Understanding Your Baby

Babies arrive in the world already equipped with many skills, reflexes and instincts that help them adapt to and influence their environment as well as the people who fill it. The mother-and-daughter team of Kyra Karmiloff, a research psychologist, and Dr Annette Karmiloff-Smith, a professorial research fellow at the Developmental Neurocognition Lab at Birkbeck College, University of London, 'translate' the latest scientific findings on infant behavior, the development of gross and fine motor skills and intelligence, and how infants produce language and experience the social world, as well as offering helpful tips and suggestions about how parents can positively influence their child's journey towards independence.

Learn how to read your baby's signals to maximize the quality of your interactions. Distilled, research-based information and practical ideas about how to use play to support your infant's development.

The "baby bible" of the post-Dr. Spock generation, already embraced by hundreds of thousands of American parents, has now been revised, expanded, and brought thoroughly up-to-date -- with the latest information on everything from diapering to day care, from midwifery to hospital birthing rooms, from postpartum nutrition to infant development. Dr. Bill and Martha Sears draw from their vast experience both as medical professionals and as the parents of eight children to provide comprehensive information on virtually every aspect of infant care. Working for the first time with their sons Dr. Bob and Dr. Jim, both pediatric specialists in their own right, the Searses have produced a completely updated guide that is unrivaled in its scope and authority. The Baby Book focuses on the essential needs of babies -- cating, sleeping, development, health, and comfort -- as it addresses the questions of greatest concern to today's parents. The Baby Book presents a practical, contemporary approach to parenting that reflects the way we live today. The Searses acknowledge that there is no one way to parent a baby, and they offer the basic guidance and inspiration you need to develop the parenting style that best suits you and your child. The Baby Book is a rich and invaluable resource that will help you get the most out of parenting -- for your child, for yourself, and for your entire family. Book jacket.

Babies arrive in the world already equipped with many skills, reflexes and instincts that help them adapt to and influence their environment as well as the people who fill it. The mother-and-daughter team of Kyra Karmiloff, a research psychologist, and Dr Annette Karmiloff-Smith, a professorial research fellow at the Developmental Neurocognition Lab at Birkbeck College, University of London, 'translate' the latest scientific findings on infant behaviour, the development of gross and fine motor skills and intelligence, and how infants produce language and experience the social world, as well as offering helpful tips and suggestions about how parents can positively influence their child's journey towards independence.

The first three months of your baby's life, sometimes called the 'fourth trimester', is a transitional phase, in which each of you is processing the birth experience you shared and acclimatising to a new way of being. It can be hard to interpret your new baby's behaviour: is she arching her back because she has tummy ache, or does she simply enjoy a stretch? Does sucking his hands indicate hunger or something else? As you navigate these early days your emotions might be all over the place and it can be hard to find and trust your instinctive need to connect with your baby. In Understanding Babies, experienced movement specialist Ania Witkowska looks at what your baby needs to thrive, and how they show you they need it, revealing how you can tune in to your baby so that both of you can relax and enjoy your new life together. By explaining how your baby's development is supported through movement and interaction, and guiding you through simple exercises and activities, she helps demystify the early days of parenting so that you can feel more joy and less anxiety as you and your baby flourish.

How much independence should parents allow teenagers who claim rights and privileges, show excessive confidence and test the boundaries of discipline? How can parents handle the physical and emotional changes in their adolescent child? This book offers helpful advice to parents whose children have reached the turbulent teenage years. From conflict management to issues of bullying, stealing and smoking, it guides parents as their children alternate between maturity and immaturity and develop their own identity. It explains the impact of school life, group pressures and close friendships on 12-14-year-olds' development and helps parents to offer their child support, while accepting his or her increased need for privacy. Alongside these challenges, the author reveals the rewards of sharing in these young people's enthusiasm and ambitions, as they grow more confident and responsible. This book provides practical and sensitive advice for parents to help them relate to and communicate with their child at a difficult time of transition, while being prepared to question what they thought they already knew about their son or daughter - and about parenting.

America's foremost baby and childcare experts, William Sears M.D. and Martha Sears, R.N., explain the benefits -- for both you and your child -- of connecting with your baby early. Would you and your baby both sleep better if you shared a bed? How old is too old for breastfeeding? What is a father's role in nurturing a newborn? How does early attachment foster a child's eventual independence? Dr. Bill and Martha Sears -- the doctor-and-nurse, husband-and-wife team who coined the term "attachment parenting" -- answer these and many more questions in this practical, inspiring guide. Attachment parenting is a style of parenting that encourages a strong early attachment, and advocates parental responsiveness to babies' dependency needs. The Attachment Parenting Book clearly explains the six "Baby B's" that form the basis of this popular parenting style: Bonding, Breastfeeding, Babywearing, Bedding close to baby, Belief in the language value of baby's cry, and Beware of baby trainers. Here's all the information you need to achieve your most important goals as a new parent: to know your child, to help your child feel right, and to enjoy parenting.

The first three months of a baby’s life is an outside-the-uterus period of intense development, a biological bridge from fetal life to preparation for the real world. The fourth trimester has more in common with the nine months that came before than with the lifetime that follows. This comprehensive, intimate, and much-needed “operating manual” for newborns presents a new paradigm of a baby's early life that shifts our focus and alters our priorities. Combining the latest scientific findings with real-life stories and experiences, Susan Brink examines critical dimensions of newborn development such as eating and nutrition, bonding and attachment, sleep patterns, sensory development, pain and pleasure, and the creation of foundations for future advancement. Brink offers well-informed, practical information and the reasons behind her advice so that parents and caretakers can make their own decisions about how to care for a newborn during this crucial period. The Fourth Trimester assures readers that infants are as biologically capable as they are physically helpless. They thrive on what is readily available in every household: consistent, loving attention.