Infant-and-Toddler-Development Books

The emotional realities of life in the NICU are as important as the medical realities. This book doesn't do a good job of recognizing the importance of emotional support, and has tone that is authoritative but not warm or encouraging on an emotional level.

When my ten week early preemie came back to the hospital of his birth, the nurses loaned me this book, as well as one on Kangaroo Care. This is a good REFERENCE book, meaning that it gives clear information on different things to expect from infants born within certain gestational periods, but does not seem to have a supportive emotional tone. Frankly, I am glad I read the loaner on Kangaroo Care first. It was informative as well as comforting during this very stressful time. I am thankful that my hospital not only loaned both books, but strongly advocates Kangaroo Care. I would recommend this reference book be used in ADDITION to an emotionally uplifting book, which would cover all the bases for parents.

This book was an absolute godsend. My baby was born 6 weeks premature after a very long and difficult pregnancy. I spent the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy on complete hospital bedrest with preeclampsia, and my daughter was born via emergency c-section due to a severe drop in heart rate. She was placed on a ventilator, had central lines, and I couldn't even hold her until she was three days old. It was terrifying. However, while I was in the hospital, my neonatology group gave this book to me (we knew I wouldn't be able to carry her much longer due to my severe preeclampsia) and I began reading it a week before she was born. While the experience was very frightening and stressful, I really felt like I knew what was going on, and I didn't have so many nagging questions. If I thought of something during the night or while the doctors weren't around, I picked this book up and the answer was almost always there. Dr. Frank Manginello (the book's author) was my daughter's attending neonatologist while she was in the NICU, and I can't begin to tell you how amazing this man is. He's a brilliant physician and wonderfully compassionate. When meeting with him, he would encourage us to ask questions. When he finished answering one question, he would say, "Ok, what else?" We never felt rushed, and he cared for our daughter with love, compassion, and an absolute mastery of neonatal skills. His book is a reflection of his work. Our daughter went home 8 days after she was born, in time for her first Christmas! She is doing beautifully! I really feel this book helped me through the whole situation, and I thoroughly recommend it to any mom who has the prospect of having a preemie. It is really written for parents (like me!) who don't know anything about neonatal medicine and want the truth broken down simply step by step. This book is even broken into chapters regarding how premature the baby is. If you're researching this book, good luck to you, and I recommend it highly!

I just want to add that this book is not meant to be for emotional support, or a breastfeeding resource. That is the job of the NICU staff! Dr. Manginello was VERY encouraging and supportive of my decision to breastfeed my baby! This book is meant to be a resource to help answer questions you have about what happens to preemies, not an emotional resource! I don't think any book could effectively give the emotional support needed to get through this time. It just makes your experience easier when you know what's going on.

My son was born at 28 wks-while this book gave me all the med info-tech support I could have asked for, ultimately it felt 'hands off'. I am a huge advocate of kangaroo care for preemies, if you have a preemie PLEASE find a compassionate medical provider that understands and supports this kind of mother/child care! If you wish to breastfeed DO NOT GIVE UP! PUMP! It's not fun, but it can work. -DON'T SLEEP WITH YOUR CHILD IN YOUR BED?! At 16 mnths my son is just leaving our bed-it's been sweet, it's been HEALTHY. PLEASE read the Sears' 'The Baby Book' for emotional and common sense back-up, not geared specificly towards preemies, this book espouses the kind of HANDS ON parenting our children really need-especially our preemies. My '28-wkr' is healthy, bright and sweet-I credit kangaroo care and 'The Baby Book' for alot of it! I wish you the best.

This was a wonderful book. After getting home each night from the NICU I'd read up on what they told me about my son (born at 33 weeks). It is very important to read ONLY the sections that apply to your baby. Otherwise you'll worry about things that do not apply. I do not agree with Jenny William's review above. Sometimes while baby is NICU it CANNOT breast feed because sometimes preemies need special formula due to digestive problems. And many (as mine did) have alot of trouble learning to suck and need to be tube fed for awhile. This book covers the NICU from soup to nuts in a manner that the parent can understand.

I totally agree with the reader from Reading, MA. I bought this hoping it would have more updated information than the latest edition of Baby Bargains (which I ended up purchasing anyway.) Baby Bargains is a must-have guide for new parents. I take it with me to every baby store.

I found this book to be aesthetically pleasing due to its format and the photos of the items. I did however find the title misleading. I assumed that it was a more up to date Consumer-guide book. I would still suggest that you purchase Baby Bargains by Denise and Alan Fields and utilize this book for the pictures and more "filler" type of information. There are many original products that are not your basic baby items, which gave me some interesting nursery ideas.

A thoughtful, well written book that gets you in a mind set towards logically thinking about how to deal with some of the material issues of parenting. I would think that this "un-preachy" guide will be of great use to a wide spectrum of parents-to-be, as well as grandparents and friends of the aforementioned. As a guide of products it's excellent, and restrained - but its great strength is as a giver of excellent and reassuring advice and thoughts for new parents, tying it in with the guide - in that regard, the Best of Everything For Your Baby is a quality standout in this field (and we have every book we could find in this category). Hopefully this will be updated regularly.

Compared to Baby Bargains, I thought this book was a total waste of time. It does not provide the depth of objective information i was looking for (and that Baby Bargains contains) such as comparisons to Consumer Reports and pointed feedback from a large cross section of parents, applicability of products to various lifestyles (city vs. suburban), or good options based on varying budget levels. It also does not provide the same level of information on where to find the products mentioned or alternatives for finding the same products at better prices. In my opinion, this "definitive one-stop" guide is a huge disappointment!

This is a great book - it's about an attitude - looking at all of the many products out there you can buy for your baby in different ways - the book allows you to look at things if you are budget conscious, or designer conscious or maybe you just want to look at items in multi-faceted ways. Each chapter has a great, thorough and informational section which preceeds the best of's. I like this book far more than baby bargains because I am looking for more than just a bargain - I am looking for the best I can affford for my child. This book really helps.

Used this with all 3 kids, LOVED it!! So many wonderful ideas, and also sections to fill out what your baby/toddler is doing or enjoying at that time of life. I love flipping back through it and it just brings back some wonderful memories. : )

A reviewer before mentioned the "danger" of the balloons and stickers. Wellll, honestly folks -- whatever happened to COMMON SENSE?? I mean, my babies LOVED looking at bright beautiful ballons! On the other hand, I didn't pop them and leave pieces of balloon around for them to choke on....um, just common sense. Stickers on the hand -- all my babies loved this. The solution to it being a "choking hazard"? How about, YOU are right there, playing with your baby, making sure they don't eat one? Easy enough. Maybe it was a first time parent that wrote that review? ; )

The one valid complaint I agree with is that there is a suggestion about peanut butter, which is a no no before the age of one.

Still, most parents who love new ideas will probably find this book really valuable. Just use common sense with balloons and stickers, that's all. : )

I love this book. It is separated into each month of your child's first 24 months and has creative ideas for play (and the best part is that you don't have to buy things; the ideas use items you usually already have in the home); short recipes (e.g. make your own baby wipes); developmental information; mom time ideas; poems or short songs. I am not a creative mom, so this book is wonderful. It gives me easy ideas each month. For example, the book recommends saving holiday card fronts that you can put together as a picture book for your baby to explore. What easy, inexpexensive ideas! I highly recommend this. The only slightly negative comment I have is that there is no index, so sometimes it's hard to remember where I saw some of the great ideas and I have to look page by page. But it's worth it!

When the same-ol', same-ol' gets boring to even your repetition-loving young toddler, this book will get the fun rolling again. My 13-month old adores the sticker game (I've used the stickers game to teach her the parts of her face -- and mine), and we've used other games from the book to the delight of the whole family. I'd definitely recommend this if you're in need of more ideas to entertain and engage your child.

I don't feel that I'm that creative of a person, so I thought this book would be helpful. I didn't find it full of suggestions for games; a better title might be "what to do with your life each month." The book had sections recommending that I buy a new outfit, tweeze my brows or other suggestions for mothers (inspirational, but not what I bought the book for). It also recommends chocolate pudding, peanut butter and other allergy/choking hazards for games with 6-9 month olds. IMHO the book wasn't helpful: it wasn't aimed at games, it was an oddly written "what to expect the first year."

Overall the activities are good, but some pose a hazard to your children-for example, the book mentions that helium balloons are a great way to entertain your 4 month old baby. Balloons are one of the number one killers amoung children. Another suggestion was to put stickers on the child's hands, my baby would be able to remove them and swallow those. Use this book cautiously and beware if your childcare provider uses it.

I was diappointed in this book. I expected a whole bunch of ideas for simple games. What I got was a book which spells out what we already do with our daughter.
The "games" consist of things as obvious as pointing to a toy and naming it then having your child point to their toys as you name them. I mean, who doesn't know to ask thier child "Where's your kitty toy?" or doing this little piggy with them.
Those are not "games" so much as simply interacting with your child. And I certianly don't need a book to tell me to do that!

This book includes many more exciting activities to play with your toddler. While my daughter does a lot of exciting activities at day care, it gives me an opportunity to have some creative time with her in the evenings and weekends. This book is wonderful in giving her uncreative mother a head start in coming up with ideas for her to do.

I am a stay at home mom and I try to have activity books on hand to be helpful to me, even if it reminds me or gets my creativity flowing again. If you are an educator, I have read Pam Schiller books and I feel they are geared in format towards educators. If you want activities to plan for this book and judy herr books are layed out in a more organized manner.

The first thing that should be noted about this book is that is really intended for babies, not toddlers. The games are for children from 12 to 24 months. I bought it for a 2 1/2 yr. old and he's pretty far beyond many of the suggested games. For a younger kid, it would be pretty good. All the games feature stuff that's laying around the house and they are very short games, which is great for kids with an attention span of about 2 seconds! I would recommend this book for anyone with a baby, but be forewarned there's a lot of gushy stuff in there like "sit back and watch your little cherub have fun!"

This book mainly contains activities and games that don't require a lot of props. Or if a game requires a prop, the materials are usually already in the house. We loved the balance beam game and made our own out of a 2x4 laid across two books. Our toddler learned balance and increased her confidence.

I like the book categories - can easily find a "type" of game. I also like that the book is additionally sorted by age.

This definitely is not an arts and crafts book; if you're looking for a variety of artsy things to do with your child, this is not the book to buy.

But, I have plenty of those books and was happy to find a book that my husband could thumb through and pick an activity without having to make a shopping trip.

Also nice to leave out for babysitters or visiting relatives, to help them interact with the baby - and to help the baby get used to them.

I love this book. I have checked several others and I didn't buy this till after my baby was born. I wish I would have just bought this one first. It gives you a lot of information that comes in very handy, even something as not allowing your baby to cry it out because research shows that it harms the baby more than it does any good. I have had several people tell me to do things this way and that, but this book really gives you your own insight as well because babies deserve the best and only good things out there. This book revolves around that idea and I really like that because I treasure my son.

There are tons of books for first time parent's however this one really covered everything in a thorough neutral way. It was nice to see a chart telling when you should buy baby stuff (i.e., bouncer, high chair, stroller). As with all baby books, the information is just a suggestion and not the gospel, but I really enjoyed this, more so than the "Everything Series" book.

Marcie Jones has done it again, with a well-written and easy-to-read book that helps parents navigate the maze of their baby's early life. A great resource.

I read the first book while pregnant and really liked it. It's real info without making you paranoid like the What To Expect books. This book gives great info for every step of the first year. Great book...can't recommend it enough! I want to get it for my friend's who are expecting.

This book is a valuable resource and updated with details you will not find anywhere else.Well written and carefully researched it complements author's earlier books and adds to the important resources every new parent should have. Kudos to authors.

We bought this at week 28 and we were very disappointed. the book is shallow and very unprofessional. there are even contrdictions within the book itself. It was written by a monther of twins with no professional background and or education related to raising twins, medicine, or psychology and it can be felt as you read through the book!
Sorry - for us this book got a very clear "F"

Very helpful, without all the added fluff of other books. Gives many useful tips on making life with multiples easier.

Got this book as a gift....great fun! I found time to read it while on bedrest and got a lot of good and useful information out of it while at the same time, got a bunch of belly laughs out of it. Great practical points, money saving tips and just downright entertaining! The best part about it is that you can read it in tid bits and can pick up again at any time. No need to study and really think....bedrest wasn't so bad thanks to this amusing book!

Maybe I'm expecting too much out of the books I've been reading to prepare for our twin girls due in June, but I haven't found one that appears to be something I'll refer to often. This book is a very quick read and somewhat informative. I'm looking forward to receiving my copy of "Ready or Not, Here We Come" by Elizabeth Lyons - that book has been recommended to me by several twin moms I've talked to. If you are pregnant with twins or more, I really recommend the book "When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads." This is a book I have referred to throughout my pregnancy and it is another book that was recommended to me by several twin moms.

From the reviews and excerpt, I was expecting more insight into the specific challenges of multiples. Either there truly aren't that many differences, or this author was just too busy to go into any depth (understandable). This is basically a collection of two-sentence blurbs on everything under the sun. You will not find much that you have not seen in other books, on-line chatrooms, or from talking to 1 or 2 moms of multiples. Save money and borrow a copy if you have an hour or so to kill. That's about how long it will take to read.

This book helped me raise three little boys born in two and a half years. From Diapers to trucks and fighting, I found what I needed to know in these pages. I am now sending copies to my three neices who have just had boys of their own. Truly trans-generational!

This is the only book that I found that dealt with exactly the situations I was going through at the exact age with my first son. While it probably does not describe all boys (my husband was a genius who started Kindergarten at age 4 and had no troubles academically) if you have a "normal" boy, this book will help you, especially moms, understand some of the things that make him tick.

Try reading Dr. James Dobson's Bringing up Boys. A GREAT book about how to raise boys!

Yes, it is fantastic to understand what makes boys who they are. That is a key component to parenting a boy (understanding what it means to be a boy), but let's also celebrate boys and raise them to be men.

Boys and girls certainly are different and I appreciate that this book acknowledges and addresses this, but there are other books (Dr. James Dobson's Bringing up Boys) that create a better balance in understanding (and appreciating) the nature of boys and loving discipline.

Let us not punish a boy for being a boy (or for being a kid), but provide loving discipline and direction when he is being naughty. There's nothing wrong with playing, jumping, running and having fun. Let boys be boys, and let us raise them to be men. The acknowledged differences between boys and girls should not be used to demonstrate how difficult boys can be, but to accentuate and appreciate the differences so that we are able to parent our little boys in the best way possible and to meet their unique needs.

There are better resources out there.

Marvelous! A tremendous source of information from disparate authorities, put together superbly!
My husband (a professor at Tulane) and I safely guided two girls through childhood, adolescence, college and graduate school. But nothing prepared us for our son. We knew he was not like the girls-we didn't know in exactly what ways until we read this book. We recommend it to all the mothers we meet in nursery school.

Although there is useful information in this book, I was disappointed in it. For a book about boys, it reads entirely too much like a book about coping with a chomosome abnormality -- the abnormality being the Y chromosome. Her general thesis is that the Y chomosome causes boys to develop more slowly and to be more succeptible to many other problems. Her approach to the discussion is very biologically deterministic. I found the 1 chapter on little boys in RAISING CAIN much more useful to understanding what my 4-year-old son is going through than this whole book. She is a strong believer in holdling boys back a year from Kindergarten. If you are looking for arguments for keeping your son back, this book may be what you are looking for. The publisher claims that this is the only book of its type, focusing on the parenting of young boys. That appears to be the case, which is a shame.

This one is great for random ideas! It may not be the best book, but it is great to have in your collection!

I was disappointed with this book, because it doesn't deliver what the title implies. Upon reflection, the content of the book isn't bad, but it just is not a book of games, for the most part.

The book is a list of snippets of advice, recipes, activities, and yes, some games. The items are organized by the age range being targeted, so presumably you can use it as a reference for ideas as your child grows.

Because of this organization, the early pages are completely devoid of anything like games (because newborns are generally too young to play, I guess).

The book would rate 3 stars if it was titled something like "Random Ideas For Parents of Smart Babies", although honestly, I would lose the whole "Smart" thing altogether, because most of the book has little to do with mental exercise, as far as I can tell.

I agree with Mary. My baby is now almost 5 months old and I have just purchased this book. I don't need any advice on breastfeeding now after 5 months! There are some good games, and even a few good recipies and words to songs and rhymes we might have forgotten, but the title is indeed misleading.

A more accurate title for this book would be "365 pieces of parenting advice." There are lots of nice thoughts and ideas on parenting here, but i already have several general parenting books. Each page is numbered, and some examples of the content are: #276 Weekend Escape (about taking a weekend off with your spouse), #34 Apple and Apricot Puree (a recipe for young eaters), #335 Diaper Rash, #67 Teeth Brushing. There are many non-activity pages like this. I did find fun passtimes for my baby and me, although most were ones that i'd already come up with on my own, and I had to weed through a lot of general parenting content to find them. Colored ice cubes in the bathtub was an original idea which I will try out. This is a nice book, just don't expect to find 365 actual games and activities.

What is with these crazy prices? I ordered this from amazon then a few weeks later they said they couldn't get it anymore. Now all of a sudden private sellers are trying to charge $214 for it are they crazy??

This book has some great ideas for busy toddlers. I've already tried several with great results.

A little small, but a great book. Some parts repeat themselves, but the ideas to keep toddlers busy and keep our sanity in check makes up for it all.

I purchased this book to try and get some ideas for fun and interesting activities that I could engage my daughter in so that she could learn at the same time. I was really excited about getting this book because I have found that I have run out of ideas fairly quickly.
After receiving and reviewing this book, I found that, though there are a lot of fun activities listed, none were all that appropriate for my 18 month old. I think that this book will be a great resource as she gets older, and I try and modify activities for her learning level. However, I would probably recommend that those considering purchasing this book, make sure that you are purchasing it for kids who are 3 and older.

I'm surprised to see this rated so low. I love this book! I was able to read it in a matter of hours and immediately start teaching my twins to sign. I passed the book on to my MIL who watches the girls while I work and she even read it and implemented signing immediately. I've never known this woman to finish a book in the ten years I've known her, so that's saying a lot right there.

The theory and implementation steps were very clear. The last 1/3 of the book is devoted to large pictures and detailed instructions for how to form each sign. My twins started signing within a few weeks of us starting at 9 months old, and quickly asked for more and more signs. Their gift for gab won out around 15 months old when we stopped teaching them new signs. They could say just about any new word clearly so there didn't seem to be much point in continuing signing. They just turned 2 and are talking in complete sentences. I think baby signs really helped their language development.

It's true that the signs illustrated in this book are not ASL, but who cares? We weren't trying to teach our kids a second language, just get them through that frustrating period when they want to communicate but can't verbalize their thoughts. The signs and techniques in this book worked perfectly for us.

This is a GREAT book. A good read, easy to understand, and the collection of pictures at the end of the book made it easy to learn the signs (for me and my son!). This book has truly helped my son learn how to communicate with us even before saying a single word. He started signing at 9 and 1/2 months old and he could tell us he wanted more to eat, more to drink, etc. I was truly amazed and I HIGHLY recommend this book. This book is better than the Joseph Garcia "Sign With Your Baby Book". The pictures are easier on the eyes and easier to understand. Now, according to the previous review, not all the signs are the exact right ones as the ASL. Well, to me, it doesn't matter - as long as my kid can communicate with me! It's sign language for the hearing baby...!

Why this book was reprinted in the U.S. (after it's initial publication in New Zealand) is beyond me. This book contains all New Zealand Sign Language, not American Sign Language (ASL). Contrary to what many people think, sign language among the deaf population is not universal. Countries all have their own version of sign language and ASL is used only in the U.S. and Canada. This book was written by a New Zealand author who offers classes in her country. The highly disappointing and surprising twist is that it was published by Perigee, an American publishing house devoted to publications dealing with deafness and American Sign Language, so it's not like they didn't realize the book was not ASL! Very strange! A better choice..."Baby Sign Language Basics" or Sign, Sing and Play" both by Monta Z. Briant.