SECTION 5. COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Teaching Parents About Infant Temperament

Parents need to understand temperament because it has an impact on their daily interactions with their children. The essential messages for parents should be that temperament traits are real; they are important for both child and parent, and they are best managed by accommodation, not confrontation or attempts to change them. Parents can be reached at all levels of professional contact throughout childhood, including the newborn nursery at well-child visits, and in preschool or day care. Pediatrics 1998;102:1311–1316; temperament, infants, parents, child development. ABBREVIATION. CNS, central nervous system. Primary care physicians, whether pediatricians or family doctors, can play a major role in the positive mental health of their patient families. An essential part of this process is teaching parents about their children’s temperaments.