When Your Child Hurts: Effective Strategies to Increase Comfort, Reduce Stress, and Break the Cycle of Chronic Pain

The foremost resource for parents and caregivers seeking ways to help their child increase comfort and overcome chronic pain--a 2016 National Parenting Product Award winner

"Dr. Coakley's book is a superb roadmap and guide for parents of children and adolescents with chronic pain. Her tone and message will resonate with parents from a very broad array of backgrounds and parenting styles. Just the right balance of contemporary research, evidence for what works, and down-to-earth, practical guidance. Simply the best book on this subject for parents."--Charles Berde, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of Pain Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital

Parents of a child in pain want nothing more than to offer immediate comfort. But a child with chronic or recurring pain requires much more. His or her parents need skills and strategies not only for increasing comfort but also for helping their child deal with an array of pain-related challenges, such as school disruption, sleep disturbance, and difficulties with peers. This essential guide, written by an expert in pediatric pain management, is the practical, accessible, and comprehensive resource that families and caregivers have been awaiting. It offers in-the-moment strategies for managing a child's pain along with expert advice for fostering long-term comfort.

Dr. Rachael Coakley, a clinical pediatric psychologist who works exclusively with families of children with chronic or recurrent pain, provides a set of research-proven strategies--some surprisingly counter-intuitive--to achieve positive results quickly and lastingly. Whether the pain is disease-related, the result of an injury or surgery, or caused by another condition or syndrome, this book offers what every parent of a child in pain most needs: effective methods for reversing the cycle of chronic pain.


About the Author
Rachael Coakley, Ph.D., is associate director of Psychological Services in the Pain Treatment Service and director of the Comfort Ability Pain Management Program, Boston Children's Hospital. She is also assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.