Divided into three parts, this comprehensive, easy-to-follow guide begins with basic safety guidelines in Part One. As accidents are the leading cause of injury among young children, checklists for every area in and around your home are provided to prevent common mishaps. Suggestions such as maintaining a well-stocked home health kit, posting emergency telephone numbers, and appointing a designated surrogate are offered to help you act quickly and effectively in a crisis situation. Part Two presents illustrated, easy-to-follow, basic life-saving techniques and procedures. This practical section provides steps for initiating cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), guidelines for performing first aid for choking, techniques for immobilizing broken bones, and more. Part Three includes an A-to-Z listing of the most common emergency situations. Each entry begins with an explanation of the problem, followed by an emergency treatment procedure. For cases in which an emergency situation may not be obvious - such as bouts of excessive nausea or diarrhea - information on when to call the doctor is provided. Depending on the nature of the emergency, many entries also include prevention tips and general recommendations that include follow-up care. While no parent can avoid all emergency situations, it is reassuring that you can do much to safeguard your child, and to act swiftly and effectively should an emergency occur. Timely, clear, concise, and packed with life-saving information, A Parent's Guide to Medical Emergencies, is a must for any responsible person who cares for a child on a regular basis.

Unique in that it is written in conjunction with a hospital and its doctors, this comprehensive guide focuses not only on preventing trips to the emergency room, but also on how to deal with injuries or illnesses as they occur--including recognizing when professional help is needed--and how to cope with pain. Illustrated throughout.

What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do! “ Moms and dads need expert guidelines, especially when it comes to their kids’ health. This book reveals the inside strategies I use myself—I’m a parent, too!— to avoid critical, common blunders where it matters most: in the ER, pediatrics ward, all-night pharmacy, exam room, or any other medical hot spot for kids. These tips could save your child’s life one day. Even tomorrow.” –Dr. Jen Making health care decisions for your child can be overwhelming in this age of instant information. It’s easy to feel like you know next to nothing or way too much. Either way, you may resort to guessing instead of making smart choices. That’s why the nation’s leading health care oversight group, The Joint Commission, joined forces with Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg on this book: to help you make the right decisions, whether you’re dealing with a checkup or a full-blown crisis. The Smart Parent’s Guide will give you the information you need to manage the pediatric health care system. Dr. Jen understands the questions parents face—as a mom, she’s faced them herself. She walks you through everything: from how to choose the best ER for kids (not adults) to when to give a kid medicine (or not to) to how pediatricians care for their own children (prepare to be surprised). Her goal is your goal: to protect the health of your children. There simply is nothing more important.

In this booklet you will learn more about the role vaccines play in keeping them healthy. You will learn about: Diseases that are prevented by vaccines, and the vaccines that prevent them. -- How to prepare for a doctor's visit that includes vaccinations, and what to expect during and after the visit. -- How vaccines help your child's immune system do its job. -- How well vaccines work, and how safe they are. -- Where to find more information.

Last year America’s 76 million children made 27 million trips to hospital emergency departments—one for every three children. That represents a lot of fevers, coughs, sore ears, twisted ankles, and broken bones, plus the wide gamut of other illnesses and injuries children can experience. Whether or not an emergency room visit was warranted for each of these visits, however, is an entirely different story. Keeping Your Kids Out of the Emergency Room is an essential guide to the most common illnesses, injuries, and ailments that send kids to the ER, and when particular symptoms warrant those trips or not. Christopher Johnson, a seasoned pediatrician, offers a go-to resource for all new parents and parents of young children, providing solid information on those instances when a trip to the ER is essential, when a trip to the doctor will suffice, and when a wait and see approach works best. He tackles all the most common ailments that cause parents to wonder if they should take their child to the emergency department. Since these problems appear as a bundle of symptoms, not a diagnosis, the book is organized around what parents actually see in front of them. It also teaches parents how emergency departments work, so the experience is understandable when a trip to the ER is essential. With this helpful guide, any parent can learn practical things about which pediatric health problems need immediate attention, which do not, and how to tell the two apart. Knowing the differences, and understanding those situations that require immediate care and those that don’t, may help parents avoid the emergency room and still get the best care for their child in the meantime. Every new parent, or parent of young children, will find here a ready introduction to the most common childhood ailments, and when they rise to the level of true emergencies. Knowing what to do before a child becomes ill or injured will help parents make informed decisions when situations arise.

Calling 911 in an emergency may be the most important thing you ever do. However, it is only one tool to get you and yours through a medical emergency. This guide lays out a smarter process to improve the odds that you and your charge(s) have successful outcomes (i.e., survive) when going through a medical emergency. That means getting yourself, your family, your charges, your home, and your environment ready for a medical emergency. You need to make your home and environment "responder ready." You need to learn how to give critical aid that keeps your charge stable until professional help arrives. You need to know how to get responders to your charge quickly and be as helpful to them as you can while they are there. It's also important to know how to get prompt care at - and "work" - a hospital emergency department. Finally, you need to plan for and get through the recovery process with your charge and take care of yourself, too. That includes learning from the experience so you can improve what you know and better handle things the next time. It also includes assessing the emergency's impact on you, the caregiver, so that you can successfully recover yourself.

Take coparenting to the next level and provide a stable environment for your children as you and your spouse begin tackling your separation or divorce. For parents who are separating and want to put their children first, birdnesting could be the interim custody solution you’ve been looking for. Instead of the children splitting their time being shuttled between mom and dad’s separate homes, birdnesting allows the children to stay in the “nest” and instead, requires mom and dad to swap, allowing each parent to stay elsewhere when not with the children. Initially popularized by celebrities, this method of coparenting is now becoming more mainstream as a way to help ease children into a new family dynamic. Birdnesting takes work and commitment but with Dr. Ann Gold Buscho’s guidance, you’ll learn everything you need to know about this revolutionary method. In The Parent’s Guide to Birdnesting, you will discover the pros and cons, the financial and interpersonal considerations, and if it’s the right decision for you and your family.