Best practical parenting book you’ve read?

[NobleYeats1]

Hi all, First time mum with baby expected in July. Looking for some practical parenting books. Most I’ve looked up seem to follow a particular type of parenting - for example attachment or you have to do X or Y or your baby is going to grow up to be a delinquent !

I really want something like what to expect at different stages, why baby might be crying, how to bathe baby, how to soothe baby, what temperature the room needs to be, does baby still need to wear lots of clothes in summer etc. We are both clueless!!!

Any ideas?

This was years ago, but the Dr Sears books were very practical. He leant closer to attachment parenting, but was very much do what works for you. As a paediatrician he added lots of medical research to back up his advice but lots of practical stuff too. One of his dc wouldn't be put down in a moses basket until it had been warmed up with a hairdryer, for example. He did a separate sleep solutions type book which was very good.

I still have my Dr. Spock. Falling to pieces, but I found it helpful and reassuring. The baby will be 60 in October!!

There are so many different approaches and so many different babies, no one size fits all I'm afraid.

The health visitor used to give you a really useful birth to five book, that had all this kind of info in it. I don't know if they still give out paper copies but it seems to be available as a pdf download. (Google birth to five nhs book)

The toddler's guide to parent taming.
It's a joke book but had some good points that made me think

I picked up first time parent by Lucy Atkins. It was written in 2009 although when I had dd in 2020 the advice didn't feel out of date in anyway. I liked it becuase she just gives really practical advice on the basics of caring for a baby- How many vests and sleepsuits you might need, how to spot feeding cues, sleep safety, bath safety, common illnesses to look out for etc and its not full of pages and pages of her opinions on things. Shes also quite realistic about how new parents do things e.g there's some safety advice out that that's essential to follow correctly, then there's other things that if you use common sense they can still be safe, and she explains how.

The mumsnet guide to babies for precisely the reason @3teens2cats says - it outlined all the different "methods" for particular issues, and once I realised many of the "methods" were contradictory it gave me a lot of confidence that there was no right answer.

Toddler Taming - A Parents' Guide to the First Four Years' by Dr. Christopher GREEN.

Dr Spock - a later edition than @eddiemarieswife's as my daughter is 10. practical, simple to follow and easy to understand. Not as gimmicky as others - which is why I liked it so much!

The Commando Dad books. I bought them as a joke present for DH, but they’re actually very practical and don’t focus on a particular method or theory, but give information that covers all options eg: breastfeeding and bottle feeding, safe sleeping including co-sleeping.

Thanks all some books that look great here! The first time oarenr book sounds great @Ididanamechange I want more practical stuff not to be pushed toward a particular parenting method and I find some can be so evangelical about how they parent. I don’t want to get sucked into that if I can help it.

The commando dad one sounds good for DH @EllieQ

I looked up dr spears but seems to be very much attachment parenting. Dr Spock seems to be out of print on Amazon anyway but I’ll take a look for it in bookshops

Thanks everyone for your replies’