Your Fussy Baby

by Marc Weissbluth

If your new baby cries inconsolably for many hours a day, take heart. The soothing help you need is here.

Renowned pediatrician Dr. Marc Weissbluth knows firsthand how stressful life can be for a sensitive, fussy newborn—not to mention the child’s frantic, exhausted parents. His own firstborn, like more than a fifth of all babies, was a colicky child, causing him and his wife to suffer many sleepless nights. Your Fussy Baby is Dr. Weissbluth’s gift to other sorely tired mothers and fathers, written to help them comfort their newborns without disrupting their own lives. Even extreme fussiness, he says, is not dangerous and usually stops when the child is about four months old. In the meanwhile, however, life can be tough for the whole family. But whether your baby cries for as long as eight hours a day, suffers from gas, refuses to sleep, or all of the above, Your Fussy Baby will gently guide your little one—and you—through this mysterious phase of infant growth. Inside you will discover

• Why your baby cries so The most up-to-date research, including some fascinating possibilities that researchers are just beginning to explore.
• Dangerous myths about Facts and fiction about diet, mothering, proper medications, and much more that even your pediatrician may not know.
• The emotional Avoiding the guilt, anxiety, and frustration that having a fussy baby so often stirs up.
• What to do when your baby Specific recommendations for what parents can do to minimize the distress that prolonged crying causes the whole family.
• Expert, step-by-step advice on establishing healthy sleep habits for your baby.

With this reassuring, down-to-earth guidance, you can help your fretful, fussy newborn to become the sweet, happy baby he or she was meant to be.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

243 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2003

Reviews

[Kateri]

There was some useful information in this book, but it wasn't an easy read. It was written more like a research paper than a guide for parents. I think it would be hard to use this book alone to calm your fussy/colicky baby. It would best be paired with something like The Happiest Baby on the Block, by Harvy Karp, as most of the suggestions for calming a fussy baby are the same. This book is more tailored to someone who is not just happy knowing the techniques, but also wants to understand the research and statistics behind baby temperament. That said, there were some bits of salient advice that would be useful to any parent (fussy babies are most likely overtired, by 4 months babies should fall into a regular sleep schedule and be able to self soothe, infants will cry for no reason for approx. 1 hour a day and by 6 weeks old the crying for no reason will often extend to 3 hours).

[Shannon]

As a parent with an extremely fussy baby, this book was a fantastic resource. Weissbluth is down-to-earth and offers not only solutions, but gives reassurance that parents of colicky babies are not alone. More importantly, the book emphasizes that (a) this is just a phase and it will end, (b) you won't "spoil" your baby by nurturing or giving in to your fussy baby, and (c) your baby will eventually be able to sleep on a regular schedule - after the phase is over. I found this book extremely helpful.

[Kelly]

This is a great newborn baby sleep book. It's kind of an excerpt from Weissbluths more comprehessive book on sleep "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". The aforementioned book is the book to end all books on teaching your children good sleep habits for life. His suggestions have worked well with both my kids who have very different sleep patterns but they still sleep. Thank heaven, for Dr. Weissbluth.

[Molly]

why is it that reading these books makes me feel worse, not better?

[Tanya]

Very good book

[Juliana Han]

Much better than his sleep book because it's way more concise. Covers the same sleep info without the reams of rambling commentary on scientific studies.

[Spencer Willardson]

This book saved our sanity with all four of our girls!