Product Description:

In their excellent (and hefty) resource guide, The Baby Book, attachment parenting specialists William Sears and Martha Sears have provided new parents with their approach to every aspect of baby care basics, from newborns to toddlers. Attachment parenting is a gentle, reasonable approach to parenting that stresses bonding with your baby, responding to her cues, breastfeeding, 'wearing' your baby, and sharing sleep with your child. For those parents who worry about negative effects of this attention, the Sears say, 'Spoiling is what happens when you leave something (or some person) alone on the shelf--it spoils.'

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: 4.21 out of 5 stars

Rating:

- excellent for all mothers
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 ... Read More

Rating:

- Good for some things.....
As an involved father, I thought that it would be good idea for me to read the same references that my wife did. I was disappointed after reading Dr. Sears' book. According to this book, my role in the care and rearing of my child is relegated to being secondary to that of my wife's, "Father creates a supportive environment that allows mother to devote her energy to the baby (pg.8)". The role that I am to play in my baby's care is defined in pages 8, 43, 272, and 350 (paperback edition) out of a book that has 689 pages.

To his credit, Dr. Sears does provide some good practical advice on some childrearing issues, which is why I would give it 2 stars. However, I find the overall tone of this to be extremely patronizing and to be totally dismissive of the fact that fathers are sometimes ... Read More

Rating:

- Oh please
I know this isn't a popular thing to say but I can't stand the Sears' advice. They seem to think the answer to all problems is either wearing your baby in a sling or breastfeeding. Gee, does it ever occur to them that most women in America have to work. Many of my friends who read this book ended up feeling guilty and that their children were going to grow up to be horrible people if they didn't breastfeed them until they are old enough to go to college. Breastfeeding is unquestionably the best way to go but the Sears' fanaticism is terrible. And, of course babies need to be close to and held by their caregivers as much as possible, but the non-stop advice to "wear" babies is pretty unrealistic for most people.

The good advice is on developmental issues like walking, crawling, toys etc., ... Read More

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