When Your Baby Cries: 10 Rules for Soothing Fretful Babies (and Their Parents!)

My husband got me this book free with a magazine when my daughter was about six weeks old. I was desperately trying to find a way to deal with her colic and having tried the Gina Ford approach with no luck was working my way through every baby and sleep book I could find and just waiting until she was old enough for controlled crying. The author describes how parenting attitudes differ across cultures, and what may be considered 'spoiling' a child in the west - for example, carrying a baby in a sling or sharing a bed - would be considered natural if you lived in a different time and place. Despite my cynicism, this book made me start to feel good about being a mother. It encouraged me to try some things I would have otherwise felt would have been spoiling her. I found a way to cope with the colic until it ended (at 3 months) and I never had to try controlled crying in the end. It also helped enormously with bonding, made me much more relaxed about whether I was 'doing it right' and I only wish I had bought and read the book before my daughter was born.