Yale Doctor Co-Authors Book On Pediatric Toxicology

NEW HAVEN — Carl Baum, MD, attending physician in the pediatric emergency department and director of the Center for Children’s Environmental Toxicology at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, has edited the first book specializing in the field of pediatric toxicology. The book, more than two years in the making, is entitled Pediatric Toxicology Diagnosis and Management of the Poisoned Child and is published by McGraw-Hill.

“This textbook is an especially important resource for anyone who works with kids, or has children,” said Dr Carl Baum. “This could be a very valuable manual for day care centers, teachers, coaches involved in youth sports and activities, and of course, parents with small children. This time of the year, with children inside more due to the colder weather, they can become curious about household items that may pose dangers if swallowed, ingested, or exposed to skin. This book could be very valuable in identifying and treating these problems.”

This evidence-based and age-specific text and reference book is intended to guide doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and poison information specialists through the diagnosis and management of the poisoned pediatric patient. Featured throughout the book are facts, case presentations, a thorough 200-question self-assessment section, antidote dosage tables, and color plates. The book includes information on poison prevention, poison control centers, and general principals of pediatric poisoning, as well as on herbal products, vitamins, cosmetics, spider bites, snake bites, and common household toxins.

“There are a number of excellent textbooks on general toxicology,” said Dr Baum, “but most have only a chapter or two dedicated to problems of children. This doesn’t make a lot of sense, because children are the subject of about two-thirds of all calls to poison centers.

“This is an entirely new textbook with over 80 chapters that focus on pediatric aspects of toxicology. We were fortunate to have a superb group of nationally recognized contributing authors, many of whom are both pediatricians and toxicologists,” she said

The soft cover text is competitively priced and is widely available at bookstores and online booksellers. For more information about the book, books.mcgraw-hill.com.