Emory University Pediatrician Roy Benaroch wrote this guide to help parents understand the most common childhood maladies and misbehaviors and know what the best options are for action. Himself the father of three, Benaroch shares the insights of a medically-trained parent, telling us what he would do if his own child developed each malady. The topics addressed range from abdominal pain, ear infections and vomiting to issues with eating, sleeping and toilet training. Benaroch includes the most recent research in each area and shares vignettes from his own practice and his own household. All parents have faced the frustration of seeing their child sick and not knowing whether to rush to the doctor, offer over-the-counter remedies, or do little and wait to see if the problem passes. So too we have all faced those times when our children seem well but will not cooperate with behaviors involving eating, sleeping, or other activities. Emory University Pediatrician Roy Benaroch wrote this guide to help parents understand the most common childhood maladies and misbehaviors, and know what the best options are for action. Himself the father of three, Benaroch shares the insights of a medically-trained parent, telling us what he would do if his own child developed each malady. The topics addressed range from abdominal pain, ear infections and vomiting to issues with eating, sleeping and toilet training. Benaroch includes the most recent research in each area, and shares vignettes from his own practice, and his own household. Known widely simply as Dr. Roy, he is also the author of How to Get the Best Healthcare for Your Child (Praeger, 2007).

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Cesarean delivery - childbirth through an incision in the mother's lower abdomen - is now the most common major surgical procedure performed in the United States. No one argues over the fact that it can be a life-saving procedure when the baby or mother is at risk. But for almost three decades in this nation, cesarean deliveries have increased, without substantially better outcomes for babies or mothers. Experts warn that up to 50 percent of the more than 1 million C-sections performed here each year are unnecessary. And that is where Nicette Jukelevics, a certified childbirth educator, researcher and writer, steps in with this book. Jukelevics aims to give women the insights they need to make an informed decision about whether natural or C-section birth is best for them and their babies. She explains when C-sections are necessary, and when they are not needed. She also addresses the overuse and misuse of medical procedures that can complicate labor and lead to C-sections, as well as reasons doctors may support or suggest C-sections, including outdated medical information, fear of liability, and economic advantages measured in doctors' time. This work also examines midwifery practices shown to safely reduce cesarean deliveries, but ignored or resisted by hospitals. Understanding the Dangers of Cesarean Birth will interest not only expectant and future parents, but also to students and scholars of women's health, nursing, and public health.

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Sure to be welcomed by the thousands suffering persistent pain, this volume explores what physicians often ignore—how psychological and social issues can influence health, illness, pain, and recovery. "Pain is everywhere and everyone is talking about it," says Dr. Hillel Finestone, M.D., a researcher and rehabilitation specialist whose work has been featured in publications as diverse as The Lancet, and USA Today. The key to understanding causes and solutions for many apparently mysterious, recurring aches, he explains, lies in understanding the mind-body relationship and the "real meaning" behind symptoms with no immediately obvious cause. Taking the reader into several diagnostic sessions to illustrate what he sees as a "detective" process to find the source of pain, Finestone explains how psychological and social issues can influence health and healing, for better or worse. Low back and neck pain, fibromyalgia and even work related pains are delved into.In addition to vignettes that illustrate the ideas discussed and show dramatic incidences of how healing the mind can also heal the body, Finestone uses unique and useful diagrams which explain how mind and body are physiologically connected and reactive to each other. In these pages, readers can follow Dr, Finestone through patient sessions and understand, step by step, how the "pain detective" works to help his patients—and perhaps his readers, too—find lasting relief.