Product Description

“TRACY HOGG HAS GIVEN PARENTS A GREAT GIFT–the ability to develop early insight into their child’s temperament.”
–Los Angeles Family

When Tracy Hogg’s Secrets of the Baby Whisperer was first published, it soared onto bestseller lists across the country. Parents everywhere became “whisperers” to their newborns, amazed that they could actually communicate with their baby within weeks of their child’s birth. Tracy gave parents what for some amounted to a miracle: the ability to understand their baby’s every coo and cry so that they could tell immediately if the baby was hungry, tired, in real distress, or just in need of a little TLC. Tracy also dispelled the insidious myth that parents must go sleepless for the first year of a baby’s life–because a happy baby sleeps through the night. Now you too can benefit from Tracy’s more than twenty years’ experience. In this groundbreaking book, she shares simple, accessible programs in which you will learn:

• E.A.S.Y.–how to get baby to eat, play, and sleep on a schedule that will make every member of the household’s life easier and happier.
• S.L.O.W.–how to interpret what your baby is trying to tell you (so you don’t try to feed him when he really wants a nap).
• How to identify which type of baby yours is–Angel, Textbook, Touchy, Spirited, or Grumpy–and then learn the best way to interact with that type.
• Tracy’s Three Day Magic–how to change any and all bad habits (yours and the baby’s) in just three days.

At the heart of Tracy’s simple but profound message: treat the baby as you would like to be treated yourself. Reassuring, down-to-earth, and often flying in the face of conventional wisdom, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer promises parents not only a healthier, happier baby but a more relaxed and happy household as well.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1908 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-26
• Released on: 2005-07-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
The last thing new parents can find time for is quiet reading, so many helpful books on infant care rely on bullet points and a "let's get to the point" writing style. Tracy Hogg, a neonatal nurse, teacher, and mother of two, uses these techniques to good effect in Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. Focusing on newborns and their parents, her simple programs are a blend of intelligent intuition and methods based on years of experience. The first half of the book is devoted to E.A.S.Y--her name for creating a structured daily routine for you and your baby that makes the most of your baby's awake times and also leaves time just for you. These concepts aren't designed to force your bundle of joy into not following her body's needs, but rather to create a feasible middle ground between total rigidity and on-demand food and sleep (and no time for mom to shower). If it still strikes you as too regimented, keep reading. The author makes room for differences in personal style and includes short quizzes to determine whether you're a "planner" or a "winger", and what level of daily structure you are likely to find helpful. In the same chapter, she identifies five general temperaments of infants, how to get an accurate feel for yours, and what methods of care are likely to be the most effective for his temperament. Her statement that babies prefer routine is backed up by research from the University of Denver. While most of the book relies on anecdotes to get the points across, Hogg does find room to back up some of her statements with quotes from various researchers and institutions. Included at the end of the book are assurances that E.A.S.Y. can be followed even with a colicky baby or one who's been ruling the roost for the first few months. Frustrated parents might like to read the last page first: "all the baby-whispering advice in the world is useless unless you're having a good time being a parent" is an excellent reminder to enjoy this time with all of its ups and downs. --Jill Lightner

From Library Journal
Hogg, an English nurse and founder of Baby Technique, a Los Angeles-based newborn and lactation consulting firm, has a way of calming and caring for babies that led one of her clients to dub her "the baby whisperer." In this, her first book, she teaches parents how to decipher "infants' language"Dtheir cries, gestures, and facial expressions. Her E.A.S.Y. (eat, activity, sleep, your time) method offers a relaxed, commonsense approach. Every aspect of care for mom and baby is covered, with interesting charts and clear references. There are many good books on baby care, such as Arlene Eisenberg and others' What To Expect the First Year (LJ 6/1/89), Jodi A Mindell's Sleeping Through the Night (LJ 6/1/97), and, of course, Dr. Spock's oeuvre, but this book possesses unusual tenderness and heart, and it respects babies as people, albeit little ones. For all public libraries and any parenting shelf, this is the perfect gift for a new mom and family.DAnnette V. Janes, Hamilton P.L., MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
The author is a midwife and nanny who's connected in a most unique and intimate way with many babies and their parents. She seems to know firsthand what babies need and what moms worry about. The basic message is to slow down, respect the baby's own pace and dignity, and provide enough stability and structure for the baby to organize its emerging world. The advice is intuitive, nothing revolutionary, but that's probably the point--to help moms get back to the basics of helping little people into the world with love and without making everyone else crazy. The abridgment flows, and the bubbly reading by the author herself is engaging. T.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Not Ideal for Newborns
Reading this book in the months before my son's birth gave me what I later realized was a false sense of security. Hogg's EASY system sounds so practical and logical: feed child (Eat), do an Activity with your baby, put the kid to bed while s/he's sleepy but not yet asleep (Sleep), get in some You time while the baby slumbers. By structuring your day around a series of EASY episodes you can then learn to differentiate hunger cries (which your baby should only make when s/he awakes) from other types of cries. The end result is a well-rested baby (and parent), clear communication between parent and child, and a moderately flexible routine that gives baby a sense of security. To someone completely new to parenting, this sounds absolutely foolproof and makes perfect sense.

The day after I brought my son home from the hospital I realized how useless this system was for a newborn. A baby up to 6-8 weeks is basically a stomach that needs sleep (a stomach, it turns out, that doesn't always work well and results in a lot of gas, crying, and sleeplessness). You want your new baby to feed frequently (especially if breastfeeding). There are very few "activities" a 1 week old is capable of (Hogg acknowledges this in "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems"). And it really is natural (and even desirable) for a baby in the first few weeks of life to fall asleep directly after nursing. So much for EASY.

In addition, many new parents quickly learn (as I did) that some newborns will only fall asleep if they're basically on top of a warm body. For Hogg, the only thing worse than a mother who nurses her child to sleep is a parent who co-sleeps with her baby. I'll agree that neither may be desirable with, say, a three-year-old, but with a newborn both may be (temporarily) inevitable. A three-week-old is flat-out incapable of manipulating a parent or communicating anything beyond his or her needs. Trying to impose Hogg's system on a newborn is a fruitless exercise in self-torture. Perhaps the EASY method works for older babies, but children under 6-8 weeks will not benefit from Hogg's system.

Excellent Book for 1st Time Mommy!
If you are a first time mom, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK! It unlocked so many baby secrets for me, and made being a parent easier. I have given this book to all my girlfriends at their showers.

Yawn
Rather boring. She says alot of what is common sense to most moms and there are no "secrets" to what mother nature gave us. I would not recommend it to friends or family. The one positive - its a really cheap book!