What to expect v's Contented baby

[pigleychez]

First time mum here wanting to buy a book about babys first year and thought id ask for opnions here.

What to Expect the First Year by Arlene Eisenberg

or

The Contented Baby's First Year: A Month-by-month Guide to Your Baby's Development
by Gina Ford

Anyone read/got either of these?

the bit on b/feeding was in the secition on "what to feed your baby at..." I think 9 months?

And the sleep thing was in the section on what to expect... at 6 months I think.

Fingerwoman- Wow thats cool!
Id love to meet some other mummys in the area

Do you have children already or are you due?
Im due 12th July.

I had the Gina Ford routine book - some of the suggestions were handy and sensible but the whole routine was too much for me. Am not die hard anti like many people here though. Someone told me I HAD to have the WTE book and I found it pretty rubbish - imperfectly translated from the American and got basic things wrong like car seats etc for that reason. Never picked it up after the first couple of months (and those many hours breastfeeding).

Emkana, this is from the 10 months section on 'When to wean'...

"It is recommended that breastfeeding continue ideally for at least a full year, and then for as long as baby and mother both want to keep it up."

and also

"Many women choose to continue nursing into the second year and beyond, and that's fine."

and

"Older children who breastfeed are just as likely to be secure, happy and independent as those who wean earlier."

etc. So maybe the book has been revised, or maybe you are thinking of the Baby Whisperer, who does indeed believe that those of us who BF past a year are doing it all for our own selfish reasons...

Meg- the book ive been looking at on Amazon says its a revised second edition so that well be the case

Actually, reading the co-sleeping advice again, it is at least reasonably balanced. It was the bit about putting the baby in their own room which put me off... also it is a bloody big book and I never had time to read it all.

It's the 2nd edition which I have, too.

i was lent the contented little baby book and imo i think it is a load of rubbish. I never followed it for ds1 and i bought penelope leqach your baby and child book and found that interesting in terms of general development.

With ds2 reading the clb book i thought it was awful and that it would lead to a very uncontent little baby. Everybaby is different and therefore you should just go with the baby and you and not with what someone else tells you.

It was definitely WTE.

They probably changed it, wouln't surprise me at all because the advice they gave before was really extreme.

Glad to hear they have changed WTE. Thought it was a dreadful book, very much in the This Is The Only Way mould of advice. Even in the early days I knew most of what I read about bf, sleep and co-sleeping was crap so I didn't believe a word of the rest of it. I certainly didn't feel it was a useful guide on health after the drama queen approach of the pregnancy one, listing what you should be worried abut month by month.

Not a GF fan either. Far better to learn how to do things your own way and develop confidence in your own approach than try following any set of rules. You are bound to "fail" and feel crap about it.

I quite liked some of the Deborah Jackson books but her early books/editions can be a bit hectoring. I liked the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding which is about so much more.

Social Baby was probably the best though. A DVD is also available.

Only buy a baby book written by someone who has had babies.

Read it, but feel free to ignore it.

Bear in mind that when you have your second child you won't bother looking at it (the book that is, not the child ).

Dr Christopher Green offers basic, sensible advice, along the lines of your baby, you know best...

this is a great book

I forgot a fab book - How not to be a Perfect Mother, by Libby Purves. A bit old fashioned in places, but SO funny and pratical and down to earth. A joy!

Love Deborah Jackson, emkana. Do Not Disturb is my favourite.

If you had to choose between those 2 only, then definitely WTE. Good for practical advice.

The gina ford too patronizing.

TBH the best book i've read so far remains Birth and beyond by Dr Yehudi Gordon. Get your hands on it if you can.

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Penelope Leach - old now, but great IMHO and bit of a different way of looking at things - but then my background is child psychology and she's a child psychologist so I would say that!! I just found it very practical and realistic. And it doesn't 'tell you what to do'! I just think you can draw on so many bits of info and advice you hear and read and find your own way...

I mean her books have been around a while - not being ageist!!No idea how old she is!!

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agree baby wisdom is very good

this is worth a read too

With my first one, I found the bit in WTE when for each month you had the "should be doing, may be doing, may even be doing" very helpful. The "should be doing" is the very basic stuff a NT child of that age should be able to do, so very reassuring, and it was nice occasionally to realize that she was in the "may even be doing" category.

With my second, I mostly read Mills and Boon.

i found gina ford brilliant. worked reaally well for me as have a partner who works 70 hours a week and needed to have some sort of routine as had nobody elseto rely on to help. sorted me out a treat I know MN is anti but it worked for me and will do it again if i have another i reck.

Obviously your baby was one of the ones who read the book in the womb, swiftynickers!

Obviously your baby was one of the ones who read the book in the womb, swiftynickers!