The "Baby Whisperer" method only works for SOME babies!
Review created: 09/27/05(updated 05/26/06)
25 of 32 people found this review helpful.
Background:
This books came highly recommended by our neigbors who had a daughter 10 days after ours. Given the high accolades and best seller status, we thought this book would be a sure winner and help us get our daughter to sleep better and reduce her crying.
Book Summary:
The "Baby Whisperer" method is to put your baby on a structured "schedule", to help them establish a predictable rythm of sleeping and eating that can help the parents also get some predictability for eating (and hopefully sleeping).
The process to get your baby on this system according to the book, takes 3 days, which involve picking up the baby when it cries and then as soon as it stops, putting the baby back down immediately, and NOT soothing the baby with rocking or other methods.
Did it work?:
While the Baby Whisperer method seems to have worked wonderfully for our neighbor's baby, it was a complete disaster for us and our baby. Our baby cried for 3 days straight as we tried to get her onto this sytem, which also meant that mom was crying for 3 days straight. NOT GOOD! (No fun for the entire family.) Even our pets were upset with all the crying in the house!
We consulted our pediatrician, who said that babies under 3 months do not have the cognative ability to be put on a schedule as their actions are driven more by their immediate needs for hunger, sleep, diaper changes, and desire for a sense of security through affection/cuddling/rocking/soothing with mom and dad. Our pediatrician recommended we try the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" (eBay Search: http://search.ebay.com//search/search.dll?&satitle=Happiest+Baby+Block ). We did so and found that this "Happiest Baby on the Block" book by Dr. Harvey Karp M.D. was much more aligned with our personal parenting style and our baby immediately was much happier and essentially has not cried at all in the 5+ months since.
Our Advice:
If you do try the methods suggested in "The Baby Whisperer", use your common sense and figure out if it is working or not for your baby. If not, I suggest you buy the "Happiest Baby on the Block" book (ISBN 0553802550 hardcover and 0553381466 softcover) as that method worked wonders for us.
Every baby (and parenting style) is different and it seems each baby will gravitate towards the method that works best for them.
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