The following is a list of good books for children and also for parents about going to the doctor or hospital. Books such as these help familiarize children with medical personnel and procedures, and serve to minimize their anxieties about the experience. *Please note that this list is not exhaustive and that you may have your own favorites.
Books about going to the doctor for young children
Bernstein, Stan and Jan Bernstein. The Bernstein Bears Go to The Doctor. New York, New York,: Random House Inc., 1981.
Brazelton, T. Berry. Going to the Doctor. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley/Lawrence, 1987.
Civardi, Anne, and Stephen Cartwright. Going to the Doctor. London, England.: Usborne Publishing Ltd., 1988, 1993.
Larson, Margie. Barney & Baby Bop Go to the Doctor. Allen, Texas,: Lyons Partnership, L.P., 1996.
Markoff, Heidi. What to Expect When You Go to the Doctor. Harper Collins Publisher, 2000.
Books about going to the hospital for younger children
Bemelman, Ludwig. Madeline. New York: Puffin, 1977
Civardi, Anne, and Stephen Cartwright. Going to the Hospital. London, England. Usborne Publishing Ltd., 1987, 1992.
Hautzig, Deborah. A Visit to the Sesame Street Hospital. Westminster, Maryland. Random House, 1985.
Rey, Margaret and H.A. Curious George Goes to the Hospital. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1966
Rogers, Fred. Going to the Hospital. Topeka, Kansas. Econo-Clad Book, 1999.
Books about going to the hospital for older children
Hogan, P. and K. The Hospital Scares Me. Raintree Publications, 1980.
Howe, Jane. The Hospital Book. New York: Crown, 1991.
Richter, E. The Teenage Hospital Experience: You Can Handle It! New York, Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1982.
Stein, Sara Bonnet. A Hospital Story: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together. New York. Walker and Company, 1983.
Vaughn, J. Hospital, Silver Burdett, 1988.
Suggested Reading for Parents
Books about child development, parenting, child psychology, childhood pain, hospitalization and coping techniques:
Achterberg, Jeanne. Imagery in Healing. Boston, Mass.: New Science Library, 1985.
Bowlby, John. Attachment and Loss. 3 vols. New York: Basic B books, 1969-1980.
Boston Children’s Hospital. The New Child Health Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide for Parents. New York: Delacorte Press/ Lawrence, 1987.
Brazelton, T. Berry: Touchpoints. Reading, Mass.: Perseus Books, 1992.
______. To Listen to a Child. Reading, Mass.: AddisonWesley/Lawrence, 1984.
______. Working and Caring, Reading. Mass.: AddisonWesley/Lawrence, 1985.
Bruner, Jerome, A. Jolly and K. Sylva. Play: It’s Role in Development. New York: Penguin, 1946.
Chess, Stella, and Alexander Thomas. Know Your Child. New York: Basic Books, 1987.
Epstein, Gerald. Healing Visualizations: Creative Health Through Imagery. New York. Bantam Books, 1989.
Erickson, Erik. Childhood and Society. New York: Norton, 1950.
Ferber, Richard. Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problem. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.
Fraiberg, Selma M. The Magic Years. New York: Scribner’s, 1959.
Galinsky, Ellen. The Six Stages of Parenthood. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley/Lawrence, 1987.
Kagan, Jerome. The Nature of the Child. New York: Basic Books, 1984.
Krieger, Doris. Accepting Your Power to Heal: The Practice of Therapeutic Touch. Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Co., 1993.
Kutter, Leora. A Child in Pain, How to Help What to Do. Hartley and Marks Publishers Inc., 1966
Leach, Penelope. Babyhood. New York: Knopf, 1976.
______. Your Baby and Child, 1977, 1997.
Loewy, J.V., MacGregor, B., Richards, K., and Rodriguez, J. Music Therapy and Pediatric Pain. Cherry Hill, NJ: Jeffrey Books, 1997.
Mahler, Margaret, Fred Pine, and Anni Bergman. The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant. New York: Basic Books, 1975.
McGrath, P., Pain in Children: Nature, Assessment and Treatment. New York: Guilford Press, 1990.
Murdock, M. Spinning Inwards. Boston, Mass.: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1987.
Petrillo, Madeline, and Sirgay Sanger. Emotional Care of Hospitalized Children. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1980.
Spock, Benjamin, and Michael B. Rothenberg. Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care. New York: Pocket Books, 1985.
Stern, Daniel. The First Relationship. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977.
Turecki, Stanley. The Difficult Child. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.
Winnicott, D. W. Babies and Their Mothers. Introduction by Benjamin Spock. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley/Lawrence, 1988.
I will be launching a new guide on ‘When You Take Your Child to the Doctor or Hospital, Helpful Suggestions and Practical Tips to Make Your Child’s Visit More Comfortable’. The guide will have developmentally appropriate toys to use for different stages that your infant goes through. It will offer suggestions for infants, young children, school-age children and teens. The guide will come with activity sheets for before and after you take your child to the doctor or hospital along with directions on to use the guide.I hope that you will find my new guide helpful, informative, concise and that your child will feel more comfortable and prepared when going to the doctor or the hospital.
Wishing you all the very best of luck,
Patricia Weiner
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Patricia Weiner, MS is presently an educational consultant and advocate for Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) and academic challenges. She works for The Making Headway Foundation, is a private consultant and faculty mentor for graduate students at Bank Street College of Education in New York. Over the past 35 years, she has worked as a special educator, child life specialist, health-education specialist and has been the administrator of several programs. She has presented nationally on education and child life, published articles and chapters in child life text books, and has received several awards for child advocacy for this population of children.
The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog contributor’s. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Writers may have conflicts of interest, and their opinions are their own.