My first book, The Contented Little Baby Book (first published in 1999), was based on my personal experiences of working with more than 300 babies and their families in many different parts of the world. It became a bestseller and has been used, and continues to be used, by hundreds of thousands of families across five continents.
The popularity of my advice, and loyal support of the book’s followers, is testimony that babies can and do thrive very successfully on routines. Unlike the old-fashioned and inflexible every-four-hours routines, my routines are based on a baby’s natural feeding and sleeping rhythms, ensuring that a baby’s needs are met before he gets distressed or overtired. Most important, the routines can be adapted to suit the individual needs of each baby; from extensive experience, I know that all babies are different.
In the time since my first book was published, I have communicated with thousands of parents as a result of my consultancy work and through the Contented Baby Web site, www.contentedbaby.com. The regular and direct contact has enabled me to obtain useful feedback from parents on the Contented Little Baby (CLB) routines, which in turn has inspired me to fully revise and update my original book. The CLB routines and my core philosophy remain the same, but my advice has been expanded in response to this valuable feedback and adapted to today’s circumstances.
I am confident that this revised book will be even better at teaching you how to recognize the difference between hunger and tiredness, how to establish good feeding and sleeping patterns, and how to meet all of your precious baby’s needs. With help from this totally revised edition, becoming a parent should be a happy and deeply satisfying experience for both you and your baby. The CLB routines have worked for many thousands of parents and their contented babies, and they can work for you too.