Brain Rules for Baby (Updated and Expanded): How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five

This book is an absolute MUST have for first time parents. I wish I would have purchased before having my daughter, as I would have had more time to read it. It's taken me 5 weeks- I read while pumping. The author writes well- even while talking about nitty-gritty brain science stuff he uses relatable analogies and keeps it interesting. This book is not a undergrad science 101 book, but it relays important details about a child's neurodevelopment, the most relevant and up-to-date literature, and the implications for parenting, and he does it without making you want to scrape your eyeballs out. What I love about this book: it really gives a lot of great tips without subscribing to a "parenting style." This book isn't about how be a Sears or a Ferber parent (although he does discuss both and the literature available in the added "Sleep" chapter. This book is about what the most current science says about the way a child's brain develops, and how we, as parents can impact it for the better in an effort to raise happy children-which we all want. What's great about this book: he has the key points bullet-pointed at the end of the chapter, which helps bringing the whole point back home, as sometimes the chapter can get a little detailed heavy. Any cons?: Not really. I loved the book, from the info to the formatting.

There is some good, practical, dare I say common sense? advise in the book. It is well written and does not read like a textbook like some of these do. It was a nice, quick read, and I could really relate to a lot of the situations described. The author does a great job at presenting findings and letting you make up your mind on what you think is best to apply in your situation. I like the scientific approach - Hypothesis to Study to Findings to how do I apply this? There is no set manual on how to raise a happy healthy smart child and this book does not pretend to be one. They just present some good information, practical advice and the science behind it. And when there is no definitive result to cite, they are honest about.

I loved this book! I learned a great deal of how the brain develops and works. The stories are both enlightening and some are humoring. I never thought I'd be interested in reading a book like this but it truly was enjoyable and helpful for my husband and I as we are looking forward to one day becoming the "rookie parents" who raise a happy well rounded child. My only dislike is that it only talks about breast feeding as the best option (which it very well may be) when nursing your child. I would have given 5 stars had it had information on other options for people who may not be fortunate enough or didn't want to breast feed. Otherwise, this book is wonderful and I will definitely recommend to people trying to conceive and even parents of young children.

This is a great primer on how a baby's brain works. It has some pure science---what parts of the brain are responsible for certain tasks---but it's mostly a how-to manual for parents. The key takeaways are: practice empathy; discipline your child firmly, quickly, fairly, and predictably; minimize screen time in favor of guided, creative play; and reward and praise effort rather than raw talent. There is much more to these concepts, of course, and there are many other good tidbits in the book, which are what makes the book worthwhile. This is a surprisingly easy read, but also an incredibly helpful one. If you want to raise healthy, happy, smart, moral children, this book deserves your time. Note: the book does contain some misleading discussion of a couple of topics, particularly the theory of evolution. At times, it puts the cart before the horse by confusing cause and effect, and at other times it seems to be making baseless assertions. These flaw, however, do not detract from the book's purpose, so I did not deduct a star.

It is a very useful guide to whom are planning to become parents, rookie parents and also parents who want to understand more science of raising a happy and smart kid. As an engineer, I'd like to understand why something works. Thus when I become a father, I would trust methods proven by data or scientific effect for raising a kid more, which are exactly shown to me by this book. Some methods I have learnt from experienced parents that are working, can be found in this book with explanations or proofs. Like the example of talking to your infant. Some others that are not working well, now I also know why, and what could be a better way, for example, tagging your kids' anger instead of just asking him to stop it, although I just started to apply and need more time to see the result. What's more, like the chapter describes, my relationship with my wife suffered after we had our son. This book helps us relieve a lot, we read some common mistakes we are making, we learnt that they can be resolved and how.

I appreciate the down-to-earth, scientific, and reliable advice on what works and what doesn't. There are many theories out there, and worse yet many products, claiming to help babies be happier and smarter, all capitalizing on parents' love and fears. But this book helps not only to debunk those myths, but also to discover issues that were clouded by them. We are bombarded with advertisements on what to buy buy buy, and we check consumer reports to see what products are best. While we know at the back of our mind that things like disciplining and marital relationships are important, we don't spend enough time worrying about these things. This book emphasizes the importance of those missed issues, and gets us back to genuine parenting. The biggest myth that it debunks is that the new baby will simply bring cuteness and happiness to the family. While this is very true, the other side of the picture is overlooked. It's a one-way relationship: the baby takes, I give. If parents have a fairy-tale perception of parenthood, it will lead to trouble. We need to be prepared for a more realistic view of both the great joys and great difficulties of parenting.

First book I purchased when I was still pregnant and it just gave me so much peace of mind! As a first time parent you are clueless but this book help me gain so much confidence! And now that baby is seven months old I still enjoy reading as baby develops. The font size makes it a comfortable read and I love that there are tons of bullet points and bold titles and subtitles. Definitely recommend!

I read this while my wife was preparing to be induced. The hospital staff asked if I was in the medical field. Besides having a good laugh with the hospital staff about all my medical knowledge coming from a speed read, I found a great deal of the information useful. The author's ability to weave medical research into her own personal stories made the book very entertaining.

Schönes Buch, angenehm zu lesen, angenehmer Plauderton, die Wesentlichen Fakten auf den Punkt gebracht sowie praktische Empfehlungen. Insgesamt sehr gut.

This book contains some obvious elements but still need to be reminded to any new parents! Furthermore the book also give you a very good tac tics and scientific info regarding to small human! I recommend this book to any new parents!

Very good book

I'm expecting my first baby and of course I have a lot of questions and concerns. This book was great because when you're expecting your first, you receive a lot of advice from everywhere and you don't know what's truth and what's just a myth, but here you can see from a scientific perspective what's happening with your child from pregnancy to 5yo. Its very clear, very easy to read and the advise is actually very intuitive and logical, so it's easy to follow. Highly recommended!!

I just started reading it, I'm loving the first few pages ngl tho it came a bit kate probably because it was delivered overseas and I'm currently in M.E, i bought a book cover and covered it prior to reading as it's a paperback, to avoid denting it. To sum it up it came in good condition. I hope it's a good read and i hope i can benefit from it too.