Your Self-Confident Baby: How to Encourage Your Child's Natural Abilities -- From the Very Start

by Magda Gerber, Allison Johnson

Overview

At long last — Magda Gerber's wisdom and spice captured in a book —what a treasure! Now parents and caregivers everywhere can benefit from learning what it means to truly respect babies.
—Janet Gonzalez-Mena, Author of Infants, Toddlers, and Caregivers and Dragon Mom

"Magda Gerber's approach will deepen your understanding of your baby and help you truly appreciate the complexity, competence, and amazing capacities of the small human being for whom you are caring."
—Jeree H. Pawl, Ph.D. Director, Infant-Parent Program Universityof California, San Francisco, School of Medicine

As the founder of Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), Magda Gerber has spent decades helping new mothers and fathers give their children the best possible start in life. Her successful parenting approach harnesses the power of this basic fact: Your baby is unique and will grow in confidence if allowed to develop at his or her own pace. The key to successful parenting is learning to observe your child and to trust him or her to be an initiator, an explorer, a self-learner with an individual style of problem solving and mastery.

Now you can discover the acclaimed RIE approach. This practical and enlightening guide will help you:

• Develop your own observational skills
• Learn when to intervene with your baby and when not to
• Find ways to connect with your baby through daily caregiving routines such as feeding, diapering, and bathing
• Effectively handle common problems such as crying, discipline, sleep issues, toilet training, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781630262617
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/01/2002
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Magda Gerber founded Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) and created a series of instructional videos. Allison Johnson is a freelance writer.

Table of Contents

HOW RIE CAN BENEFIT YOUR BABY.

Respect: The Key to Raising a Self-Confident Baby.

The Birth of RIE.

YOUR BABY AT THE BEGINNING OF LIFE: FROM BIRTH TO YOUR BABY"S FIRST STEPS.

Your Newborn Baby.

Newborn Parents.

The First Months with Your Baby.

Selecting the Right Child Care.

Your Baby Becomes Mobile.

AS YOUR CHILD GROWS: TODDLERHOOD AND ITS CHALLENGES.

Your Budding Toddler.

References.

RIE Materials Available.

Index.

Editorial Reviews

A child therapist, great-grandmother and founder of a method of child rearing called Resources for Infant Educarers, or RIE (pronounced "wry"), Gerber runs a parenting center based on her approach in Los Angeles. First developed while she was working with orphans in her native Hungary at the end of WWII and refined through her work with children here, RIE focuses on helping parents and "carers" to treat babies with respect, an approach that lays a strong foundation for their development as self-respecting individuals. Specifically, respect means trying to understand what they want, and telling them what we are going to do before we do it. Aided by freelancer Johnson, Gerber presents suggested RIE-based responses to children through stages of infancy and into toddlerhood. Such issues as feeding, sleeping, child care, sibling rivalry and responses to crying are considered in sample dialogues. The glowing testimonials from satisfied parents that are interspersed throughout the text lend an advertorial air to the book, nor does Gerber offer compelling evidence that her approach makes a proven difference. Nevertheless, readers will find plenty of wisdom and common sense on these pages. It's hard to turn away from a book that invites you to relax and enjoy your baby. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly