Book excerpt: This book addresses the most significant and recent issues of infant and child psychiatry, examining topics from clinical care and research perspectives as well as from the perspectives of policies and programs. The first book in the Mentor Series of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, it is written and edited by the foremost authorities in the field. Presented with clarity in a thorough and well-organized fashion to professionals caring for children across the world, this book refines the most significant current knowledge concerning infants to aid infants and families from the immediate care giving of a mother to the policy decisions concerning children by a government.