Your Self-Confident Baby: How to Encourage Your Child's Natural Abilities— From the Very Start

A child therapist, great-grandmother and founder of a method of child rearing called Resources for Infant Educarers, or RIE (pronounced ""wry""), Gerber runs a parenting center based on her approach in Los Angeles. First developed while she was working with orphans in her native Hungary at the end of WWII and refined through her work with children here, RIE focuses on helping parents and ""carers"" to treat babies with respect, an approach that lays a strong foundation for their development as self-respecting individuals. Specifically, respect means trying to understand what they want, and telling them what we are going to do before we do it. Aided by freelancer Johnson, Gerber presents suggested RIE-based responses to children through stages of infancy and into toddlerhood. Such issues as feeding, sleeping, child care, sibling rivalry and responses to crying are considered in sample dialogues. The glowing testimonials from satisfied parents that are interspersed throughout the text lend an advertorial air to the book, nor does Gerber offer compelling evidence that her approach makes a proven difference. Nevertheless, readers will find plenty of wisdom and common sense on these pages. It's hard to turn away from a book that invites you to relax and enjoy your baby. (Jan.)