit into chapters. Although readers would expect the media star authors and the pediatric experts they recruited to create a real go-to guide, they will be disappointed, and the familiar, casual tone doesn't work.