Gentle Parenting Introduction
Parenting trends come and go. Gentle parenting is different – it isn’t a label for a precise set of rules but a method of parenting that embraces the needs of parent and child, while being mindful of current science and child psychology. It means parenting with empathy, respect, understanding – and boundaries. The Gentle Parenting Book provides a trustworthy combination of what-to-expect information and gentle-parenting solutions to the most common challenges faced by parents with young children. Sarah addresses a wide variety of topics, including coping with a crying baby, introducing solid foods and creating healthy eating habits, potty training, starting nursery and school, sibling rivalry, tantrums, whining and sulking, aggressive behaviour and much more. And for those parents who have previously used a more authoritarian style of parenting, there’s plenty of advice – and reassurance – on making the transition to a gentler approach. For many, gentle parenting comes as a relief because it chimes with their deepest instincts about the best way to raise their children.
Pregnancy & Birth
Hypnotherapist and experienced doula Sophie Fletcher shares with you the secrets to having a safe, natural and positive birth. Using a powerful combination of mindfulness, hypnosis and relaxation techniques, Sophie will ensure you feel genuinely excited and completely prepared for birth.
With stories from women who have successfully used the tools in this book, and downloadable hypnosis and relaxation tracks, discover how to: – use your mind and body together to stay focused and in control – draw on visualisation and breathing techniques to help birth progress – feel positive and empowered, before, during and after you give birth. Reassuring, practical and based entirely on what works, Mindful Hypnobirthing is your essential guide to giving birth the way you want to.
Work out what kind of birth you really want, and learn how to maximise your chances of getting it, in this refreshing, warm and witty guide to pregnancy, birth and the early weeks. Packed with vital and cutting-edge information on everything from building the ultimate birth plan, to your choices and rights in the birth room; from optimal cord clamping, to seeding the microbiome; from the inside track on breastfeeding, to woman-centred caesarean, The Positive Birth Book shows you how to have the best possible birth, regardless of whether you plan to have your baby in hospital, in the birth centre, at home or by elective caesarean. Find out how the environment you give birth in, your mindset and your expectations can influence the kind of birth you have, and be inspired by the voices of real women, who tell you the truth about what giving birth really feels like. Challenging negativity and fear of childbirth, and brimming with everything you need to know about labour, birth, and the early days of parenting, The Positive Birth Book is the must-have birth book for women of the 21st century.
Ina May Gaskin, America’s leading midwife, shares her exceptional birthing wisdom in this intuitive guide to childbirth. By sharing a wealth of knowledge generated by three decades of experience she explains why the natural birthing process, when left to its own devices, can proceed so beautifully on its own. In this invaluable book Ina May teaches you: – What really happens during labour – How to create a safe, comfortable environment for birth in any setting – Tips for maximising your chances of an unmedicated labour and birth – The risks of anaesthesia and caesareans – what your doctor doesn’t necessarily tell you. Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth is an inspiring read and gives women the opportunity to take back the fear of childbirth by regaining confidence in their bodies. It tells you everything you need to know to have the best birth experience for you – whether in a hospital, birthing centre or the comfort of home.
Having a second baby is a very different experience from having your first, yet there is little recognition of the wide range of issues that need to be considered when bringing a second child into the family. This incredibly helpful book helps parents feel more positive and prepared for life with two children. The book begins with the obvious question: when is the right time to add another member to the family? It then goes on to examine the specific issues that can arise with a second pregnancy and birth; the common concerns about siblings, such as how to prepare your firstborn for what’s to come; how to cope with the practicalities of life with two young children (aka actually managing to get anything done!); and the feelings parents are likely to experience, too. Practical, insightful and honest, this book will help you understand the challenges ahead but, more importantly, it will equip you to meet them with knowledge, confidence and a sense of excitement for the future.
New Parenthood
Have you ever spent all day looking after your baby or young child – and ended up feeling that you have ‘done nothing all day’? Do you sometimes find it hard to feel pleased with what you are doing, and tell yourself you should achieve more with your time? Maybe it’s because you can’t see how much you are doing already. In this unique and perceptive look at mothering, Naomi Stadlen draws on many years’ work with hundreds of other mothers of a wide variety of ages and backgrounds. She explores mothers’ experiences to reveal what they – and you – are doing when it may look, to everyone else, like nothing. If you are a mother, and have ever felt: that nobody understands what you do all day; overwhelmed by your feelings for your baby; tired all the time; that nothing prepared you for motherhood; uncertain what your baby seems to want; short-tempered with your partner – you will find this the most reassuring book you have ever picked up.
Babycalm has one aim in mind – to turn stressed-out new parents and crying babies into happier parents and calmer babies. Letting parents know that it is OK to trust their instincts, that there are other ways to cope as a new mother without putting your baby into a strict routine or resorting to controlled crying. This book takes a different approach to the vast array of books out there – helping new parents to enjoy their baby and to trust in their own parenting instincts, offering a refreshing alternative to prescriptive, routine-led parenting. BabyCalm will help you understand your baby and yourself as a new parent. It offers plenty of ideas about calming techniques and how to encourage your baby to sleep well and will enable you to feel confident and at ease in your new role.A happy mum and a calm baby go hand in hand and this book will get you off to a great start.
Why Love Matters explains why loving relationships are essential to brain development in the early years, and how these early interactions can have lasting consequences for future emotional and physical health. This second edition follows on from the success of the first, updating the scientific research, covering recent findings in genetics and the mind/body connection, and including a new chapter highlighting our growing understanding of the part also played by pregnancy in shaping a baby’s future emotional and physical well-being. Why Love Matters is an accessible, lively, account of the latest findings in neuroscience, developmental psychology and neurobiology – research which matters to us all. It is an invaluable and hugely popular guide for parents and professionals alike.
Toddlers
This book works.
It shows that that the naughty step, sticker charts and controlled crying are NOT the only solutions.
Many parents struggle with getting their toddlers to sleep, picky eaters; respect; tantrums; discipline; throwing; biting; hitting, communication… All this is normal.
What is important is that you don’t base your whole relationship with your child on rewards and punishment.
ToddlerCalm is about gentle parenting. It will give you a proven and successful alternative approach to creating a calm and happy family.
Sleep
The Gentle Sleep Book offers gentle, reassuring and effective solutions to addressing the common sleep problems of newborns to five-year-olds. The methods don’t involve common sleep-training techniques such as controlled crying and pick up/put down, instead she treads a carefully balanced line between the needs of sleep-deprived parents and those of the child. The Gentle Sleep Book offers reliable, evidence-based advice on how to approach common issues including frequent waking, night terrors and night dryness, as well as practical suggestions tailored to each developmental stage, such as how to create the perfect sleep environment and bedtime routine, the effect of diet and how to use comfort objects effectively. All the information is supported by in-depth case studied to demonstrate how parents have used the suggestions to address their child’s sleep problems.
Research shows that ‘normal’ infant sleep is not what most experts claim it to be. In fact, many of today’s sleep ‘problems’ with young babies and children predominantly occur in the developed world. In Why Your Baby’s Sleep Matters, renowned gentle parenting expert Sarah Ockwell-Smith demonstrates how nurturing babies at night helps their brain development, and covers the topics every parent of a new baby will need to know about, including naps, SIDS, night weaning, coping with your own exhaustion – and even dealing with advice and criticism from others.
Discipline
The Gentle Discipline Book debunks many commonly held beliefs about punishment and motivation, and provides an alternative approach that will empower you to discipline your child in an effective way and with respect. Gentle discipline is not about mollycoddling your child or being a pushover – it means understanding your child, having realistic expectations of them, and responding to their misbehaviour appropriately. It focuses on teaching and learning, not punishment or rewarding. The advice is appropriate to a wide range of ages, from toddler to teenager, and, if you have been using more traditional form of discipline, it will give you the tools – and the confidence – to change to a more mindful approach.
Calm Parents, Happy Kids is the UK version of Dr Laura Markham’s hugely successful and ground-breaking book, Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids. Now adapted for UK audiences, this practical and inspiring book reveals a three step programme that will transform family life.
Most parenting books focus on changing a child’s behaviour, but the truth is that children only change when their relationship with their parents changes. In Calm Parents, Happy Kids, Dr Laura Markham introduces an approach to parenting that eliminates threats, power struggles and manipulation, in favour of setting limits with empathy and communication. Bringing together the latest research in brain development with a focus on emotional awareness (for both parents and children), it will appeal to all parents who don’t want to force their children into compliance and lose their temper, but want to keep calm and help their children want to behave.
Most parenting guides begin with the question “How can we get kids to do what they’re told?” and then proceed to offer various techniques for controlling them. In this truly groundbreaking book, nationally respected educator Alfie Kohn begins instead by asking, “What do kids need—and how can we meet those needs?” What follows from that question are ideas for working with children rather than doing things to them. One basic need all children have, Kohn argues, is to be loved unconditionally, to know that they will be accepted even if they screw up or fall short. Yet conventional approaches to parenting such as punishments (including “time-outs”), rewards (including positive reinforcement), and other forms of control teach children that they are loved only when they please us or impress us. Kohn cites a body of powerful, and largely unknown, research detailing the damage caused by leading children to believe they must earn our approval. That’s precisely the message children derive from common discipline techniques, even though it’s not the message most parents intend to send.
A groundbreaking approach to understanding and parenting children who frequently exhibit severe fits of temper and other intractable behaviors, from a distinguished clinician and pioneer in this field. What’s an explosive child? A child who responds to routine problems with extreme frustration—crying, screaming, swearing, kicking, hitting, biting, spitting, destroying property, and worse. A child whose frequent, severe outbursts leave his or her parents feeling frustrated, scared, worried, and desperate for help. Most of these parents have tried everything-reasoning, explaining, punishing, sticker charts, therapy, medication—but to no avail. They can’t figure out why their child acts the way he or she does; they wonder why the strategies that work for other kids don’t work for theirs; and they don’t know what to do instead. Dr. Ross Greene, a distinguished clinician and pioneer in the treatment of kids with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges, has worked with thousands of explosive children, and he has good news: these kids aren’t attention-seeking, manipulative, or unmotivated, and their parents aren’t passive, permissive pushovers. Rather, explosive kids are lacking some crucial skills in the domains of flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance, and problem solving, and they require a different approach to parenting.
Feeding/Eating
Most parents worry about their child’s eating at some point. Common concerns include picky eating in toddlerhood, sweet cravings and vegetable avoidance in the early school years and dieting and worries about weight in the tween and teenage years. The Gentle Eating Book will help parents to understand their child’s eating habits at each age. Starting from birth, the book covers how to start your child off with the most positive approach to eating, whether they are breast or bottle-fed. Parents of older babies will find information about introducing solids, feeding at daycare and when to wean off of breast or formula milk. For parents with toddlers and older children, Sarah includes advice on picky eating and food refusal, overeating, snacking and navigating eating at school, while parents of tweens and teens will find information on dieting, peer pressure, promoting a positive body image and preparing children for future eating independence. At each age The Gentle Eating Book will help parents to feed their child in a manner that will set up positive eating habits for life.
When you’re expecting a new baby, suddenly everyone around you becomes an expert – particularly when it comes to how to feed them. It is easy to become overwhelmed by conflicting advice, myths and exaggerated stories. The Positive Breastfeeding Book cuts through the anecdotes, giving you clear, no-judgement, non-preachy, evidence-based information to help you make the right decisions for you and your baby. You’ll find plenty of real stories and guidance throughout from mothers and experts in supporting breastfeeding. There are handy chapters on formula and mixed feeding, which cut through advertising spiel and give you the facts you need to choose and use formula safely.
It’s no secret that breastfeeding is the normal, healthy way to nourish and nurture your baby. Dedicated to supporting nursing and expectant mothers, the internationally respected La Leche League has set the standard for educating and empowering mothers in this natural art for generations. Now their classic bestselling guide has been retooled, refocused, and updated for today’s mothers and lifestyles. Working mothers, stay-at-home mums, single mums, and mothers of multiples will all benefit from the book’s range of nursing advice, stories, and information-from preparing for breastfeeding during pregnancy to feeding cues, from nursing positions to expressing and storing breast milk.
Parents everywhere worry when their baby or toddler doesn’t seem to eat as much as they think he should. Carlos González, a paediatrician and father, sets those fears to rest as he explores the reasons why a child refuses food, the pitfalls of growth charts, and the ways that growth and activity affect a child’s calorific needs. He discusses how eating problems start and how they can be avoided. Carlos González reassures parents that children know how much they need to eat and explains why a parent’s only involvement should be providing healthy food choices. Forcing a child to eat more than he needs can only lead to tears, tantrums and, eventually, even obesity.
Toilet Training
The Gentle Potty Training Book is a practical guide to helping your child through one of the most important developmental stages of early childhood. Avoiding strict timelines, rewards and plans that are based solely on a child’s gender, the book advocates an approach that is based on your child’s unique developmental stage – because the gentlest, easiest and most effective potty training happens when you work with your child as a team. Comprehensive, practical and realistic, Sarah’s advice will give you the necessary understanding and confidence to make potty training a smooth process for you and your child.
The Gentle Parenting Site 