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Attachment Parenting Books

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Attachment Parenting has many definitions. To me it's all about developing your own parenting philosophy as you listen to and learn from baby/child. It's not about following a bunch of rules or subscribing to the 'this is the only right way' approach. It's about developing your parenting instincts, being open to ideas that might lie outside of your culture's norm, and developing the inner strength to do what you know in your heart is the right thing for you and your baby/child.

As with anything, use what works for you & your family and leave the rest!



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Attachment Parenting:
Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child
by Katie Allison Granju

"Attachment to and dependency on parents... is a normal, healthy aspect of childhood and not something that needs to be discouraged." This quote from Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child sums up the attitude behind the growing shift in many Western cultures toward a labor-intensive but arguably more rewarding, effective, and "natural" way to raise children. This philosophy, termed "Attachment Parenting" by its champion, pediatrician and father of eight Dr. William Sears (author of the popular child-care manual The Baby Book, among others), sees infants not as manipulative adversaries who must be "trained" to eat, sleep, and play when told, but as dependent yet autonomous human beings whose wants and needs are intelligible to the parent willing to listen, and who deserve to be responded to in a reasonable and sensitive manner. As with Sears's books, there are no plans or schedules here, no specific prescriptions for what to do with your child. Techniques to facilitate connection and communication are outlined, but mostly the book is an exhortation to listen and to trust yourself, and to trust your child's ability to convey to you what he or she needs.

Information is provided in a well-organized format that parents will find useful. Common questions regarding some of Attachment Parenting's less orthodox tenets are answered, and each section of the book provides lengthy reading and resource lists, Web sites, and e-mail addresses. This book also provides a fairly broad discussion of how working parents can incorporate such a "high-touch" style of care into their busy schedules. The authors are sometimes painfully straightforward about the cost-benefit analysis parents must go through when deciding to work outside the home, but they do not patronize working parents by glossing over this difficult decision. They show how Attachment Parenting can be especially beneficial to these families and give advice on choosing child care, breastfeeding after returning to work, and the techniques for creating a breastfeeding-friendly workplace.

Given the overwhelming cultural paradigms that parents must resist if they are going to adopt this compassionate methodology, the book's sometimes defensive tone can be at least partially excused. As a whole, parents will find this a good overview of some compelling arguments for Attachment Parenting and a wonderful resource for delving deeper into the issues it addresses. How much of it they choose to integrate into their lives is, as the book emphasizes, their decision to make, with their baby. --Katherine Ferguson

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The Attachment Parenting Book:
A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby
by William & Martha Sears

Attachment parenting is a highly intuitive, high-touch style of parenting that encourages a strong early attachment, and advocates consistent parental responsiveness to babies' dependency needs. Rather than give parents a strict set of rules about when to breastfeed or when to respond to a cry, The Sears' approach encourages parents to learn and work with their baby's particular cues. Their book focuses on the benefits of attachment parenting for both parent and child, and explains how attachment parenting improves development, makes discipline easier, and even promotes independence. There is further information on attachment parenting for working parents and on weaning your child from attachment parenting, as well as scientific research that explains why attachment parenting works.
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The Baby Book
by William & Martha Sears

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."
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The Complete Book of Christian Parenting and Child Care:
A Medical & Moral Guide to Raising Happy, Healthy Children
by William & Martha Sears

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The Discipline Book
by William & Martha Sears

From the bestselling authors of The Baby Book and The Birth Book comes The Discipline Book, the definitive guide to raising happy, well-adjusted, well-behaved children. Seasoned parents of eight, Bill and Martha Sears draw on personal experience and their professional knowledge as childcare experts to provide an authoritative approach to a broad range of disciplinary issues and practices.

With focus on preventing behavior problems as well as managing them when they arise, the Searses offer clear, practical advice on everything parents need to know about disciplining young children. Believing that discipline starts at birth, the Searses discuss baby discipline, disciplining the toddler, mother-father roles in modern parenting, saying no, self-esteem as the foundation of good behavior, helping a child to express feelings, the constructive use of anger, good nutrition for good behavior, and sleep discipline.

On handling problem behavior, the Searses cover sibling rivalry, spanking and alternatives to spanking, breaking annoying habits, and eliminating bothersome behaviors like whining and talking back. The Searses strongly advocate teaching children values like apologizing and sharing, and explain how to deal with such issues as lying, stealing, and cheating. In addition, the Searses address building healthy sexuality and discipline in special situations such as after divorce and in the single-parent household.

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The Fussy Baby
by William & Martha Sears

"Let him cry it out!"
"Are you feeding that baby again?"
"Don’t you ever put her down?"
Parents of fussy babies hear these kinds of remarks all the time. In fact, they may even ask themselves these questions. Faced with a baby who demands to be held, nursed, and comforted much of the time, new mothers may begin to doubt their own intuition, even as they long for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

The first edition of THE FUSSY BABY, published in 1985, helped parents think about their demanding babies in a new light. These are children with high needs; children who are smart enough to ask for the high–quality caregiving that will help them develop their full potential.

In this revised edition, attachment-parenting experts William and Martha Sears bring new insight to the tried-and-true advice that has worked for so many families over the last two decades.

Respond to baby’s needs and will build up your own sensitivity. Trust baby to tell you what he needs, and he will learn to trust himself and eventually grow to be confident and independent.

Look for new information on colic (the "hurting baby"), gastroesophageal reflux, and the challenges of breastfeeding a fussy a baby, along with updated references, reorganized chapters, and lots and lots of mothering tips.

THE FUSSY BABY has carried many families through times with a high-need infant. This new edition brings that tradition of sensitive, intuitive parenting to a new generation of caring mothers and fathers.

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Nighttime Parenting
by William & Martha Sears

Why do some families have fewer sleep problems than others? What works for most parents most of the time and why?

Parenting is a full-time, twenty-four-hour-a-day job. Nighttime Parenting was written to make that job easier and to help the whole family--mother, father, baby--sleep better. It helps parents understand why babies sleep differently than adults, offers solutions to nighttime problems, and even describes how certain styles of nighttime parenting can aid in child spacing and lower the risks of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Renowned pediatrician Dr. William Sears helps you find a solution to your baby's sleepless nights and offers comprehensive, caring advice on issues such as:

* Where babies should sleep
* What foods help children sleep
* Tips for single parents
* Getting children to bed without a struggle

This newly-revised edition incorporates the latest research on SIDS and its prevention, and is truly a must-have volume for all parents.

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The No-Cry Sleep Solution:
Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night
by Elizabeth Pantley

A breakthrough approach for a good night's sleep--with no tears

There are two schools of thought for encouraging babies to sleep through the night: the hotly debated Ferber technique of letting the baby "cry it out," or the grin-and-bear-it solution of getting up from dusk to dawn as often as necessary. If you don't believe in letting your baby cry it out, but desperately want to sleep, there is now a third option, presented in Elizabeth Pantley's sanity-saving book The No-Cry Sleep Solution.

Pantley's successful solution has been tested and proven effective by scores of mothers and their babies from across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Based on her research, Pantley's guide provides you with effective strategies to overcoming naptime and nighttime problems. The No-Cry Sleep Solution offers clearly explained, step-by-step ideas that steer your little ones toward a good night's sleep--all with no crying.

Tips from The No-Cry Sleep Solution:

Uncover the stumbling blocks that prevent baby from sleeping through the night
Determine--and work with--baby's biological sleep rhythms
Create a customized, step-by-step plan to get baby to sleep through the night
Use the Persistent Gentle Removal System to teach baby to fall asleep without breast-feeding, bottlefeeding, or using a pacifier

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Parenting the Fussy Baby and High-Need Child
by William & Martha Sears

The bestselling authors of The Baby Book present a reassuring and wonderfully practical guide for parents of fussy babies and difficult children. Some helpful hints include proven baby calmers, a checklist of medical factors parents should watch for, sound advice on discipline, and much more.
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Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
by La Leche League International

Here's the 35th-anniversary edition of the big book on breastfeeding, written by the experts at La Leche League International. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding is a comprehensive resource guide providing just about everything you need to know about how--and why--to breastfeed your baby. Latch on to this book for step-by-step guides to early months, common concerns, problems, and weaning. Additional sections on general nutrition, sleep issues, going back to work, discipline, and fathering are useful for all breastfeeding mothers. Unfortunately the black-and-white photos are not always as clear as they should be, and the informative line-drawings are too scarce.
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