Babyhelmet’s Blog

Product Description

Brought thoroughly up-to-date-with the latest information on everything from diapering to daycare, from midwifery to hospital “birthing rooms,” from postpartum nutrition to infant development-THE BABY BOOK remains the one must-have resource for today’s new parents.

In this perennially bestselling and encyclopedic guide, Dr. Bill and Martha Sears draw from their vast experience both as medical professionals and as parents to provide authoritative, comprehensive information on virtually every aspect of infant care. THE BABY BOOK focuses on the essential needs of babies-eating, sleeping, development, health, and comfort-as it addresses the questions of greatest concern to parents today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #273 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 769 pages

Amazon.com Review 
In their excellent (and hefty) resource guide, The Baby Book, attachment parenting specialists William Sears and Martha Sears have provided new parents with their approach to every aspect of baby care basics, from newborns to toddlers. Attachment parenting is a gentle, reasonable approach to parenting that stresses bonding with your baby, responding to her cues, breastfeeding, “wearing” your baby, and sharing sleep with your child. For those parents who worry about negative effects of this attention, the Sears say, “Spoiling is what happens when you leave something (or some person) alone on the shelf–it spoils.”

From Publishers Weekly 
William and Martha Sears, a pediatrician and a registered nurse respectively, team up with two of their doctor sons to update their 1993 guide to “attachment parenting.” Advocating a “high-touch style of parenting to balance the high-tech life of the new millennium,” the authors teach new parents how to bond with their babies through seven fundamental behaviors, including breastfeeding, “babywearing” and setting proper boundaries. When parents keep close to their babies by bringing them into bed at night and picking them up when they cry, the infants develop better, the authors argue; rather than becoming spoiled, they become more healthy and independent. From tips for a healthy birth, getting your baby to sleep and feeding him the “right fats,” to information about early health concerns, the major steps in infant development and troublesome but typical toddler behavior, the authors of this comprehensive volume (who share their own parenting experiences along the way) are assured and reassuring experts. 
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal 
A pediatrician and an RN/childbirth educator have prepared a comprehensive guide for new parents. The authors encourage and describe “attachment parenting,” a high-touch style that involves bonding, reading and responding to babies’ cues, breastfeeding, and sharing the bed. Topics discussed range from birth and feeding to child safety and basic medical care. The discussion of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome includes 1992 research results and recommendations. This is the first title to discuss high-touch/attachment parenting in such detail, although Fitzhugh Dodson and Ann Alexander’s Your Child: Birth to Age 6 ( LJ 11/1/86) covers many of the same topics. Because of its size and the need to refer to it frequently, the book would probably be most useful in parents’ personal libraries. Recommended for public libraries and patient education collections.
– Mary J. Jarvis, Methodist Hosp. Medical Lib., Lubbock, Tex.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Potentially DEADLY advice 
I used Dr.Sears book as my baby bible with my son and was happy and perhaps even smug about adhering to the attachment parenting principles. However the concept was a fatal mistake for my second child. Our daughter Corynn died in our bed, suffocated next to me. Bedsharing is dangerous. I am not overweight and I was not under the influence of drugs. I followed all their “safe” guidelines. 
I even wrote to the author over 6 months ago to let them know and have yet to hear a reply. 
Please look at all “popular” advise with a jaundiced eye. 
The information in this book is potentially negligent.

Attachment parenting didn’t work for me 
I followed the advise in this book for my first baby and I was completely exhausted and depressed. I’m using the Baby Whisperer’s book with my second baby and it’s so much easier getting this baby to sleep.

Wonderful book 
This is a wonderful book for complete baby care. I bought it a month before my due date and I wish I had read it before my baby was born (it would have saved a lot of heartaches in the early months). I thought I can reference to it whenever I need, but little did I know there’s simply no time for any reading. Now after 10 months, I start to read it and there are so many things I wish I had done differently. The only thing is it’s so big and bulky, but with all the information, I guess you just can’t make it compact.