Customer Reviews

The Happiest Baby on the Block Video [VHS]

5 star:		(480)
4 star:		(53)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

After 5 straight weeks of sleepless nights, my husband and I were walking zombies. Our infant would wake every hour to 2 hours throughout the night and just scream. During the day she would also scream uncontrollably - even though the doctor found nothing wrong with her physically. I had convinced myself that she just wasn't a happy baby like our 6 year old was and life with Isabel would be tough!

Then I searched Amazon one night under "Colic" and found this book and video. Even though we have absolutely no time to read, we did watch the video (while she wailed). My husband tried the swaddling and shhing techniques that night and she quieted down after about 10 minutes. Now 1 week later she calms after 5 min or so AND she is sleeping 4 hours at a time. We feel great and she finally looks peaceful - and not agitated.

Both the book and video are geared toward the first 3 months of life.... and the notion that most babies 1st 3 months of life are really the 4th trimester in their developement. Our first child slept soundly from day one..... but we were blown away with this second one. Thank you Dr. Karp! We finally feel like humans again and the stress level in our home has dropped tremendously.

Raised 3 kids, thought I knew most of the techniques for ssothing babies, helping them through rough days (colic, teething, fussy times). But this video brings NEW research and tips to make life easier for parents of new babies...and if you're an aunt or grandparent, you'll learn something new too. SOme of the suggestions are simply amazing, making specific sounds gently into the baby's ears and seeing an instant, peaceful transformation.
Many of these suggestions come from looking at life from the baby's perspective and, in retrospect, seem like common sense (but not as easy as it sounds, otherwise there'd be no need for this video). Well worth your viewing time and could bring relief to many an exhausted parent (and baby).

Dr. Karp applied common sense to the "problem" of crying babies that most new parents face, by borrowing from traditions being used around the world to calm babies down as if you had "flipped a switch." He acknowledges the existence of a 'fourth trimester', i.e. the first three months of the baby's life and the need to use techniques to make the baby feel as in the mother's womb to calm him/her down, appealing to their calm reflex.

These techniques are summarized as the five S's: Swaddling (very tight, to resemble the tight environment of the uterus), Side or Stomach position (otherwise known as the football hold), Shushing (as loud as the baby cries), Swinging (making the head jiggle slightly, to replicate the mom's movements with the baby in her tummy) and Sucking (with your finger, or a pacifier in place).

As intuitive or odd these techniques may sound to you, you need to view this video: it will probably make the difference for you as it has for so many parents. As I write this, we're in our last couple of weeks of pregnancy, and we're ready to apply them to our upcoming baby boy.

We're using these techniques on our second child and it works. However, it only works if you do them like the DVD shows you. I've had friends that see the movie, think it's great, but somehow missed it when it came to applying it to their screaming infant. Then they complain about what to do with their child, and say, "We just have to find what works".

You have to figure out which combination of the 5 "S's" work, or maybe you need all them. It varies on the day. But if you do them like the DVD shows you, then it does work. After all, the infants in the DVD are not acting. Every one of them is screaming, and they stop! They are all from different families and races.

We are lucky parents...our baby sleeps pretty long (4 or more hours at a time). All of these techniques work pretty well. A pediatrician recommended the book version of this at the hospital...but once that baby is born, you won't have much time to go through that, and the book has a lot of filler that this DVD doesn't. I checked both the DVD and book out from my local library. While I do not use the same swaddling technique as Dr. Karp, I do use similar blanket swaddling methods and storebought burrito-wrap swaddlers, and they work like a charm. Our baby was born in the UCSD system, so they recommended this, probably b/c they're on the same system as Dr. Karp (UCLA).

To the neg reviewers who say that this stuff is all common sense, I would have to disagree. People marvel at my ability to calm our baby as if it's some voodoo...but it's what I learned from this DVD and a pediatrician at the hospital. The real benefit of DVD over book is that you get a clear picture of what Dr. Karp is talking about and how he calms babies.

We are parents of a 5 week old girl - our first child. At about week 3 we noticed more and more crying in the afternoon/evening. Luckily she would calm down by about 11:00 and sleep for 3 hours, so I know we don't have it as bad as some parents. Nonetheless, it really starts to wear you down. On more than one occasion we questioned our decision to have a baby. We tried the Mylicon drops, but those didn't seem to help much. We talked to our doctor who tried to assure us that this is just a phase some babies go through. Then I remembered a book that was featured on Oprah a couple months ago. Being the skeptic that I am, I didn't pay much attention to it. But desperate times call for desperate measures. We looked up the book here on Amazon, and sure enough it got great reviews. Even better, there was a DVD version for those of us that don't have the time to read the book. So we ordered it and had it shipped overnight. As we were watching it, our daughter started fussing so we followed along with the 5 S's. Sure enough, she calmed down within a minute. We were amazed. We use these techniques everytime she starts to fuss and almost everytime we are able to calm her down. Keep in mind that this isn't a cure for colic/crying, but they are ways to help babies calm themselves. The DVD also includes a Q&A session where Dr. Karp answers a lot of common questions, as well as a 3 calming sound tracks. They are sounds recorded from inside the womb, with different degrees of intensity. Pretty bizarre, but they seem to work. Sure beats running the vacuum cleaner! We definitely recommend this DVD, and we will give it as a gift for any new parents we know.

Karp's ideas work pretty well on the newborn. But if you are a bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived, desperate mother of a 4 month old who can't sleep longer than one hour stretches (like me), Karp probably can't help you much. At 4 months, we had already outgrown swaddling and were desperately trying to encourage sleep in her crib (not in the swing). Indeed, the 5 S's are mainly for very new babies. If you have an older baby and you've already developed bad sleep habits, keep looking. This isn't your solution.

This video is amazing! The companion book is very interesting and helpful, especially with the background and medical research that underlie the techniques in the video. But for new parents, the video is an absolute god-send! It is enormously helpful to see Dr. Karp apply his techniques to a dozen screaming babies, and calm each of them within seconds! Watching the video really brings home the point that calming babies is not a hit-or-miss exercise, but a REFLEX that anyone can learn to trigger. And for stressed out new parents, watching the video is simple, easy and clear. My three-year-old even mastered the technique and regularly applies it to her dollies. Really, if you have a fussy baby, or are looking for a baby gift that will be used and appreciated, the video and book are a must.

Both my wife and I are pediatricians and recently had our second child, a little girl.

After 12 weeks, my wife returned to work at a busy practice. Her hours were long and she would return home exhausted and ready to wind down. However, that was not in our daughter's plans for the evening. She would cry non-stop from about 6 pm until 11 pm, which as you can imagine, made the whole evening a stressful time for us.

At our wits end and having tried every trick that our mentors in residency had given us, we had nowhere to turn. Thankfully, our lactation consultant recommended this DVD and book. It was a miracle!! 5 minutes after swaddling (I love the d-u-d-u acronym) and shushing, the baby was fast asleep in her swing.

This review is not only to tell the world to read the book and watch the DVD, (we will be reading the Happiest Toddler book during our evening free time), but to encourage both pediatricians and parents to have faith in Dr. Karp's techniques.

I read a few of the reviews from people who didn't like this DVD and I can't figure out why this didn't work for them. We had the book and we didn't really use it much as our baby was fairly calm. At 4 months she really took a turn and we started to jokingly call her the Unhappiest baby on the block. A friend suggested we watch this DVD and I didn't because I had read the book and besides..I thought it was just for newborns. She borrowed it to me anyway and we watched and realized from actually being able to SEE Dr. Karp use his method as opposed to trying to visualize it from the book we weren't doing it right. Our swaddle was inferior to his method and we were no where near jiggling her the way he does. So at 5 months in desperation we tried it one night. LIKE A CHARM. But you do have to do it just like he says. My husband and I thought this DVD was GREAT. The book is good too and has extra information, but the DVD is much better/practical and quick to watch as opposed to reading a book.