When Your Child is Sick: A Guide to Navigating the Practical and Emotional Challenges of Caring for a Child Who is Very Ill

In “When Your Child is Sick,” Joanna Breyer offers the reader a field guide of sorts in navigating the often precarious and emotionally challenging landscape inherent to caring for a child with serious illness. From her unique perspective as a clinical psychologist with decades of experience in working with pediatric oncology patients and their families at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, she further extrapolates her viewpoint beyond the scope of childhood cancer. In doing so, she aptly addresses universal themes relevant to children “hospitalized for a variety of reasons, such as a sudden severe injury or chronic conditions such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, diabetes, or chronic cardiac complications” (page x).

At the outset, her comprehensive treatise first lays out a framework to demystify the labyrinthine hospital environment and its key players. She outlines exceedingly practical methods for caregivers themselves to cope with the initial shock of an inpatient...