What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.01 You Save: $5.94 (35%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of What to Expect the First Year
Book Review: Not the unbiased authority it claims to be.
Summary: 3 Stars
I have a love-hate relationship with this book. It is huge, and there is something to read on every question you may have. However, it is often highly misleading, and despite being theoretically a UK version, a lot of the information is more relevant to the USA. It is presented as an unbiased reference book, for example listing arguments for and against certain approaches to childcare. However, the authors have been highly selective in the arguments they list in such sections, so that many points which they presumably do not agree with are either not included, or presented unfairly. The book seems to promote an American conservative approach to childcare, which seems peculiar in the UK. For example, the authors are evidently very much in favour of routine circumcision of baby boys, and the list of possible arguments against it is small and superficial. This operation is routine in some US hospitals, but is generally considered unnecessary and unfair in the UK - most doctors will refuse to perform it unless there is some overrriding clinical or religious imperative.
The book is less supportive of breastfeeding than any other modern childcare book I have read, and it gives strange advice in this chapter. The authors claim that breastfeeding is not recommended in a range of situations, but most lactation authorities would disagree with many of them. If you want help with breastfeeding, consult the experts at La Leche League or the National Childbirth Trust, and ignore this book.
In numerous other areas, the book presents some highly controversial views as if they were accepted facts. Use this book if you will, but consult other sources as well.
Book Review: Useful question-and-answer approach fills in the gaps.
Summary: 4 Stars
The book takes a helpful approach including month-by-month development, medical reference, and question-and-answer section. The latter helped answer many of the things that worry new parents but that really are too silly to ask.While it is a good all-around guide, it could be laughably contradictory. For example, it encouraged mothers not to be uptight about losing weight, then stressed such picayune measures as ordering brown rice with chinese takeaway. Similarly, if I had taken their restrictive advice to heart against any sugar or fats in a baby's diet my little one would have starved by now. You just wish the author would chill out a bit.
Still, I plan to buy the next "What to Expect Book". This one was both helpful and entertaining, even if some of the hoots were unintentional.
Book Review: overall, helpful, but with a US bias
Summary: 4 Stars
Supposedly a UK edition, but rather biased towards a US view. The month by month what to expect lists are useful, as are the question and answer format by month. It seeks to provide unbiased advice, for example it is the least pro breastfeeding book I have seen, which is comforting to those who cannot or choose not to breast feed exclusively. It is the one book I have continued to dip into.Book Review: an excellent reference book
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this book in addition to other books and found the layout and Q&A format very easy to get on with. I found the guides to development to be very good, giving me an idea of what to expect, as well as how to help encouraging the development through play and interaction etc. Whereas some of the information has an obvious US slant, it is nonetheless a useful reference book. Very accessible to the sleep-deprived (and lacking in concentration) new motherBook Review: Month by month format very useful
Summary: 4 Stars
What to Expect in the First year was invaluable. I read it monthly, and it was a useful guide for a first time mum to read about what to do next (particularly when you have to begin to child proof the house in advance). Also friends and relatives' memories of what happened when to their babies I found notoriously inaccurate - the memory fades quickly. Because of this I had more confidence in the accuracy of the book than in much casual word-of-mouth advice. The checklists for your baby's development were fun - and flexible, so they clued me up to what to look for next in his movements, sounds etc. The question format worked well too - I had my doubts at first as I thought they'd not be the questions I'd want to ask. While they were often witness to more extreme behaviour than my baby was exhibiting, this was also reassuring. The question format also made the information much more accessible. Sometimes it didn't go into enough medical detail for me - having read Sheila Kitzinger's Pregnancy and Birth, I was used to a more informed discussion of the medical choices you can make. Though pleasingly, it was one of the best on circumcision, and didn't have the bias against many British books do. However, I could have done with more discussion over immunizations at the end of the first year, the scientific evidence behind avoiding cows milk and the evidence for linking it to eczema, and eczema to asthma, the scientific evidence behind peanut allergies etc. Nevertheless, I found this book in combination with Annabel Karmel's The New Complete Baby and Toddler Planner made a good pair (the latter was an excellent guide to preparing baby foods for different ages, though some of the recipes were too sweet for my taste). The only other book I used was 'Breast is Best' for queries on breast feeding (i.e. what are the symptoms of mastitis).