Even though people commonly say “babies don’t come with a manual,” there certainly are plenty of parenting manuals available for purchase! Besides the What to Expect books, which are great, here are a list of other great books for parents and parents-to-be:

So That’s What They’re For! – This book taught me how to breastfeed before I even had my baby! It offers practical advice and, most importantly, reassures moms-to-be that they can breastfeed if they just stick to it and work through any initial issues. I very badly wanted to be able to breastfeed, and I definitely credit some of my success to this book. 

Baby Bargains, Baby 411, and Toddler 411 - These books are all written by the same authors, and I’ve found them all very useful and easy (and fun!) to read. Baby Bargains is a must-read for soon-to-be parents. It details all of the items you will need for your baby as well as which brands are best and worst in each category. It also helpfully lists the items that parents are often suckered into buying but don’t really need. This book definitely saved me some money and helped me navigate the world of baby gear. Baby 411 and Toddler 411 explain the ins and outs of caring for a young child. The books are conversational in tone and clearly explain topics that may seem foreign to new parents. They are good reference books to have on hand after you’ve read them, too.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child - Some parents absolutely rave about this book. I’m definitely not a huge fan, but I do think this book can be useful if taken with a grain of salt. It’s one of many sleep training books on the market, and it may be particularly useful for parents with colicky babies. Above all else, this book explains to parents the importance of children’s sleep. It advocates a cry-it-out method, but it not as rigid as the Ferber method. I think this book can provide some good background information for a parent, but I would advocate tailoring the advice in this book to your own child. Pudge has been a great sleeper who really didn’t require sleep “training,” so I’ve always just let him dictate his sleep schedule, and that has worked well for us, but this book may be helpful for parents with problem sleepers.

Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old – This book is widely read in the Northern Virginia area (since the author is from here), but I’m not sure how well-known it is elsewhere. The book outlines a method to get your baby to sleep through the night by 12 weeks old. We didn’t use this method, per se, but we did try to avoid the pitfalls discussed in the book (i.e. going to pick up your baby at the first sign of a cry—sometimes the child is making sounds in his sleep and would continue sleeping easily without a parent’s interruption). While some parents may be uncomfortable with the method (it also advocates a modified cry-it-out plan as well as setting a strict feeding schedule), everyone I know who has used it swears it works.

Super Baby Food - Super Baby Food is generally considered the solid food bible. I hesitate slightly to include this book because I found that it does have a decided bent about the “right” way to feed your child. Having said that, there are very few other books out there that thoroughly explain solid foods. I personally found the switch to solids quite overwhelming, and I looked far and wide to find a good resource on the topic. If you can get past its agenda and its all-over-the-map writing style, Super Baby Food seems to be the best resource to learn about solids. If nothing else, it makes parents aware about a plethora of issues and decisions regarding solid foods so that they can do further research and make informed choices.

Baby Days: Activities, Ideas, and Games for Enjoying Daily Life with a Child Under Three - What parent (especially a stay-at-home parent) couldn’t use a few activity ideas to use with his/her child during the day? This book is full of inventive ideas that use common household items. I highly recommend this one!

Humpty Who? - I had never heard of Humpty Who before I happened upon it in a bookstore about a year ago. The book details every nursery rhyme, kids’ poem, and children’s song that you can think of. It includes words/lyrics for each one and even comes with a CD of all of the songs on it. It includes many rhymes and songs that I had forgotten about and a few that I had never heard of before. While the book claims to be for “clueless” parents (which none of my wonderful blog readers are!), it does serve as a very useful reminder and reference. It’s often my go-to book during down time with my son.

Screamfree Parenting - Most of the books on this list are for parents of babies, so I wanted to include some useful books for parents of older children as well. I’ve perused through Screamfree Parenting, and I like what I’ve seen, but I’m including it on my list mostly based on recommendations from my friends with older kids. They all rave about this book, and one mom even told me it completely changed (in a good way) the way she interacts with her 6-year-old son.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk - This is another great book for parents with older kids. Again, I’m not as familiar with it, but I’ve read enough to know that it will really come in handy for me in a few years!

 What parenting books have you found most useful?