When Your Child Hurts: Effective Strategies to Increase Comfort, Reduce Stress, and Break the Cycle of Chronic Pain

This straightforward and wise book from Coakley, a child psychologist affiliated with the Boston Children’s Hospital Pain Treatment Service, will help parents whose children are living with chronic pain. Coakley begins with explanations of the link between stress and pain syndromes, then delves into strategies for helping children and their families cope. Choosing evidence-based professional treatment is key, but parents can do a lot at home. Coakley tackles complex issues with delicacy, stressing that sometimes parental intuition is not enough. For example, parents may be inclined to offer rest and a treat like hot cocoa, when children will benefit more from learning diaphragmatic breathing and taking small steps toward self-sufficiency and coping. Pain management professionals often ask kids not to relax but to increase their activity, “because doing more is a big part of how kids can reset their pain alarms.” Coakley provides patients with a “scaffolding” and “blueprint” for slow, steady progress. Practical, sensitive, hopeful, and informative, this book provides all kinds of useful information, including guided relaxation techniques and an appendix of additional recommended resources. (Jan.)