The Social Baby: Understanding Babies' Communication from Birth

"I may have misread the title but this book is only useful prior to becoming a first-time parent and up until about four weeks old. After that, none of the revelations regarding communication will have meaning, well unless you chose not to interact with your newborn.

With a twelve week old, this book only served to confirm what I already knew, which was assuring if anything. In my opinion, it would benefit from photos of fussing, quiet active, tired and bored expressions of 6-10 week olds.

And did this book really take 6 years to compile, or did I misread that as well?"
~ Written on 2008-06-18

"This book was facinating and was so helpful in understanding our newborn baby. It was so reassuring to observe normal behaviour in the beautiful photos and was not a how to guide like other books but enabled us to come up with our own solutions. It was recommended by my health visitor and since i have recommended it to all my friends with or having babies. "
~ Written on 2008-06-11

"This book is delightful and such a refreshing change from the "how to cope with your baby" genre of books for new parents!

The style is sympathetic and informative; the pictures and commentary enable you to understand how your baby communicates with you from the start. It's so wonderful to understand how strongly the newborn baby is motivated to join in with its new social world, and learn about the non-verbal messages that he's giving us. This book approaches babies as the little people that they are and delights in their abilities.

As a new parent, although not a childcare professional, I'd heartily recommend this book to parents and anyone sharing the care of babies."
~ Written on 2008-04-25

"This book is an absolute treasure and does give you what it promises.
The pictures explain much more than thousands of words would try to do.
Would be great if it were on everyone's bookshelves!
"
~ Written on 2008-02-21

"I bought this book because i was looking for something different than the usual "guide to the first year" type of thing. It certainly is a different type of book! However, it shouldn't take the place of these other books, but add to them, as it is about baby behaviour, and not what they need physically (in terms of feeding, changing etc)

This book is packed with pictures and very easy to understand and clear text as well as lots of helpful ideas on how to soothe crying babies, help with sleeping etc. The authors suggest different methods for soothing babies, but unlike other books, the different ideas don't confuse you, instead it is suggested to read the baby's body language to gage what they need from you. Along with lots of pictures and information on what this body language is!

I have learned so much from this book and will definitely be using this book for the first year. The only downside was that i wanted more chapters , as it was so informative!"
~ Written on 2008-02-18