Kid’s Medical Book Review: My Friend the Doctor by Joanna Cole

Reading level: Baby-Preschool Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: HarperFestival (July 26, 2005)

My Friend the Doctor by Joanna Cole is a very cute book about a young girl named Hannah who goes to the pediatrician to get a checkup. The text is sweet and even funny at times–my favorite line is when the doctor is about to do an abdominal exam and asks Hannah, “Did you bring your belly button today?” Very cute! The illustrations are friendly and accurate. While Hannah is getting her shots, her mother distracts her by showing her a poster on the wall and Hannah looks interested.

At the end of the book there are some helpful suggestions for parents about how to prepare a child for a checkup. One excellent suggestion: “Tell your child about he upcoming visit the day before, or even the day of, the visit. Too long a lead time may increase anxiety.”

Who should buy this book: Parents with small children who are anxious about visiting the doctor for their routine check up and vaccinations.

This book is not for: Children with medical problems that will require a more invasive doctor’s visit (blood tests, x-rays, etc.) as it does not describe anything outside the scope of an average checkup.

Sidenote: Like in many other books, the doctor in this one is a man. I’d like to see more picture books that show female pediatricians. Based on what I’ve seen in med school and residency, I think the time is coming soon when the majority of pediatricians will actually be female.

#bookreview #Medicine #picturebook

A sneak peek at some new e-ink gadgets

Redferret.net has an interesting blogpost about some new e-ink prototypes, including one with a flexible screen:

#eink #ereader #video

Helping Make Doctor Visits Less Scary — Free Online Read-Along Stories for Kids at HANS

What many of you may not know is that I have an MD and used to work as a pediatric resident at the Tufts Floating Hospital for Children (on a side note–check out their video interviews with a few of their pediatric specialists online). I’ve been thinking a lot about integrating both of my interests (medicine and writing for kids) on my blog, and have been doing some research into children’s literature about medicine.

Along that vein (pun not intended), I recently came across the website for the Help Autism Now Society. Because autistic kids often have trouble with new situations, HANS is developing a series of free online read-along stories for kids that show step-by-step what to expect at a doctor’s visit.

The stories feature kid-friendly drawings accompanied by a cute recording of a child reading the text aloud. So far they only have two titles (“Getting Blood Drawn” and “Going to the Doctor’s“) that are very similar in content, but they expect to offer more titles soon and are planning to add voice-overs in different languages to the website. “Going to the Doctor’s” highlights some typically scary and invasive parts of a regular physical exam, including images of a doctor using an otoscope and a tongue-depressor, and doing an abdominal exam. At the end of the story, the boy gets a shot and is rewarded with a sticker. My only gripe–why is the child getting completely undressed and just sitting there while the doctor talks to the mother? Not sure this is the best way to get on good terms with a child–especially an autistic one–and I don’t think most pediatricians do this.

In any case, I think parents will find this website useful for any kid who finds going to the doctor a scary prospect.

Image by: adrianclarkmbbs / CC BY-ND 2.0

#picturebooks #onlinepicturebooks #autism #interactivebooks #Medicine