Parenting in a Pandemic: How to Help Your Family Through COVID-19

Fradin, a pediatrician, weaves research, professional experience, and personal anecdote in this encouraging guide to making the myriad decisions required of parents during the Covid-19 pandemic. Frandin first offers an overview of Covid basics, such as how the virus spreads and is diagnosed, and then addresses kid-specific matters: she describes the likelihood of children contracting the virus (much less than adults), dispels myths about the potential for long-term damage to children, outlines mental health risks (for both kids and parents), and offers considerations for children with special health-care needs and for pregnant women and teens. Fradin also draws on her personal experience as a mother of two, as in a chapter about newborns in which she describes her infant son getting a common virus, and in facing such conflicts as whether to send children to school or day care and how to safely include grandparents in a child’s life. Fradin’s tone is supportive: “Even if you are holed away protecting your family, you aren’t alone and there are resources available to you.” This timely collection of nonjudgmental guidance is sure to offer parents solace. (Self-published)