The Happiest Baby on the Block; Fully Revised and Updated Second Edition: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer

I bought this book years ago when all other methods had failed me in helping calm my severely disabled child in his earliest months, this book provided the help I needed

When you have a baby you don’t know if they will be calm or fussy before they arrive. We were so glad we read this book because ours was super fussy. The 5 S’s worked every time to soothe our little one. We felt so confident on night one and recommend it to all our friends

I'll preface by saying this book could probably be reduced by about 1/3 of it's length (there' a LOT of repeated information and sometimes he either bounces around to much between topics and/or takes too long to get to the point) BUT that doesn't change the fact that his techniques genuinely do work amazingly and we've found them to be a major help in knowing how to almost instantly calm our newborn son down when he's upset. There's probably nothing in here that's necessarily groundbreaking, but I think the strength of this book is that it lays out a very methodical and likewise comprehensive approach to how to address fussy and upset babies step-by-step as opposed to just trying random techniques you read/heard about from scattered sources until you find something that maybe works... We learned of the book from my brother who suggested just skipping over the the beginning segments and getting right to the 5 S's (a suggestion the book likewise makes if you're time-crunched and/or already have a fussy baby to contend with), but I read this book before our son was born (hence had a lot of time!) and I decided to read the whole thing and don't regret it. You won't really learn much outside of the chapters on the 5 S's that you can actually use to help your baby, but nonetheless I found it kind of interesting just to learn some of the history/context/info on the mindset of babies and why they do some of the things they do. I find it comical to read some of the Amazon reviews from people saying the book is a waste of time pointing out that you could just read about the 5 S's via a short article online - of course you could, but that kind of defeats the point of reading a comprehensive book and source of information on the particular topic that's much more thorough than a 1 page article can be. If you want to get the most out of the book and be well-prepared, take the time too read the book in my opinion, it's not that long and even for a slow reader like myself I got through it very quickly. Have definitely already recommended this book to several friends that are expecting!

The overall point of this book is solid and makes a ton of sense (the idea of a 4th trimester and Dr. Karp's 5 S's for calming a baby). However, I was disappointed to see him push breastfeeding (he actually says "breast is best," which is nonsense). He also seems suspicious of smart phones and doesn't suggest using them for white noise, even though there are a ton of great white noise apps, because phone speakers are "tinny" (he obviously hasn't gotten a new iPhone in a while!). He really pushed getting a CD or download of white noise. And guess what! He sells CDs and downloads! He also pushes what he calls a "smart sleeper" also known as the Snoo, the amazing but crazy expensive bassinet he sells. So just be ready to take the good advice and throw out the rest of it.

I don't know why I didn't leave a review on this book as soon as I finished reading it! My daughter was quiet for the first week home from the hospital, but along came week two and around 8 pm one night she began to cry, and this time it was different, we literally could not get her to stop. She cried until around 4 am, and I was terrified that we had a year of colic crying ahead of us, but prayed it was just a fluke and that the next night things would be different. However, 8 pm rolled around, the crying began, and we had a repeat of a night full of inconsolable crying. I had never felt such all encompassing exhaustion in my entire life and I just prayed that there was a book that would have answers for me. So the next morning I took to Amazon and began my search. After reading reviews I decided to give this book a try - the length was perfect, thank you Harvey for getting straight to the point and telling us exactly what we needed to know! I was able to implement the S's the following evening at 8 pm when the crying began and I believed with every fiber of my being that it was going to work - AND IT DID!!! Simulating the womb experience was exactly what my daughter needed to soothe her overstimulated little newborn nervous system and she calmed down in less than a minute and fell into a blissful sleep that lasted until her next feeding, after which we repeated the process and she was asleep again. She was sleeping through the night after a couple of months, and we continued to use Harvey's method until eventually she didn't seem to need it anymore. This book was a lifesaver, I have given it as a gift at every baby shower I've attended since I first discovered it, and I'll continue to give it as long as I live!! This book could just as easily be called Happiest Parents on the Block - I am so very grateful that I found it when I did!