Rating: 
Summary: A Great Reference Guide.. give it a chance
Review: A very good book for quick reference. It seems like every question that my husband and I have had, has been found pretty quickly in the book. A lot of the following give terrible reviews especially when it comes to breastfeeding. I certainly don't agree with them. I breastfed my first for 1 year and I'm planning on breastfeeding by 10 1/2 month old for another couple of months. Believe me, I agree whole-heartedly that breastfeeding is the absolute best for your baby, and I did not find this book opposed to it at all. Don't read this book from cover to cover while your pregnant.. it will scare you.. but read it month by month as your baby grows. Or, just get it off the shelf when a question comes up.. you're sure to find the answer. This book is not a bible, but it sure is a helpful guide. I would highly recommend it for any new mother! Have fun and welcome to the most precious honor ever to be given.. motherhood!
Rating:
Summary: BabyLounge.com gave 5 Pacifiers to What to Expect the 1st Yr
Review: Hands down, the absolute best book out there for new parents. You may have other books to cross-reference, but when you want the most comprehensive advice, you will turn to this book time and time again. The first twelve months of your baby's life are broken down into chapters that address issues, like milestones that your baby will be crossing (e.g., smiling spontaneously by the 5th month), what you can expect at this months check-up (e.g., vaccinations), and then in a question/answer format "what you may be concerned about" (e.g., how to handle diaper rash). In this section, of each chapter, you will find extremely useful information that will answer every possible concern you may have as a new parent. Some other excellent chapters include First Aid, Surviving the First Six Weeks, and what to do before the baby is born to best prepare. I recommend that you buy the book before you deliver so you can take advantage of the great tips on what to buy before the baby is born, what to take with you to the hospital when you go into labor, and how to handle things like preparing the family pet. What to Expect the First Year is a great place to turn before calling your baby's pediatrician, and it's truly the only book you'll need to help you through your incredible first year of parenting.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I am a first time mother with twin girls. I constantly reference this book. It never leaves the side table by my chair. I am a fairly educated person, but no amount of reading can prepare you for motherhood. Out of all of the books I read this one was the easiest to read and straight to the point. With twins I don't have much time and I need fast straight answers and not books that ho hum around.
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: 671 pages of rubbish
Review: It gets one star because zero stars are not an option. This book - and indeed, the entire What to Expect series - is patronizing, misleading and oftentimes dead wrong. Why educate when you can frighten? Why present basic facts and allow parents to make their own informed choices when you can lecture?
In particular, beware any advice What to Expect gives with regards to breastfeeding - it is outdated, incorrect and will destroy your nursing relationship.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good, But Buyer Should Still Beware
Review: Set up in a Q & A format, the What to Expect parenting books are full of interesting questions, practical information and worthy advice. No first-time parent can afford to be without one.
Which is not to say these tomes are gospel. No, rather than divine inspiration, the ultimate wellspring of facts, ideas and opinions is purely human. And while the humans involved (Dr. Murkoff, et al) are qualified professionals and certainly very well-intentioned, they do not come to the readership without their prejudices and cultural agenda. And while we certainly cannot fault them for this, for we all have professional and personal biases, it is important to recognize that the biases are there and when these biases are engaged. Not always an easy task
One of these biases is the consistent (and probably unconscious) favoring of consumer culture. For example, the authors take the stance that toddlers and preschoolers should learn as early as possible to go to sleep on their own -- a perfectly valid philosophical stance. They go on to discourage parents from rocking, singing or otherwise cajoling little ones to sleep. So far, so good. If, however, you find yourself parent to a child who simply cannot get the hang of lulling himself to sleep, Murkoff encourages tapes, light displays and, in extreme cases, a product that attaches to the crib and simulates the sensations of a car ride.
Well, which is it? Should a child have to get herself to sleep or not? And if we allow that some kids develop this capacity later than others, why is it okay to use plastic gadgets from the store but not mom or dad's loving arms? In the long run, isn't the latter healthier? If not, an author should give scientific data supporting her position OR admit that the position is not scientific, but philosophical. Murkoff does neither.
(In at least one case, this pro-marketplace bias even defies reason and works against the health of children. In Toddler Years, Murkoff denounces the apple boycott of the late `80s, early `90s -- an indefensible position. What should the public do? Buy and feed their children apples they know to be tainted???)
And speaking of science, don't look for much in Murkoff's arguments concerning the vaccine controversy. Murkoff understandably takes the orthodox position on vaccines. Her disdain for those who raise concerns is a little harder to understand, but these days there are enough people with enough concerns that the issue can't be readily ignored and so Murkoff feels a need to address them.
However, instead of mustering data to defend the orthodox position, Murkoff stoops to ad hominem attacks against the dissenting minority. Considering last year's revelations that when combined, the mercury level in childhood vaccines did indeed exceed safety standards (safety standards for adults, to boot), it behooves every professional to be professional in her thinking and method when arguing for one side or the other.
(NOTE: parents should check with their pediatricians to see whether thimerisol and other mercury additives are present in the vaccines used in his/her practice, and to what level.)
These are not petty criticisms. They are important tools for understanding Murkoff and the non-scientific aspects of her advice. Readers need to be aware of any expert's bias so as to separate fact from opinion. There is so much in What to Expect that is wonderful and useful, but parents still need to make philosophical decisions based on what's best for their families. Knowing where Murkoff is coming from helps us to sift out those ideas which will not work for everybody and judge them against our own individual needs and beliefs.
Rating:
Summary: ok book, not the best by far
Review: This book is just ok. It gives factual information in a bland way, but does not take a stand on any issue. The feel I got from this book was that it read like - It is ok if you want to breastfeed, and its ok if you want to bottle feed, whatever you want. It seemed to me really not to say anything at all, it did not take a stand on what was right to do. Every subject seemed to end with "its probably ok, but maybe it isnt so you better call the doctor". Too wishey-washey to be of any real use.
Rating:
Summary: take my copy... please
Review: This book was a waste of money. Although you might think you're buying a guide to baby care, the bulk of this book is devoted to infant development broken down month by month, just like the format of "What to Expect When You're Expecting."
That month by month format makes sense for a pregnancy book when things happen at fairly predictable intervals (i.e. the heart starts beating, the lungs mature, etc.) but is next to useless for a baby's first year of life, when growth and development of all kinds occur on a much looser schedule.
Each month the book tells you what your baby "should be able to" do, will "probably," be able to do, "may even be able to" do and "may possibly be able to" do. The first ("should") category might be worth knowing--although there is usually a footnote telling you that if you're baby can't do such and such, it's still probably ok, just call your doctor-- but what is the difference between what your baby "may even" or "may possibly" be able to do?
I get the strong impression these categories for baby "skills" were simply created to make the book look more like the pregnancy best seller because they seem completely nonsensical. A certain achievement, say "understands no," will sometimes appear in the same category for two or more consecutive months.
Clearly, baby development doesn't happen in neat 4-week intervals. If you want a baby care book, almost anything on the market will be better than this. If you want an intelligent book on infant/child development (based on science instead of book marketing schemes!) try "What's Going On In There" by Lise Eliot.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Okay...not great
Review: This is a good basic common sense kind of book. Most of it you should know and I think that some of the milestones are wrong. One month my child is a genius and the next challenged. I just wasn't that impressed with it. I expected more because of What to Expect When You Are Expcecting was great. But this is just my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: good reference but major flaws
Review: This is a good parenting book to have in your library but it should definitely not be the only one. All parenting books have their own bias about co-sleeping and breastfeeding and this one was definitely biased against co-sleeping at all and breastfeeding after the 9th month or so. When I first brought my baby home from the hospital, the only way she would get a decent night's sleep is to sleep with us. Otherwise she cried and fussed the entire night. After two months she was ready to sleep in a cradle but initially we had to adjust our parenting style to include co-sleeping because it was the only thing that would comfort our daughter. If this was the only parenting book I owned I probably would've felt incredibly guilty about having done this--the section of this book that addresses co-sleeping has nothing but negative things to say about it. I found "Good Nights" and "Gentle Baby Care" (perhaps because they were written by attachment parenting advocates) to be very thorough about the topic, with plenty of practical advice. As noted by other reviewers the book also contains some misleading information about breastfeeding and seems to assume that you'll begin weaning sooner than currently recommended by the govt. I also found this book to be very poorly organized. Because all babies develop according to their own schedule, it doesn't really make sense to have much of the information organized chronologically. I read "What to Expect When You're Expecting" when I was pregnant and they advised you in the beginning not to "read ahead" so I was doing the same with this book until I realized that it wasn't answering most of my questions! I needed a babysitter when my daughter was two months but for some reason that section was stashed in the third month section! Why? So now I have read into the 10-month section even though my daughter is only 3.5 months because I'm wondering if there are other tidbits of information hidden away in there. And I expect I'll have to reread it all again when she's actually 10 months. Finally, there was some conflicting information. I'm thinking of the alcohol and breastfeeding references in particular. At various points in the book it says to (a) have a single drink rarely if at all and then to wait two hours before nursing if you do have a drink, (b) have a drink just before nursing to "relax", (c) consult a doctor if you find yourself unable to stop at two drinks a day (what happened to the "rare" drink?!). And finally, it referenced no actual studies about the effects of alcohol on a nursing baby. For such a serious topic, it seemed amazing to me that they could have included so much conflicting information and no scientific backup. And finally, as someone who is using cloth diapers, I was put off by the offhand remark that (to paraphrase) "in your mother's day, diapers were cleaned and boiled and reused and now people simply throw their diapers away." There is a significant percentage of people who actually use cloth diapers but to read this section you would never know it! This was just one of many cases of the authors assuming that everyone does or should do things their way. All that said, the book did include good information about safety issues and child development and for these reasons I'm glad to have it on hand. The authors must seriously revise this book, however, for future editions.
|
