The 3 am Handbook

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

For any parent who has been up at 3 a.m. with a sick and screaming
child, an easy-to-use book that authoritatively answers most of the
common questions would be a treasured item. Although The 3 a.m. Handbook
provides adequate coverage of children’s illnesses, a good medical
encyclopedia would be as useful and would probably be more
comprehensive. The book would have worked better as a 3 a.m. guide had
the authors not tried to also make it a mini-medical encyclopedia. Most
parents will not be dealing with such subjects as boating safety, car
seats, or circumcision as 3 a.m. crises. The wealth of extraneous
information just makes the book more difficult to use in a crisis.

The indexing could also be improved. Common names for disorders are
listed as cross-references rather than as index terms. Anxious parents
looking for information on hives have to turn first to the
“urticaria” entry and then to the text. The most common 3 a.m.
complaints could also have been indexed more thoroughly. For example,
there is useful information about the readministration of medications if
a child vomits shortly after the first administration, but that
information is not indexed. Finally, there is some of the “There,
there, hysterical mother” attitude one occasionally finds among
medical professionals.

Comments about useful techniques “for parents who are anxious ‘to
do something’” are not helpful. If you are in a 3 a.m. panic with a
feverish child, of course you want “to do something.”

Reflecting the collective experience of 17 doctors, combined with the
results of extensive research and clinical trials, this book is probably
a good investment for new parents, but it will not replace a solid
medical encyclopedia.