What to Expect the First Year, Second Edition [Paperback]

Heidi Murkoff (Author), Arlene Eisenberg (Author), Sandee Hathaway B.S.N (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 2008

Everything new parents need to know about the care (and feeding) of an infant, from the authors of What to Expect® When You're Expecting. Covers monthly growth and development, feeding for every age and stage, sleep strategies that really work.

Filled with the most practical tips (how to give a bath, decode your baby's crying, what to buy for baby, and when to return to work) and the most up-to-date medical advice (the latest on vaccines, vitamins, illnesses, SIDS, safety, and more).

Reassuring Answers to Hundreds of Questions:

• What's the best kind of car seat for my newborn?
• How do I know if my baby's getting enough to eat?
• How can I tell if my baby is really sick? When should I call the doctor?
• Should I sign my baby up for classes?
• Should I be worried that my baby isn't crawling yet?
• How do I cope with my colicky baby?

The only book on infant care to address the physical as well as the emotional needs of the entire family.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

America's bestselling guide to caring for a baby is now better than ever: announcing a two-years-in-the-making, cover-to-cover, line-by-line revision and update of the 6.9-million-copy What to Expect the First Year, the bible for taking care of a newborn through the milestone of his or her first birthday.

The Second Edition incorporates the most recent developments in pediatric medicine. Every question and answer have been revisited, and in response to letters from readers, dozens of new Q&As have been added. The book is more reader-friendly than ever, with updated cultural references, and the new material brings more in-depth coverage to issues such as newborn screening, home births and the resulting at-home newborn care, vitamins and vaccines, milk allergies, causes of colic, sleep problems, SIDS, returning to work, dealing with siblings, weaning, sippy cups, the expanded role of the father, and much more. An updated cover and all-new black-and-white line illustrations complement the fresher book with a fresher look.

About the Author

It all started with a baby…and a book. Heidi Murkoff conceived the idea for What to Expect When You're Expecting during her first pregnancy, when she couldn’t find answers to her questions or reassurance for her worries in the books she’d turned to for much-needed advice. Determined to write a guide that would help other expectant parents sleep better at night, Heidi delivered the proposal for What to Expect When You’re Expecting just hours before delivering her daughter, Emma.

Dubbed the “pregnancy bible”, the iconic New York Times bestseller is now in its all-new fourth edition, with over 17 million copies in print, and according to USA Today, is read by 93 percent of women who read a pregnancy book. Other titles in the series include Eating Well When You’re Expecting, What to Expect the First Year, What to Expect Before You’re Expecting (a complete preconception plan), and the newest member of the What to Expect family: What to Expect the Second Year, the must-have guide for parents of toddlers. The What to Expect books have sold more than 34 million copies in the US alone, and are published in over 30 languages.

In 2005, Heidi expanded the What to Expect (WTE) brand online with WhatToExpect.com – the interactive, state-of-the-internet companion to the WTE books, and home to a vibrant, vast, yet close-knit community of 3 million parents. In 2009, WTE went mobile with the WTE Pregnancy Tracker (the most popular pregnancy app in the world), the WTE Fertility Tracker, the WTE Baby Name Finder, and the WTE First Year Tracker.
Heidi’s passionate commitment to moms and babies led to the creation of the What to Expect Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping underserved families expect healthy pregnancies, safe deliveries, and healthy, happy babies. With a beautiful, culturally appropriate low-literacy pregnancy guide (provided at no cost) and comprehensive prenatal health literacy support, the WTE Foundation’s groundbreaking Baby Basics program -- available in English, Spanish, and Chinese -- has helped over 500,000 expectant moms-to-be in need and their babies.

Heidi has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, the CBS Early Show, Oprah, BBC Breakfast, and Good Morning Australia. She connects daily with her WTE family online at WhatToExpect.com, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Heidi and her husband, Erik, have two children and live in Southern California.

Arlene Eisenberg worked on all three editions of What to Expect When You're Expecting and remained active in the What To Expect Foundation until her death in February 2001. She was also co-author, with Heidi Murkoff, of the "What to Expect" magazine columns.

Sandee Hathaway holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Boston University. An experienced RN with a specialty in obstetrics and neonatal care, Sandee lives in Waban, Massachussets, with her husband and three children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 806 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; 2nd Revised edition (October 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761129588
• ISBN-13: 978-0761129585
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (196 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Women's Health > Pregnancy & Childbirth

More About the Author

Heidi Murkoff is the author of the What to Expect®; series and author of Eating Well When You're Expecting, The What to Expect Pregnancy Journal & Organizer, What to Expect the First Year, The What to Expect Baby-Sitter's Handbook, and the What to Expect Kids series from HarperCollins. Her interactive website is www.whattoexpect.com, and she lives with her family in Los Angeles, California.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#13 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#17 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#13 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#17 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

152 of 159 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I like it, but it has some flaws January 9, 2007

By GadgetChick

Format:Paperback

I absolutely hated What to Expect When You're Expecting. Hated it. So when a friend gave me this book as a gift when I was pregnant, I kind of put it to the side, never expecting to use it.

Well, I surprised myself. I actually refer to this book a lot in caring for my now almost-6-month-old son.

What I like about the book is that the questions that it addresses are very much like real-life questions people ask about their babies. Some of the questions are word-for-word questions my husband and I have asked each other. That makes the information very accessible and I think, reassuring. You get a sense that "Oh good, my five-month-old is not the only one in the world who seems to be coughing just to get my attention."

There's a really comprehensive amount of information about nearly every parenting topic you can think of. In particular, the section about infant illness is invaluable. Great charts of symptoms and treatments for those symptoms, explanations about how to do home treatments, etc. My son has gotten a couple of colds, one of which brought on a croupy cough, and the book's advice about steam treatments and a quick trip outside helping were right-on, and exactly what my mom and grandma had told me worked to help croup. Without the book's specific description of what croup and stridor sound like, and how to treat it, I probably would have ended up in the emergency room with my son.

That being said, here are the things I don't like about this book.

- The information is supposedly unbiased, but the author comes down firmly on the pro or con side of an issue and there's not a lot of doubt about what the author feels you "should" or "should not" do. The author is against pacifiers, against co-sleeping, is much too cautionary about babywearing, and advocates CIO as a way to get a baby to sleep - there's a whole section about how to do CIO in the six-month chapter. The book is also very, VERY pro-breastfeeding. I breastfeed, so it didn't "bother" me, per se, but if a mom has to or chooses to formula feed, the constant references to breastfeeding and questions about breastfeeding that are found over and over and OVER in the book's pages would probably be a big turnoff. There's some lip service paid to "well, formula feeding is an OK choice" but there's a VERY clear and VERY strong message that you should breastfeed until your child is a year old, period. I know a lot of women who tried valiantly to breastfeed and just could not, and I have had my own challenges with it. I am all for breastfeeding advocacy and I consider myself an advocate for breastfeeding, but the tone and the repeated admonishments to breastfeed for a year were over-the-top even for me.

- The aforementioned section about CIO was pretty terrible. There were no discussions about ways to avoid CIO other than extended family bedsharing (which the author was lukewarm about recommending, at best), and there is a middle ground between the two. There was also no discussion about the fact that CIO doesn't work for all children - some kids are crying escalators, they don't calm down after crying for an extended period but instead get more upset, and trying CIO with a baby like that is going to be traumatizing for all involved. There's a pretty terrifying section that talks about how to deal with the noise of CIO, by notifying your neighbors, trying to muffle sound, etc. I just have to say, if your baby is crying that loud, that piercingly, and that long when you try CIO, you should consider the possibility that CIO is not working and is actually scaring or harming your child. CIO is a great tool for some kids, but not for all kids, and the book treats CIO like it is the cure-all for sleep problems. You get a sense, reading that section, that there really is no alternative to CIO other than having your baby sleep with you until they're 10, and there are other options (the No Cry Sleep Solution has some great suggestions about the sleep issue). There's also no discussion of the idea that nightwaking, especially for breastfed babies, is a developmentally normal and appropriate thing and will get better with time even without resorting to sleep training measures.

- The developmental milestones are treated as gospel truth and there is some alarmist information about "if your kid doesn't do X by Y month there could be a BIG PROBLEM." There's no discussion about what developmental milestones really mean in terms of development or the idea that babies can have developmental strengths in one area and weaknesses in another. My baby has always been WAY ahead in his gross motor development and lagging in his fine motor, which is a totally normal thing. But there's really no allowance for that, or explanation for why that would happen, in this book.

Overall I think this book is good and I don't think it's nearly as guilt- or panic-inducing as the Expecting book, or the Sears Baby Book (which is a whole other review). I think it's a worthwhile addition to the library of any new parent, if you can take some of the information in it with a grain of salt.

75 of 84 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars There are much better books than this one. February 27, 2007

By V. Thaler

Format:Paperback

I wholeheartedly agree with the reviewers who found this book alarmist and overly one-sided on many issues. My pediatrician agrees, and instead recommends the American Academy of Pediatrics' CARING FOR YOUR BABY AND YOUNG CHILD, REVISED EDITION, BIRTH TO AGE 5. What to Expect is a great book as long as your child does everything exactly as the authors prescribe. Otherwise, you're up a creek. Today's example: My 8-month-old isn't incredibly interested in finger foods yet, and this book makes it sound like she's doomed to eat Gerber purees for the rest of her life as a result. It also suggested that I was setting her up for a childhood of poor eating habits. A new mom, of course I called my pediatrician and he said I had nothing to worry about! Go with the other book instead. Rather than month-to-month guidelines which make you feel like your child is "behind" if he doesn't do something "on time," the AAP book wisely speaks about 4-7 month-olds, 8-12 month-olds, etc., at once. The authors recognize that every baby proceeds at her own pace. (What to Expect puts in its disclaimer that every baby is different, but its tone on many topics suggests otherwise).

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars make sure you get and review the 2nd edition, NOT the first May 25, 2005

By amberliz

Format:Paperback

The problem with the previous reviewer's comments is that she's looking at the older edition of the book. THe 2nd edition, published in 2003 clearly states on page 437:

"The AAP recommends that breastfeeding continue for AT LEAST a full year and then for as long as baby and mother both want to keep it up..... Many women choose to continue nursing into the second year and beyond, and that's fine.... Older children who breastfeed are just as likely to be secure, happy, and independent as those who wean early."

PLUS -- there's an entire chapter dedicated to breastfeeding... with tons of reasons why it's a good thing. So I don't get why so many reviewers here keep on blasting this book for not being pro-breastfeeding. This book is so well balanced on so many issues -- like co-sleeping and baby wearing, etc. Looking at a ten year old version of the book that's been passed down from friend to friend and then REVIEWING it here -- instead of actually going out to the store or library to get the actual current book is unfair.

This book has been so helpful to me. As a first time parent, this book had all the answers I needed. Sure, I may not agree with everything in the book, but I'm intelligent enough to not take everything I read and treat it as gospel. I'm able to make my own decision when it comes to parenting, and not only does this book give me the tools to do that, but the authors even encourage that parents ultimately do what feels best to them.

I highly recommend it!