The Wonder Weeks. How to stimulate your baby's mental development and help him turn his 8 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward [Paperback]

Hetty Van de Rijt (Author), Frans Plooij (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2010

The Wonder Weeks. How to stimulate your baby's mental development and help him turn his 8 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward describes in easy-to-understand terms the incredible developmental changes that all babies go through during the first 60 weeks of their lives.

The book is based on the discovery of a little known phenomenon: all normal, healthy babies appear to be more tearful, troublesome, demanding and clingy at very nearly the same ages.

These age-related fluctuations in need for body contact and attention are related to major and quite dramatic changes in the brains of the children. These changes enable a baby to enter a whole new perceptual world and, as a consequence, to learn many new skills. This should be a reason for celebration, but as far as the baby is concerned these changes are bewildering. He's taken aback-everything has changed overnight. It is as if he has woken up on a strange planet.

The book includes:

•  Week-by-week guide to baby's behavior

•  An explanation of the markers for cranky, clingy, crying (the three C's) behavior and how to deal with them

•  A description from your baby's perspective of the world around him and how you can understand the changes he's going through

•  Fun games and gentle activities you can do with your child

The book offers parents:

•  Support in times of trouble

•  Self-confidence

•  Help in understanding their baby

•  Hints on how to help their baby play and learn

•  A unique account of their baby's development

For more detailed information about contents and the research behind the book, please visit www.thewonderweeks.com

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

New parents faced with an inconsolable baby are often desperate for advice and support. So, at first glance, this detailed look at the developmental causes of fussiness in babies by two Dutch child development experts holds great promise. The book is well organized according to each age's major developmental passage (e.g., "The World of Patterns" at eight weeks, "The World of Categories" at 37 weeks). The problem is that the work has the air of a parenting magazine feature article straining to be a book. While some of the observations and advice presented are original and helpful, they are also frequently repetitious and/or simply inane. Moreover, there is a noticeable absence of references to specific research studies to back up the claims presented. Also lacking is a bibliography. A better choice would be Craig T. and Sharon L. Ramey's Right from Birth. For larger infant development collections only.
Kay Hogan Smith, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib., Lister Hill
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This is a very practical and entertaining window into the baby's first year and a half. Vanderijt and Plooij have observed and found the vulnerable times in an infant's development that I independently came to in my book Touchpoints (Perseus). The authors' observations and practical suggestions are wonderful."--T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., professor emeritus, Harvard Medical School

"Anyone who deals with infants and young children will want to read The Wonder Weeks. This book will open parents' eyes to aspects of their children's growth, development, changing behavior, and emotional responsiveness that they might otherwise not notice or find puzzling and distressing."--Catherine Snow, Ph.D., Shattuck Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Kiddy World Promotions B.V. (March 29, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9079208019
• ISBN-13: 978-9079208012
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If only this book had been available when my son was a baby!, January 14, 2004

By 

Ask Moxie "www.askmoxie.org" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wonder Weeks: How to Turn Your Baby's 8 Great Fussy Phases into Magical Leaps Forward (Paperback)

This book is *exactly* what every new parent wants: a guide that tells exactly why your baby is fine one week and freaking out the next. We all know about the physical growth spurts at 3 and 6 weeks and then 3 and 6 months, but there isn't anything else that tells you when developmental spurts are happening. Until now. As soon as I got this book I went back and looked in my journal from when my son was a baby, and all his fussy weeks matched up with the ones in the book! If I'd had this book at the time it would have been so much easier just to roll with it and not wonder what was "wrong".

IME the best thing about this book is that it doesn't tell you how to be a perfect parent, or give you some focacta plan you have to follow exactly to make your baby turn out the right way. Instead it just tells you why your baby is doing what s/he is doing, so you can have patience and not worry that there's something wrong with either you as a parent or your child.

I just ordered two more to give to new parents I know. This is my one constant shower gift. I can't believe this book hasn't gotten more press than it has, because it would really be a lifesaver for any parent with a baby under the age of 1.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful but Repetitive, June 7, 2009

By 

Sara Beck (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wonder Weeks. How to stimulate your baby's mental development and help him turn his 8 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward (Paperback)

I recently purchased The Wonder Weeks to try to help understand why my 4 month old daughter was going through a horrible sleep regression. I found the book to be reassuring--knowing that some things are phases rather than the "new her". As expected, she went back to being more predictable after the new developments. It's helpful to know when the next developmental stage is coming and when it will be over.

Having said that, what to expect is pretty much the same at each of the 8 stages. They do talk about what new skills will be learned and some activities to help develop those skills. But otherwise the chapters are quite repetitive.

I paid $22 for this book. That made this the most expensive baby book I purchased. I'm not sure it was worth that price. I would have purchased it used if available.

If you just want to know when to expect the fussy periods, go to The Wonder Weeks website and download their chart from the extras section. To me, that was the most valuable part of the book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frustrated, irritated mommy? Fussy, clingy baby? Read this !, January 21, 2003

By 

Heather Petit "hedracita" (Newark, DE United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wonder Weeks: How to Turn Your Baby's 8 Great Fussy Phases into Magical Leaps Forward (Paperback)

Finally, this book is available in the US. I've been relying on a bare-bones (bullet list) translation from the Dutch version. And relying on it A LOT.

Every parent I know has wondered at some time what happened to their baby, why they are so clingy all of a sudden, why they cry for apparently no reason, why they stopped sleeping well, why they stopped eating well, why suddenly nobody but Mommy will do... who took their nice baby and replaced it with THIS baby? And whose fault is it? "Did I spoil him," they ask, or "Should I punish her?" Will I get better results if I stop responding to all these senseless demands? They look for answers, and get all sorts of advice from others, much of it less than helpful - but they don't know what is going on, so they can't filter the advice effectively.

This book has the answers to all those whys, and the reassurance that you are neither crazy nor at fault.

My patience expanded dramatically when I realized that it wasn't ME, it wasn't my fault, it was just a stage of development for my son. It helped to know that he was actually scared and needed me, and was not pretending or manipulating me. It helped to be able to look forward to the genuinely exciting new knowledge and abilities at the end of the stage. It helped to know that if I supported him, the phase would progress and end. I felt sane, and normal, and knew that other moms went through the same thing. PHEW! :)

I've passed the info on to countless other parents, all of whom have wished that the book was available in the US. I even contacted the publisher of the version in New Zealand, but no luck. Now, this PRICELESS resource is here, and the second I found out, I bought my copy. You won't regret getting your own. Get it before baby is born, so you can catch those early "Wonder Weeks" and start getting in tune with how they grow, how their brains develop, and what it means for you. Get it anytime your child is fussy, clingy, frustrated, or has disrupted sleep or eating patterns. Get it if you or some parent you know is pulling out their hair, worried that they've spoiled their infant, or desperate to understand what is going on inside that wonderful and challenging little head.

This is honestly the most useful info I've read on the first year (and a bit) of baby's life. Wonderful stuff!