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Medical Information &
Nutrition
- Nelson & Pescar: Should I Call the Doctor? (1986, Warner; 0-446-38189-X)
[OOP; try your library or perhaps amazon]
- Although it covers infants too, I didn't really use this book
much till Beth was over a year. Organized into sections by symptom,
and lists sets of symptoms for which you should rush to emergency
(or call an ambulance), go to your doctor or a walk in clinic,
make an appointment to see your doctor in the next few days,
or mention it to the doctor at the next regular appointment.
Also a "what to expect" section explaining the tests and so
on that will probably be run when you seek treatment.
This book calms me down when I get frantic about fevers or bumped
heads or rashes. I don't worry that I'm missing something
life-threatening. I think eveyone should have a copy. -- Kate Gregory
- "Taking Care of Your Child" Pantell, Fries & Vickery
[sources incl. amazon]
- This book has medical and first aid help. It has flow charts
for each item covered. There are about 100 topics and
includes things like puncture wounds, sunburns, neck pain, bed
wetting, and colic. The charts help decide whether you
should be rushing to the doctor, making an appointment, or
applying home treatment. It covers what the doctor would
probably do and describes home treatment procedures also. As
a bonus, it includes a copy of the growth charts.
- Kenneth Grundfast and Cynthia Carey: "Ear Infections in your Child"
[OOP; try your library or perhaps amazon]
- I can't remember his exact name, but when we showed it to our ENT, he
told us that this doctor was a well-respected ENT. An *excellent* book
It was a great book since it presented all known alternatives for
chronic ear infections, and best of all, it was *not* a medical book,
but written in plain English that could be understood by parents!
I would imagine that your ENT would know of this book, or if not,
it would most likely be at the library. I just happened to spot it
one day in a bookstore right before B.J.'s procedure, and it really
made us feel comfortable with our decision [about ear tubes].
- I have read a wonderful book called "Ear Infections In Your
Child" by Kenneth Grundfast and Cynthia Carey. It explains,
in layman's (aka everyday parent's) terms everything about ear
infections, treatments, surgery, antibiotics, hearing loss,
etc. Grundfast is the chairman of the Dept. of Otolaryngology
for Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C. I would strongly
suggest that you get this book. It is easy to read,
interesting and extremely informative. -Cindy Gorgone (from a post)
- Ellyn Satter: Good Sense and How to Get Your Kid to Eat, But Not Too Much.
(Paperback, about $14.)
[sources incl. amazon]
- This is in response to "Healthy diet" plus "HELP MY KID WON'T EAT"
and the "is this kid too skinny" type messages:
There is a GREAT book called "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and
Good Sense" by Ellen Satter (Is it Sather? No I think it is Satter)
that does a wonderful job on how much food is enough, is your child
eating enough, is your child eating too much, etc. It covers
everything from breast feeding up to teens, but is ESPECIALLY good
with tips on _toddlers_ and young pre-schoolers and why you usually
don't need to worry about how much they are eating and why you usually
should not make a big deal out of their food choices. I seem to
recall that there are toddler menu plans in the book.
This book was the best baby shower gift I received. I read it, my
hubby read it, we followed the advice, and my three-year-old has
always eaten two of three meals a day with gusto. (Sometimes she is
more hungry at lunch time, other times she is more hungry at dinner
time.) She has often been a bit above average in height and a bit
below average in weight, but then again, my husband and I are both
relatively tall and fairly thin. There are some foods she doesn't
like, but you know, there are some foods I don't like, either.
I received the book as a gift from a dietitian friend, but I have
found it at Walden Books and given it to friends as a baby shower
gift. It is a good book to read BEFORE you start getting into fights
with toddlers who won't eat.
-- Jennifer Gassman [posted]
- It covers feeding your child from infancy through toddlerhood. I got
it around the time Karen started on solids, so I don't know how good
the first chapters are. But I did take a glance through and they
seemed useful. It covers nutrition and how to progress from stage
to stage. It gave pros and cons for buying baby food vs making your
own. It was very helpful for me to know what to feed Karen and
when. It's got some great charts too.
- Vicki Lansky: Feed Me - I'm Yours
[sources incl. amazon]
- I found this book worse than useless. Many of the recipes
include food items that should not be given at all to children under
the age of one year, for fear of stimulating allergies, but the
warnings about this possibility are nearly non-existant. --Paula Burch
- The best part of this book for me was information on making my
own baby food, since I wanted to make baby food as much as I
could. It also includes good information about starting
solids and has recipes for nutritious kid snacks.
- Brown, Jeffrey: "The Complete Parents' Guide to Telephone Medicine,"
Perigee Books, NY, 1982.
[OOP; try your library or perhaps amazon]
- The subtitle is something like "when to call the doctor and what to do
first." I like this book because it concentrates very clearly on
saying what conditions are *not* emergencies. Every page describes a
different disease, accident, or other medical misadventure, and is
organized along the lines of: if X then don't worry, if Y then call
your doctor, if Z then this is an emergency. It's well organized and
indexed; it includes some fairly mundane subjects like diaper rash as
well as the usual collection of diseases and injuries. There's an
introductory section that covers how to act and what to say when you
call your doctor -- I would have thought this silly, but our
pediatrician clearly loves us for being prepared when we call him.
A gift from my RN sister-in-law, it's the only book we keep handy.
- Biracree and Biracree: "The Parents' Book of Facts"
[OOP; try your library or perhaps amazon]
- Very good, basic book which is a good resource. It is especially
thorough on the benefits of breastfeeding over formula--just the
facts, and no value judgments thrown in.
- George Wootan & Sarah Verney: _Take_Charge_Of_Your_Child's_Health
[sources incl. Chinaberry and amazon]
- I recently got a wonderful new book on children's health care. For
years I've been looking for a book on kid's health that doesn't tell
you to rush your kid to the doctor every time she runs a fever. (In
our house, high fevers always hit at 2am.)
This book tells you what to watch for and when you SHOULD rush your
child to the doctor. It also tells you how to give first aid for
medical emergencies from electrocution to a knocked out tooth. It
also spends a lot of time on basic health and comfort measures for
mild childhood illnesses. There's a really good section on choosing
and communicating with your child's doctor.
The basic assumptions of this book include:
- Parents are the best experts on their children's health.
- Parents have the best interests of their children at heart.
- Parents are intelligent.
- The whole child is important.
I got this book from Chinaberry (1 800 776 2242). It's a real boon
for me since I prefer to let nature do the healing, but I also worry
when my kids are sick.
- Martha and David Kimmel: Mommy Made* (* and Daddy too!)
[sources incl. amazon]
- By Martha and David Kimmel
Published by Bantam
paperback - $13.95 (2.5 years ago) ISBN 0-553-34866-3
- I bought several, but the best I found, and
with the most detail was It really covers a lot of ground, including when to introduce what foods,
and all sorts of hints for cooking and storing of the food. They have
toddler recipies too.
- The Colombia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete
Medical Guide
[sources incl. amazon]
- a must for every home, IMHO. It is comprehensive, has
nice illustrations, is easy to understand, and provides enough
information to get you really worried and right into the closest
medical library.
-- Marjorie Peskin [posted]
- Gray's Anatomy
[sources incl. amazon]
- also a must, so you can figure out what muscle is actually killing
you at any particular time. -- Marjorie Peskin [posted]
- Actually the worst anatomy book around, for a non-physician,
although it does look good on the shelf. I prefer [the
following book]. -anonymous
- Anatomy Coloring Book
[sources incl. amazon]
- Although you'd expect it to be silly, given the name, this
is an excellent anatomy book, far easier to use than Gray's
Anatomy, and with much more useful detail. -anonymous
- Taber's Medical Encyclopedia
[sources incl. amazon]
- great for terminology so you can have very technical conversations
with your doctors and not sound like an idjit.
-- Marjorie Peskin [posted]
- Robbins Pathology
[sources incl. amazon]
- great for the more arcane, but still totally interesting facets of
medicine, but beware! All the photos in this book are worst case
scenario. Take a look at the one for goiters and you will be running
for the nearest bathroom YUCK! (And as a close personal buddy of the
author, I can attest that the writing is magnificent in this book,
and the author is a totally wonderful person as well).
-- Marjorie Peskin [posted]
- Dr Spock
[sources incl. amazon]
- great for most kids stuff, but I don't think a parent should
rely totally on his words. Some of the information is too sparse for
me. I always want more, and consult other books as well.
-- Marjorie Peskin [posted]
[see general baby advice section, above - each edition of this book is
completely different - Ed.]
- PDR (Physicians Desk Reference)
[sources incl. amazon]
- And finally, no household should be without a PDR (Physicians Desk
Reference). You can get both over the counter and prescription
volumes. You don't have to have the current year unless you are
questioning a new drug. This has the most comprehensive information
about drug reactions, dosages, and includes all the drug trial
information. It can be scary to read at first, but if you do take
medication on a daily basis, it can help you to understand what side
effects this medication might have with other medications.
-- Marjorie Peskin [posted]
- Helen Reisner. Children with Epilepsy
[OOP; try your library or perhaps amazon]
- I highly recommend these books [for parents of children with
seizure disorders]. --Jan Silbermann [from a post]
- Freeman, Vining and Pillas: _Seizures and Epilepsy in Childhood_
[sources incl. amazon]
- I highly recommend these books [for parents of children with
seizure disorders]. --Jan Silbermann [from a post]
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