Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect and Communicate with Your Baby - Books (Tracy Hogg, Paperback)

Overjoyed but exhausted? Perplexed but purring? Then you may just be a new parent. And if you're looking for practical reassurance and advice then Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect and Communicate with your Baby is for you.

Clearly a remarkable person, Tracy Hogg (the "baby whisperer") has an impressive ability to understand and relate to babies. Herself a mother, she is an experienced maternity nurse and has derived her approach from her dealings with countless babies and their families. Forgiving and sympathetic in style, her book is well written, immensely readable and is full of gems and shrewd observations that even the seasoned parent may not have worked out. She emphasises the importance of showing respect to your baby: "Just try to remember that this is a little human being in your arms, a person whose senses are alive, a tiny being who already knows your voice and even what you smell like." And so the parent is instructed to give the newly returned-home baby an explanatory commentary and friendly guided tour of his or her new home.

Those who enjoy personality quizzes will love the Know-Your-Baby Quiz in which you can "zero in" on your baby's type which, according to Ms Hogg could be "Angel", "Textbook", "Touchy", "Spirited" or "Grumpy". She then provides tips on the best way to handle each type of baby. Advocating a structured routine with the acronym EASY (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You) she then demonstrates how it works for the benefit of all the family. The book covers most topics from sex to weaning, but possibly the most helpful, even beautiful, section is where the Baby Whisperer divulges her secrets for interpreting your baby's body language, signals and cries.

If you find The Baby Whisperer helpful, you may well also be interested in Gina Ford's The Contented Little Baby Book, What to Expect: the First Year and the slightly higher brow Babyhood by Penelope Leach. --Rebecca Pickering

Customer Reviews of Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect and Communicate with Your Baby

Mrs. F. Ogden
uk
15th December 2008

good book
As a first time mum struggling to cope with my son this book was recommended to me. I didn't rigidly follow anything that she said but it did help me to understand that all babies are different and although i hadn't started off on the right foot, I was able to adjust our routine to cope with guidance from tracy hogg.
I would recommend this to anyone to read.

Mummy Looks Fab
Shoreham
14th October 2008

No-one ever said it would be E.A.S.Y.....o hang on, yes they did!
If you had asked me to rate this book when my first son was a year old, they would have had to invent a new system. It was easily an eleven out of ten. He thrived on it, it worked, we all loved it.

Then my daughter came in to the world with a very different view of things and suddenly, my tried and tested E.A.S.Y. arsenal was laid to waste. She didnt sleep, she ate all the time, she cried and cried....where the pages telling you waht to do when you were so fatigued and cross with your newborn that you feared what you might do!?!

We were following the guidelines - we were doing the stuff - she just didnt like it, and I had neglected to take her opinions in to account!

In the end, I relaxed and gave myself a break - which is actually something Tracy Hogg recommends you do regularly, and I stopped trying to make my baby fit with something that had worked so well before.

I re-read it from a fresh perspective and once again, I found things that were useful. but with a more challenging baby, there are still some glaring ommissions. I wish Tracy would describe the crying that can go on as something more than "fussing".

When your baby can scream herself purple in under five minutes, and the only thing that works for both of you is a cuddle, then there is no mileage in continuing the crying. Continuing with a regime that isn't working for everybody is the stuff of nightmares.

There is definitely an argument for delaying some of the tactics used until you and your baby are ready, and not worrying about "bad habits". I wasted a lot of the first few months imaginging Tracy standing over me with a disapproving look as I guiltily administered the dummy or the breast to get my baby to sleep. She is now 6 months old and none of those props are required, so all of that stress was for nothing.

I would still recommend this book for the top tips on breastfeeding, and the common sense approach to most baby related problems. There are also some useful (if slightly American-ised) case studies.

I would just add the caveat that if your baby screams, you feel like tearing the book apart with your teeth and E.A.S.Y really doesn't seem to be working - its time to put the book down and accept that sometimes these formulaic approaches need a bit more flexibility. It does not mean your baby or you are broken, and eventually things will come together!

M. Crossley
London, UK
14th October 2008

Wet and impractical (especially for sleep problems)
Brought this as a contrast to the Gina Ford "contented baby", which my wife and I found way too inflexible - but sadly it was far too much the other way.

In particular I would not recommend this book's approach to solving baby sleep problems, and in our case I am pretty sure it made things worse. For this usage I would very strongly instead recommend the much more authoritative and factually-based book by Dr Furber Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems - which sorted us out within a week.

ridingtheunicorn
london
18th June 2008

made me feel like the worst mother in the world.
I bought this book, hoping to help me with my daughters sleeping, and routine. Instead it made me feel like the worst mother ever. I was trying to do things with her, that made no sense, kept trying to make her sleep all the time, when she shouldn't have been. Such a terrible book, don't buy it, it will confuse you, and make you feel rubbish!!!!!

bookworm44

5th June 2008

Not sure where to start
I think this would be an okay book if you felt that you have no idea how to take care of a baby. Like most parenting books. I picked it up after my baby was about 5 months old and found it useless, but I suppose if you had to it start with it might give you a couple of tips. My only advice would be to not take it as gospel and to pick and choose what you want to use and go by your own instinct.