Parenting Book Reviews
Parenting books can be hard to read. They often come across as judgmental, or unrealistic. I find that in reading any parenting book, you have to absorb the good and just ignore the rest. That being said, here are a few of my favorites.
Let Them Eat Dirt
By B. Brett Finlay, Marie Claire Arrieta
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This book, released in September 2016, describes cutting edge research in the field of gut microbes and how they affect our health. While the research is still emerging, the evidence for the relationship between our gut and our health is fascinating. They now believe that Asthma, allergies, ADHD and even Autism, are all at least partially associated with the gut microbiota. There is also great evidence showing the negative impact that antibiotic use has on our microbiota, which is especially devastating when used in infants and children. Of course, antibiotics have their place in the medical tool box, and have saved many lives! But we are now learning that their use, and especially their over-use, can have lifelong consequences. Antibiotics should be looked at more as a last-resort treatment, not a first line of defense.
Please, do yourself and your children a favor by reading this book. I know I look forward to following this field of research as it continues to emerge!
Simplicity Parenting
By Kim John Payne, Lisa M. Ross
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Simplicity parenting is an excellent book for families who are struggling with behaviors and connection as a family. This book will be most beneficial to parents who are ready to dream! Really dream about what your child and your family can be. However, if you’re not ready to dream you might find some of their examples and stories to be unrealistic or unattainable. So, it’s super important to go into this book with the right attitude to get the most out of it. If you are ready to dream, the ideas in this book make total sense and are strategies that I’ve seen work for real children: simplifying the environment, simplifying the daily routine, and giving kids “pressure valves” to relieve stress throughout the day.
Oh Crap! Potty Training
By Jamie Glowacki
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In my mind, this is the potty training bible. I highly recommend reading this book when your child is YOUNG, way before you’re ready to start potty training, way before you waste money on pullups, or they have ever seen a potty seat or a pair of Elmo underwear. This will help you to start strong and positive, minimizing confusion and false starts. Jamie Glowacki is spot on in her understanding of child development related to potty training, and better yet, she explains this well, so we can keep our expectations of children and the potty training process realistic and successful!
My one small piece of criticism for this book, is that Jamie doesn’t address how to potty train multiples. When I read it, I was getting ready to potty train twins. I looked for her to address this in the book and longed for her to tell me how it would be different, harder, easier, but it just wasn’t there. I felt a little remiss. But finally, I just trusted her method and took the plunge. It worked beautifully with twins! Maybe she forgot to talk about multiples. Or maybe she just didn’t need too, because the method works all the same.
Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense
Ellyn Satter
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This book goes into such great detail of feeding and feeding difficulties with children, how to prevent power struggles and get kids to eat what’s offered. The main idea is that there are five elements to eating. Caregivers control the What, When, and Where of eating. Children control the If and How Much of eating. If this division of labor is respected, children eat what they need and build upon their own natural regulation. With these rules in mind, and a predictable and consistent eating schedule that kids can count on, kids can build life long healthy eating habits that help prevent obesity and eating disorders. Your children will eat without struggle, bargaining, begging, or forcing. I highly recommend you read this book ASAP. Whether you’re expecting your first child and want to know about breast and bottle feeding, have older children who’ve been eating solids for years, or somewhere in between, you will learn valuable ways to improve your child’s relationship to food.
On Becoming Babywise (Updated and expanded):Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep
Dr.Robert Buchnam and Gary Enzzo
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This book receives a fair amount of criticism in some educational circles. Many think it is too structured and rigid. There are points in the book where I get where that criticism comes from, but if you really read it for what it is, the methods are not rigid or inflexible at all. It walks the balance between the two extremes of using a rigid clock-based schedule vs. letting the baby call all the shots. It uses a general schedule to help baby take full feedings and sleep longer but allows for the flexibility of responding to the baby’s individual daily needs. Walking this balance in real life can be challenging, and while parents are learning the balance they often stick to the schedule too firmly, which I think is where this book gets a bad wrap for being rigid. When you are constantly second guessing yourself as a parent it’s easier to stick to the schedule out of desperation. Because of this tendency, I encourage you to read this book for the spirit of the book and for ideas of what to do, but don’t stress too much if you can’t stick to the schedule exactly, because that’s not the goal. As someone who has worked with infants for many years, I feel like this book outlines my model of infant care fairly well. I’ve spent years learning to walk the balance between schedule and responding to baby’s needs, and it is truly an art!
Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane)
Gavin de Becker
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This book is about the predictable science of violence. It helps parents and caregivers learn to distinguish between their intuition that should be listened to, and irrational fear. It teaches you to trust your intuition and act on it to keep children safe. It also helps you to know how to react when violence does happen and how to support the victim. I found this book to be fascinating and empowering. It helps me to understand ways I can protect my self and the children in my care. Some people will struggle with the fact that it’s a little less than politically correct, but the book acknowledges this and addresses it by pointing to the science. I highly recommend this book.
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Trigger Warning: This book describes a number of crimes and abuses. If you have been the victim of a crime or abuse, please seek support as you read this book.
