Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 [Paperback]

Steven P. Shelov (Editor), Robert E. Hannemann (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: June 1, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0553379623 | ISBN-13: 978-0553379624 | Edition: Revised

The organization that represents the nation's finest pediatricians and the most advanced research and practice in the field of child care answers all your medical and parenting questions.  Here is sound, reassuring advice on child rearing that covers everything from preparing for childbirth to toilet training to nurturing your child's self-esteem.  

Here, too, is an indispensable guide to recognizing and solving common childhood health problems, plus detailed instructions for coping with emergency medical situations.

Comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date, Caring for Your Baby and Young Child includes:

Basic care from infancy through age five
Guidelines and milestones for physical, emotional, social, and cognitive growth
A complete health encyclopedia covering injuries, illnesses, congenital diseases, and other disabilities
Safety checks for home, outdoors, and car
A guide for choosing child-care programs
A discussion of family issues from sibling rivalry and adoption to stepfamilies and working mothers
And much more

Caring for Your Baby and Young Child is an essential child-care resource for all parents who want to provide the very best care for their children--and the one guide pediatricians routinely recommend and parents can safely trust.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's Sunday after dark. Your baby is sick, hurt, or acting strangely, and the doctor won't be in until tomorrow. How can you find out what to do when your healthcare professionals are unreachable? You may only need to go as far as your bookshelf. The revised edition of Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 (the American Academy of Pediatrics' reference book for infancy through preschool), provides a wealth of authoritative child-care information in an easy-to-use format.

The first half of this hefty text serves as a comprehensive parenting manual, and includes a month-by-month guide to the first year, nutritional information, basic care instructions, and physical, emotional, and social developmental milestones for children up to 5 years old. While the American Academy of Pediatrics represents the mainstream child-rearing philosophies embraced by thousands of baby doctors, it does not reflect the entire gamut of child-rearing theory. (There's no discussion, for instance, of breast-feeding past the first year or co-sleeping.) The second half of the book includes a thorough, easy-to-navigate emergency first-aid section, plus detailed information about childhood illnesses, immunization schedules and side effects, and family structures, as well as a discussion of behavioral issues. Caring for Your Baby and Young Child is useful, sensible, and carefully researched, and makes a trustworthy addition to any parent's bookshelf. --Ericka Lutz --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

State-of-the-art advice for mothers, fathers, and caregivers from the American Academy of Pediatrics

More than one million copies in print--completely revised and updated

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Revised edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553379623
• ISBN-13: 978-0553379624
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #304,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

255 of 261 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A reassuring, well-written book for all parents August 24, 2000

By gr6120

Format:Paperback

During the months that my wife and I were eagerly anticipating our first child, I set out to find a few informative books to educate and prepare myself for fatherhood. Although the task was daunting given the huge variety of available titles, I was finally able to narrow it down to three books, including "Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5."

From the start, this reassuring, warmly-written book proved an excellent choice. The tone is conversational but intelligent, and the book informs without being pushy, patronizing or condescending. The information contained is up-to-date and presented neutrally. Also contained are supplementary "Where We Stand" sections, which outline the opinions of the American Academy of Pediatrics (the organization that compiled the book) for further reader consideration. In addition, a helpful 225-page section at the back of the book deals with a variety of important topics including emergencies, behaviour, family issues, immunizations, and assorted developmental concerns.

As a new parent with endless questions and apprehensions, I welcomed the detailed month-by-month explanations of what to expect developmentally after birth (the book covers up to age five). Further, I was delighted to discover from the first chapter that the authors clearly love children and working in the pediatric field. This is quickly apparent from the way that children and parenting are discussed.

My son is now three months old, and I enjoy browsing ahead through the book for a sense of what to expect in the days and years ahead. Overall, this title is to be highly recommended for its good humour, clarity, informative content, and celebration of the very reason it was written--our children. It's amazing how many authors and publishers tend to forget this.

Conversely, "Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five" by Penelope Leach (another of the three books I selected) is to be avoided for its preachy tone and use of scare-tactics. While not a terrible book, I found Ms. Leach's style heavy-handed. The author is prone to making parents believe that if a baby or child is not attended to in a certain way (such as the one she suggests), then dreadful things will result. Despite its many high recommendations on Amazon's site, I found that Ms. Leach's book presents only her set view of parenting. Even the "Parents Have Their Say" supplements throughout seem to do little more than support the author's own opinions on such issues as circumcision. A far better supplementary choice would be the excellent and informative (although bulky) "Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy & Baby's First Year."

94 of 96 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The index is what sets it apart December 7, 2000

By T. Adshead

Format:Paperback

We have a lovely six-month old daughter, and have been using this book constantly since she was born. The other books that we liked were the "Girlfriend's guides" but this has a lot more detail, and I feel that it covers a lot more basics. My wife relies heavily on her mother, and a Russian version of Dr Spock, but we tend to leave the final decision to the American Academy.

What I really like about this book is that the index is large, and easy to use. So if I look up "rash" there are cross-references to all the various sorts of rash that might appear. Someone has put in a lot of time to make sure that a panicked parent can go straight to this index, and find the key part of the text.

The content is very much aimed at the "average" child. This is good in a way, as it does not worry you with rare ailments, and tells you to go see a doctor if there is anything out of the ordinary. So you get advice on dealing with the more common, middle of the road stuff by yourself, but if, God forbid, something more rare comes up, they send you to the doctor. Fair enough - no one wants a lawsuit for giving advice on a patient that they haven't seen, and every child is unique.

The other thing that is surprising is that the milestones seem to be late - our daughter seems very early compared to the guidelines in this book, as do other children her age. So it may be that they consciously say that you should expect your child to do something later than they actually do, to avoid people panicking if their child develops some skill later in life. This looks like it would be unavoidable in a book that is trying to be applicable to a group that is as diverse as small children.

Anyway, this book has been very helpful to me as the father of a young child, and I hope that your mileage is the same as mine.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Such a useful book from such a stodgy source! :) December 16, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is just full of useful information and it's presented in a clear and helpful way. First, a month by month guide to infant development and psychology. Then some helpful sections on child proofing your home and finally a large and valuable section on health issues and emergency care. I didn't expect the AAP to write such a handy and easy to read volume.