Rating: 
Summary: A little disappointing...
Review: I received this book as a gift while I was pregnant, and put it away until the baby was born. Towards the end of my pregnancy I attended a newborn-care class at my hospital, where the teacher highly recommended this book. Once the baby and I came home from the hospital, I pulled The Baby Book out and gave it a try.
As a new mother, I found the chapters fairly long and involved. I just didn't have that much time to sift through the information to find what I needed.
There seemed to be a real tilt towards stay-at-home mothers. I would love to be able to afford to stay home with my child, but unfortunately it's just not possible.
I'm sure many people will love this book. I just preferred What to Expect the First Year. It gives a month-by-month breakdown of just what to expect with your newborn. I'm looking forward to reading What to Expect the Toddler Years after I finish this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Handbook on Babies
Review: I know that children do not come with an instruction manual, but this book comes close.This book is well written by a pediatrician and his wife. I feel that this book is very credible, since Dr. Sears is a pediatrician and has 8 kids. There are a wide variety of topics in this book, such as sleep, nursing, nutrition, illnesses, discipline, the stages of development, etc. The tips mentioned in this book make such perfect sense and work really well with my babies. The book is very supportive of parents and emphasizes that the parent must do what is best for their children. This book makes it clear that Sear's way is not the only way, but gives a good reference for taking care of kids and listing things that work best with kids. He also explained really well how babies are made up, why they wake so often, why they eat so often, and how they are programmed to want to be with their mommies. It gave me a good idea as to what makes my babies tick. The book was very well organized and very easy to read. I like Dr. Sear's kinder, gentler approach to raising children. I highly recommend this book for all new parents. This is a wonderful reference book to check back if you have a question.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Preachy
Review: This book contains some useful information like development milestones, feeding tips, health and safety info, etc. However, much of the book is used to provote a breastfeeding/ baby wearing/ attachment parenting philosophy/ lifestyle which at times seems extreme and makes the reader feel guilty if you can't do these things (e.g. you have a preemie).
Rating:
Summary: Should be read by every parent
Review: I highly recommend all of the Sears books for parents. Yes, Dr. Sears believes in a certain way of parenting, but this way of parenting ("attachment parenting") works and will help you raise healthy, happy, well-adjusted children. I have yet to meet or read of anyone who used the Sears books who was not completely satisfied, even delighted, with the results. Personally, I found The Baby Book to have nearly all of the information I needed on caring for my newborn.
True, What to Expect the First Year has some valuable information, but the parenting advice is abysmal at best. It also has an agenda and does not include any supporting information (as Dr. Sears does). BabyWise, on the other hand, is a terrible book. My friends who have followed this advice have babies who range from very underweight to complete failure to thrive. Their babies are also unhappy and I can't help but notice that they don't seem to know their babies very well.
Please, check out The Baby Book and the other Sears books. They are wonderful and will give you and your baby a great start on a wonderful life together.
Rating:
Summary: Endless supply of information
Review: This book is HUGE - 770 pages - and provides a tremendous amount of information for parents of babies. The index is very complete and helps you find what you are looking for. The chronological arrangement is helpful when you have time to ponder the many aspects of parenthood. I'd definitely pair this up with Gentle Baby Care by Pantley which is also a big book but set up in a simpler A to Z style for looking up your daily issue and gaining quick and accurate answers and insight. These two books are all you need to get you through the first two years.
Rating:
Summary: Really , really good book......
Review: I loved this book. That does not mean I agreed with every single thing in it, but I found it a great comfort. It is particularly good for a first time mother.
Rating:
Summary: If You Must Buy Only Book...this is it! No guilt for me...
Review: Dr. Sears and his wife put together an easy-to-read but informative guide to getting though baby & toddler-hood! I am a pediatric intensive care nurse and found that the book was not dumbed down. And yes, as another review called it "repetitive", it re-sates many things in different places...easy to find when mom and dad are SLEEP DEPRIVED!! I thumbed through this & "The Breastfeeding Book" many a 2am rocking.... It is common sense. Love and respect your baby's life, and your baby will gove that love and respect back to you & society later. Check out their other books!
Rating:
Summary: Useful but repetitive
Review: I enjoyed this book and found it more thorough than a lot of other baby books. It also makes a great reference guide. I keep it and refer back to it often. I like the sections detailing baby's development by month. I only have one criticism. I understood the Sears' theories on breastfeeding, wearing your child in a sling and also co-sleeping. With that said, I found those 3 points of the book to be a little overdone and also very repetitive. I felt like they were being reiterated constantly through out the book and since I really got it the first time, I felt this repetition to be a little annoying and maybe the space used to cover those topics ad nauseum could have been used more productively.
Rating:
Summary: excellent for all mothers
Review: I am a full time graduate student and the mother of an infant. My thesis work is in the field of ethnopediatrics -- the Sears Books offer wonderful advice backed by existing scientific cross-cultural data. You do NOT have to be a stay-at-home mom to practice attachment parenting. However, let's face it -- a baby is biologically attuned to his or her MOTHER (not the daycare employee or even the father). That's a biological fact supported by tons of research. So if the book emphasizes the mother as the main physical caretaker, that's because the research and data out there strongly suggest that a secure mother-infant bond is vital for the physical and mental health of the developing child. Sorry if that upsets some people, but that's reality, despite our unrealistic desires to be perfect mothers AND perfect career gals. Fathers play an important role too, the Sears also stress the necessity of paternal care. You certainly do NOT have to be a stay-at-home mom to reap the benefits of this book. For those who claim this is for people who don't have to sleep...cosleeping actually allows mothers more rest and more sleep than a crib arrangement. Besides, we're supposed to want what's best for our babies, right? Not what's convenient for us at the expense of our children's mental/physical health. If you're looking for a baby book that is filled with advice which also happens to be backed by anthropological/scientific data, then this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent and comprehensive guide
Review: This book is a comprehensive guide to basic baby care and parenting, even without the chapter on attachment parenting.It is true that the Sears are preachy in thir advocacy attachment parenting, and although it's not practical for all parents, the concepts are can serve as goals.
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