Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00005MLPV | Format: EPUB
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby Description
Tracy Hogg has seen this time and again. As a registered nurse and nanny with more than twenty years' experience tending some 5,000 babies, she has successfully taught parents how to understand what their babies are trying to tell them with their cries, gestures, and facial expressions. Now parents and babies everywhere can benefit from Tracy's expertise. In
Secrets of the Baby Whisper, Tracy unlocks the secrets of infant language so that any parents, grandparents, or caregiver can interpret what babies are "saying" and give them what they need.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 2 hours and 32 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Abridged
- Publisher: HighBridge Company
- Audible.com Release Date: June 12, 2001
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00005MLPV
As first time parents, my wife and I were both frustrated and overwhelmed by the conflicting advice that we received even before our daughter was released from the hospital.
In between the feedings and diaper changes during the first few days at home, I read Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, which was given to us by a family friend. Finally, there was a sane voice of experience that helped us to find our own way.
Some of the important points of this book:
1. It is normal to feel overwhelmed.
2. Every baby has a unique personality. While Tracy Hogg's categories may be somewhat oversimplified, she does offer a means of identifying your baby's personality so that you may better handle certain situations. No single approach will work with every baby, because they are all different.
3. You are not evil if you choose not to breast feed. This seems to be the subject of most of the negative reviews on this site, which is unfortunate. However, the author does not advocate either breast or formula feeding, she merely presents the pros and cons of each in a balanced manner, and provides reassurance that whatever method you choose, it is your choice to make, and there is no wrong decision.
4. One of the best pieces of advice: follow a structured routine. "EASY": Eat, Activity, Sleep, time for Yourself. This is another area that seems to have drawn criticism from fellow ... reviewers. "EASY" is presented as an alternative to feeding on demand and scheduled feeding. Actually, it is not as much an alternative as it is a combination of the two.
--> Following a set schedule is often impractical, as we found out ourselves while our daughter was still in the hospital. There, feeding took place every three hours, and at the same times.
There is a lot to like about this book (even though constantly being called "luv" did get old by about page 3)... in many parts there *is* very good advice. Tracy Hogg claims a middle-of-the-road approach to parenting a newborn and I agree with many of her ideas. She does not advocate letting babies cry and communicates overall the belief that parents should respect their babies as the tiny people they are. Overall, there is a lot of comforting stuff in here.
But I have issues with some of her specific advice. First, I find that she's judgmental about attachment parenting in general. I'm no die-hard attachment parent, but I'm no rigid-scheduler either and I totally disagree with her belief that demand feeding, cosleeping and the like teaches a baby bad habits or does not effectively meet their needs. She presumes that if AP doesn't work for some, then it will not work for all and is therefore not even worth trying because you'll end up with a baby with bad habits to break down the road. My experiences with flexibility vs. scheduled routine have been quite different. Gentle transitions from three completely attached newborns to independent individuals without parent-imposed schedules (it's been much more symbiotic than the method Hogg proposes) have worked quite well in our household. While my style may not be right for everyone, it certainly *can* work, something that Hogg fails to recognize. (She believes the "family bed gives parents short-shrift" without acknowledging that it actually *works* for many.)
Then there is the breastfeeding advice. I am disappointed to see someone who calls herself a lactation consultant try to make such a strong case for formula feeding over breastfeeding.
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby Preview
Link
Please Wait...