Newborn parenting book recommendations?

[Peaplant20]

Anyone have any book recommendations? I have a two week old and every hour of the day I have another question! During pregnancy I referred to the ‘what to expect when you’re expecting’ book which loads of people talked about - is there sort of an equivalent for once baby is born?

I just used google tbh, but you need to mindful of it being utter bollocks. My rule of thumb was that if more than a few websites say the same thing, thats probably the truth.

I had the week by week baby one with DC1 which was ok for the first couple of months as a general guide but mine always slept more and fed more than it said!

Any questions we could help with?

I have yet to read a book that truly reflects my experience of looking after a newborn (Gina Ford made me laugh out loud!), but that might say more about my parenting and/or baby than the quality of the books themselves.

I did find the internet forums much more realistic - I wish I had discovered mumsnet in those early weeks!

Penelope Leach, shes brilliant.

Joining as I'm interested to know too. I almost bought 'your baby week by week' until I read lots of reviews about some horrible advice in there like advocating controlled crying until the baby is sick, or weaning at 4 months.

I just want a book that explains clinically what happens at each week, what to expect in terms of growth, development, milestones etc, without opinions of the author. Feel like at this rate I need a paediatric textbook!

@Luckyelephant1 I’m the same! Just want something factual with some vague idea of what to expect, which is what I got out of the what to expect when you’re expecting book during pregnancy! @Getawriggleon thank you, I literally must have about 100 questions but I’ve got a midwife appointment today so if I still Hve questions I’ll be back on here! Xx

I read Cribsheet by Emily Oster which I found great for helping you make decisions around feeding, sleep, childcare etc. She's an economist and uses lots of research and data to explain pros and cons of various paths and then encourages you to make your own decisions based on the evidence - which I really liked!

It's not exhaustive of every question you might have about babies but I've found Google and Mumsnet pretty good for that!

The Baby Book by Dr Sears takes you through things like soothing a fussy baby up-to potty training.

There's 'what to expect when you're expecting: the first year' which is good.

If you are BFing, it might be worth looking at Kellymom's List of Books to Avoid.

Congratulations on your new LO as well

Ooh @Peaplant20 did you enjoy What to expect when you’re expecting? I’m 14 weeks and have been debating it but the reviews said it was quite American; and I wasn’t sure if it’d still be worth it.

Congratulations on your baby!

@TakeYourFinalPosition if you are thinking of BFing it's on Kellymom's list of books to avoid as it's not really BFing friendly.

Rachel Waddilove How to Enjoy year One was a godsend for me - my boy is 18 months now and I really wish there was a toddler version!

I really liked Cribsheet and Your Baby Week By Week - the latter did have a lot about sleep training but I didn’t follow those parts. I really liked the bite size format and rough guide to how things would change in terms of sleep time, feeds, etc

[quote BunnyRuddington]@TakeYourFinalPosition if you are thinking of BFing it's on Kellymom's list of books to avoid as it's not really BFing friendly.[/quote]
It’s also not very preemie friendly either. 🤬 (or it wasn’t 6 years ago anyway).

Penelope Leach’s Baby & Child. Was my bible with newborns and babies.

It’s also not very preemie friendly either. 🤬 (or it wasn’t 6 years ago anyway.

Hope you managed to find something that was better for you

@BunnyRuddington Bliss website was an absolute Godsend.
Thanks for asking.

@BingBongToTheMoon did you find any other good preemie resources?

@TakeYourFinalPosition I found what to expect when you’re expecting really useful when I was pregnant!