Review of The Breastfeeding Book: Everything You Need to Know About Nursing Your Child from Birth Through Weaning (Paperback)

This is an incredible book. I read three breastfeeding books in anticipation of nursing my child.This one is by far the best of the bunch. It is informative, supportive, easy to read, and contains all theinformation you could ever want.It also is written in a style that isincredibly supportive of a new mom (as I was).It can be used as areference book, but it is interesting enough that it is a great cover tocover read (I read it while nursing!)And -- if one has problems withnursing in the beginning (as I did), it gives you the support andencouragement needed to keep trying. Another friend of mine to whom I sentthe book said that without it, she would have quit.I cannot recommendthis book highly enough.

Product Description
"How would you like to give your baby a gift that could raise hisIQ by 10 points; cut medical bills; make your baby's eyes, heart, intestines, and nearly every other organ work better; reduce the risk of life-shortening, debilitating diseases, such as diabetes; and help your baby avoid many of the common complaints of infancy, such as ear infections, tummy upsets, even diaper rash? Whats the magic gift that can do all these things? Your milk!....Breastfeeding will make it easier to care for your baby, and it will make it easier for you to know and understand your baby. It will affect the way you listen to your child, the way you communicate, the way you respond for many years to come....In the early days of learning to breastfeed, there may be times when you feel like tossing in the nursing bra and reaching for a bottle. You may be tempted to believe those advisers who suggest that formula feeding is easier, or just as good. Or, you may worry that you're "not the type" of mother who succeeds at breastfeeding. Yet, when you remember how breastfeeding benefits your baby, your family, and yourself, you will find the determination you need to overcome any obstacles and master the womanly art of breastfeeding. From America's foremost baby and childcare experts--the new breastfeeding biblefor nursing mothers. In recent years there has been a tremendous resurgence of interest in breastfeeding as American women have discovered its unparalleled benefits to both mother and child. Yet first-time mothers often lack the support and the knowledge they need to breastfeed successfully. And books on breastfeeding frequently fail to address the practical challenges that confront many women (especially women who work outside the home)when they choose to breastfeed. For today's nursing mothers, The Breastfeeding Book is a godsend--with comprehensive, reassuring, authoritative information on:how to get started, with illustrated tips for getting your baby latched on properly
increasing your milk supply
making nurturing more comfortable
breastfeeding in absentia
pumps and the new technology associated with breastfeeding
making sure your nursing baby gets the proper nutrition
breast milk vs. formula
breastfeeding and fertility
nutrition and fitness while breastfeeding
nighttime breastfeeding
the father's role in breastfeeding
and much more

Taking a realistic, contemporary approach, the Searses bring an age-old practice completely up to date. Their encyclopedic guide to the art and science of breastfeeding enables all women to experience and enjoy one of natures most rewarding relationships."

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Review of Touchpoints-Birth to Three (Paperback)

I just purchased the revised version of my favorite childcare book from when I had my other kids (ages 6 and 9).Dr. Brazelton is still my favorite for his comprehensive, authoritative, yet non-judgmental, realistic advice.He has a tremendous understanding of the needs of children, in a way adults typically can't understand.In addition to addressing each stage of development in "Touchpoints", the section on special situations is extremely helpful!!!!I have loved every book he's ever written (Infants and Mothers is my other favorite) and find his advice invaluable and in the best interest of the child!He is a true child advocate and has the most calming voice to listen to....

Product Description
All over the U.S. and in over twenty countries around the world, Touchpoints has become required reading for anxious parents of babies and small children. T. Berry Brazelton's great empathy for the universal concerns of parenthood, and honesty about the complex feelings it engenders, as well as his uncanny insight into the predictable leaps and regressions of early childhood, have comforted and supported families since its publication in 1992.

In this completely revised edition Dr. Brazelton introduces new information on physical, emotional, and behavioral development. He also addresses the new stresses on families and fears of children, with a fresh focus on the role of fathers and other caregivers. This updated volume also offers new insights on prematurity, sleep patterns, early communication, toilet training, co-sleeping, play and learning, SIDS, cognitive development and signs of developmental delay, childcare, asthma, a child's immune system, and safety. Dr. Sparrow, Brazelton's co-author on several other books, brings a child psychiatrist's insights into the many perennial childhood issues covered in this comprehensive book.

No parent should be without the reassurance and wisdom Touchpoints provides.



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Review of An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants (Paperback)

Top notch practical information from one of the most experienced herbalists in North America. Bove has degrees in both the British andnaturopathic schools of herbalism, is a midwife, and has a busy practicecaring for women and children. The book is readable, practical and suitabletraining for self-care by the lay public.

Product Description
Treat common childhood ailments safely and naturally. This comprehensive, user-friendly volume by one of the nation's most highly trained medical herbalists has all the information that concerned parents need to safeguard and improve the health of their children. An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants features new material on topics of particular interest to today's health-conscious parent, such as environmental allergies and the use of antibiotics.

About the Author

Mary Bove, N.D., is a world-renowned herbalist and educator with a private practice in family medicine and natural childbirth in Brattleboro, Vermont.

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Review of Homeopathic Medicine for Children and Infants (Paperback)

In a simple way it tells you all the caracteristics of your child and his needs. The book is divided in specific ailments, like fevers, bruises, ear infections (the real reason why I bought it), diaper rashes, etc. and gives you all the homeopathic medicine that would suit your child depending on his behaviour. Then there are all the medicines listed in alfabethical order where it explains what they are and they are for. An A++++ for Dana Ullmann . I'm looking forward to purchasing the book for the whole family !Thanks !!! P.S.: By the way my Daughter has improved so much, she is almost a new child , no more whinning and crying. Ear infections FREE !!!!

Product Description
Homeopathic remedies are increasingly being used to treat common childhood ailments. They are safe, have no side effects or allergic reactions, are inexpensive and, above all, effective. In this guide, Dana Ullman explains what homeopathy is, how it works and how you can use it correctly to enhance your child's health. He recommends remedies for more than 75 physical and emotional conditions, including: allergies, grief, anxiety, headaches, asthma, measles, bedwetting, nappy rash, bites and stings, shock, burns, sunburn, colic, teething, coughs and colds and travel sickness.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Review of Calming Your Fussy Baby: The Brazelton Way (Paperback)

Once again, T. Berry Brazelton hits a home run.Calming Your Fussy Baby outlines the steps every parent should take to determine the source of a baby's fussing and soothe the fuss away.Advice is laid out by age so that parents can go directly to the portion of the book applicable to their baby and specific information is presented for various types of crying and how to identify what kind of cry one is hearing. The advice is to the point and clear and is written in such a way as to assure parents that they are doing just fine.

One of Brazelton's charms is that he echoes Dr. Spock's famous statement "You know more than you think you do" for a new generation.Dr. Brazelton firmly believes that every parent can be a good parent and that the roots of good parenting are within everyone who wishes to tap them.This book, part of the Brazelton Way series, is a good one to have on hand for the inevitable day when a baby just won't be calmed.With this ammunition, any parent should consider him- or herself well armed against the fussies.

Product Description
Calming Your Fussy Baby: The Brazelton Way helps parents interpret the very first cries of an infant, and shows them how to respond in the most appropriate and effective way. Drs. Brazelton and Sparrow deal squarely with such urgent problems as colic, whining, and tantrums and show how the emergence of gestures and words gradually takes the place of crying as the child's way to act on the world.

Sleepless nights, wailing babies, defiant toddlers--these are universal issues for new parents. Now beloved pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton and his esteemed colleague the child psychiatrist Joshua Sparrow come to the rescue with these highly effective and affordable guides. Full of empathy, warmth, and wisdom, each book in the Brazelton Way series leads parents step-by-step through these trying struggles. Courtesy of Dr. Brazelton's unparalleled understanding and experience, parents will emerge from the turmoil relieved, empowered, and full of new pleasure in the strength and progress of their individual child.



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Review of Herbal Remedies for Children's Health (Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Remedies) (Paperback)

This is an excellent resource book. Rosemary gives you natural remedies to common ailments that children suffer from. Her books are easy to read and comprehend and a valuable addition to any herbal library. I can't say enough good things about her books: she gives you recipies to follow, ways to prepare herbal concoctions in various forms using a variety of bases and her writing is very down to earth.

Here is the however: This book and a few of her others are completely included in her book "Rosemary Gladstar's Family Herbal". The "Family Herbal" includes: Taming Stress & Anxiety, Home Remedies for Everyday Ailments, Recipes for Radiant Beauty, For Children, For Women, For Men and also For Elders and even more information then that - including information on how to prepare herbs, An A - Z Herbal Apothecary, etc...

The only book, where the topic is also touched on in "The Family Herbal", I would purchase aside from "The Family Herbal" is "Herbal Healing For Women" and any of her other books whose titles aren't included in "The Family Herbal"

Product Description
One of America's foremost herbalists provides concise, simple-to-understand, and practical information for using herbs for health and well-being. Each book contains profiles of specific herbs, cautions, contraindications, and easy-to-make recipes to relieve common ailments.

From the Back Cover
Care for Your Children with Gentle, Effective Remedies from Nature

With guidance from Rosemary Gladstar -- internationally known herbalist, mother, and grandmother -- you'll learn how to use herbs such as chamomile, echinacea, and lemon balm to create gentle baby care products and safe treatments for childhood colds and flus, diarrhea, constipation, earaches, and fever. Gladstar also includes safety precautions, dosage information, and guidelines for when to seek medical help.



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Review of The Stay-at-Home Survival Guide: Field-Tested Strategies for Staying Smart, Sane, and Connected While Caring for Your Kids (Paperback)

Cross-post with my review of the book on http://www.askmoxie.org

I loved this book. There are a couple books I recommend without reservation, and this is one of them. I don't think you'll get much out of it if you're not a SAH parent and don't plan to be one, but if you are or have been or want to be or are planning to be a SAH mother, you will get something out of this book.

The first strength of this book is that the author had a big career, then was home for a year with her first child, went back to work more-than-full-time for a few years, and is not back at home with her (now) three kids (including a set of twins, one of whom has special needs). So she's seen the gig from a lot of different angles. There were things I took for granted about being at home before I went back, and I know I'd have a different view of being at home now if I could go back to thatom and I think the book does a good job of picking out things that are unique to the at-home gig, but also universal to at-home moms.

The second strength of this book is that it hits the correct topics. The central tension of being at home, IME, is that tug-of-war between wanting to be with your kids all the time and feeling like you're missing something by being at home. (I think the flip side is the central tension of WOH--being out in the working world, but feeling like you're missing something with your kids.) And that's one of the central themes of this book. It is not at all one of those "yes it can be tough but SAH moms are riding along on a cloud of rainbows raising the future of the world" books. It acknowledges that there are many reasons women stay home to care for their children, and that sometimes it's not because that's what they'd choose if the choice was really possible. It gives equal weight to the joy and also the tedious nature of being at home, and discusses the very real sacrifices women make to stay home.

The chapter on finances, in particular, is strong. I've seen other things about finances for SAHM, and they all seem to be about how to economize on paper towels to stretch your family's money. Stanton's chapter on SAHM finances stresses knowing what your finances are, different ways of dividing the labor and responsibility of keeping track of money, and making sure you are not left in the lurch if your partner dies or you separate.

Another big theme of the book is laying on the table the idea that being a SAHM sometimes ends up being a 24/7 job, and one that your partner devalues because you aren't contributing any money. That's something that causes tons of pain for lots of women (as seen in the comments on yesterday's post here, for example), and there doesn't seem to be an answer. The right thing, clearly, is for a partner to look around and realize that forcing one person to be on duty all the time while the other's work hours are limited to 40-60 hours a week is patently ridiculous. But there are still partners out there who seem to think that they deserve a break while their wives do not. Stanton doesn't have an answer for that (neither do I, for that matter), but she discusses it and gives examples and commentary from a bunch of SAH women on the way it works in their households.

This book doesn't tell you what to do (except to keep your resume updated). It explores the light side and the dark side emotionally and logistically of being at home with your kids. It gives a bunch of data points. It doesn't blow smoke up your skirt about how great it is, or how horrible it is. It acknowledges that you're a person--not just a role, not "just" a mother, not just a political demographic. In short, it's a lot like you guys do for each other here.

Now for the bad parts: Honestly, I only have a couple of teeny minor points with this book: She uses the word "gal" a lot, she assumes most SAHMs have cars, and the only reason she acknowledges for divorce is adultery. But those are really, really minor points, and I'm only mentioning them so you know I actually read the book. Overall, I thought The Stay-At-Home Survival Guide took on the major emotional topics involved in being a SAH parent. I highly recommend it for anyone considering doing it or who's in the middle of it right now.

Product Description
Melissa Stanton's The Stay-at-Home Survival Guide is an all-encompassing, truth-telling how-to book that addresses the many practical and psychological issues facing stay-at-home moms today.

How do you create time for yourself? Is there really time to do it all (feed the kids, keep them busy, clean the house, balance the checkbook, and take a shower)? How do you deal with the absence of the "professional you"?

An invaluable resource for mothers, The Stay-at-Home Survival Guide includes interviews with stay-at-home moms, discussions with experts (family therapists, educators, medical specialists, career counselors), checklists to help you make the most of your time and keep you balanced, and Melissa Stanton's own experiences leaving a career as an editor for People magazine to become a stay-at-home mom herself.

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Review of Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality (Paperback)

There are people who already have a great depth of infant care experience when they have their first child--have changed so many diapers they can do it with their teeth, can get a onesie over a newborn's head without waking her, can swaddle a baby into immobility with a flick of the wrist.We are not those people.We needed help, and we found a lot of it here.

My husband and I both read this book cover to cover before we brought our son home from the hospital, and referred to it often afterward.It has terrific practical advice for the new parent, with informative illustrations--such as demonstrating how to get those cute new outfits on your infant when they have clearly been designed by someone who has never actually dressed a baby-- and is written in a casual, clear style that makes it easily readable and memorable.We went back to it often: "What colors of poop did it say were okay?""What did it say about the difference between projectile spit up and vomiting?" (Asked as something ran down a wall two feet away.)"Is it possible the baby really wants to eat every 45 minutes?"We suspect its discussion of growth spurts saved our sanity, if not our lives.

This book focuses on the nitty-gritty of the new obsessions you'll have with the bodily functions and sleep habits of your new arrival, and how to balance them with your own.It is a cheerful, engaging, sympathetic and nonjudgmental guidebook, and we appreciated it tremendously in our early weeks home.Highly recommended.

Product Description
This comprehensive guide for new parents finding themselves overwhelmed dealing with the reality of parenting provides "parent-tested, pediatrician-approved" advice to allay their fears. Written in a compassionate yet authoritative tone by two moms who are also pediatricians, this guide covers a wealth of topics that often prove daunting in the first eight weeks of a child's life. Starting with "Into the Mouths of Babes" (the trials of breastfeeding) and "What Comes in Must Come Out" (a discussion of "pee and poop") and moving on through "Fever: Trial by Fire" and "Seeing Yellow: Jaundice," this guide offers sound advice that will enable parents to feel confident about their parenting skills. Hints on daily living, sleep patterns, crying, the art and science of diapering, and traveling with a newborn are also provided.



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