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

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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 ...

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More About This Book

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 University of 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.
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
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.)
Children's Literature - Meredith Kiger
Designed to assist new parents and caregivers of infants in developing capable and confident children, this 235-page book was written by a great grandmother and founder of Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE). Its philosophy is a developmental approach to child-rearing based on the principles of trusting your child (or charge) as a self learner, providing a safe and challenging environment, allowing uninterrupted play time, involving the child in care giving activities, providing time to explore with other children, and consistent limits and expectations. She implores parents to be keen observers of their infants to determine their needs rather than constantly interfering or guiding their learning. Basic trust in the infant, and vice versa, is the key to her philosophy. The book is divided into three sections: How RIE Can Benefit your baby, Your Baby at the Beginning of Life, and As Your Child Grows: Toddlerhood and its Challenges. It includes discussions on everything from the qualities of a good parent, selecting childcare, to headbanging, rocking and repetitive behaviors. It is a thorough examination of many of the challenges new parents will encounter, and its use of parents' actual experiences adds authenticity. Prospective parents will find it interesting reading, but should be cautioned in taking any how-to book verbatim. It will add another dimension to the multitude of experts willing to advise them on raising the perfect child.
Children's Literature - Deborah Zink Roffino
Written by the founder of the Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), this book offers ideas on how to connect with your baby through daily routines. Gerber, who lectures and offers her popular workshop nationally, is a proponent of allowing babies to develop at their own pace. She teaches observational skills for parents and caregivers that enable the child to become an explorer and a self-learner. Excellent ideas for fostering closeness and healthy independence in an easy to browse format of anecdotes and information arranged in chronological order.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781118158791
  • Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 1/22/2002
  • Edition description: First Edition
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 256
  • Sales rank: 245,294
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

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

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Table of Contents

Introduction
How to Use This Book
I How RIE Can Benefit Your Baby
1 Respect: The Key to Raising a Self-Confident Baby 3
2 The Birth of RIE 13
II Your Baby at the Beginning of Life: From Birth to Your Baby's First Steps
3 Your Newborn Baby 23
4 Newborn Parents 55
5 The First Months with Your Baby 65
6 Selecting the Right Child Care 109
7 Your Baby Becomes Mobile 127
III As Your Child Grows: Toddlerhood and Its Challenges
8 Your Budding Toddler 165
References
RIE Materials Available
Index
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