The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer

by Harvey Karp

book data

1,607 ratings, 4.06 average rating, 555 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		38%
4		35%
3		19%
2		4%
1		1%

edit

published

May 27th 2003 (first published 2002) by Bantam

binding

Paperback, 288 pages

isbn

0553381466 (isbn13: 9780553381467)

description

Dr. Harvey Karp is a nationally renowned pediatrician and child development specialist. His writing has been praised by celebrities like Madonna, Mic...more

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | compare prices…

new topic
discuss this book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Review	1	13	11/03/2008 03:03PM

friend reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists. Add this book to your favorite list »

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,946)

sort: default (?) | date
filters: all | text-only

02/26/08

Emily rated it:

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: I'll share the two pages with you that were good

The authors ideas seem good (of course I don’t have a baby yet, so what do I know?). Anyways, he says:
• babies have a 4th trimester,
• swaddling, putting babies on their side, shushing babies, letting them suck, and swinging will help a baby feel like it’s still in the womb and thus calm them.

Unfortunately, the author repeats the same thoughts so many times, you get the feeling he was really just trying to stretch out his thoughts so that he could sell an en...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

1 comment

05/09/08

Ryan rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in January, 2006

recommended to Ryan by: Someone who thought they were being helpful
recommends it for: frightened new parents

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

09/01/07

Lara rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: soon-to-be parents, parents of young babies

I have to read this book to be certified in the curriculum for my job with Prevent Child Abuse Illinois, and normally I wouldn't put this type of thing on a personal book list, but it's so great! Obviously I don't have children, but some day in the future when I do, I definitely want to use these techniques! It talks of the "5 S's to Stop a Crying Baby"- swaddle, side/stomach position, shushing, swinging, and sucking! And I have the DVDs for the whole curriculum, which is amazing! The ...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

06/10/08

Lisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in December, 2007

recommended to Lisa by: Amazon.com
recommends it for: Pregnant Women and their partners

This book is an absolute parenting essential. In the future, I will purchase this book, along with a swaddler, for every friend/relative who has a new baby. It's the closest thing to magic I have encountered during my brief time as a parent!

We used the techniques in this book almost every day for the first 4 months of our child's life. We still swaddle our son now and he's almost six months old.

I wold strongly recommend reading it before you give birth - we actually used...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

05/20/08

Adam rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in September, 2008

There's quite a bit of filler in this, I think it could have been about half the length or less, and the publisher was looking for an excuse to charge the full 12.95 or whatever a book costs nowadays. That said, THIS BOOK IS MAGICAL. As a new parent, I don't know what I would do without this book.

Swaddle, Side, Sway, Shhh, Suck. There be magic in them words, and while I'm up at 1am writing this review, my baby is quiet, if not asleep enough to lay down on her own. I'd be ripping...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

12/11/08

Kim rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in June, 2007

The basic points are good - and they work. But, the book is amazingly boring.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

01/07/09

Marnie added it (review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in January, 2009

While I can't yet attest to the results this book claims, it seems like it has good suggestions for the first 3-4 months of your child's life. There is a LOT of repetition, and it could've been a much shorter book.

The author believes that babies are missing a fourth trimester in the womb and thinks the best way to calm a fussy baby is to recreate their experience in the womb. The main points are the 5 s's, which need to be done in order:
1. Swaddle- to stop your baby from flail...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

10/28/07

Amelia rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in November, 2005

recommends it for: every new mother

How can I say this?... If you want to never hear your baby cry for longer than 5 seconds and have them sleep through the night for their first three months, read this book and get the instructional DVD. I read it twice and perfected the technique before my baby boy was born and I seriously LOVED having a newborn and NEVER felt like I couldn't console him. It worked EVERY TIME. I really don't know how people do it without knowing this technique. It's a must for every mom.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

05/26/09

Carrie rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in May, 2009

I saw this doctor on Oprah YEARS ago... I remember that the audience was full of QUIET, contented babies and I wondered if they were all sedated.

The premise is that human babies are born 3 months BEFORE they are really developed because of the size of their heads. Therefore, the fist 100 days of their life is virtually a "fourth trimester" in which the baby needs constant vigilance and caring.

He offers "cuddle cure"... 5 steps done in sequence to calm...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

04/13/09

Annette rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

bookshelves: non-fiction---self-help, own, parenting-and-childhood

Read in April, 2009

In the last couple of years, I have read - or at least tried to read - more "self-help" type books than probably the rest of my life combined. I am noticing a common problem: the author has a good or even great idea, piece of advice, research, or insight into the human condition. This idea can be adequately communicated in, say, 5 or 10 pages. But, the author would like to make some money off this idea, and therefore goes shopping for a book deal. The publishers would like to sell ...more In the last couple of years, I have read - or at least tried to read - more "self-help" type books than probably the rest of my life combined. I am noticing a common problem: the author has a good or even great idea, piece of advice, research, or insight into the human condition. This idea can be adequately communicated in, say, 5 or 10 pages. But, the author would like to make some money off this idea, and therefore goes shopping for a book deal. The publishers would like to sell a hardback at $20 and a bunch of paperbacks at $8 to $15. Obviously no-one will pay that for a 10 page book. So, the author and/or his ghost writers wrap his simple idea up into 150 to 200 pages of repetitive, often intelligence insulting prose.
"The Happiest Baby" is perhaps one of the worst examples of this trend I've yet come across. The entire book may be summed up in two points:
1) Babies aged 0 to 3 months who are in no true pain or hunger can usually be rapidly calmed by recreating a womb-like environment, which can be done by following the "5 S's" (Swaddling, side position, shushing, swinging, and sucking. Read the book if you want the details.)
2) It is OK to do this whenever your baby cries in this age range, because you cannot "spoil" a child still in its "fourth trimester."

This is pretty much all we need to know. But Dr. Karp, in an obvious effort to get his word count up, spends chapter upon chapter discussing colic, why the commonly ascribed causes cannot be correct, why his explanation makes the most sense, dozens of anecdotal examples, etc, etc, etc. One must wade through all this before getting to the meat of the plan, which is neatly summarized in a two-page diagram in the middle of the book. Errgh.

I always tend towards written vs. audio/visual material. Perhaps in this case, however, the DVD would have been a better bet. My baby isn't born yet, but from the number of parents who recommended this video, I've no real doubt that "The 5 S's" will work for us and save us and our son much frustration - especially if he turns out to be "colicky." Frankly, that's more than worth the price of admission ($13 at Target.) But it does leave me wishing that the current perverse incentives on self-help authors could be somehow reduced so I could waste less time on this sort of literature.

(For what it's worth, my husband, who has a PhD, assures me that the problem is just as significant in dissertations. He estimates that roughly 10% of his 200 page thesis contained his actual "contribution to the field." The rest was largely irrelevant...)

UPDATE: Either I am in a better mood today, or the last 4-6 chapters in the book were far more worthwhile than the first 4-6. :) Seriously, there was some good info in the latter 1/4 of the book on how to tell if your baby is really sick, how to transition away from the "S's" when your child is 4 months old or so, etc.
So if you're reading this book, scan the first 1/2, pay close attention to the exact techniques in the middle, and read to the end. (less)

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

01/10/09

Laurel rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in January, 2009

I thought this was a good book and I especially thought it would be helpful for parents of a colicky baby, although, so far I haven't had one.

However, there we some things I didn't like about it. I thought that the author was wrong in saying that soothing a baby is not a natural or instinctual thing. I think all of the 5 S's come very naturally to parents if they are trusting their instincts, but a lot of parents are too afraid to trust themselves. I did all of those things with...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

01/19/09

Kelly rated it:

bookshelves: nonfiction, owned, parenting

Read in February, 2008

This book has been essential for my husband and me in learning how to calm our 3-week-old daughter. I highly recommend it.[return][return]The only part I wasn't completely sold on was the section about using the techniques to get your baby to sleep for longer periods. My daughter needs to eat every 2-3 hours, and it doesn't feel right to me to try to manipulate her into sleeping for longer periods of time when I know her body's trying very hard to grow right now. I would love to sleep for longer...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

04/02/09

Robin rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

bookshelves: non-fiction, parenting

Read in March, 2007

This book saved my sanity! It was recommended by the Healthy Baby program in my area, when I was getting almost no sleep with my hard-to-settle newborn. I read this book, followed the advice, and had my first stretch of 3 years of sleep in two months. It was heavenly. I recommend this book to anyone who is having a baby, and it should be required reading as soon as you get pregnant. It gets you through those first few, crazy newborn months without losing your sanity by helping calm your baby wit...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

11/14/08

Rachel Krukowski rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in November, 2008

Well, I was right with my first review early on in the book. It's extraordinarily repetitive. The author explains his "new way" to calm a crying baby early on, and then just repeats the ways in boring depth in each chapter. If you really need an in-depth explanation of how to say "shhhh" to your crying baby, then I suppose the many pages that tell you how are good for you. So why the 3 stars? Because there is some useful information tucked in its pages which is the only reaso...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

06/10/09

Lara rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in May, 2009

This book was okay. I felt that it was someone's popular opinion that wasn't backed up with research and facts. I haven't quite finished it yet (don't know if I will) but I haven't seen one single scientific reference. The author is a pediatrician and only sites his own practice for reference. I agree with 65% of what this book says. Much of it makes sense to me, but again, it's not backed up and there are some logic leaps that I don't buy. Interesting theory though about the fourth trimester. A...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

03/01/09

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in February, 2008

I bought this book about 3 weeks after my daughter was born to get ideas on how to soothe her. I had always found the answers to my questions in books, and I was hoping that this would help me in my newfound motherhood. It did help and provided advice on how to soothe a baby. This book gave you some insight on why some babies seem to cry all of the time. Although the advice may sound like common sense, it was nice to have an idea on why babies cry or act a certain way and know that you're not th...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

04/27/09

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in May, 2009

I liked this book for a lot of reasons, one of them that lots of these things I just kinda figured out along the way of having lots of kiddos and taking care of lots of kiddos. But it would have been nice to have known a lot of these "secrets" ahead of time and not having to learn them the hard way. His techniques really are very effective even though the book is VERY repetitious. But if you can skim over the times he keeps trying to convince you his theories and look at the practic...more

Like this review? yes

5 comments

02/03/09

Meredith rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

Read in February, 2009

What an interesting book! I wish I had read this before Quinn was born, but better late than never. While Karp's techniques are nothing new, the order in which he advices performing the "5 S's: Swaddling, Side/Stomach position (though not for sleeping), Swinging, Shhhing, and Sucking" has been so eye-opening. Quinn is already sleeping 2 extra hours at night and has added 15 minutes to each of his naps! I would recommend this book to anyone who currently has a baby or is going to ha...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

01/05/09

Nichole rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

I loved this book! It made me not feel guilty about wanting to hold my baby for the first 2 months of her life. He says that you can't spoil a young baby and that they really need a "Fourth Trimester." It also gave 5 keys for calming a baby (swaddle, side/stomach position, shushing, swinging, and sucking.) I know it sounds like you should just know to do these things, but I didn't! His step-by-step instructions on how to swaddle helped us get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time -...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

05/22/09

Savitri rated it:

(review of isbn 0553588729)

bookshelves: baby, how-to

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in February, 2004

This book actually works!!! We followed what Karp wrote and it was magic. I skimmed through the book before our M was born but didn't actually read it until 2 a.m. the first night we were home. M was crying, crying, crying. We had three or four books and this was the book, the correct manual, that told us where the off button was. To us this was a gift from above :)

Oh, yes, the book could have been shorter but besides that, the method works and being a first time mom + super tired th...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment