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Book Recommendation About Newborns
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Anonymous
| I've read a lot about the expectant mother and my body (Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, Mayo Clinic's book, Baby Bargains), but now that I'm getting close to delivery, I realize that I haven't read much about life after birth. Can anyone recommend a good book about life with newborn? |
Anonymous
| I found Baby 411 to be really helpful. Good info that is concisely organized so you can learn a lot about a lot of things in a short amount of time. I went through it before baby was born and then referenced it often the first year. |
Anonymous
| Tracey Hogg- The Baby Whisperer and The Baby Whisperer Solves All your Problems (or something like that). Also the American Association of Pediatricians' book about Kids 0-5. I am pretty sure Amazon has all these. |
Anonymous
| I like Dr Sears' giant Baby Book, although I do take much of what he says with many, often large, grains of salt. Did NOT like the Baby Whisperer books AT ALL - I can't live my life on that kind of regiment and certainly don't expect a newborn to either. My sister thought What to Expect the First Year was fairly helpful, too. |
Anonymous
Sears is talked a lot about on here and honestly, I can't quite gather what his 'shtick' is. PP, can you give me a quick and dirty about his parenting style? I don't think he is my cup of tea but I might be wrong... |
Anonymous
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This will open up a can of worms, so I'm sure I'll get flamed for my take on Sears, but here it goes:
Dr. Sears is a strong proponent of co-sleeping, baby wearing, and breastfeeding. Recent studies have suggested that this groundswell of co-sleeping has actually caused a sharp increase in the number of suffocation/strangulation deaths. Here is the link to that: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/25/AR2009012502641.html?referrer=emailarticle He advocates having the mother be a full time stay at home mom the the point that he has a whole checklist of ways to do this, including taking out personal loans and asking grandparents to foot the bill. If you read The Baby Book, his bias against bottle feeding and working moms will become obvious to you. That said, I actually like The Baby Book for the medical information in it. Dr. Sears is a well respected medical doctor and he's treated enough babies that I think he knows what he's talking about there. However, he has like a dozen kids and has written many, many books and has a VERY successful medical practice . . . which is why I don't take ANY of his parenting advice seriously. It makes me wonder when he really had time to spend with his children and learn any of this so-called parenting advice. |
Anonymous
| Thank you PP - that is along the lines of what I thought but was having a hard time finding a summary of what he was about online (wikapedia was no help!). |
Anonymous
So agree with this - and I will add that Dr. Sears seems to sell everything he promotes - including his medical advice. He will say - studies show babies don't get enough omega 3s - and by the way, I sell omega 3 supplements for babies! Same with his vaccine book. I really educated myself on vaccines while I was pregnant and read his book but really didn't find it that helpful. I feel like he was capitalizing on the whole vaccine scare and I could not find any evidence base for his alternative schedule. Not saying it is wrong, I just don't see the evidence for it. I feel like he pumped it out to make $$ and now he is known as the alternative vaccine schedule guru. |
Anonymous
| Baby 411 is a really great read, and an excellent reference once the baby is actually here. I also read the Baby Whisperer before DS was born and liked it. Unfortunately, I naively thought that because I'd read the book, having a newborn at home would be as easy as she made it sound . . . . As long as you realize that it's not going to necessarily work perfectly, I think it's got some good techniques and ideas. |
Anonymous
|
I got lots of pregnancy and baby books from a friend... dislike most of them but found that two of them were incredibly useful
* the American Association of Pediatrician first year book to look at development milestones and symptoms * "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" was incredibly useful in terms of learning about sleep habits of the baby and setting up goals to strive for. |
Anonymous
| I just started reading "Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality" and really enjoying it. An easy read with practical advice from two moms/pediatricians. |
Anonymous
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We really liked "the contented little baby book" by Gina Ford.
It is a very detailed daily schedule for babies broken up by ages. She is a baby nurse and although the schedules are kind of a pain, you can modify slightly to suit your style. We have used it and our child sleeps REALLY well and it has been very good. Some people I suspect might find it quite rigid, but if you are a clueless new parent, it is kind of like a users manual. |
Anonymous
| "The Wonder Weeks." Helps you figure out that nine times out of ten, the reason your X-week-old's food/sleep/activity/demeanor has been out of whack for an endless few days is because s/he is working on a new skill or developmental leap. Gives a reassuring, "this too shall pass" perspective. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
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Can not recommend Weissbluth's "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" enough. It's about the physiology of sleep in babies and tells you how much they need and how their brains work re sleep. I firmly believe that by learning generally the sleep patterns recognizing the tired signs, I taught my son to be a good sleeper.
Also loved the Happiest Baby on the Block but honestly the one book every new parent should read is Weissbluth's! |