Customer Reviews

Complete Baby & Child Care

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

 

 

As a first time mother of twins, I needed help with a lot of the basics. Everything from telling me how to change a diaper, dressing my babies, to what to do when they were ill. It has great information on what to expect from month to month with your child's development. I found this book full of helpful information, and now I buy it as a gift for any of my friends who are expecting their first child.

The best feature of this book is its many pictures. For example, I took one look at the picture of the baby with the "umbilical hernia" and knew my baby had one too.

On the other hand, I don't find myself consulting this book very often. The information it provides is VERY BASIC, such as how to put on a diaper and how to give your kid a bath. It would probably be most interesting to read -before- your child arrives, when you are being kept up at night by the idea of soon having to change and bathe a 7-pound squirmy thing. However, once the first week of baby care is past, I don't think you're apt to consult it much.

Dr. Miriam Stoppard's books are simply the best books on childcare I have seen. She encourages parents to be independent, confident and free to follow their instincts.

This is an essential guide for raising a healthy child. Over 375,000 copies have already been sold so I knew this book had to hold some very important information. Dr. Miriam does not claim to cover everything. In fact, she has quite a number of books on child care. Some are much less detailed. She claims that this book covers the "most important aspects" of child care in the first five years.

Her practical style of writing and explanations of complicated issues has won her a devoted following around the world. What you will find in this book is an updated, authoritative, practical, and comprehensive illustrated guide to the first five years of life. The latest recommendations for day-to-day care and suggestions for enhancing your child's health will be invaluable to a new parent.

A number of case studies are included to help parents who are raising children with special needs or caring for twins. A section on how to celebrate the differences in boys and girls will be welcomed by a parent who might be surprised. :)

The main sections include: Everyday Care, Play and Development, Family Life, Children with Special Needs, Medicine and HealthCare, Personal Records, First Aid and Useful Addresses for more information. An index completes this reference size work.

Whether you are a parent expecting your first baby or have already given birth, there is so much fun information to learn. There is also a nice section on "organizing your life."

Highly recommended for new parents or for parents who didn't have this book the first time around. I have never seen a baby & child care book which dealt with so many issues all in one book. A must-have guide for Dr. Stoppard fans and for those who are just discovering her books.

~The Rebecca Review

When I had my daughter, I was looking for a book that would cover everything. This book has it all, in an incredibly easy to read format, w/lots of bright and cheerful photos. There is plenty of practical information (e.g. how to bathe, dress and feed your child), medical information, and suggestions on how to handle more complex issues (e.g. how to help your child develop healthy self esteem and social skills). I found the book to be well-organized, w/the material presented in a format that helps you to see what's appropriate for your child's age and gender. Although a previous reviewer found it biased against boys, I think that it is helpful to know that there really are differences between boys and girls, that they each develop differently, and that you don't need to resort to stereotypes to try to parent them appropriately. There were even case reviews which were interesting and presented in a very friendly and respectful way. An excellent book all around.

Dr Stoppard's parenting view matches my own philosophy and so I bought this book to confirm my beliefs in my chosen style of parenting. She is very similar to William Sears, although not quite so "attachment". As a first time mother with no family around me, I wanted a book that would guide me and help in situations as my baby grew. Although she covers all baby related topics, these topics are not always the "complete bible" that the synopis promises. Her sleeping tips are vague and don't really offer answers to problems. In the feeding section, she advises that at two months your baby should be feeding every four hours, but mine wasn't - he was still every two, was I doing something wrong? She doesn't say - I had to refer elsewhere to ensure it was ok. My baby suffers from bad gas, no tips or advice on diet or ways to help reduce this difficult situation and her note that colicky babies had stressed parents was frankly rude and irresponsible. Of course you will get stressed when your baby cries and you can do nothing to help - for her to say that he cries because you are stressed just compounds the situation.

I'm expecting my first, and halfway through this book I became very concerned about Dr.Stoppard's view in raising boys. It seemed that in every single point-by-point comparison, girls far outshine boys in terms of cleaniness, behavior, needs ... in general, girls were portrayed as little angels while boys are much more difficult, aggressive, prone to playing with thier feces, twice as long to potty-train, etc. etc. Is this the truth?? I'm getting scared if I have a boy. Did other readers find her views a little skewed in favor of girls? On the other hand, her "Conception, Pregnancy & Birth" book is excellent.

This is one of my favorite child care books I have. It is enjoyable to read because it is very illistrated with pictures so it is visually apealing. It is also sectioned and very easy to find what your looking for. Like most Dk books its well layed out with good information. Book covers all the basic child care from birth to age 5 as well as a section on firt aid.

I received this book as a shower gift. Although there is a lot of information that would have been useful before baby. I do reference it a lot everytime I think one of my girls might have something.

I like that this book breaks developmental stages down into age levels and sometimes even further into months. I referred to this book often when my daughter was a newborn. GREAT illustrations...photographs of real babies and parents and items! What I didn't like were the 2-page bios of babies with special needs or developmental issues. None of them pertained to my situation, and because they were so short anyone with that problem probably wouldn't get a lot of help. However, this was just a small part of the book. Overall the information given was very good, never preachy, and very thorough.

I would also like to add that some of the other reviews were ridiculous. I do not buy books especially on something so important because I like the pictures or many copies were sold. That to me is not making an informed purchase. This book was given as a gift to me otherwise I would never have kept it. People who really have kids that reviewed this book and have any inkling of what is fact would never recommend this book.

I totally agree with the other review that her views on boys and girls is ludicrous. It is 2003 not 1803! I would never buy this book as a new parent nor would I recommend it to anyone. I am a military wife and have seen countless kids from birth to teenagers so I am really not kidding about this! Take the time and simply read the section on immunizations or even show it to your doctor and you will know what I am talking about. Do not trust reviews just because someone sits at their computer and writes thousands of reviews everyday. Simply take a look at this book versus others out there and make your own informed decision! Thanks!