Instinctive, natural and loving parenting

I am so glad to have read this book. Thank you for reassuring me I am doing everything I am meant to. I have had so many unwanted advice from everywhere. Nearly all of them have told me I need to just let my baby cry it out, and my inability to do so meant that I was only making it hard for myself. I did try the cry it out and the scheduling of the eat, play, sleep, and hated every moment of it as it just felt wrong, forced and stressful for both myself and our little girl. So I stopped and resumed doing what I was originally doing and going with my gut. Both my baby girl and I are so much happier when I stopped listening to other people’s advice be it, from family or so called professionals. I feel so relieved knowing what I am doing works for us and this book reassures me I’m on the right track. I also found this book had quite a few helpful suggestions which I feel comfortable to try as they are gentle methods and introduced slowly and always with respect to your baby.

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1 person found this helpful

Sensible, practical and heartfelt

This is the kind of practical and heartfelt advice whispered from mother to mother away from MACH nurses and mother-in-laws. The advice you know you want to take, that feels right but is often not offered by the books and “professional” child experts.
This book has allowed me to parent my newborn in a way that feels right and natural to me without the guilt of feeling I was breaking the rules.

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2 people found this helpful

A Gentle Sleep Solution

The reading of this book was clear and easy to understand, with a nice pace and tone of voice that didn’t lend itself to be patronizing.

In regards to the content this is a handy book for new parents or those looking for a gentle sleep approach. This book is very much written in response to the sleep training approach, particularly the controversial “Save Our Sleep”. I appreciated many of the concepts explored and the variety of topics covered from breastfeeding to sleeping arrangements to the impact of foods on your baby and your own self care as a mother. What is most helpful is a consistent approach which encourages you to view life from the perspective of a newborn baby which really helped me understand why my baby behaves the way they do and how to respond.

If you are offended by mentions of breastfeeding as best or cosleeping as a good option this might not be your kind of book.

My biggest dislike of this book is really that I had already read a number of articles by Pinky McKay available for free through her website and Facebook page and reheard a lot of the same information in the book, so in that way it wouldn’t quite be worth the purchase if you’re happy to hunt down the articles yourself.

I ended up feeling encouraged in this book and reaffirmed as a mother so I guess in that way it was successful.

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6 people found this helpful

Good and reassuring advice

I enjoyed listening to this book. Great tidbits of very general and practical advice, especially for first time parents. But not surprisingly, the author heavily pushes the ‘breast is best’ agenda, so those who formula feed for whatever reasons, might find certain parts in the book off putting. In general good advice and well narrated.

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No helpful advice in this book!

After having my first child who demand fed hourly and didn't sleep longer than 1.5hour stints until 5 months old, I sought advice in this book to help with my second baby.
This book gave no helpful advice to help mothers who have terrible sleepers and also suggests unsafe sleeping habitats like co-sleeping. The advice in this book is to simply love your child and enjoy them and who cares if they don't sleep - I already know to love my babies and I definitely enjoyed the cuddles with my first child who never slept, but it doesn't really help mothers at their wits end who haven't slept longer than 2 hours in a row for 5 months.
Oh and it was really annoying how she kept on saying controlled crying was bad - yes I know that - which is why I sought advice from books to help my child sleep - but simply saying "don't do controlled crying and let you child sleep in bed with you" isn't a solution. I agree that controlled crying shouldn't be used for babies (we didn't do it until I think our first child was 12 months old) but this book offers no practical solutions!

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6 people found this helpful

Too much focus on co-sleeping/breastfeeding

If you breastfeed and intend to co sleep then this book is probably going to have some tips you’ll find useful.

Not all can/wish to breast feed or co sleep, therefore are looking for other sleep strategies. The author spends a lot of time advocating for co sleeping and harps on a LOT about cry it out methods.

Sadly I’ve not got anything useful I can implement from this book and I am still looking for other strategies.

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