Books

Click on the book links below to go to Amazon.com where you may purchase the book if you wish.

Caring For Your Baby and Young Child by Steven Shelov

Sponsored and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, this reference book goes through common baby issues, growth and development, and common childhood diseases.

What to Expect: The First Year by Heidi Murkoff

This is another reference book that is highly popular, and rightly so. One criticism of this book is that it's developmental ranges are overly strict, leading to unnecessary anxiety among some parents.

Touchpoints by T. Berry Brazelton

This actually represents a series of books written by one of the world's most respected pediatricians.

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber

This is probably the most renowned and well-researched advice book about sleep in childhood. This book advocates a somewhat middle-of-the-road approach. On the far end of the spectrum, for those parents (and children) that appear to be more schedule-oriented, the book Baby Wise is helpful. For the opposite end of the spectrum, Dr. Sears' books on attachment parenting will provide comforting advice.

Siblings Without Rivalry by Adele Faber

The most well-respected and quoted book on the subject.

Sites

Click on the Site Links below to visit these websites.

American Academy of Pediatrics

Website for the national organization of pediatricians. Contains general information from pediatricians for parents on a variety of health topics. Click on "Parenting Center" for current topics of interest. Click on "Health Topics" for information on various children's health topics listed alphabetically from A to Z and by age.

U.S. Center for Disease Control

Website for the government agency CDC. Contains up-to-date information on infectious diseases, immunizations, and a wide variety of health and safety topics for children and adults. Includes sections on Diseases and Conditions, Healthy Living, and Injury, Violence, and Safety.

Of special interest for travelers is the Traveler's Health section. Go to this section and then click on Destinations to learn what immunizations are recommended for travel to each foreign country and if any other precautions (malaria prevention, etc.) or health advisories are in effect for that area.

Childhood Illnesses, Growth, Development and Parenting

KidsGrowth.com is a website that has information on health and development for infants, children, and teens. It includes special sections on parenting and behavior, child development, childhood conditions (including information on diseases, medical tests, and procedures, etc.), and growth milestones. There is a separate section just for teenagers, TeenGrowth.com.

Immunization Information

Website of the National Network for Immunization Information: contains the most current and reliable expert information on all childhood immunizations (click on "Parents").

General Medical Information

Intellihealth.com is the website for consumer health information of Harvard Medical School: has complete and up-to-date information on men's, women's, children's, and senior's health topics. Also has sections for drug search, a medical dictionary, and diseases and conditions.

Healthy Children Website

This website is sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics and is specifically designed for parents. The website is somewhat new (debuted in December of 2009) but is positively loaded with useful and reliable tidbits on a wide variety of topics. You can register with the site for free for a more personalized experience, but the site can be fully accessed without registering.