Your Baby and Child - Penelope Leach

Comments from other Mumsnetters:

"Reassuring without being preachy, its full of useful advice and information" with a really good ideas for how to entertain babies and young children and development information up to the age of five." "She makes the distinction between newborn and settled babies - I haven't really found this in other books, and theyre quite different creatures!" "I liked the description of what a baby goes through mentally and physically when theyre being born; it honestly helped me cope with the pain during labour. "Very emotive writing, it was a pleasure to read and I can relate to so much of what she writes.

This was my 'Bible' and I loved its civilised humane approach to these little creatures we call our babies! My two - DS then DD 3 yrs apart - hardly ever cried as their needs were met instantaneously. It is a positive spiral of course as they were so relaxed. I can't actually remember or picture them crying. BUT the truth; the 'elephant in the room' that no-one seems willing to mention, is that I was also lucky with the 'gene lottery'. My two seem to be wired in a way both Dad and I naturally understand and I have always sensed what they are thinking. But children have a combination of genes from wherever in the families and oftentimes 'never the twain shall meet'in terms of parent-child compatibility. So I am not smug just thankful. Having studied moral philosophy at Uni my dread was to have a child without a moral sense - without kindness. Both are - though currently neither is manifesting this to their sibling I have to say...

Pen Leach does encourage you to recognise that each baby/child is an individual struggling with their developmental stage and adopting that perspective makes it easier for us as parents to give of our best as adults no matter what bundle of genes has landed in our laps.

So enough of parents blaming themselves - if you are reading Penelope Leach you are a decent parent. My thought is that at the end of the day battling away using the humane and sensitive methods advocated by Pen here will lead to better results for you and your relationships in future years than if you adopt what might be termed a 'distancing approach'. But we are all different and there are exceptions to every rule so trust your instincts (as long as they are motivated by Love of course).

Very child centred, so be warned. When this was the most fashionable book around it led to a lot of exhausted, guilt-ridden mothers and children without proper sleep or feeding rhythms.

I looked at a few baby books and chose this one because it seems to give the most balanced view on topics such as co sleeping. The only negative is that it is a few years since it has been updated and information about weaning seems to have changed.

Great! Full of sound, sensitively written advice. Takes you thru new borns to toddlers. I'd recommend to all Mums as a staple book of their partenting collection.