Chapter 3 Metaphors and Child Health New metaphors are capable of creating new understandings and, therefore, new realities. George Lakoff, Metaphors We Live By Abstract In this chapter, we present a second (2016/17) and complementary qualitative study, “Using children’s drawing of metaphors to explore holistic health”, which builds on what was learned from the “Child perceptions of health” study presented in Chap. 2. Participants were asked to draw and then engage with their own metaphor of health. The purpose was to explore more deeply the practical utility of using metaphors for engaging with children about holistic health, and also to explore how adding evidence-based health knowledge to children’s initial dis- cussions may stretch and deepen their understanding of their own health. Along with the cake, the house, the web and the maze, two new metaphors were proposed by participants—a Jenga game and a car engine. Participants found the metaphors to be flexible and useful in integrating health information into their own lives. As participants reflected on their own metaphors, their ideas were in keeping with the properties important to holism: (1) New ideas, particularly around balance, emerged that were not present when studying the individual parts; and (2) The parts appeared to gain new meaning in relation to the whole. Keywords Holism Á Metaphors Á Arts-based methods Holistic thinking undoubtedly has many valuable applications to child health. But holism is not a concrete concept, and not the kind of word that you hear among circles of children. This poses a challenge: how can we use the theoretical concept of holism to talk about health with children in meaningful ways that connect with their real-life experiences, and in fact, in a way that they understand? The goal of this chapter is to move beyond an abstract conversation and toward a practical and useful way of thinking about child health in a holistic manner. Such an integrative approach would include helping children to recognize the intercon- nectedness of the many domains of health in their own lives, and equipping them to recognize the impact of their choices in life on their overall health. For example, © The Author(s) 2018 V. Michaelson et al., Holistic Health in Children: Conceptualization, Assessment and Potential, SpringerBriefs in Well-Being and Quality of Life Research, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-64831-6_3 31