as hunched shoulders, shallow breathing, mouth breathing, and avoidance of strong exercise.

Yogic Approach To Asthma
   There is now much debate, both outside and even within the medical arena, as to the wisdom of the current conventional asthma management methods. Whilst allopathy has some wonderful drugs for preventing lethal asthmatic seizures, and which should always be on hand in such events, its mindset that the true causes of asthma are unknown; that it is incurable; and that the best existing management is a drug-based "learning-to-live-with-it-for-the-rest-of-your-life" philosophy, is wearing a little bit thin for many people - asthmatics particularly! New approaches are now actively being trialled, scientifically and experientially by the sufferers themselves. One of these is Yoga Therapy, and in many overseas institutions trials have been conducted showing its success in giving people a drug-free, indeed asthma-free, future.
   Through my yoga teaching, I have met many adults and children with asthma, all of whom have gained tremendously from the combination of relaxation, exercises, breathing, meditation, diet, and lifestyle modifications that yoga recommends.
   Unlike the orthodox approach to disease, yoga maintains that all illnesses have a psycho-emotional component to both their cause and their triggers and that every case of illness is context or patient-specific. From my observa-tions, this is particularly so with asthma. Rather than any blanket approach - saying that management of asthma needs X, Y and Z - the yoga therapeutic approach is more personalised - we look towards treating the asthmatic. Because yoga is a multi-layered, holistic science, its approach is to address all aspects of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. The client (or student) enters into a trusting relationship with their therapist (or teacher) through private consultations and sadhana, so that their physiological and their psychological needs can best be met. And like any holistic perspective, Yoga Therapy is never a quick-fix solution. Commitment must be made towards the long term, towards the self transformational.

Preventative Yoga Approach - Ages under 5
   So, given the above approach to the manage-ment of asthma in adults, in what ways can these same principles be applied to children and even young babies thought to have asthmatic tendencies? The answer is through preventative efforts and by the taking of parental responsibility for its early management. The individual nature of the parents,and

the nature of their relationship with an asthmatic child is often a strong component in the illness, therefore in manage-ment of the child's asthma, some degree of parental transformation is also required to help the asthmatic child.
   Being a reactive allergic type of illness, accord-ing to the yoga and naturopathic approaches, prevention of asthma in children and babies has many similarities with that of allergy management (see previous section - "Allergies and Intoleran-ces" page 436). Given that most of the causes of allergies are well known and the others are well suspected, this therefore gives us many areas to work on. Notice how many of the list below are in fact the same as those listed in the allergy section - all of them!
·   To breastfeed exclusively and for as long as possible
· Introduce solid foods slowly and thoughtfully
·  Cook all your baby's food freshly - every day
· Reduce chemical usage in your household (including strong soaps and detergents)
· Don't overeat or force your baby to overeat
· Feed them a well-varied and balanced diet based on wholefoods and fresh produce. Personally I recommend vegetarian, but if you feel you must introduce meat to your child, I strongly recommend organic and in very small quantities, and never before 12 months of age.
· Buy organic produce if you can find it and afford it or else grow as much of your own organically as you can. If you are unable to find organic, then endeavour to find local, and as fresh, in season as you can.
· Avoid drinking town water. Use rainwater or spring water.
· Don't give children under 12 months of age any kind of processed foods. This includes packeted or tinned baby foods.
· Keep treats to an absolute minimum. Young children's stomachs don't need treats. They need the basics.
·  Avoid all cold foods and excess dairy products (See "The Great Milk Myth", Chapter 8, page 549)

   In the same way as described above for adults, the subtle effects of emotional stress within a young asthmatic must also be attended to. But how does one manage stress in the life of a 1 or 2 year old? Let us look at those things known to be stressful for young children and babies.
· The greatest anxiety a child can have is separation from the mother, which arises from the anxiety that their needs may not be met as and when they require them. That is not to say that a mother needs