Caring for a baby involves understanding how serious medical symptoms are, then deciding if they warrant a trip to the doctor. While a web site should not replace regular contact with a pediatrician, it can help parents make sound decisions on health concerns, as well as offer advice on common topics like crying, colic, and sleeping habits.

Hospitals and doctors often maintain or participate in these sites, so you can feel confident that you’re receiving the best, most current information. If you have an idea of what’s ailing your baby, you have several options, depending on the site: you can use an index to find your topic (some are alphabetized), type a word into the search engine, or e-mail an expert who will respond in 24 hours. Diagnosis charts also prove helpful, allowing you to identify the symptoms your baby is displaying and receive an analysis of likely causes. Because children often accidentally hurt themselves, many sites include first aid sections that describe appropriate treatments.

Parents should take steps to prevent illness and accidents, too, such as learning which baby products to stock in the medicine cabinet and accessing a list of international doctors, so that if they take their baby away from home, they’ll have options if they need to call a professional. On the Internet, tips abound for packing a first aid kit to carry on trips, as well as descriptions of hotels catering to families with young children. To further encourage dialogue and understanding, chat rooms and e-mail lists address new and expectant parents’ concerns. Whether you have a baby yourself or work in the childcare field, you’ll want to bookmark the following web sites.