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Product Description
Product Description
Forget unrealistic childcare manuals – this is the book you really need to help you cope brilliantly with those first chaotic days and months ahead.
As a health journalist and mother-of-three, Lucy Atkins is familiar with both the medical aspects of childbirth and baby development, and the reality of day-to-day life as an exhausted first-time mum or dad. In her feisty, humorous style, she begins with that first mind-blowing day and addresses the issues unique to the first-time parent who stares at their newborn and thinks “Where are the instructions?”
Anticipating the questions and concerns of all new mothers–Why does my baby cry so much? Will I ever lose all this weight? Am I a bad parent because…?–the book provides practical advice and level-headed reassurance. It addresses the needs of the baby and, very importantly, those of the parent during the first year of their baby’s life.
Contents include:
• Starter’s orders – the equipment and kit you really need, as opposed to what the department store tells you
• Hello – how to cope with the first few hours
• Start – coming home, bonding, how to survive the first few days
• Sleep – for everyone!
• Cry – why your baby cries, what to do, why you'll want to cry, too
• Eat –breastfeeding, supplemental feeding, moving to solids, nutrition
• Grow – baby's physical and mental development
• Play – yes, you two actually can have fun
• Thrive – health considerations for baby and parent
• Live – adapting to your new life, the changing mother-father relationship
• Work – coping with being at home and with going back to work
• Also includes information on single parenting, and on adopted, multiple and special needs babies.
The First-Time Parent is on your side, and reassures that you can cope brilliantly with your new baby and your new life.
About the Author
Following a degree in English from Oxford University, Lucy Atkins established a career as a successful health journalist. She often contributes articles for the Guardian and is a literary critic for both the TLS and the Sunday Times. Her work has also appeared in the Times, the Telegraph, and Red magazine. Lucy has been a first-time parent, as well as a second- and third-time one. She lives with her family in Oxford.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
We were swamped by books on how to bring up our child when expecting a baby; this was the only one that actually sounded like the writer was a mother herself, AND realised that not everyone in the world thought as she did on parenting, or had a child exactly like her own.
Lucy Atkin rounds up all the most common strategies advised where parenting is concerned and offers them with neutrality. She has an honest but non-directional attitude to the great breast v bottle dilemma, she talks with sympathy about women who need to choose childcare early and offers tips on how to spot a good option, and she has some of the most sensible words on diet for toddlers I've ever read. She also recognises that children are simply hard work, as well as exciting, challenging and fantastic. It's such a change to read something that isn't a series of orders, sickly and unrealistic, or depressing. She really conveys what having a first child is like, in all its messy, confusing, glorious excitement, while offering the most down to earth and sensible advice possible. There isn't, anywhere, that depressingly common conviction that anyone whose parenting style is different to the writer's will scar their child for life.
Last but not least, she has listed all the very best resources for new parents - from Mumsnet to Crysis, via the wonderful breast feeding clinic at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
Lucy Atkin rounds up all the most common strategies advised where parenting is concerned and offers them with neutrality. She has an honest but non-directional attitude to the great breast v bottle dilemma, she talks with sympathy about women who need to choose childcare early and offers tips on how to spot a good option, and she has some of the most sensible words on diet for toddlers I've ever read. She also recognises that children are simply hard work, as well as exciting, challenging and fantastic. It's such a change to read something that isn't a series of orders, sickly and unrealistic, or depressing. She really conveys what having a first child is like, in all its messy, confusing, glorious excitement, while offering the most down to earth and sensible advice possible. There isn't, anywhere, that depressingly common conviction that anyone whose parenting style is different to the writer's will scar their child for life.
Last but not least, she has listed all the very best resources for new parents - from Mumsnet to Crysis, via the wonderful breast feeding clinic at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My husband and I had no previous experience of babies whatsoever and had what I'm sure are the usual million questions. It would be unreasonable to expect all those answers in any one book, but Lucy Atkins gives lots of useful information and tips in a down-to-earth, not at all patronising way (unlike some other authors I've read). My favourite chapters are on Crying and Sleeping where she gives handy tips to try out and generally makes you feel.. well, a bit supported really.
Also, I read her book, 'Blooming Birth' when I was pregnant and would absolutely recommend it to anyone having their first child.
Also, I read her book, 'Blooming Birth' when I was pregnant and would absolutely recommend it to anyone having their first child.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Both prior to, and after the birth this book has been of great value to my partner and I. Believe me when I say I knew absolutely nothing about babies when my partner fell pregnant. I devoured this book like a man possessed, driven by my terror at being left in charge of a little persons welfare. The author covers everything you could need and does so without being at all patronising. So now when I'm awake with my daughter at 2am, ear pressed to her chest frantically checking that she's still breathing or panicking that her mild gurgle may lead to all out choking, I have a reference point. It's comforting to know that any concerns I have, be it feeding, sleeping or the inevitable changes to my relationship with my partner, are all explained. Though you'll do well to remember this book is a guide not a miracle worker as all babies are different.
The writing is considered and with real warmth. This book cost me less than a tenner, whilst antenatal classes cost us over £150. I know which one we'll get more use out of as our scary but amazing parental journey continues.
The writing is considered and with real warmth. This book cost me less than a tenner, whilst antenatal classes cost us over £150. I know which one we'll get more use out of as our scary but amazing parental journey continues.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
I love this book!
If you only read one book on babies make this one it! It's practical, down to earth and provides information you can actually use and/or need. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Nic
Excellent with a touch of humour too!
I really like the approach the author has taken with this book. Being a first time parent is a daunting thought and this book helps to keep your feet on the ground. Read more
Published 29 days ago by F. Sangwine
Excellent for first time mums.
Very informative in an informal way. I enjoyed reading it and found it easy to understand. I found the advice practical, and realistic, unlike Gina Ford's book which was like boot... Read more
Published 1 month ago by angiebaby78
Excellent read and will be a permanent fixture on my coffee table!
Absolutely love this book, ok I am still 3 weeks from due date with the first so have not yet put any advice into practice but wanted to read ahead and get prepared and this book... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Katie-Lou
Not my cup of tea...
Being a first time Mum , I wanted a bit of guidance and support and thought this book would offer an honest insight into early parenthood and would be far less 'preachy' than some... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Brownie
good basic advice
easy to read. plenty of good basic tips put in. advice given from a mothers own experience. worth every penny!
Published 3 months ago by annie
Sensible. Funny. Helpful. I'd recommend it to any first time parent
Expensive so if I could have got it second hand or from the library it would have been even better. But its a great book to own, dip into, lend out. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Heatherbell
Too general, patronizing and not practical
The book falls behind first-time parent expectations. While many pages go on discussing the 'emotional side', the useful practical advice is missing. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Jaguar Shoes
The best baby book-bin all the others-this one is amazing!
This has to be the best baby book I've read, I just wish I bought it earlier whilst pregnant and binned all the other patronising, dull and text-booky type ones (written mostly by... Read more
Published 8 months ago by manhattan78
Calming, humerous & informative
This book may be small compared with others but it's full of all the basic essentials that you'll need to know in an easy to read style - so much so that you'll find yourself... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Pap
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