Product Description

From the bestselling author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution--everything parents need to know during their baby's first year

Gentle Baby Care provides immediate answers to the daily questions that arise when caring for a baby. Written by bestselling author and parenting expert Elizabeth Pantley, this valuable guide includes information and practical tips to allow readers to choose the gentle, loving solutions that best suit their parenting style and their baby. Gentle Baby Care provides more than 1,000 practical tips and solutions to the everyday issues that arise during a child's first year, including:

• Colic
• Teething
• Colds
• Sleep
• Diaper rash
• Independent play
• Traveling with baby
• Developmental milestones

“As a new mother, there were many times when I wished my babies came with an instruction manual. Now they do--in the form of Elizabeth Pantley's Gentle Baby Care, the best "baby instruction manual" I've read. Elizabeth guides the new parent through the ups and downs of baby parenthood with her usual nonjudgmental gentleness and warmth. Its easy-to-read format is great for those emergencies when you need information in a hurry. I'll be recommending this book to all of our new parents.”
--Maribeth Doerr, Editor-in-Chief, StorkNet.com

“A trusted handbook for parents. It offers practical, well researched advice on health, safety and developmental issues as well as lots of gentle support and guidance for parents on the many choices they must make during the first year with a new baby.”
--Joan K. Comeau, PhD, Director & Editor, Family Information Services

"Elizabeth Pantley has done it again...provide parents with a valuable tool to help overcome the challenges that accompany the joys of being a mom or dad. Gentle Baby Care puts everything a parent needs to know at their fingertips in an easy to use reference system. The book is organized in a way that takes you to the answers you need and refers you to additional topics related to the subject, eliminating the need for busy parents to flip back and forth from index to chapters. Every mother should have two copies of Gentle Baby Care--one for herself and one for her caregiver, mother-in-law or spouse."
-- Maria Bailey, CEO, BSM Media, Founder, BlueSuitMom.com, Smart Mom Solutions, and Host of Mom Talk Radio

"An encyclopedia of childrearing advice and information with practical tips on crying, sleep, discipline, baby milestones and much, much more. Elizabeth's soothing advice will help both new and seasoned parents relate to the newest member of the household! "
-- Betsy Gartrell-Judd, Editor, PregnancyandBaby.com

"At last, the perfect resource guide for new parents. Gentle Baby Care is informative, easy to follow, and well organized. Parenting expert Elizabeth Pantley has gathered a wealth of information and valuable resources."
-- Lori Lee Helman, mother of two and owner of Mommas Baby (mommasbaby.com)

"Gentle Baby Care is an impressive resource guide for every parent new and old! It contains in-depth information that covers baby-care basics plus unique yet equally important topics, such as handling overzealous grandparents, dealing with your baby's crying in a car seat, and keeping your baby quiet during worship services. The added tips from experienced parents are great--tried-and-true ideas from the trenches! Spread the work about this helpful and supportive new resource manual that will benefit every parent and caregiver."
-- Andrea Grace, president, Mommy and Baby Fitness, Inc., www.mommyandbabyfitness.com

“The first year of life is filled with worry for many parents, and Elizabeth Pantley offers expert advice for them in a nonjudgmental and, most important, supportive way. This book’s format also enables a new parent to quickly access vital childrearing information in their most anxious times. I highly recommend this book to new parents, and am envious that I did not have my hands on a copy during my son’s first year.”
-- Gloria Perez-Walker, Founder, Latina Mami

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77755 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

From the Back Cover

From the bestselling author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution comes a complete reference filled with loving solutions for caring for your new baby

It's often been said that babies should come with an owner's manual. Now, Gentle Baby Care fills that need for the millions of parents immersed in the most hands-on experience of their lives: caring for their newborn babies.

Organized alphabetically to help you find much-needed information within seconds, Gentle Baby Care provides immediate answers to the questions that arise daily when caring for a baby during the first year, from soothing a fussy baby to handling well-meaning yet unwanted advice with grace. Written by bestselling author and parenting expert Elizabeth Pantley, Gently Baby Care will help you become a confident, caring parent. Here you'll find hundreds of practical tips and solutions that allow you to choose the gentle, loving approach that best suits your parenting style and your baby.

Gentle Baby Care includes:

• Tips to help get your reluctant napper to sleep
• Ways to make your baby more comfortable during illness
• Guidelines to help you choose diapers, bags, strollers, and car seats
• The golden rules of babyproofing
• Advice on how to handle breastfeeding in public
• And so much more!

Whether this is your first baby or your fourth, Gentle Baby Care provides confidence-building advice to help you get through the many firsts in this tiring yet wonderfully exhilarating first year.

About the Author

Elizabeth Pantley is a parent educator and president of Better Beginnings, Inc., a family resource and education company. She is frequently quoted as a parenting expert in such magazines as Parents, Parenting, Working Mother, Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping, and Redbook.

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Customer Reviews

A thoughtful, reliable resource
This helpful resource has a lot of heart and a friendly tone. Though hefty, the book's appealing format, well-organized material, supportive writing style and clarity make it inviting and accessible. Readers need only look inside to appreciate the author's positive attitude and notice how practical and thorough the information is.

Each of about 125 brief chapters uses a similar pattern designed to provide quick factual direction and encouragement for its intended audience of parents of normal infants. A wide selection of topics, from health issues to overzealous grandparents, swimming, test driving strollers, developing a read-aloud family culture, and teething, is arranged alphabetically with labels that, for the most part, make sense. The table of contents and extensive index are well-conceived. Lots of white space, attractive type, and logical layout make skimming for specific advice easy. Reading the book straight through is pleasant and informative too.

Comparative parenting philosophies are not covered. Pantley is forthright about concentrating on attachment parenting. She supports her preferences well and discusses many approaches in a broad context. Breastfeeding, for example, is assumed, yet she doesn't belittle readers who opt for formula. Curiously though, homeopathic medicine is suggested a few times with no further explanation about it. In general, Pantley speaks sensibly to hands-on, involved parents interested in natural ways to rear secure, strongly attached children safely.

Development itself is covered here only as a minor topic with lists of normal milestones. Helping parents understand particular issues and evaluate their best options is Pantley's focus, so her sound advice includes tips with developmentally appropriate variations throughout the book. She is adept also at sharing pertinent considerations for each subject without prescribing, except for certain definite procedures or emergency requirements, what choices a family should make. Her presentation of current knowledge and research is concise and responsible. She provides additional websites and resources for further interest and respectfully leaves the outcomes up to her readers' values and decisions.

Gentle Baby Care has a more developed style than Pantley's earlier Perfect Parenting. The same sensitive logic in her No-Cry Sleep Solution is in her writing here. She considers each topic thoroughly with particular awareness of safety issues, and cogently presents, with the utmost respect for parents and their babies' well-being, the practical information and thoughtful opinions they will find useful. Expectant, new and experienced parents will all find this book a handy and reliable reference.

THE Book for us gentle parents
I just love Elizabeth Pantley's books and this book is no exception.

Have a question about preparing your own baby food? It's in there! Independant play? It's in there! Baby Massage? It's in there!

She also has covered many health issues such as immunizations, febral seizures, and teething, as well as developmental "issues" such as tantrums.

It's just PACKED with wonderful tips that anyone can use. That is, of course if you're interested in the gentle baby style that she's famous for. I have used her tips from previous books with my 4 year old, and she is a wonderful, confident child. This book comes just in time to help me with my 7.5 month baby. I'm learning so many new ideas for being a better, kinder parent. Thanks again, Elizabeth!

Useful guide for the sleep deprived
This is the book my husband and I turn to at 2:00 am. When you've had next to no sleep, and you suddenly have to make a decision about the severity of your child's illness, it's extremely useful to have a book that's arranged in alphabetical order (no hunting through a poorly designed index printed in tiny typeface)! The amount of information is just enough for a quick intro to a topic, and illness-related topics always have handy point-form lists of symptoms that require immediate medical attention. The book also offers solutions for a range of problems that plague new parents--from how to bathe a baby, to how to engage disinterested grandparents. Very useful stuff, especially for new parents.