Beyond Your Baby's Checkup

July 2, 2018
Pediatrician Voytas, aiming to foster “more confident” parents, clearly provides easy-to-follow and evidence-based answers to common questions about infant and early childhood, organized by age. His focus is on normalizing potentially alarming situations, such as congestion and colic, and on noting where specialized products prey on new parents’ anxieties and pocketbooks. FAQs range from the routine (“How long should I wait before offering my baby new foods?”) to the quirky (“My friend told me you can double a kid’s height at two to see how tall he’ll end up. Is that true?”), but answers always come with a tone of gentle humor. Voytas draws from his physician’s perspective to argue strongly in favor of vaccines, Ferber-style sleep training, and starting solids at four to six months, authoritatively but compassionately cutting through the anxiety-provoking mass of conflicting ideas that sources like peers and the internet can offer. Revisiting ever-present but evolving issues like feeding and sleep at each age, Voytas helps readers overcome current fears and avoid fussing about future challenges. He has given parents a mind-settling resource for those stressful moments when they want kind, specific, authoritative advice, but can’t get time with their provider.