Customer Reviews

Baby Matters: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Caring for Your Baby

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Would give it 4.5 stars if I could. Palmer reviews the available evidence (from actual medical and psychology journals) for parenting decisions like breastfeeding, cosleeping, food choices, and the like. She also discusses why medically you should be very responsive to your baby and avoid following the current fad recommendation to cry-it-out. She reinforces why sleeping through the night, while a wonderful thing that all parents hope for, may NOT be the best thing for your baby.

Evidence-based medicine in parenting books is a rare thing. For that alone, you should read Palmer's book. Her only drawback is that she definitely writes from her own biases, so you can't look at this as a systematic review of all the literature. Also, she occasionally goes a little too far with her conclusions (an association does not equal a cause, etc.)

I highly recommend this book.

a physician (non-pediatrician) in Virginia

So your know-it-all cousin chides that your baby's being spoiled by all that attention. Last time you talked, she disapproved of prolonged breastfeeding. What'll it be next? Don't you wish you had some scientific evidence to back up your choices? Well, now you do. Dr. Linda Folden Palmer's book, Baby Matters, exhaustively lists the scientific evidence behind attachment parenting, breastfeeding, and the reality of food allergies. With chapters such as, "The Attachment Advantage," "Bonding: the Inside Story," " Crying & Caring," and "The Dangers of Cow's Milk," Dr. Palmer shows how the establishment of science-conquering-nature has caused unnecessary suffering and heartache to parents and babies alike. Leaving babies to "cry it out," forcing them to sleep alone, giving them formula instead of breastfeeding, ignoring possible food allergies, and indiscriminate vaccination have all resulted in alarming SIDS rates, aggressiveness, emotional detachment and physical illness. Not to be accused of selectively culling sources, Palmer evenhandedly discusses vaccines, for example, deflating the overblown cons and discussing the details of what the research really shows. This is truly a valuable resource for attachment parents, and perhaps if you gave it to your cousin at her baby shower, she might just learn a thing or two. What you (and your great grandma) knew in your heart was right all alongit simply took some time for our society to catch up. Reviewed by Regina Cassidy

Dr. Palmer's book is the best book on the hard science behind attachment parenting that I've ever read. I plan to make it a baby gift for every pregnant friend. I wish I had read this book before I became a mother. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's the most exciting new book on parenting that I've read in a number of years.

Katie Allison Granju ~ author of "ATTACHMENT PARENTING: INSTINCTIVE CARE FOR YOUR BABY AND YOUNG CHILD" (Pocket Books/1999)

This book is wonderful. Rather than just make a blanket statement that a baby needs love, this book backs up all its statements with thorough, and yet easy to understand, research. It taught me a lot about the advantages to breastfeeding, and showed why responding to a baby's cries makes him happier, and will not spoil him. I have used her advice with my son, and he has turned out to be an extremely happy baby who is not clingy at all. His independence, happiness, and connection to me has really made me glad I read this book. I highly reccomend it.

I feel blessed to have found this book before my little girls got any older. It's a shame I didn't have it before they were born! The information on cow's milk and formula was especially eye-opening. The evidence to support attachment parenting and breastfeeding has made me that much more grateful that I have followed my instincts, and turned a deaf ear to the poor advice I have received time and again from various individuals. I already sent a copy to my sister, who is a new mother. I only wish I could get my pediatrician to read it too...

I've read lots of parenting books and this is my favorite, I hope to give a copy of this book at every baby shower I go to in the future. It's not so much a "how to" as a "why to" book. The author cites scientific evidence linking early parenting and nurturing to later personality development in individuals, society, and cultures. She explains how allowing early bonding can lead to security and later success in forming relationships, and even encourage a more successful marriage! But forcing independence through various methods designed more for parental convenience than baby's comfort can lead to later problems--teen rebellion, delinquence, mental problems and depression in adulthood. Everyone should read this book before deciding which parenting style, and which baby-care experts, to follow.

I've read lots of parenting books and this is my favorite, I hope to give a copy of this book at every baby shower I go to in the future. It's not so much a "how to" as a "why to" book. The author cites scientific evidence linking early parenting and nurturing to later personality development in individuals, society, and cultures. She explains how allowing early bonding can lead to security and later success in forming relationships, and even encourage a more successful marriage! But forcing independence through various methods designed more for parental convenience than baby's comfort can lead to later problems--teen rebellion, delinquence, mental problems and depression in adulthood. Everyone should read this book before deciding which parenting style, and which baby-care experts, to follow.

Baby Matters: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Caring For Your Baby by natural childbirth educator Linda Folden Palmer provides a straightforward examination of many key issues new parents might be unfamiliar with, ranging from why cow's milk is not the best food for an infant, to preventing and treating food allergies, to the inside scoop on bonding. Dr. Palmer, is an instructor in pediatric nutrition (among other health fields), and writes in "reader friendly", down-to-earth terms especially accessible to non-specialist readers in general, and anxious mothers in particular. Baby Matters is an excellent and highly recommended reader for the new mother!

This is a scholarly book that offers immense insight to setting baby off on the right foot, emotionally and physically. Blows apart myths and marketing with no holds barred. Objectively balances mothers magic milk with other feeding options available. Reveals much that is known but untold about food intolerance, vaccines, disease and root causes, based on empirical evidence. This is the first book I have read with 35 pages of footnotes leading to the research to back the doctors revelations. It takes the amazing amount of scholarly findings that have remained buried in esoteric scientific journals and delivers it in easy to read, factual story telling.

Tells the real story behind formula, milk and pediatricians and the scandalous practices of marketing boards and pharmaceutical companies and their hidden agendum.

Discusses the artificial freedom for women - disguised and sold as baby formula and the consequential slavery that has resulted.

Very wise, revealing and informative. Best of all - empowering us all to make wise choices. Points the way to natural nurturing while documenting all the science behind it. Boiling down this book, to a sentence, its message is:

Trust and inform yourself, follow your natural innate intelligence AND your heart to give your baby the very best start!

This book should be available in every public library and be required reading for every new parent, educator and pediatrician.

The bulk of our North American societal woes would diminish exponentially if we all acted intelligently upon the information presented.

Since reading Dr. Palmer's excellent book, I scratch my head every time I read articles about the growing elective-Caesarean-birth trend that, without exception, fail to mention the role of oxytocin. That, of course, is the "bonding" hormone that is released largely in response to the infant's passage through the birth canal. It's amazing to me that these articles usually quote as experts only OB surgeons. They might know body parts but I wonder how much they know about neurotransmitters, hormones, and brain development -- and how the birth process can affect these areas. In this era of myopic specialization in medicine, I suspect they know very little.

To be clear, Dr. Palmer makes no judgment on the wisdom of elective Caesarean births -- and neither do I - but her book does explain clearly and engagingly how this hormone affects mother and baby's health and bonding.

In a time when autistic-spectrum disorders (associated with low oxytocin) appear to be reaching epidemic levels, I can't help but wonder why no studies seem to be examing any possible link between autism and Caesareans. Again, this is not Dr. Palmer's point. The question is my own. She merely presents solid science that might inspire readers to question more of the "accepted wisdom" on this and other issues. I greatly appreciate her rare ability to make complex systems understandable to the layperson.