Recommend your favorite parenting book

[Anonymous]

DS is just over 9 months old and I've been basically doing what comes natural (nursing to sleep, avoiding letting him cry, etc) without too much worry about spoiling, but I realized today that as he is nearing a year my parenting style will need to change a little as I will need to set limits, etc.
I'm looking for a book (or several) that explains what is happening developmentally with DS and how I can nurture that but also give structure and teach limits. I feel like I'm a big softy and I need a book to give me some guidance!
Any recommendations? (and if you don't mind, why you love it)

[Anonymous]

Your Baby and Child: From Birth to age Five.
Penelope Leach

[Anonymous]

It's not really a parenting book, but The Wonder Weeks outlines the "developmental spurts" through 1 year that really explains what's going on in baby's head and what to expect. It does not give any suggestions, just really lets you the parent know where your child is developmentally and is rather reassuring. However, may not be worth the $$ if you are approaching 1 year, as the book only cover newborn to 1 year. I found it to be a great resource.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not really a parenting book, but The Wonder Weeks outlines the "developmental spurts" through 1 year that really explains what's going on in baby's head and what to expect. It does not give any suggestions, just really lets you the parent know where your child is developmentally and is rather reassuring. However, may not be worth the $$ if you are approaching 1 year, as the book only cover newborn to 1 year. I found it to be a great resource.

I second this. It is an awesome book. Outlines when the sleep is disrupted and what is going on in the brain and how it shows in the child's behavior.

I also loved "Happiest Baby on the Block" and "Toddler on the Block". I didn't use them to the letter, but they were helpful.

"123 Magic" also great.

[Anonymous]

All things Dr. Sears The Disciplie Book, The Baby Book, Nightime Parenting book...

Also, read "Everyday Blessings: the Inner Work Of Mindful Parenting", very gentle, positive parenting book that sounds like it will fit your style and it's a feel good book!

As your baby grows into toddlerhood, you'll slowly start to consider what are his wants vs. his needs. For the first year or more of life I think the wants and needs are essentially the same (lots of love, attention, safety, comfort, breast, etc)...but soon your sweet little one might start screaming b/c you wont let him have chocolate candy or watch another Dora...then you get to enter the fun world of setting limits and boundaries in a loving but consistent way...

enjoy each stage as it comes!

[Anonymous]

Parenting With Love and Logic - the early childhood edition.

I just picked it up off the shelf again last weekend as a refresher. One of the main theories behind it is to teach your child early how to make their own choices/decisions and learn from consequences so that later down the road when they are faced with more difficult decisions that, on the extreme end, could mean the difference between life and death - they'll be independent and armed with good judgement.
We found it to be really logical and so far, effective, though we are still working on doing a better job of practicing "Love and Logic" parenting.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Here is the Amazon link to the specific book I'm talking about - as there are different versions:

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Logic-Magic-Early-Childhood/dp/1930429002/ref=pd_sim_b_1

And FWIW, I disagree with the first negative review which says that if you have the basic book of theirs, you don't need this one. We originally had trouble finding this book and bought the main "Love and Logic" one and found many of the concepts to be targeted at much older children. The concepts are indeed generally the same, but this early childhood one made a lot more sense to us with more appropriate examples, etc. Though, the other one will indeed come in handy later, I'm sure.

[Anonymous]

I love the Baby Whisperer. It changed parenting for me.

[Anonymous]

My parenting bible is Alfie Kohn's Unconditional Parenting. I highly recommend it. He focuses more on overall philosophy and children's needs than on specific "techniques," but his ideas are thought-provoking and make a lot of sense. So far parenting this way has worked very well with our son.

[Anonymous]

I tossed the books and asked friends with older kids...worked out better! But I kind of liked "what to know, the toddler years" even though I did not like the pregnancy series.

[Anonymous]

I think Baby 411 is a great "middle of the road" parenting book that covers a wide variety of topics. Its co-written by Dr. Ari Brown (who's been on several tv shows)