The Preventive Ounce (Poz) is a nonprofit, preventive mental health organization, incorporated in California in 1984, with offices in Oakland, California and Madison, Wisconsin. Poz was started by two psychologists who were frustrated by long-standing behavioral problems in children. Most of these problems could have been prevented, had parents understood how to manage the issues that were normal for their child's temperament. The truth is that many parents are mystified by their child's behavior: sleep problems, temper tantrums, separation difficulties, difficulties in toilet training, asssertiveness issues, unusual sensitivities, to name just a few. They feel guilty, exhausted, at wit's end. What worked for their first child doesn't work now. Since 1984, The Preventive Ounce has worked with health maintenance organizations (HMOs), developing programs that helped more than 20,000 parents see more clearly their child's emerging temperament and manage the issues that are normal for their child's temperament. Most of this program was developed and tested at Kaiser Permanente, the oldest and largest HMO in the United States. Our HMO experience has taught us that parents who see clearly their child's unique temperament and understand how it "works", can more easily manage issues that are normal for their child's temperament. They are better able to balances the needs of their child with their own need... and those of their family, the school, and the community. They avoid getting stuck in ineffective parenting. And they are less likely to blame themselves or their child for issues that may be troublesome to manage... but normal for their child's temperament. Over the past decade, our HMO experience has also shown us that parents are intelligent consumers of temperament information. They have recycled back to us what works (and doesn't work) for each temperament issue. The credit for this program belongs to them. Our goal now is to use the Internet to reach more parents of children (four months through twelve years), to help them understand and manage their child's temperament, so they can avoid these problems and eventually teach their child to understand and manage his or her own temperament.