Gentle Baby Care: No-Cry, No-Fuss, No-Worry--Essential Tips for Raising Your Baby

This helpful resource has a lot of heart and a friendly tone. Though hefty, the book's appealing format, well-organized material, supportive writing style and clarity make it inviting and accessible. Readers need only look inside to appreciate the author's positive attitude and notice how practical and thorough the information is.Each of about 125 brief chapters uses a similar pattern designed to provide quick factual direction and encouragement for its intended audience of parents of normal infants. A wide selection of topics, from health issues to overzealous grandparents, swimming, test driving strollers, developing a read-aloud family culture, and teething, is arranged alphabetically with labels that, for the most part, make sense. The table of contents and extensive index are well-conceived. Lots of white space, attractive type, and logical layout make skimming for specific advice easy. Reading the book straight through is pleasant and informative too. Comparative parenting philosophies are not covered. Pantley is forthright about concentrating on attachment parenting. She supports her preferences well and discusses many approaches in a broad context. Breastfeeding, for example, is assumed, yet she doesn't belittle readers who opt for formula. Curiously though, homeopathic medicine is suggested a few times with no further explanation about it. In general, Pantley speaks sensibly to hands-on, involved parents interested in natural ways to rear secure, strongly attached children safely. Development itself is covered here only as a minor topic with lists of normal milestones. Helping parents understand particular issues and evaluate their best options is Pantley's focus, so her sound advice includes tips with developmentally appropriate variations throughout the book. She is adept also at sharing pertinent considerations for each subject without prescribing, except for certain definite procedures or emergency requirements, what choices a family should make. Her presentation of current knowledge and research is concise and responsible. She provides additional websites and resources for further interest and respectfully leaves the outcomes up to her readers' values and decisions.Gentle Baby Care has a more developed style than Pantley's earlier Perfect Parenting. The same sensitive logic in her No-Cry Sleep Solution is in her writing here. She considers each topic thoroughly with particular awareness of safety issues, and cogently presents, with the utmost respect for parents and their babies' well-being, the practical information and thoughtful opinions they will find useful. Expectant, new and experienced parents will all find this book a handy and reliable reference.

Every parent is different, and what is so wonderful about thisbook is that no matter what your parenting style, you can takethe facts outlined and discussed in the book and apply themto your own parenting style and value system and make your own decision. The author is wonderfully fresh by accepting that all parents are different, and her message is one of love andrespect for babies and the families they are born into. She starts out her first paragraph on every topic with the words:"Learn about it." It's a helpful and valuable addition to anyone's bookshelf and I think a great shower gift!

Gentle Baby Care gives information on hundreds of topics. Each topic begins with a question, this is followed by general information in a "Learn About It" section, which is generally brief and concise. This is followed with more specific solutions, checklists, charts and such. And finishes with a list of websites and books as additional resources. An example is the entry on "Colic". It begins, "My baby is very fussy and cries a lot, mostly at the end of the day. Does she have colic?" The Learn About It area defines colic and describes the known causes. This is followed by "Can Colic Be Prevented?" which explains health issues that can cause crying, and also tells what is known about colic prevention. The next part "Things That May Help Your Baby" gives a long bullet list of many ideas that may help your baby feel better and stop crying. As is typical in the book, there is yet another section called, "Tips for Coping" which gives tips on how YOU can handle this difficult time. Next comes, "When Should I Call the Doctor?" with a bullet list to guide you on when you should be concerned. The last section, "For More Information" guides you to several books on the subject, if you want to get into more detail. The layout of this book allows for a quick yet thorough examination on topics that may arise during the first two years such as Bathing, Burping, Car Seat Crying, Constipation, Diaper changing (tips, choosing diapers, and what to do when your baby doesn't want to be changed), Fever, Food allergies, Grandparents (both overzealous and reluctant), Immunizations, Massage, Milestones, Sleep (fabulous sections on this topic!), Travel, Visiting, Weaning. These are just a few examples.I highly recommend this book as one to keep handy for the first two years.

Elizabeth Pantley has done an outstanding job in creating a resource for parents that will be used again and again. I'm a mother to four children with number five on the way, and I can't tell you how many times I wished I had a book like this in my home library. I have a number of other parenting books, including Dr. Sears' Baby Book; like many of Pantley's readers, I'm a fan of his. I read through his book once when my first child was very young, and it helped me to develop a philosophy of parenting that I feel happy with and proud of. However, ever since that initial read through, I've only used the index in Sears' book, because I've had specific questions or concerns about what was happening to my baby right at that moment. That is where Elizabeth Pantley's Gentle Baby Care Book, with its A-Z format, comes in so handy. When I want to know how to brush my wriggling 9 month old baby's teeth, when it is time to decide which type of high chair to buy, or when I would like some advice about how a trip to a restaurant with my baby can be successful, then it would be Pantley's straightforward A-Z book that would be most helpful. All the information I need on these topics (and many more) is easily accesible in the one, alphabetically organized section. The result: I don't have to look for little bits of information on numerous different pages.Also, Pantley covers topics that are hardly discussed in the Sears book, like what to do about "overzealous" grandparents, how to read aloud to babies, how to handle a move with a baby, what role music can play in a baby's life, how I can preserve memories of the precious baby period, what to do while visiting other people's homes - and much more. And all this is written in a friendly, experienced-mom-next-door style, easy to read but full of information.This experienced mom's advice to new parents? Buy both the Sears book and Gentle Baby Care. If you only want to get one book, though, check the Sears book out from the library and get a copy of Pantley's book to keep!

Finally!! A user-friendly "I need help right NOW" book! This wonderful gem is chock full of expert advice. When my baby is teething and inconsolable, a quick flip through the book to "teething" gives me the concise, immediate answers I need and the expert advice that I'm looking for. When your crying baby refuses a bottle while you're weaning him from the breast, and your toddler is tugging at your sleeve...you'll thank your lucky stars for having the quick help at hand, rather than having to read volumes to get to your answer. A book no busy parent today should be without. Wonderful!!!