The Portable Pediatrician: A Month-by-month Guide to Your Child's Physical and Behavioural Development from Birth to Age Five Book

Some parents in the post-Spock generation may think that when it comes to basic childcare instruction, Heidi Murkoff's What to Expect series is the only game in town. But there are alternatives, and this one has a considerable advantage--especially from the viewpoint of parents with more than one small child--in that it covers birth-to-5 in a single, manageable volume. Laura Walther Nathanson, M.D., FAAP, also serves up loads of useful information--everything from breastfeeding to the impact of divorce on a child--in a writing style that's authoritative without being pompous. She sounds less like a medical expert who happens to deal with children, and more like a fellow-parent who happens to be a medical expert. She refers to 3 and 4 year olds simply as Threes and Fours, pee is pee, and poo is poo. There are a couple of drawbacks, however. A minor complaint is the shockingly poor quality of the line illustrations, which manage to make smiling toddlers look deranged at best and demonic at worst. A more major issue is the book's bland layout--there is lots and lots of plain gray text and very little has been done to make the most important information leap to the eye. Nonetheless, this is such an excellent source of information that it is a must for every parent's shelf. --Richard Farr Read More