Friday 10 April 2015

Day-By-Day Wonder Bébé

Over the past eight months I have read four very different parenting books. Some have been full of fantastic advice, some have made me laugh out loud and others just weren't for me. Here are my thoughts on each:

Bringing Up Bébé
One French Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting.
This book is AMAZING. I wish I had read it sooner. It's part memoir, part parenting handbook, so it's easy and fun to read, with some great anecdotes about Druckerman's life in Paris. I have found lots of the advice really useful and am trying to implement many of the tips. I just wish I had read the sleep advice before Little Miss made it past six months.  


Discover the wonder weeks. Why a baby is fussy at set time and how you can help him to make the most out of it.
A useful guide to what is going on in your baby's head. Its main job is to stop you blaming everything on teething and get you thinking about the impact developmental leaps may be having on your baby's moods and emotions. There is also an app (which is great if you don't have time to read the book, but disappointing if you already have it) and a diary. I like reading Wonder Weeks a leap at a time, so I always know what should be coming up next. It has actually proven to be quite accurate when predicting 'sunny' and 'stormy' weeks. 


The Day-by-Day Baby Book
In-depth, daily advice on your baby's growth, care and development in the first year. 
A different tip, idea or suggestion for every day of your baby's first year. I like catching up with this each week. It has some good ideas for games and general advice on feeding, illnesses and milestones etc. I also really enjoyed reading the pregnancy version before Little Miss was born. It's also a great way of keeping track of how many weeks old Little Miss is. 


Beyond the Sling
A real-life guide to raising confident, loving children the attachment parenting way. 
I bought this because I'm a Big Bang Theory fan and thought it was worth a try, but I was really disappointed with it. The highlight was reading about elimination communication, which was interesting, even if I would never want to try it. It does having some interesting anecdotes from Bialik's life and I liked the fact that it wasn't pushy - Bialik was just explaining what had worked for her family and friends, not trying to tell you that you had to parent in a certain way. Beyond the Sling just wasn't advocating a parenting style that was right for me.

I don't usually read non-fiction, but I've enjoyed the parenting books I have read so far. I'm also quite interested in reading Michel Cohen's 'The New Basics' (which is recommended in Bringing up Bébé) and Michael Rosen's 'Good Ideas' as both sound really good. Do you have any other recommendations? 

No comments:

Post a Comment