Families, Crisis and Caring

Pediatrician Brazelton, chief of the child development unit at Boston Children's Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School, is famed for his efforts to promote the welfare of children and parents. Drawn from the TV series based on his book, What Every Baby Knows , this guide focuses on the members of five families whose experiences readers follow from their initial consultations with Brazelton through succeeding visits. Parents and children describe steps in handling problems with the help of the author's compassionate and practical advice. Their stories show, for example, that caring for each other is the key to enduring crises caused by the death of a parent or child. Also covered in this wise and instructive book are infertility, disharmony in step-families, the suffering of family and patient when a six-year-old is stricken by leukemia. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to Family Circle; Literary Guild alternate. (June)