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Good book, I skimmed it for what I needed to deal with my fussy baby. Who isn't really fussy now, it was because he had gas.
I highly recommend this book and have lent it to several friends. The whole Happiest Baby technique is unbelieveable until you see it with your own eyes. I saw the DVD first and LOVED it. If you are currently having issues with your baby and his/her personal fussy time, you should start with the DVD to get immediate help. It works, and it is amazing. I followed up by reading the book, which has so much more info than the DVD did. If you are pregnant and want to be prepared on day 1, get the DVD and the book. You won't regret it.
This is a good book. The techniques work very well to help calm my 9 week old.
Karp has made, however our child has not responded to a number of his recommendations. This has been a helpful book, however I hear that the DVD is better. We use some of the recommendations that Dr. He has good ideas as long as you understand that each baby is unique and some of his theories do not apply to all babies.Otherwise helpful. Check out the DVD first.
What I found most valuable was the reminder to use all five together. So Karp's tone can grate, and the book does often read as a bit of puffery for his practice. Yes, it's a fairly easy concept to grasp -- swaddle, shush, swing, side, suck -- so you can get through the book quite quickly if you want to. Karp outlines. This book is a quick read and a good reminder of the things a new parent needs to know to get a newborn to sleep. Get this book for the basics and ignore the rest. When my baby is overtired, no dose of the 5 S's will get her to sleep sometimes. Nothing is a miracle cure -- this certainly isn't.
The book also works best in conjunction with other books on sleep (e.g., The 90-Minute Sleep Program): read them for advice on setting a routine, making sure the baby gets enough sleep, etc., and use Karp to actually get your newborn to sleep.Overall, I feel four stars are warranted for putting together all 5 techniques. Karp, like many other parenting book writers, overstates the effectiveness of his methods. Despite the claims of some of the more disparaging reviewers of this book, many parenting classes (mine included) do not teach you how to swaddle, or teach you all five of the methods Dr. Dipping in and out, and avoiding the examples in the boxes, helps to avoid having to read his fluff. My newborn has needed all five at once to get to sleep, although in no particular order, so having the reminder that there are 5 S's to run through was the most valuable takeaway from this book.That said, Dr. Again and again throughout, he cites examples of the miracle cure that happens when you apply his method to a fussy baby for the first time. The swaddling demonstration alone is worth the price of the book (the nurses at our hospital were extremely perfunctory when I asked them to demonstrate how to swaddle, and it was hard to learn a tight swaddle from them, so I referred to this book instead). Master them, then pass the book along to other new parents.
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