Customer Reviews

Your Child in the Balance

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Ths is a sensitive, thoughtful, informative, intelligently written book authored by a well respected psychiatrist. This book is a must read for anyone involved with the welfare of a child.

I have found this book incredibly helpful especially in working with parents who are fearful of putting their kids on medication. I have recommended the book to some of my patients. They felt it was an easy book to read and was helpful to them in deciding whether to put their child on meds or not. I highly recommend this book for both therapists as well as patients. Lori Weinreich

A thoughtful and helpful book for a complex subject. Dr. Kalikow addresses the decision making process of the parents, the child and the health care professional when choosing how to address the needs of their child. It is written clearly, with humor, compassion and tenderness. I believe parents will be able to make a more educated decision after reading this book.

Dealing with a child's illness in any form is always difficult and emotionally draining, but when it comes to less tangible psychological disorders, the acknowledgment of the condition and the subsequent choice of treatment for our children are among the most difficult of all medical issues a parent must deal with.

The shift from Freudian therapy to pharmacological treatment of children is new to many of us, and I was admittedly a skeptic and needed a lot of information and understanding. Dr. Kalikow's book was by far the best treatment of any such parenting issue I've ever read.

His style of writing - while suffused with an extraordinary amount of well-organized information - is engaging and gentle, and in my case, managed to address almost all of the questions I had on the subject.

By presenting scores of individual case vignettes, along with the arguments both for and against various types of treatments, their effects, potential side-effects, time scales, and long-term considerations, Dr. Kalikow's book provided me with a substantial tool with which to deal with problems "in my own back yard."

There's a lot of hand-holding in his narratives, and in some cases Dr. Kalikow's easy-going manner may seem like he's addressing an audience of adolescents. But when it comes to handling our children, perhaps we can all benefit from being treated in this way, with a touch on the shoulder and the reassurance that the understanding of these disorders in chldren is still new to everyone, and their treatments are even newer.

Bravo and thanks to Dr. Kalikow for providing a very useful and engaging body of information.

I found this book very thought provoking. It provides an unbiased perspective and insight into a very controversial topic.

As a child psychiatrist who works with children, adults and families in much the same way as Dr. Kalikow, and as one who is all too familiar with the "thorny" kinds of issues which can block parents and or their cihldren from benefitting from the therapeutic process and to then go on and experience real healing, I am very grateful to him for this book.

"Your Child in the Balance" is a highly readable and easily digested source of information for parents who are faced with the daunting task of obtaining the best help for their children who struggle with emotional and behavioral problems. In an age where so many practioners in child psychiatry seem to have become almost single mindedly focused on the use of pharmacologic agents to treat, if not "cure", our children, using medicines which often do offer both the potential for relief for so many problems as well as risks, and with a media which often fails to provide an appropriate perspective on the complex issues involved in such forms of treatment, it has become increasingly difficult for parents to know who to turn to and who to trust when a child is troubled and in need of "professional help". Knowing when medicine is appropriate and when not, as well as what other therapeutic modalities a parent can expect from child psychiatrists and other "mental health" providers, are examples of the information one can expect to find in this book. He handles these and a host of other related issues in a clear, thoughtful and sensitive, yet straightfoward, manner.

Dr. Kalikow does an admirable job of presenting timely and relevant issues, filling some of what I consider to be a psychoeducational void with much needed light.

Richard A. Flamberg, M.D.
South Salem, New York

Your Child in the Balance by Kevin Kalikow, a pediatric psychiatrist addresses the dilemma that parents face when deciding whether ir not to use medicine to treat their child's psychiatric disorder. Dr. Kalikow opens by searching for the answers to two questions. Where do we draw the line between function and dysfunction in defining pediatric mental illness? When and how do we decide to treat these illnesses with medications?

The book defines the most common disorders and describes the medications used to treat them. The text is well peppered with detailed case histories. Dr. Kalikow's voice, in this book as in his clinical practice, is clear, coherant and engaging. Most parents will find one or more vignettes which resonate with similarities to their child's behavior and struggles. We see children whose disorders are mild and others whose symptoms are extremely distressing to them and impact significantly and negatively on their families and classmates. In these latter cases, we are shown the impact of pharmacologic treatment.

Many of my pediatric patients have benefitted from Dr. Kalikow's psychiatric care which is remarkable for depth of understanding and respectful perserverance with even the most challenging patients. This book will serve as a guide to other families searching for the right paths for the treatment of their children.

Harriet J. Blumencranz, MD, Goldens Bridge, NY

I had a chance to see this guy at the TN association of School Psychologists Conference. He was awesome, and a nice guy also! He was a wealth of knowledge. I can't wait to read the book...

This book delivers- well written + clear + suitable for those not in the mental health/medical fields yet does not oversimplify/dumb down. If you are wondering whether medicine may be needed for your child or client, or if you are concerned with the state of psychiatry + medicine today, this book is a must read.

"Your Child in the Balance" is a necessary book for all teachers. I am giving a copy to every teacher on our staff. Dr. Kalikow's vignettes will enable our teachers to understand the decisions many of our families must make for their children. Through the information presented, so all can understand, our teachers will gain understanding and sensitivity to their students. I recommend this book to all educators.