Our Recommended
Best Parenting Books
To Make Baby Care Easier
There are a million books out there claiming to be the best parenting books you'll find. But we not only enjoyed this particular one ourselves, we also investigated the tactics of the more contented, best sleeping babies' parents, and found a consistency with this particular favorite:
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby
This is simply one of the best parenting books we've found. Immensely readable, and practical, and shorter than the giant guidebooks, it still contains every real bit of wisdom on every baby topic you really need.
The author assists you in developing some early insight into your child's particular temperament.
This book is filled with great, sensitive and practical tips for "starting as you mean to go on," to foster a happy, content, confident baby that eats and sleeps well. It's a myth that you have to go sleepless for months at a time to care for your infant. Or, that you have to leave a baby to "cry it out" for hours at a time, to sleep yourself, either.
It's better than just the other baby sleep books too, because of all the other advice that's actually useful. There are even feeding, sleeping, and behavioral charts to simplify things when you are at the "no-sleep-for hours" stage. It's tremendously sensible, and straight forward.
Following her advice, our infant was sleeping for 8 hours at 10 weeks, and 11 hours at 12. This wasn't a happy accident, either. It didn't come without the effort. By 8 weeks the goal of a full-night's sleep still seemed eons away, but we stuck with her suggestions, ever since week 2, paid close attention, made gentle adjustments, and yeah! By 10 weeks, sleep returned to normal for the whole family quite readily!
Enjoy the wisdom of a trained English Nanny. English nannies are more typically nurses, with loads of university and science-based education in child development. They find our American tendency to name loving babysitters "nannies" a bit of a smear to their reputations. (After all, nursing school there is 5 1/2 years.)
EVERYTHING you'll need most often is in this small, readable book. There's not a secondary book you'll likely really require...besides one. The exception might be, if you happen to have a colicky baby, and need a little more depth on that one particular subject.
They key is, to actually DO what she suggests, that is, write things down. We used a plain sheet of paper and scribbles daily, but ONLY in so doing, did we see the otherwise unrecognizable patterns that we could mold and work with to facilitate comfortable sleep patterns. You must write down the notes of what you're tracking, before giving up on her approach, certainly. Good luck!
Then, you might also read: 'Happiest Baby On The Block" by Harvey Karp, M.D.
While the Baby Whisperer book presents very similar information on swaddling and soothing, this one goes into much more detail. This makes the Happiest Baby especially helpful if you're overwhelmed with colic. It's available in video too! The Happiest Baby on the Block
Happiest Baby On The Block
So these are our picks for the best parenting books out there. May your little one enjoy the fruits of your reading.
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