My Child Is Sick!: Expert Advice for Managing Common Illnesses and Injuries

by Barton D. Schmitt

Know when to call your doctor—and when it’s safe to treat your child at home! Caring for your sick child can be a daunting experience. You want to ensure the best for him or her, but you also know that every illness doesn’t require a trip to the doctor’s office or emergency room. So how do you know when to do what?

Barton D. Schmitt, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician with more than 40 years of experience, knows the intricacies of the most common childhood illnesses and injuries and has written this expert, but easy-to-follow guide so you can too. My Child Is Sick! Expert Advice for Managing Common Illnesses and Injuries is based on clinical guidelines developed by Dr. Schmitt and used by pediatricians and nurses in 10,000 practices and 400 nurse advice call centers in the United States and Canada. These guidelines have been tested for 25 years on more than 300 million phone calls.

All of the topics in the 2nd edition of My Child is Sick! have been fully reviewed and updated, and several new topics have been added, including earwax buildup, mosquito bites, strep throat infections, and wound infections.

Inside this practical book, you’ll find
• Concise, accurate information on the most common illnesses and injuries of childhood such as coughs and colds, ear infections, cuts and scrapes, rashes, diarrhea, and more
• Decision charts to help you determine when to call your child’s doctor and when it’s safe to treat your child at home, as well as descriptions of which symptoms are normal during the course of an illness or recovery from an injury and which are cause for concern
• Specific time-frame guidelines as to when to call your child’s doctor or 911
• In-depth advice for treating symptoms at home, taking the guesswork out of how to make your child feel better
• Drug dosage charts for the most commonly used nonprescription medicines

With My Child Is Sick! at your fingertips, you’ll never again have to worry about whether you’ve made the right decision about your child’s illness. Rest easy with this one-of-a-kind guide to sick children.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

424 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird to rate on Goodreads but this is a 6 star book and I need strangers on the internet to know that. Buy a copy to keep on your phone so that you too can figure out midway through a flight whether to call the pediatrician after hours when you land.

[Heavensent1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

My child Is Sick!: Expert Advice for Managing Common Illnesses and Injuries is an encyclopedia of information pertaining to childhood common ailments.

This book is dedicated to the health of all children and is published by the American Academy of Pediatrics Association. This book will help you realize when to call your doctor and when it's safe to treat your children at home.

You, as a parent, want to ensure that you are doing the best for your children, however, it can get very expensive to take your child to the doctor's for every ailment. This book is geared to help you decide when you should visit your doctor and help ease your worries both financially and emotionally.

This book is based on the guidelines developed by Dr. Barton D. Schmitt and is used by over 10,000 pediatricians and nurses and over 400 nurse advice call centers in the United States and Canada. These guidelines have been tested for 15 years on more than 150 million phone calls.

Inside of these pages you will find useful information pertaining to many illnesses and injuries. There are decision charts which are used to help determine when to call a doctor or to treat at home and it will describe everything you need to keep your concerns at a minimum by walking you through each stage of symptoms.

There is in-depth advice for treating symptoms at home, home remedies for treatments, charts for medicine distribution, dos and don'ts on what you can and cannot do, prevention recommendations and so much more!

There are chapters on head injuries; eye, ear, nose, throat ailments as well as chapters on fever, bites or stings, abdomen injuries, and so much more. Each has a definition, cause, home care advice and when to call you doctor laid out in an easy-to-read approach that will not leave you guessing on your interaction with your child.

Dr. Schmitt is a board-certified pediatrician and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is an author and created the first self-triage, self-care iPhone app for parents, KidsDoc. He is the recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics' C. Anderson Aldrich Award for contributions in child development and the Education Award for contributions in pediatric condition.

This is an EXCELLENT reference guide that I would recommend that all parents keep a copy around. I have used this book several times in the past few weeks and have been thankful to have had it. I'm not a panic-mongering parent who rushes my child to the doctor's/hospital and usually do everything by instinct or common sense. It has been great to realize that I often do the correct things in certain situations.

My youngest son is always coughing and croupy. This book reinforced my own medical know-how AND taught me a few things, like, I didn't know it was beneficial to have your child drink warm water or apple juice to help open up their airways!! As well, I forget that honey is better for your child than store bought medicines and now keep a jar in the house JUST for his croup.

I found many useful tips to keep my sanity when it comes to my kids. I have four of them still at home and a 6 year old granddaughter, so for me, this has become my new bible! I keep this close at hand and will use it over and over again!!

I could see this as a great benefit to keep in schools and day cares!! Truthfully, this book has it all and it will reassure you that your doing everything correctly!!

[Sherree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, I retract my earlier complaint about the repetition. I see now, that if you're using this as a reference, which is probably the way it was intended, it would need to have the same information for each section if it applies. I don't like this one as much as Baby 411, but I think it could be helpful.



I'm through four chapters, and I'm not sure I will make it all the way through. I know it is meant as a reference book, not something to read straight through, but I wanted to get an idea of which injuries and illnesses were covered. It is very repetitive. It seems to me like it could group certain things at the beginning like "for any fever over 104, call the doctor immediately", etc.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource for parents. I especially like that it gives guidelines on when I should take my child to the doctor. This book helps me not panic so much.

[Helena · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's OK, but I prefer Dr. Sears' Portable Pediatrician.

[Ally Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice format with useful tips for parents.

[J.cuevas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book, very informative in words I could understand =) I've borrowed it from the library, now i want my own copy!