Healthy Living Books Books

Rating: - The Greatest Baby Book I've Read
I've bought and read so many baby books, but none even compare to this one. I bought this book on the advice of a friend who swears by it and I'm glad I did! It is full of helpful suggestions and the routine that the author claims works ACTUALLY DOES! I started to see results the next day.

If you're looking for something that is less harsh on babies than Gina Ford's The Contented Little Baby Book (absolute rubbish) and something that's more realistic than William Sears' attachment parenting books, then this book is definitely for you. It suggests a routine rather than a schedule and is very flexible in the advice it gives.

There are only two things I would say against this book. One is the lenghth. It's 390 pages, however, you can skip over some of it and go back to it and it's easily sectioned into different parts of the routine and different age groups. The other is the author's tone which can be a little condescending and patronising. But...it works so the author can write in any tone she wants in my opinion.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. It's a must have and well worth the purchase.

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Rating: - solved my problems
I borrowed this book from a library when my baby was eight months, and now I am on this website to buy my own copy!

I already own a GF one which I just couldn't cope with as my baby fed every two hours from birth until about 2 months as I was ill with chicken pox when she was born and so we couldn't settle into a routine until she started eating solids. At four months my daughter started sleeping through, but at 7 months stopped after a trip to my in-laws. As I am not willing to let my child cry needlessly for hours I am not in favour of leaving her to cry it out, and found the pick up/put down an absolute godsend. After a week she slept through for the first time in 2 months, and after a fortnight she was doing it regularly.

I have told a couple of my friends with similar problems about the basic method, and they have followed it with good results. One went to buy it, but couldn't cope with the attitude that if you 'rescue' your child it will be a weakling for life, and decided not to.

Having said that, I think that it is more important to take the general sense of what Tracy is saying - ie listen to your baby and respond to their cues, then to follow the book verbatim, however I don't know if I could have done that with a newborn. Also as my baby is now nearly toddling, there isn't much information on how to bring your child up to behave nicely, only how to correct problems once they appear.

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Rating: - makes you question your ability as a new mum!
I got this book after reading Amazon reviews and at a time when I was feeling very low, after I'd just given birth to my baby girl. This book made me feel worse! Tracy Hogg implies that if you don't get positive results after following her advice, then you are probably guilty of 'accidental parenting. This is NOT the message you want to hear when you are suffering from Post Natal Depression and struggling with a baby who doesn't appear to 'fit in' with any of her clever little 'categories'. In the end I took my fiance and families' advice and followed my own instincts..which proved to be the best course of action after all.
In summary, don't beat yourself up like I did when it doesn't all magically work Miss Hogg's way. Just enjoy the adventure of being a new Mum (even if it is a scary one at times!) and do it your way!

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Rating: - A must buy for new parents
This book was the BEST purchase we made. Even though we read the whole book, we didn't follow it like a manual, we picked the parts we needed and/or agreed with and used those. Our baby was (and still is) peacefully sleeping through the night from 3 1/2 months on and following a routine - NOT a timetable. As parents we are calm, coping and know exactly what our baby wants and needs thanks to the advice in this book. All in all we are are very contented household! We were TOTALLY against controlled crying and this book (along with our instincts)helped us to get our baby sleeping without EVER leaving her to cry. Our siblings have now all bought this book after seeing how well it worked for us while they were still struggling with their babies of similar ages.

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Rating: - Saving sanity with structure but not for new borns!
Ok Ok so there ARE flaws in this book and i'm not about to say that her tone and habit of referring to her readers as "duckie" and "luv" isn't annoying but i work in child psychiatry/psychology and it taught me a few new tricks!

I started off instinctively as a mother and went with attachment parenting...which i whole heartedly believe is the best thing for a new born baby. I co-slept, slinged and demand fed.

When a baby is new to the world trying to instill structure and seperation on a teenie tiny person who actually doesn't know or comprehend that they are seperate from the world around them is just cruel and potentially damaging on a psychological level...so i really wouldn't recommend this book for neonates. However, after 8 weeks or so (whenever YOU feel your baby might be ready) then i think this book is fantastic. Once babies begin to interact and take in the world around them, structure is a really positive thing, helping them to feel safe and contained.


I started my first with a slightly adapted baby whisperer routine after a few months and within a few nights my cherub was sleeping through the night and our whole family was settled into happy, predictable bliss.

Noone should take ANY book as written in stone or allow someones opinion (who has never even met your child) to overwrite your own maternal/paternal instintcs....for crying out loud...surely that's common sense????...so if you can read a book OBJECTIVELY and interpret what would be helpful for your family then you will find this book an absolute godsend.

This book recommends teaching your child how to self soothe, which again, on a psychological level, is really positive. Tracey Hogg advocates dummies, but if you or your baby doesn't use dummies then there are plenty of other ways to self soothe. My little girl sucks her thumb and i have never introduced a dummy but she is still able to self soothe. She also advocates you helping your baby learn how to fall asleep independently, (as you would help them learn so many other skills) but she doesn't advocate "crying it out". Which is great for most parents...after all who can bear hearing their beloved little bub crying till they either fall asleep from exhaution of just give up because they learn that no one comes when they cry?

I found it actually increased my connectedness, intuition and confidence with my little 'un.
However, a word of warning...Tracey Hogg uses a silly phrase of "accidental parenting" a lot during the book...which could feel quite critical to the more sensitive among us, or to those that are inclined to take guide books literally. What she means by "accidental parenting" is really just that she's agrees with the psychological theories on conditioning and that babies get into the habits their parents give them (DUH!! thanks for pointing out the obvious there Tracey)....so if you feed your baby to sleep, they will come to expect it...until you condition them into another method....which is what Tracey's book is all about...conditioning your child into a routine, where both you and your babies lives are structured and predictable. The way she goes about explaining it, isn't ideal at times but her basic idea is great. If you are a new parent and have just been through those first few months of crazy, sleep deprived cookoo land with a new born then this book is straightforward, easy to read and offers some sensible advise on structure.....but please please please take this and any other book with a pinch of salt...no one can know you own child like their own parent!!!!!