We expect that everything that falls under its umbrella will help make EC more approachable for a wider audience. Andrea’s approach is consistent with the philosophy of DiaperFreeBaby and makes it clear that EC is foremost about gentle communication. Furthermore, the material is organized in a manner that prevents the reader from becoming overwhelmed – a strangely frequent phenomenon, given the simplicity and naturalness of EC itself. In short, this project is a real tour de force and a great resource that EC advocates everywhere should not hesitate to recommend.” From the Directors of DiaperFreeBaby.org, the international non-profit dedicated to advocating Elimination Communication "I highly recommend this beautiful and excellent resource for EC families. It is the first multimedia version (bravo!) and thus enables readers to quickly find things in the book. Go Diaper Free is richly illustrated and is an invaluable compilation of information." Laurie Boucke, author of Infant Potty Training: A Gentle and Primeval Method Adapted to Modern Living In this practical handbook, learn the steps to starting and maintaining an Elimination Communication practice with your 0-18 month baby. Go Diaper Free is a filtered and simplified collection of all the existing EC research plus the newest findings in the field organized in a dummy-proof format. If you wish to avoid years of diaper dependence and potty training struggles, diaper rash and unexplained fussiness, filling the landfills and misunderstanding your baby's cries...then EC can work for you and this book is the perfect guide. If you are simply considering EC, in the middle of a horrid potty pause, or are already on board with EC but confused about how to begin, this book is the only resource you need. What you'll find inside: The exact steps of how to begin EC, separated into three age ranges, illustrated with photos and flowcharts; the only existing guides for starting EC older (5-18 months), working towards graduation, and completion; preventing/correcting dozens of common challenges (from potty pauses to peeing on the floor to general troubleshooting); over 100 photos of correct pottying positions; nighttime, part-time, travel, and on-the-go pottying; how to use cloth diapers with EC; and more. A readers' support webpage is also available which includes private instruction videos, downloadable forms, and a private forum, making the process a visual, hands-on experience...which is how Elimination Communication is best learned. About Elimination Communication Elimination Communication, also known as infant potty training or having a diaper free baby, is the natural alternative to diapers and toilet training. Ever wonder why the US's average age for potty independence is now 3 years old, but it's only 1 year old in over half the rest of the world? These cultures know that babies are born communicating their hygiene needs. EC is an eco-friendly practice that translates this ancient knowledge for use in the modern world. Know that 'diaper-free' really means free from dependence upon diapers. It can be practiced part time or full time, with or without a diaper as back-up. About the Author Andrea Olson, M.A., is a DiaperFreeBaby Mentor and resident EC expert at http://godiaperfree.com, which features the annual international awareness week, Go Diaper Free Week, and her EC podcast (the first of its kind). Andrea's Masters degree in Counseling Psychology has enabled her to professionally support 1,000s of parents worldwide practice EC with their babies in a balanced, psychologically sound manner.

    Offering age-appropriate advice on sleeping, eating, and early learning, as well as the basic sensory principles, Baby Sense is the perfect tool for every parent who has ever wondered why a baby is crying--and how to soothe him.

    Retro Baby: Cut Back on Infant Gear, Media and Smart Toys, and Boost Your Baby’s Development with Time-Tested Activities helps caregivers understand the potential dangers of extended equipment use and overexposure to technology.Retro Baby brings 20 years of experience from an occupational therapist and mother of three into your home. Anne Zachry, Ph.D. understands that each family and baby have different needs, and she offers flexible strategies and suggestions for playtime. With “back to the basic” ideas, Dr. Zachry gives you lots of opportunities to spend one-on-one time with your baby, creating that special bond that will last a lifetime.

    But if you look closely most of them are about motherhood. Fathers get brief paragraphs about needing the odd cuddle themselves and being helpful for carrying the heavier elements of baby kit, but that's it. Fatherhood - The Truth, on the other hand, is a shed-friendly man's guide to the whole scary, life-changing business. One that looks beyond the happy-clappy cliches into the fiery hell of night feeds and projectile vomiting. 'Shit happens' will suddenly start to make sense as a phrase. Providing crucial information and insight on every aspect of parenting with pitch-perfect humour, it takes the dad-to-be on a white-knuckle ride from conception to the first birthday that also considers the emotional truths and selfish imperatives that fathers are usually asked to bury out of sight. A personally informed journey, Fatherhood - The Truth also touches all the crucial practical bases to make it a one-stop, know-it-all manual for the father-to-be.

    Not literally of course, but you’ll be slap bang in the middle of nine months of flying hormones, back rubs, and too much talk of childbirth - you’re in for the ride of your life. And you're going to be a dad. Fatherhood is just around the corner – are you ready? Most pregnancy books are for the mother but this one is just for you, the new father. We guide you through nine months of joy, excitement, fear, lots of big words, and an expanding bump, so that you emerge from this emotional rollercoaster ready for anything your new born baby will throw at you (which will either be sick, poo or regurgitated milk). From how your baby grows month by month to how to support your partner (it’s the little things that count, we tell ourselves), international bestseller Pregnancy for Men is your survival guide to the whole nine months.

    Learn how to parent effectively while teaching your children responsibility and growing their character. Establish healthy control through easy-to-implement steps without anger, threats, nagging, or power struggles. Indexed for easy reference.

    In her newest book, she conquers, one by one, all those behavioral bugaboos that can make a child seem, at times, impossible-and a parent's life hell. With explicit, life-saving tips on the perfect thing to say or do when things get out of control, "Ain't Misbehavin'" offers parents a sensible, democratic solution to meeting even the toughest discipline challenges.Includes first-person accounts of literally hundreds of parenting conundrums-with practical insights on what exactly to doFull of detailed "how to do it" advice for a multitude of situations parents inevitably faceWhile acknowledging the daily reality that parents face, Schaefer's humor and experience make this book a must for parents who want to preserve the peace and also the joy of raising a child.

    In Gentle Birth Choices Barbara Harper, renowned childbirth advocate, nurse, former midwife, and mother of three, helps to clarify these choices and shows how to plan a meaningful, family-centered birth experience. She dispels medical myths and reimagines birth without fear, pain, or violence. Harper explains the numerous gentle birth choices available, including giving birth in an independent birth center, at home, or in a hospital birthing room; finding a primary caregiver who shares your philosophy of birth; and deciding how to best use current technologies. She also provides practical advice for couples wishing to explore the option of using a doula or water during labor and birth to avoid the unwanted effects of drugs and epidurals.The Gentle Birth Choices DVD blends interviews with midwives and physicians and six actual births that illustrate the options of water birth, home birth, and vaginal birth after a prior Cesarean section. The DVD clearly reveals the strength of women during childbirth and the healthy and happy outcome of women exercising gentle birth choices. It is a powerful instructional tool, not only for expectant parents, but also for midwives, hospitals, birth centers, and doctors.

    The choices of when, how, and what to feed your baby can be overwhelming. With The Pediatrician’s Guide to Feeding Babies and Toddlers, you have the expertise of a team of pediatric medical and nutritional experts—who also happen to be parents—in a comprehensive manual that takes the guesswork out of feeding. This first-of-its-kind guide provides practical, easy-to-follow advice to help you navigate the nutrition issues, medical conditions, and parenting concerns that accompany feeding. With recipes, parenting stories, and recommendations based on the latest pediatric guidelines, this book will allow you to approach mealtime with confidence so you can spend more time enjoying your new family.

    Nina Planck, one of the great food activists, changed the way we view old-fashioned foods like butter with her groundbreaking Real Food. T hen she got pregnant. Never one to accept conventional wisdom blindly, Nina found the usual advice about pregnancy and baby food riddled with myths and misunderstandings. In Real Food for Mother and Baby, Nina explains why many modern ideas about pregnancy and infant nutrition are wrongheaded and why traditional foods are best. While Nina can be controversial—her op-ed in the New York Times on vegan diets for infants was one of the paper’s most e-mailed articles— she’s no contrarian. Readers applaud her candor; they also trust her research and welcome her advice. Nina’s basic premise hasn’t changed—whole foods are best—but some of the details are surprising. Pregnant women need meat and salt, not iron supplements. Nursing will be easier if you act like the mammal you are. Delaying the introduction of certain solid foods doesn’t prevent allergies. Cereals are not the best foods for tiny eaters; meat and egg yolks are better. From conception to two years, the body’s overwhelming needs are for quality fat and protein, not for carrots and low-fat dairy. Even as she casts a skeptical eye on the conventional wisdom, Nina is reassuring. She shows you how to keep your baby healthy on good, simple food. Real Food for Mother and Baby will be the new classic on eating for two.

    Carl Jones, a certified childbirth educator, tells how using mental imagery can help you reduce the pain of labor by controlling the fear beforehand. His easy-to-follow, eight-step method, which teaches your mind to cooperate with your body, will help make your childbirth less stressful and more natural. Whether you plan to give birth at home, in a childbearing center, or in a hospital, Carl Jones's simple exercises will put you in touch with the best instrument of birth there is--yourself.

    It's about doing all the things you swore you'd never do to get something you hadn't even been sure you wanted. It's about being a woman in a confusing, contradictory time. It's about testing the limits of a loving marriage. And it's about trying (and trying and trying) to have a baby. Orenstein's story begins when she tells her new husband that she's not sure she ever wants to be a mother; it ends six years later after she's done almost everything humanly possible to achieve that goal, from "fertility sex" to escalating infertility treatments to New Age remedies to forays into international adoption. Her saga unfolds just as professional women are warned by the media to heed the ticking of their biological clocks, and just as fertility clinics have become a boom industry, with over two million women a year seeking them out. Buffeted by one jaw-dropping obstacle after another, Orenstein seeks answers both medical and spiritual in America and Asia, along the way visiting an old flame who's now the father of fifteen, and discovering in Japan a ritual of surprising solace. All the while she tries to hold onto a marriage threatened by cycles, appointments, procedures and disappointments. Waiting for Daisy is an honest, wryly funny report from the front, an intimate page-turner that illuminates the ambivalence, obsession, and sacrifice that characterize so many modern women's lives.

    Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison, both married to Dutchmen and bringing up their kids in Holland, examine the unique environment that enables the Dutch to turn out such contented, well-adjusted and healthy babies, children and teens. Read this book if you want to find out what lessons you can learn from Dutch parents, to ensure your kids turn out happy!

    Friends, family, colleagues, the UPS delivery guy—suddenly everybody is a trove of advice, much of it contradictory and confusing. With dire warnings of what will happen if baby is fed on demand and even direr warnings of what will happen if he isn't, not to mention hordes of militant “lactivists,” cosleeping advocates, and books on what to worry about next, modern parenthood can seem like a minefield. In busy Mom-friendly short essays, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay delivers the empathetic straight dirt on parenting, tackling everything from Mommy & Me classes (“Your baby doesn't need to be making friends at three months old—you do! But not with people you'll meet at Mommy & Me”) to attachment parenting (“If you're holding your baby 24/7, that's not a baby, that's a tumor”). Stefanie Wilder-Taylor combines practical tips with sidesplitting humor and refreshing honesty, assuring women that they can be good mothers and responsibly make their own choices. A witty and welcome antidote to trendy parenting texts and scarifying case studies, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay provides genuine support, encouragement, and indispensable common-sense advice.

    Are all these C-sections necessary, or are some of them done simply for the sake of convenience? Inductions seem to be the norm, but are they always needed? Today, expectant mothers are often left feeling powerless, as their instincts are replaced by drugs and routine medical procedures. What you are about to discover is that you have a choice, and you have the power to plan the kind of birth that's right for you-whether it is at a birth center, a hospital, or at home. In YOUR BEST BIRTH, internationally known advocates of informed choice RickiLake and Abby Epstein inspire women to take back the birth experience, with essential advice on:· Positive and negative effects of epidurals, Pitocin, and other drugs and interventions · Inducing vs. allowing your labor to progress naturally · The truth behind our country's staggering C-section rate · Assembling your birth team and creating your birth plan.With chapters such as "Obstetricians: Finding Dr. Right," "Epidurals: You Haven't Got Time for the Pain," and "Electronic Monitors: Reading between the Lines," Lake and Epstein will encourage you to consider whatever your doctor, mother, and best friend may suggest in a new light. The book also includes inspiring birth stories, including those from well-known personalities, such as Laila Ali and Cindy Crawford. Packed with crucial advice from childbirth professionals, and delivered in a down-to-earth, engaging voice, YOUR BEST BIRTH is sure to renew your confidence and put the control back where it belongs: with parents-to-be!"Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake have taken a wonderful and constructive approach to ensuring an optimal birthing experience. Their language creates a 'climate of confidence' for pregnant women and their families, who must make key decisions about where, how and with whom to give birth in a health care system often unresponsive to our needs. This book is like a good friend giving wise counsel." --Judy Norsigian, co-editor of Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth and Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves