What would be your top babycare book recommendation?

[McDreamy]

just browsing Amazon and there are loads!!! What would you recommend?

That's why - like dieting books - if you're going to read one you need to read loads. That way when one's telling you to eat carbs and the next to eat only protein, you can say 'sod it, I'll just eat less and go for a walk'

i liked the christopher greene babies one also.

All baby care books are the work of the devil. Stick with MN - it is free and jam packed with very wise women indeed.

Agree MDS - that's why I liked 'Babywatching' - I found it helped to be a bit of an amateur anthropologist and get some distance sometimes

Toddler Taming - is that Christopher Greene? Anyway, it's great. Didn't like any others, they all made me feel a complete failure as a mother.

yes, it's CG, i've heard it's good too.

Penelope Leach. Everything she has written.

McDreamy, you have totally made my day (well, night, as its almost 1am here) by buying Baby Love. I hope you adore it! Let me know!

Oh yes, Toddler Taming is Christopher Green I think, but he has another one called 'Babies'.

I like Kid Wrangling too - fun to read, and useful, but not as useful as Baby Love for early days I think.

I got Contented Baby Gina Ford. My dd1 was 6wks, not sleeping and constantly crying. After following the routines for 6 wks we had a calm, happy and sleeping 12hrs per night baby.
With dd2 I followed the routine after I stopped bf at 6mths and again we went from waking 3 times per night to sleeping 12 hrs after 6wks on the routine.
It was my salvation!

I thought "What to Expect..." was the best of the bunch. It was still by the sofa when DD turned 1.

The Baby Whisperer was a great read - until I actually had the baby, and I couldn't match my situation with any of her anecdotes or techniques. My sister told me to burn it, and I was tempted.

Ultimately MN is the winner. If you need to know something, just ask, and you'll get good answers (usually!).

I should add that The Baby Whisperer was v good for routines. More relaxed in attitude about that than some other books.

The Baby Book by Dr William and Martha Sears. It has an attachment parenting slant, which worked really well for us, but also an encyclopedic overview of all you'll need to know. It's a very calm and reassuring book based on medical experience plus experience of raising eight children. That and What To Expect are useful reference points. I read the baby whisperer and how to enjoy year one as well, interesting but the baby hadn't read them when she came out!

there are a couple of recommendations for Robin Barker's 'Baby Love' further up the thread - I didn't discover her in time to need that one, but I LOVE my copy of 'The Mighty Toddler' here (don't agree with the sole review at all) - matter of fact, common sense stuff.

I have What to Expect but found it over-medicalises everything (along the lines of, 'when your paediatrician says you can introduce egg' rather than 'when you introduce egg' - suppose it's partly the US approach, rather than Robin Barker's Australian one.

alittleteapot - I have a Sears toddler book which I really like - have not got the baby one though. I do like his approach a lot.

Must get Sears Baby book and Robin Barkers Toddler book for baby numer 3

I have reserved a Sears one through my library. I have never read anything by him but like the sound of his approach.

What To Expect does cover a lot and I have found it useful on occasion, but they could have tried harder to make a proper UK version instead of just changing a few phone numbers but keeping the main thrust so American. Also I really don't like the fact that in the 6 month old section, where it covers approaches to resolving sleep issues (i.e. if your baby isn't sleeping through the night), the first technique discussed is CIO

CIO?

I would agree with Charitygirl and vote for Penelope Leach's Your Baby and Child. Very keen on reinforing your own instincts about what is right, child lead in most cases but without parents abdicating control. It saw me through many dark and confusing days of early parenting.

Crying it out (sorry, I was typing in a rush before). It just says something like 'parents who do this leave their baby to cry, it's hard for a bit but it usually works and is the quickest route to a full night's sleep'. Then it says 'if you don't want to try this, here's some other ideas' - like that is the natural first thought.

I just think the idea of leaving a baby to cry it out at 6 months deserves a bit more exploration, including a more frank assessment of how upsetting the parents are likely to find it. But that's just my wussy opinion

I had loads of them and I agree that it is important not to be a slave to one particular book, but be open to different opinions, talk to other mothers, and see which style of parenting suits you and your child best. I know that's so vague and it is exactly what my MIL said, and I hated receiving such advice, but it's true!

Looking back, the most helpful book was Yehudi Gordon's Birth and Beyond here

It also has a really useful 150-page health reference bit at the back for common pregnancy/baby complaints, which we looked at all the time. What I liked most was the book seemed really gentle and caring towards bringing up children, but also had practical information about how to actually do it! Also, it's written by the UK's leading obstetrician so medically very sound!

I liked Penelope Leach best too.

The Libby Purves one is good, as is Cassandra Jardine's book. I also liked the one about having more than one child with the hairbrush in the title?

On another note entirely, there's a book about the changes in childcare manuals over the centuries, Dream Babies by Christina Hardyment.