Thursday, May 3, 2007

BabyWise Book Review

Another great book that I have at home and read religiously is the Baby Wise book, I have the first book which is basically a guide for parents in getting themselves and their baby into a routine, and the second book for ‘Parenting Your Pretoddler’ which is for infants from five to fifteen months.

Whilst the ‘What to Expect’ books provide you with knowledge of what to expect while your pregnant with regard to emotional and physical changes of yourself and your baby, the Baby Wise series offer guidance for parenting.

For a new parent, everything small can seem so significant when you haven’t been a parent before. I remember getting a few different books which claim how to get your baby into a routine. A couple of them we quickly glanced and then laid to rest on the bookshelf as they were too strict and rigid for what we were wanting.

We chose the Baby Wise series as these books were there to provide a routine, but in a more flexible way, less rigid than the other books we were given by well meaning friends.

The first book On Becoming Baby Wise focuses on the new baby, and how to develop good sleeping and feeding habits. I remember getting home from hospital and just thinking, ‘is she hungry? Surely she can’t be hungry again’, it seemed like a never ending cycle, but after reading Baby Wise it helped me to understand and develop a routine so that I wasn’t always questioning myself, and my husband who was quick to just shrug his shoulders and offer his ‘I don’t know’ opinion, it wasn’t him that had to endlessly breastfeed! The routine worked well for me as it took a while for my milk to come in at the hospital, and the routine helped increase my supply. The book also goes through details of crying and problem solving.

As we were so impressed with the first book, we decided to get the second book On Becoming Baby Wise: Book II (Parenting Your Pretoddler Five to Fifteen Months), and again, we were more than impressed with Book Two. This book focuses on feeding solids to you pretoddler, it provides a guide to good highchair manners, which have really worked for us. My daughter keeps her hands on her lap when we feed her so thankfully her hands don’t end up with food on them, and she doesn’t end up with food in her hair and everywhere else. It also has a section at the back of the book in training your infant in sign language, I have read a bit about sign language in my parenting magazines, and it seems like a good idea, I read one article where a woman was taking her 7 month old for sign language lessons and he’d learned a few of the signs. We will soon be teaching our daughter some of them to see how we go with it.

These books are good value for money, I’m surprised the prices aren’t higher than they are, definitely worth a read, if you’re after a flexible routine.

The Baby Wise authors also offer books On Becoming Childwise: Parenting Your Child from 3-7 Years (On Becoming. . .), On Becoming Preteen Wise: Parenting Your Child from 8-12 Years (On Becoming. . .), On Becoming Teen Wise: Building a Relationship That Lasts a Lifetime (On Becoming. . .), which I’m sure will also be a great guide for parents with children in those age groups.

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posted by michamum @ 7:15 PM