I eagerly dove into this book expecting some magical answers to my tedious toddler troubles. How do I keep my son from: throwing food on the floor, running away when I call him, banging on the TV cabinet, playing with the computer keyboard, darting towards the street when I’ve just told him to stay by mommy. . . You get the idea. Apparently there are no easy magical solutions to these problems. Apparently I just have to stay consistent and stay persistent (my summary of Ezzo’s philosophy.) Speaking of tedious! Of course, I know there aren’t usually magical shortcuts to parenting, but I can still dream, right?

On Becoming Babywise still remains the most important book that I read to prepare me for the practical side of parenting a newborn. While I didn’t follow the book religiously, it was the only book that gave me a step-by-step plan to deal with this new creature called a baby. I’m the type of person that feels much better with a step-by-step plan. (A word of warning about Babywise though. Don’t read it too early into your pregnancy. The amount of work involved in caring for a newborn will just freak you out. Wait til the 8th month when you are just ready to get that baby out, no matter how much work it will be.) Toddlerwise, while giving some good advice on scheduling and discipline, wasn’t as earth-shattering for me. It’s probably because I’ve adopted many of the Babywise principles and have automatically been using them already. In summary, while Toddlerwise has some good things to say about caring for your toddler, I wouldn’t consider it a must-read. Does anyone have a great toddler-parenting book to recommend?

Well as you might expect, I read this book because my husband and I are expecting our first child. I’ve had many friends who have used the “Babywise” techniques with their children, so I decided to check it out.

After the first few chapters, I discovered that I read this book way too early in my pregnancy. Now I have 6 months to worry about how I will tell if my baby is crying a hungry cry, a tired cry, a bored cry, etc. And don’t get me started on setting feeding schedules, nursing, healthy growth indicators. . . But all in all, I think this book will be helpful. It provides solid guidelines for getting your baby on a good schedule and sleeping through the night. I know I will re-read it next May. If only the baby could read the book too. . .