Rating: 
Summary: disappointing and sloppy
Review: I bought What to Expect When You're Expecting and loved it, so I got this book when my daughter was born, but it has not lived up to its predecessor. I find things are not consistent throughout the book -- what on one page they say the kid will be doing at 7 months, later they say they will be doing it at 8 months. This happens often, more so toward the latter half of the first year. They seem to change the ages halfway through -- in the beginning, "the first month" means from birth up to one month; later "the seventh month" seems to mean from the seventh up to the eighth month. They also use the ability to pay attention to or pick up a raisin as a benchmark of your child's development, but later the book explicitly advises against feeding your infant raisins (choking hazard)! The book is almost militant about diet -- whole grains only, absolutely no salt or sugar (this would rule out the number-one baby food, Cheerios!). Not practical for the real mother. However I was most upset by their treatment of homosexuality (in a footnote): "Boys who display feminine traits early in childhood, like to play with dolls, and avoid rough sports are more likely to become homosexual ... These boys become estranged from their fathers, and, it is speculated, may ever hunger for male love ... professional consultation may be a good idea." I was flipping to the copyright page after this, expecting to see a date from the 1950s, but this book was copyrighted most recently in 1996. Bottom line: While some of the information here is useful, you can get it elsewhere. Pick another book.
Rating: 
Summary: THE Book Every New Parent Should Have
Review: This is an excellent guide for all of us, new parents. It provides great and useful information in an well organized format. It should be a required book for all new parents. I also recommend: What To Expect When Your Expecting and What To Expect the Toddler Years.
Rating: 
Summary: There are alternatives
Review: This book has a lot of basic information on things like how to change a diaper, but fails to offer all the parenting alternatives. If you are looking for a more nurturing, hands-on parenting guide, I recommend 'Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child' by Katie Granju.
Rating: 
Summary: Completely un-child centered!
Review: It is terrible that such information and child rearing practices are being made available to parents. Parenting a new baby brings on so much doubt and guilt anyway, no one needs a book to tell them in the haughtiest tone that everything natural is bad. I was especially apalled about the section that talks about the way that an infant "manipulates" the parent and that we need to control this. I also do not like the lack of support of breastfeeding. I thought that the section of best food recipies was misleading. The part on nutritions is very adamant about how to feed your baby yet the recipes contain ingredients that are appropriate for children older than one ( such as eggs, milk and wheat). The way that each chapter starts out with: what your baby should, may be doing etc... implys that there may be something wrong with your child if they have not reached milestones. This is a book for people who want to conveniently raise children with a completely adult centered lifestyle.
Rating: 
Summary: This taught me about my daughter.
Review: I thought that this book was great. I could read up on the month ahead, so that i would know what all was going to be happening with my daughter, from immunizations to what she could eat. I recommed this book to any first time parents.
Rating:
Summary: A "must have" parenting resource.
Review: I've found the entire What to Expect series to be invaluable for all the questions I've had concerning normal fetal and child development. This book addresses specific parenting concerns about physical, social, and emotional growth in the first year of life, the signs and symptoms of common illnesses (very helpful if you like to know when and if you should seek medical attention), and what to do in emergency situations. The authors have provided information on the topics that matter most to new (and not-so-new) parents. Good reference book - I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: good book, but information on lead paint is unrealistic
Review: I have used my copy of this book so much it is dog-eared, and I have found it to be invaluable in many ways. But I would caution anyone who reads the section on the hazards of lead paint NOT to let it scare them. We live in a 100-year-old victorian home that we almost didn't buy because of concerns about lead paint (not that we had many other choices...there are almost no new homes inside the city of Pittsburgh). This book gives the completely unrealistic advice that, if your house has lead-based paint in it, you should just remove it. Obviously, the authors have done little to no research on this issue, because "removing" lead paint from your house is nearly impossible. The vast majority of homes in our area are old and are filled with lead paint, yet there are NO contractors that provide lead abatement service for residential customers. And if you can find one who does, the cost is unbelieveably prohibitive (as in many, many times the actual cost or value of your home). Based on personal experience, the long and short of it is, unless you have large amounts of lead paint peeling and flaking from your walls and your child is actually ingesting paint chips or chewing on the door frames, you probably don't have to worry. Our house is filled with lead-based paint (yes, we paid to have it tested, and no, the paint isn't chipping or flaking), yet our very curious and independent toddler has an extremely low lead blood level. We had her tested at 6 months and again at 1 year and everything is fine. She puts everything she finds in her mouth and crawled every square inch of our floors, and lead has not been a problem. So although it is something that you should be aware of and informed about, based on our personal experience, don't let all the hype about lead-based paint keep you awake at night (you've got a baby to do that for you :-).
Rating:
Summary: Not the 'unbiased' authority it claims to be.
Review: A good book to have to hand, as many other reviewers have pointed out. I liked reading it, and think it has much to offer.However, my main problem is that is presented as a guide to your options, and the way it sets out arguments in favour of/against a particular choice in childcare gives the impression that the authors are just giving you the 'facts' and leaving you to make the choice. However, often the arguments on one side are poorly presented, not explored, some major arguments are not presented at all, or even presented in a facetious manner. You have to know quite lot about a subject to know what has been missed out, but reading the chapters on a couple of issues which I know most about, it was clear that much information on controversial subjects was misleading or incomplete - eg routine infant circumcision, breastfeeding through pregnancy, co-sleeping. It made me wonder how thorough the authors had been with other subjects which I knew less about. I was concerned that numerous claims were not backed up by research, and that research which did not support the authors' views appeared to be ignored - through selection or ignorance? Obviously any author writing a book will want to promote their own particular views. The problem with this book (and with the whole series) is that the authors promote a particular philosophy whilst claiming to be unbiased. It would be much more honest if they promoted the book as a guide to conservative-style childcare.
Rating:
Summary: this book is almost a necessity for any new parent.
Review: By buying this book you may find that there are some questions that it doesn't answer, but far, far more that it does. As a first time mother who was a little apprehensive about taking care of the emotional, psycological, and physical needs of a newborn, this book eased my misgivings not only about my baby and his needs but also about the needs of my husband and me. I would consider this book a MUST-HAVE because of the clear and easy to understand writing and the format in which issues are tackled. Especialy nice is the way that each chapter begins with a guideline of what your child should be, probably be, might be, and could even be doing in that particular month. Easy recipies and chapters dealing with the premie baby, becoming a father, and postpardum days make this book out to be more than just a baby book. If you are a first time mother like me or expanding your family to be more like a baseball team, this book just might teach you more about the precious little life that has been bestowed upon you.
Rating:
Summary: Takes a tough, not tender approach
Review: Advice promotes not letting a child change your life too much, which is ridculous. Babies need a lot more attention than this book would indicate.
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