Mysterious Baby proposal, Levine -- 1

Proposal for

Mysterious Baby

The Fascinating Science of Childhood

by Wendy L. Hunter, M.D., and Dennis Meredith

E-mail: Wendy Hunter:

E-mail: Dennis Meredith:

September2014

Contents

Summary – 2

Authors – 6

Audience – 8

Competition –10

Special Marketing and Promotional Opportunities – 12

Manuscript Specifications –14

Outline – 15

Sample Chapters – 28

Summary

Babies are uniquelittle bundles of joy. Their sudden rashes, uncoordinated movements, and Technicolor poop are vastly different from adults and sometimes quite alarming. While pediatricians, the experts on these little ones, understand these differences, they may prove deeply unsettling to adults. Unfortunately, worried parents often find themselves lost in the trackless depths of the Internet, or confused by the standard “how-to” baby books that offer few, if any,satisfying explanations.

PediatricianWendy L. Hunter, M.D. and science writer Dennis Meredith have written the first “why-to” book about babies. Mysterious Baby is an engaging exploration into what pediatricians and scientists are learning about these fascinating creatures.With their combined expertise in pediatrics and science communication, the authors explore such intriguing questions as:

  • How do babies experience pain?
  • Why are babies so uncoordinated?
  • What’s so profoundly different about babies’ senses?
  • Why do babies’ brains “shrink” as they learn about the world?
  • Why is it dangerous to give young babies water?

Mysterious Babyconnects real-world clinical experience to the latest scientific research on infantsand translates it into practicalinformation.This invaluable guidance gives parents and caregiversthe facts they need to understand why babies do the things they do andhow to interact with babies in a more meaningful and gratifying way.

In working as an emergency room pediatrician, Dr. Hunter often sees the worry, and even fear, in parents’ eyes when they bring their babies into the ED with strange and frightening “symptoms.” Fortunately, many of these symptoms, such as widespread rashes, gasping for breath, and even high feverscan be perfectly normal for a baby. But like Dr. Hunter’s fellow pediatricians, she has too littletime with parents to give them the detailedexplanation of why these symptoms are normal.

In Mysterious Baby, Dr. Hunter takes the reader along on her adventures in the pediatric emergency room, by telling tales of pediatricians’ sometimes harrowing, sometimes funny, experiences with their tiny patients and their parents.For example, when:

  • A newborn was rushed to the ED because the skin around his lips turned blue every time he fed. Fearing their baby wasn’t getting enough oxygen; the parents were relieved to learn that the veins around his lips were simply being engorged with blood, because his newborn nervous system didn’t quite know when to constrict his blood vessels. Quite common. That’s just one of the many strange, but normal “symptoms” babies have that are caused by nervous system immaturity.
  • A pediatrician urgently sent a baby boy to the ED, suspecting an infectious abscess on the chest that would need immediate surgery. But the warm lump was actually benign breast enlargement,andthe baby was producing breastmilk because he was exposed to mom’s hormones through her breast milk.Not a problem.Babies have a variety of symptoms that result from exposure to maternal hormones, and this isonly one example of the intimate connection to the mother that lasts long after the cord is cut.
  • The panicked grandmother brought her granddaughter in because the baby had briefly stopped breathing. Intermittent breathing is perfectly normal in young infants because the carbon dioxide sensors in their brain respond differently than in adults.The chemical processes, organ function and molecular machinery of a baby are completely unlike the adult and manifest as common behaviors that babies display everyday.

Besides enlightening parents and offering insightful explorations into “baby science,” Mysterious Baby also aims to remedy the widespread misconceptions about babies that compromise their medical treatment and health. Even many health care professionals wrongly believethat infants have the same physiology as adults, show the same symptoms of medical problems, and can be given the same medical treatment. Shattering this dangerous myth will enable not only better clinical carefor babies, but enhanced research into more effective future treatments and improved public health policies.

Mysterious Baby will be the first book in “The Fascinating Science of Childhood” series that will include Mysterious Toddler, Mysterious Child, and Mysterious Teen(or alternately,Curious Toddler, Playful Child, Transitioning Teen). The series will highlight the latest research about each age group, as well as cover what pediatricians know from their clinical experience. The books will explainhow this knowledge can help us all to understand and enjoy children at different ages, and have a deeper understanding and appreciation of how we have been shaped through our own development.
Authors

Dr. Wendy L. Hunter, M.D., works on the front lines of emergency infant care in the emergency department atRady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. She often finds herself racing against time to decipher the complex and confusing array of symptoms unique to babies—sometimes signs of disease and sometimes only harmless expressions of themysterious physiology of infants. Through these experiences with concerned and confused parents, she identified the need to educate parents about what causes many common infant “symptoms.” Dr. Hunter, 40, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California at San Diego andhas contributed articles on child health to Parents magazine.

Dr. Hunter received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and her M.D. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She did her residency at the University of California at San Diego and served there as a chief resident in pediatrics.A mother of two healthy children, Dr. Hunter is also an avid skier, and licensed pilot who resides with her husband, daughter, and son in San Diego, California.

Dennis Meredith, 68, is a veteran research communicator who has worked at major universities including Caltech, Cornell, Duke, MIT, and the University of Wisconsin. He is author of thousands of news releases and feature articles for those universities, as well as such organizations and publications as Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Popular Science, Psychology Today, Discover, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. His work as a science journalist has taken him from the depths of the Costa Rican rainforest to cover ecological research, to the giant radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to report on radio astronomy exploration of the universe. He is author of the book Explaining Research (Oxford University Press 2010) and co-author with Dr. Henry Biller of Father Power (New York Times Books 1975). He is also co-author with Rick Beyer of Danny’s Dream (St. Jude 2013), a history of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He currently conducts workshops for scientists on giving engaging talks and writing compelling lay-level articles to communicate their work. His clients have included the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Institutes of Health, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He also writes science fiction, and is author of The Rainbow Virus, Wormholes: A Novel, and Solomon’s Freedom. He and Dr. Hunter are father and daughter. His web site is .
Audience

The audience for Mysterious Baby includes parents, parents-to-be, grandparents, caregivers, infant health care professionals, and science and medicine buffs.

The authors’ unique insights into the fascinating world of infant physiology will appeal to a wide range of readers who desirea greater understanding of that strange creature that is a baby. For parents and caregivers, that knowledge will bring greater confidence in their abilities to raise and nurture their infantsandgreater enjoymentof their babies.

For non-pediatrician health care professionals, the book will offer insights into infant physiology and development that will enhance their ability to manage the care of infants and work more effectively with their pediatrician colleagues. For example, even experienced health care workers, accustomed to dealing with adult health problems, often do not recognize that “abnormal symptoms” in infants are perfectly normal.And new research is constantly yielding new insights into these “symptoms.”

Even pediatricians will be entertained and gain insight into the strange physiology of infants. Many of the latest studies and insights from research will be new to them, as well.

Pediatricians will recommend the book to parents and caregivers because it helps solve a major problem they face in their practice: they don’t have enough time during an appointment to give a full explanation of a baby’s strange, but normal, symptoms. And today’s savvy parents aren’t always satisfied when their pediatrician simply reassures them that an unusual symptom or behavior is normal. Parents want to know why the symptom happens and how their pediatrician knows it’s normal.Mysterious Baby gives readers a foundation from which to interpret (or understand) a baby’s behaviors.

Competition

As listed below, there are a great many books on infant care, which indicates the large size of the market for such books. However, as the bolded words in the titles reveal, these are almost invariably how-to guides offering rote lists of do’s and don’ts for infant care. In contrast, as the first “why-to” book in infant care, Mysterious Babyfills a critical knowledge gap in parents’ and caregivers’ understanding of babies’ physiology. Unlike any other such book on the market, Mysterious Baby offers accessible, substantive, useful insights into infant physiology and development.

Few, if any, of these books take the reader into the emergency room and clinic, with first-hand anecdotes and case studies offering an intimate look at diagnosis and treatment through a pediatrician’s eyes. Nor do they cover the latest scientific discoveries revealing insights into infant physiology and development.

Thus, there are really no competing books for Mysterious Baby, but rather complementary books. Mysterious Baby will be widely purchased along with the usual guidebooks on infant care. Other books on infant care include:

  • Altman, Stuart J., The Kidfixer Baby Book: An Easy-to-Use Guide to Your Baby's First Year
  • American Academy of Pediatrics, Your Baby’s First Year (author Steven Shelove, M.D., M.S. F.A.A.P.)
  • Barker, Robin, Baby Love: Everything You Need to Know about Your Baby's First Year
  • Borgenicht, Kepple, Paul, and Buffum, Jude, The Baby Owner's Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year
  • Cohen, Scott, Eat, Sleep, Poop: A Common Sense Guide to Your Baby's First Year
  • Curtis, Glade B., Schuler, Judith, and Eining, Lori, Your Baby's First Year: week by week
  • Dais, Dawn, The Sh!t No One Tells You: A Guide to Surviving Your Baby's First Year
  • Dean, Randy and Gorno, Lorri, 100 Things I Wish I Knew In My Baby's First Year: Keys To Making Parenting Easier And Your Baby Happier
  • DK Publishing, Your Baby's First Year: Essential BabycareAdvice for All New Parents
  • Douglas, Ann, The Mother of All Baby Books: The Ultimate Guide to Your Baby's First Year
  • Douglas, Ann, Rattled: Surviving Your Baby's First Year Without Losing Your Cool
  • Fields, Denise and Brown, Ari, Baby 411: Clear Answers & Smart Advice for Your Baby's First Year
  • Gaylord, James and Hagan, Michelle, Your Baby's First Year For Dummies
  • Gebauer-Sesterhenn and Praun, D. Manfred, The Baby Bible: The Complete Guide to Your Baby's First Year
  • Jana, Laura A., and Shu Jennifer, Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality
  • Jones, Sandy, Jones, Marcie, and Crocetti, Michael MD, FAAP, Great Expectations: Baby's First Year
  • Kaufmann, Lori Banov,and Kaufmann, Yadin, How to Survive Your Baby's First Year: By Hundreds of Happy Moms and Dads Who Did and Some Things to Avoid, From a Few Who Barely Made It
  • Kelly, Paula MD, First Year Baby Care (Revised): An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide
  • Lipman, Blythe and Beanland, Anne Mahler, Help! My Baby Came Without Instructions: How to Survive (and Enjoy) Your Baby's First Year
  • Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic Guide to Your Baby’s First Year
  • McClure, Robin, Ianelli, Vincent, MD, and Bates, Susan, Knack Baby's First Year: A Complete Illustrated Guide for Your Child's First Twelve Months
  • McDowell, Martha, Caring For Your Baby During The First 6 Months - An Ultimate Guide To Newborn Care
  • Menna, Mary Jean, The New Mom's Manual: Over 800 Tips and Advice from Hundreds of Moms for Baby's First Year
  • Murkoff, Heidi Eisenberg, Eisenberg, Arlene, and Hathaway, Sandee, What to Expect the First Year
  • Nee, Tekla, The Everything Baby's First Year Book: Complete Practical Advice to Get You and Baby Through the First 12 Months
  • Sears, William, Sears, Martha, Sears, Robert, and Sears, James, The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two
  • Zoellner and Ybarbo, Alice, Today's Moms: Essentials for Surviving Baby's First Year

Special Marketing and Promotional OpportunitiesMarketing and promotion efforts for the book will include extensive use of traditional media and social media:

  • Blurbs will be sought from prominent pediatricians, including colleagues of Dr. Hunter and those interviewed for the book.
  • The book web siteMysteriousBaby.comis integrated with Dr. Hunter’s web site BabyScience.info, a blog which offersa compendium of the latest clinical and scientific knowledge, based on entertaining, enlightening anecdotes of families seen in the ED, and including links to recommended sources of information about baby care.
  • YouTube video channel: A continuing series of Mysterious Baby videos will be produced in which Dr. Hunter explains and demonstrates the strange phenomena of babies and what they mean.
  • Special-interest magazines:Book excerpts, specially written articles, and commentary could appear in special-interest magazines such asAmerican Baby, Babytalk, Parent and Child, Parenting, Parents, Pregnancy & Newborn, and Today’s Parent. Dr. Hunter has written for Parents magazine. See her article “Scary Baby Symptoms (That Are Perfectly Normal).” An upcoming Parents magazine article will cover “Seeing the World Through Toddler Goggles.”
  • Specialty web sites:Content can be offered to such web sites as Zero to Three, Parenting.com, and the web sites of special-interest magazines.
  • General-interest media: General-interest newspapers, news magazines and web sites will also cover the book, given its unique newapproach to explaining infant physiology and medical treatment.
  • Media appearances:The morning network news shows, local TV talk shows,and call-in radio shows could be targeted for appearances. The TV appearances could feature not only discussions, but also “demonstrations” by Dr. Hunter of interesting baby phenomena such as the always-entertaining quirky baby reflexes. Also could serve as an ‘expert’ about breaking news about child health, injury, illness, and child abuse.
  • Documentary: The unique approach of Mysterious Baby lends itself naturally to a documentary, and the authors will work with the agent and television producers to develop such a documentary.
  • Talks: Dr. Hunter will give talks to parents’ groups, pediatricians, and others involved in infant health.

Manuscript Specifications

The book will comprise three sections currently totaling eight chapters, with a current word count of about 60,000 words, although this will likely increase as the manuscript develops.

The book will include perhaps a dozen photos, charts, graphs, and illustrations. These will include such information as growth curves and crying curves for infants.

The first draft of the manuscript is now being completed, and a final draft could be ready a year after signing of a contract.

Outline

Table of Contents

  • Introduction: The surprising newborn
  • Section 1: What is a baby?
  • Chapter 1: Structure: Why does a baby look like a baby?
  • Chapter 2: Function: What’s going on in there?
  • Chapter 3: The burgeoning baby
  • Chapter 4: The “Mother Ship”
  • Section 2: How does a baby become a kid?
  • Chapter 5: Bouncing Baby: Resilient beyond belief
  • Chapter 6: Experience is the very best teacher
  • Chapter 7:Perception: Seeing the world through baby-colored glasses
  • Chapter 8: How babies learn
  • Section 3: The continuing mysteries of babies

Chapter Summaries

Introduction: The surprising newborn

Newborns are not finished at birth. If a baby is a “bun in the oven,” as the saying goes, then newborns are not fully baked. They need to further develop during what pediatricians dub the “fourth trimester”—their initial threemonths outside the womb. And beyond that time, they spend the next nine months growing and developing the skills they will need to blossom into toddlers.

Few people, both lay and professional, recognize this fact, and Mysterious Baby will offer a unique exploration into the peculiar physiology of babies during their first year.

We open the book with the harrowing story of a one-week old baby who arrives in the ED with uncontrollable shaking. Suspecting the devastating diagnosis of neonatal seizures which signals brain damage or infection in the brain, the ED doctors transfer her to the Intensive Care Unit. A pediatrician ultimately diagnoses her with a condition common to many infants: “benign sleep myoclonus”, a condition no more dangerous than hiccups.