BEYOND THE VISIT

About the Book

As parents gulp their morning coffee, CNN gives a 60-second update on immunization research. On the commute to work, all-news radio reports another increase in childhood obesity. The daily newspaper has a spread about teenage suicide . . .

Parents are under immense pressure to spend time with their children, keep the household humming, and advance their own careers. If life weren’t stressful enough, the media inundates parents with information that raises concerns about their child’s wellbeing. How can conscientious parents keep up?

As a team of pediatrician and family therapist, we have a combined experience of over 40 years of listening to parents and answering their questions. We’ve concluded that the offi ce visit is never enough to cover everything. Parents usually feel rushed at their pediatrician’s offi ce. The doctor fl ips the chart closed, scribbles a prescription, and reaches for the doorknob. Many HMOs determine a limited amount of time that doctors can spend with each patient. Similarly, the clock is ticking in the family therapist’s offi ce. The therapist checks her watch . . .”See you next week.” Many questions and concerns hang in the air, unanswered.

That’s why we have written Beyond the Visit. We offer parents authoritative, succinct information about hundreds of issues in a comprehensive 29-chapter volume. The book is organized by topic in a Q and A format for clarity and easy accessibility. Families can use Beyond the Visit from the day they bring a newborn home from the hospital until the child graduates from high school – from pacifi ers and toilet training to piercing and tattoos. Parents can open the book in the middle of the night when their child is feverish or when they lay awake wondering and worrying about his behavior. We expect that this book will become well dog-eared over the years.

Beyond the Visit is unique because we have co-authored it from the distinct but complementary perspectives of medicine and psychology. Health and psychological issues often overlap in childhood and adolescence, so this single comprehensive volume offers readers a double-barreled approach from both a pediatrician and family therapist.

We’d love to sit down at the kitchen table with parents, over a cup of coffee, and have an open-ended conversation about their immediate questions as well as their child’s next challenge or developmental step. Short of that impossible goal, we offer this expansive book to address their common, and not so common, questions.

About the Author