Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child (Paperback)

~ (Author), Betsy Kennedy (Contributor), William Sears (Author) "NEW PARENTHOOD CAN BE PRETTY OVERWHELMING..." (more)
Key Phrases: family sleep sharing, old nursling, older nurslings, New York, United States, Martha Sears (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Attachment to and dependency on parents... is a normal, healthy aspect of childhood and not something that needs to be discouraged." This quote from Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child sums up the attitude behind the growing shift in many Western cultures toward a labor-intensive but arguably more rewarding, effective, and "natural" way to raise children. This philosophy, termed "Attachment Parenting" by its champion, pediatrician and father of eight Dr. William Sears (author of the popular child-care manual The Baby Book, among others), sees infants not as manipulative adversaries who must be "trained" to eat, sleep, and play when told, but as dependent yet autonomous human beings whose wants and needs are intelligible to the parent willing to listen, and who deserve to be responded to in a reasonable and sensitive manner. As with Sears's books, there are no plans or schedules here, no specific prescriptions for what to do with your child. Techniques to facilitate connection and communication are outlined, but mostly the book is an exhortation to listen and to trust yourself, and to trust your child's ability to convey to you what he or she needs.

Information is provided in a well-organized format that parents will find useful. Common questions regarding some of Attachment Parenting's less orthodox tenets are answered, and each section of the book provides lengthy reading and resource lists, Web sites, and e-mail addresses. This book also provides a fairly broad discussion of how working parents can incorporate such a "high-touch" style of care into their busy schedules. The authors are sometimes painfully straightforward about the cost-benefit analysis parents must go through when deciding to work outside the home, but they do not patronize working parents by glossing over this difficult decision. They show how Attachment Parenting can be especially beneficial to these families and give advice on choosing child care, breastfeeding after returning to work, and the techniques for creating a breastfeeding-friendly workplace.

Given the overwhelming cultural paradigms that parents must resist if they are going to adopt this compassionate methodology, the book's sometimes defensive tone can be at least partially excused. As a whole, parents will find this a good overview of some compelling arguments for Attachment Parenting and a wonderful resource for delving deeper into the issues it addresses. How much of it they choose to integrate into their lives is, as the book emphasizes, their decision to make, with their baby. --Katherine Ferguson

From Library Journal

Drawing on the literature of Dr. William Sears, who provides the book's introduction, Granju (with the help of Kennedy, R.N., M.S.N.) offers a mother's insight into the concept of attachment parenting. Rather than the typical child care approach that provides a list of generic "do's and don'ts" during certain phases in a baby's development, the attachment theory posits that parents know their child better than so-called experts. Granju examines breast feeding, baby wearing, and the family bed as natural concepts conducive to raising healthy children. She relates numerous experiences of mothers pulled from Internet listservs. Patrons may be well served by using these addresses to engage in their own Internet discourse, but, unfortunately, these rather flat anecdotes, along with extensive lists of attachment parenting resources, comprise the bulk of the book. Attachment Parenting adds nothing that Sears hasn't already covered in more detail in his many respected and groundbreaking works. Purchase for public libraries where demand warrants.ALisa Powell Williams, Moline Southeast Lib., IL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atria (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067102762X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671027629
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #300,967 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, November 21, 1999

By	Janet Marshall (Burlington, VT) - See all my reviews

Not sure where the previous reviewer is coming from. I've read all the Sears books AND the Meredith Small book (all excellent , no doubt about that) and this new book is an important addition to the attachment parenting literature. It is chock full of information that I've never sen or read ANYWHERE else. I am an experienced parent of two and I found myself taking notes and highlighting sections of this book to show other parents. A few examples are the scientific info on natural ages of weaning from anthrpologist Dettwyler, the strong info on the risks of uneccesary bottle-feeding, the unequivocal condemnation of cry-it-out sleep training, the incredible resource lists, the side-by-side comparison of slings, backpacks and snugli/frontpack-style carriers, the info on breastfeeding and working outside the home... I could go on and on.

This is a GREAT book. Read all the reviews :-) And you won't be sorry if you buy a copy for yourself or a friend.

68 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Attachment Parenting is a wonderful way of life, September 22, 2000

By	P. Burke "Daniel's Mama" (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wish every expectant parent would read Katie's book. I can't remember how old our son was when we discovered that there was a name for the method of parenting that my husband and I had adopted. We just "knew" not to let him cry himself to sleep, to share sleep with him, to let him breastfeed as he needed to, to hold him and wear him and love him 24 hours a day.

And then I discovered Katie's book and she reinforced all of our instincts! Whenever I have doubts (sometimes put upon me by society), all I have to do is re-read certain chapters or pages and it all comes clear to me again: my husband and I are the experts when it comes to our son. We should and will follow our instincts.

Yes, before reading this book, we had all the mainstream purchases: crib, swing, baby bucket, baby bouncer seat, stroller. And we did use those items a few times, but not to the extreme that we've seen other parents, leaving baby alone for long periods of time. Our son has grown into a happy and healthy toddler and we owe a lot of it to being so Attached!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So well done and so much information!, July 30, 1999

By	Dale Rosenberg (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This excellent book fills a gap in parenting literature, by providing a comprehensive yet easy-to-read introduction to attachment parenting philosophy and practice. Written in a breezy, conversational style, Katie Granju's book feels like advice from a friend: an amazingly knowledgable friend who draws on a wealth of professional research as well as her own experience as a mother of three. Granju's guide directs the reader to the best resources, techniques and even products available to parents wishing to raise their children secure in parental love and attachment. She distinguishes herself from other authors in the field of attachment parenting and breastfeeding by providing practical help for a great variety of situations, including that of the full time working breastfeeding mother.

The only thing I felt was missing in this enormously helpful book was an index. There's so much information here and it is a book readers will return to again and again, so it would have been nice to make it easier to find specific topics. That said, the detailed table of contents was very helpful.