Research shows that 'normal' infant sleep is not what most experts claim it to be. In fact, many of today's sleep 'problems' with young babies and children predominantly occur in the developed world. In Why Your Baby's Sleep Matters, renowned gentle parenting expert Sarah Ockwell-Smith demonstrates how nurturing babies at night helps their brain development, and covers the topics every parent of a new baby will need to know about, including naps, SIDS, night weaning, coping with your own exhaustion - and even dealing with advice and criticism from others.

Babycalm offers a refreshing alternative to prescriptive, routine-led parenting. If you want to find ways to cope with tiring days and difficult nights without putting your baby on a strict routine, or resorting to sleep training, this gentle guide is for you. Full of advice, support, tips and the experiences of other new parents, Sarah Ockwell-Smith, experienced mum of four, antenatal teacher, doula and author of the bestselling The Gentle Sleep Book, shares her methods which will enable you to enjoy your baby and to trust your own parenting instincts from the start. You will learn how to: Decipher your baby's cues Access a toolbox of calming techniques Understand normal baby sleep patterns Encourage your baby's sleep Trust your maternal instincts This invaluable guide will help you through the challenging early days, helping to ensure happier parents and calmer babies.

An indispensable guide to more peaceful and enjoyable parenting 'This isn't a parenting advice book, it's a book about you. The words you read in this book, however, will have a far greater impact on your children, than those contained in any parenting book you could read (and I count my own in that too).' How many times have you asked yourself 'what's wrong with me? Why can't I stay calm?'. So many of us would love to follow a gentler, more positive style of parenting, but we don't think we're cut out for it, because we aren't naturally calm. We feel that there is something wrong with us, that we're not good enough. We believe we are failing our children by not controlling our own emotions adequately. What we don't realise is that this describes almost every parent there ever was - and ever will be. In her trademark gentle, supportive and reassuring style, bestselling author Sarah Ockwell-Smith shows that while we all lose it at times, everyone can become a calmer parent. Based on her many years' experience working with parents, Sarah provides research, advice and practical exercises that will set you on the path to calmer parenting that will benefit both you and your child. Covering everything from the impact of your own upbringing on your parenting style to work and home life balance and letting go of the quest for perfection to ensuring your own basic needs are met, How to Be a Calm Parent is for any parent who knows that they need to be calmer to raise well adjusted, happy children, but struggles with their own emotions and stress levels.

'A practical guide to helping your child through one of the most important developmental stages of early childhood' - Green Parent Book of the Month

Gurgle's Honest Read for December

How to make potty training stress free for you and your child

The Gentle Potty Training Book is a practical guide to helping your child through one of the most important developmental stages of early childhood. Avoiding strict timelines, rewards and plans that are based solely on a child's gender, Sarah Ockwell-Smith advocates an approach that is based on your child's unique developmental stage - because the gentlest, easiest and most effective potty training happens when you work with your child as a team.

Sarah's advice includes:

* Recognising the physical and emotional signs that your child is ready

* How to talk to your child about potty training and prepare them emotionally

* What you need to get started - the practicalities

* How to respond to accidents and setbacks

* Potty training your child when you're in full-time work or co-parenting

* The when and how of night-time potty training

* What to do after previous false starts

Comprehensive, practical and realistic, Sarah's advice will give you the necessary understanding and confidence to make potty training a smooth process for you and your child.

Society is making great strides in increasing awareness of oppression and injustice, but one group remain mistreated, with unequal human rights, and remains under-discussed: children. Commonly recommended parenting and discipline methods, such as sleep training, school isolations and public shaming treat children in inhumane ways that would cause uproar if adults would treated similarly. Children's needs and feelings are frequently dismissed and ignored by adults. They are taught to blindly obey adults in the name of 'respect', though respect is so rarely shown to them by adults. We are a society who are afraid of treating children kindly, as evidenced by the almost constant uproar and ridicule of the 'gentle parenting' movement by the media today. Because each of us have been raised to believe that the rights of children matter less than those of adults, we subconsciously continue the cycle of childism from one generation to the next. Inside each of us is buried hurt, generational trauma and shame, and decades - if not centuries - of prejudice towards children. It's time to change things. It is ridiculous that children, the future of our world and the key to smashing all other stereotypes, are the last oppressed group to have their maltreatment fully recognised. This is a timely book, a blend of childcare history, sociology, psychology, anthropology and current affairs and pop-culture coverage, aiming to raise awareness of a much undiscussed issue, but one that will surely be spoken of increasingly in the future. It is an urgent call to action. If we want to change the world for the better, we must start with treating our children better.

Pre-order Sarah Ockwell-Smith's essential guide to child psychology and development. BEGINNINGS is modern month-by-month reference guide for parents of 0-5-year-olds. It will answer all the questions that parents have about their baby, toddler and preschooler's physical and psychological development. Topics Covered: *How a baby grows and develops, month by month, during pregnancy *Physical development, month by month, in the newborn period *Brain development from birth to five years *How sleep develops and changes throughout the first five years *The development of self and personality *Social development, attachment and peer relationships *Temperaments and the development of emotion regulation *The development of memory *Current and classic theories in child psychology *Learning to sit, crawl, cruise and walk. *Language acquisition and early literacy skills *Early mark making - learning to draw and form letters *Schemas - how children learn about the world around them. *Food preferences and eating experiences in early childhood *Play - including suggestions for entertainment at each age *How parents and carers can encourage optimal brain development

'The thing about having a second baby is it's likely to differ a lot from your first experience. Sarah Ockwell's Smith's guide looks at the challenges you might face along with some practical tips to consider. The book offers a friendly feel that reminds us issues and all, we'll be just fine' Mirror, Best Baby Books for Parents 2020 Having a second baby is a very different experience from having your first, yet there is little recognition of the wide range of issues that need to be considered when bringing a second child into the family. In this incredibly helpful book, Sarah Ockwell-Smith helps parents feel more positive and prepared for life with two children. The book begins with the obvious question: when is the right time to add another member to the family? It then goes on to examine the specific issues that can arise with a second pregnancy and birth; the common concerns about siblings, such as how to prepare your firstborn for what's to come; how to cope with the practicalities of life with two young children (aka actually managing to get anything done!); and the feelings parents are likely to experience, too. The Second Baby Book examines all the questions and issues Sarah herself faced second time around, as well as sharing the experiences of the many parents who have sought her advice. It also highlights what scientific studies reveal about such issues as the spacing of children and the differences between first and second births. Practical, insightful and honest, this book will help you understand the challenges ahead but, more importantly, it will equip you to meet them with knowledge, confidence and a sense of excitement for the future.

The Gentle Sleep Book offers gentle, reassuring and effective solutions to addressing the common sleep problems of newborns to five-year-olds. 'This book should be called The Sleep Bible and needs to be in every parent's bedside drawer' Marneta Viegas, founder of Relax Kids Are you exhausted by your baby's night-time waking or frustrated by your toddler's reluctance to go to bed? Would you prefer a gentler approach than sleep-training techniques such as controlled crying or pick up/put down? The first five years of parenting are filled with worries and preoccupations, but, for the vast majority, none of them is as pressing as the lack of sleep. In this revised and updated edition of her bestselling book, Sarah Ockwell-Smith offers a gentle, effective prescription for addressing the common sleep challenges encountered by parents of newborns to five-year-olds. Treading a carefully balanced line between the needs of sleep-deprived parents and those of the child, Sarah offers reliable, evidence-based advice including: *How long we can expect our children to sleep at each stage of development. *Why much of the popular advice on sleep is inaccurate and counterproductive. *How to approach common issues including frequent waking, night terrors and bedtime refusal. Sarah's practical suggestions for each developmental stage include how to create a consistent bedtime routine and optimal conditions for sleep, the effect of diet, and how to use comfort objects effectively. This revised and updated edition includes new chapters providing specific advice on daytime naps (when and how to drop them) and how to take care of your own needs and emotions during the early years of disrupted sleep, because your feelings and health matter too.

'Full of practical parenting advice that will give you the tools to guide your child through this time' Daily Express Raising a tween can often leave you feeling like a parenting beginner all over again. Children in the 'between' stage seem to change almost daily, leaving many parents struggling to understand the child they once thought they knew so well. In Between, parenting expert and mother of four Sarah Ockwell-Smith uses a unique blend of the biology, psychology and sociology of adolescence as the basis for practical parenting advice that you can use to help your child through the transition from childhood to adulthood. It explores key issues, including: *Why tweens can often be moody, rude, lazy and impulsive - and how to cope with their behaviour *What exactly happens during puberty - and when and how to talk to your tween about it * How to navigate friendships and romantic relationships in the tween years *How to encourage good mental health and body image *Managing screen time and avoiding common pitfalls *Supporting the transition to secondary school Between also offers advice on coping with your own feelings as your child moves through this busy developmental period, and how to let go and give them wings to fly. The tween years can be a difficult period for parent and child alike, but your openness and support is key to building the relationship that you will have with your child for the rest of their life. Between is the handbook that will guide you across the bridge from childhood into adolescence, together with your child.

Parenting trends come and go. Gentle parenting is different - it isn't a label for a precise set of rules but a method of parenting that embraces the needs of parent and child, while being mindful of current science and child psychology. It means parenting with empathy, respect, understanding - and boundaries. In The Gentle Parenting Book, Sarah Ockwell-Smith provides a trustworthy combination of what-to-expect information and gentle-parenting solutions to the most common challenges faced by parents with young children. Sarah addresses a wide variety of topics, including coping with a crying baby, introducing solid foods and creating healthy eating habits, potty training, starting nursery and school, sibling rivalry, tantrums, whining and sulking, aggressive behaviour and much more. And for those parents who have previously used a more authoritarian style of parenting, there's plenty of advice - and reassurance - on making the transition to a gentler approach. For many, gentle parenting comes as a relief because it chimes with their deepest instincts about the best way to raise their children.

Do you want to raise a well-behaved, happy child but feel that common forms of discipline used today, which focus on rewarding, excluding or punishing children, don't work for your family? In The Gentle Discipline Book, Sarah Ockwell-Smith debunks many commonly held beliefs about punishment and motivation, and provides an alternative approach that will empower you to discipline your child in an effective way and with respect. Gentle discipline is not about mollycoddling your child or being a pushover - it means understanding your child, having realistic expectations of them, and responding to their misbehaviour appropriately. It focuses on teaching and learning, not punishment or rewarding. In her trademark practical style, Sarah offers solutions for coping with the most common discipline challenges, including: - whining and sulking - aggressive and destructive behaviour - not listening and refusal to do things - rudeness and backchat - sibling rivalry - lying - swearing - low self-esteem and a lack of self-confidence The advice is appropriate to a wide range of ages, from toddler to teenager, and, if you have been using more traditional form of discipline, it will give you the tools - and the confidence - to change to a more mindful approach.

An indispensable guide for parents whose children are about to start, or have recently started school. Starting school is a huge important milestone for children and their parents. The best school years happen when everyone involved feels happy and engaged with the whole experience, and yet, with so much information to digest and so little guidance available, the process can be incredibly confusing. The Starting School Book is a reassuring and practical guide for parents of school-age children. Sarah Ockwell-Smith provides clear and helpful advice for each stage of the process, whether your are just beginning to think about your child's education, applying for a school place, preparing your child for starting at the school you have chosen, or your child has already started school and you would like to help smooth the transition. Specific guidance includes: * Starting school ages, policies and procedures * How to decide the best starting age for a summer-born child * What to look for when choosing a school and what questions to ask when you visit * How to prepare your child emotionally and practically for starting school * Common concerns including settling in, separation anxiety, friendship issues, school refusal and reconnecting with your child at the end of the day * Understanding your own feelings about the transition and your role in the wider school community With case studies and advice from parents who have been through it, and enlightening tips from teachers, The Starting School Book provides all the information you need to help your child have a positive, calm and happy school experience.

Revised and updated for 2023 with new material, The Gentle Parenting Book offers essential guidance to raising calmer, happier children. Parenting trends come and go. Gentle parenting is different - it isn't a label for a precise set of rules but a method of parenting that embraces the needs of parent and child, while being mindful of current science and child psychology. It means parenting with empathy, respect, understanding - and boundaries. In The Gentle Parenting Book, Sarah Ockwell-Smith provides a trustworthy combination of what-to-expect information and gentle-parenting solutions to the most common challenges faced by parents with young children. Sarah addresses a wide variety of topics, including coping with a crying baby, introducing solid foods and creating healthy eating habits, potty training, starting nursery and school, sibling rivalry, tantrums, whining and sulking, aggressive behaviour and much more. And for those parents who have previously used a more authoritarian style of parenting, there's plenty of advice - and reassurance - on making the transition to a gentler approach. For many, gentle parenting comes as a relief because it chimes with their deepest instincts about the best way to raise their children.

Sarah Ockwell-Smith, founder of BabyCalm and ToddlerCalm, is passionate about 'gentle' parenting. Her mission is to let parents know that there are other ways to cope with a toddler apart from putting him or her on the naughty step or resorting to controlled crying. This book will fill a gap in the market, helping parents enjoy their toddlers, understand the limitations of current popular toddler parenting methods such as sticker charts and time out, and to have the confidence to ignore the current mainstream 'experts' and parent their own child with trust and empathy.

Most parents worry about their child's eating at some point. Common concerns include picky eating in toddlerhood, sweet cravings and vegetable avoidance in the early school years and dieting and worries about weight in the tween and teenage years. The Gentle Eating Book will help parents to understand their child's eating habits at each age. Starting from birth, the book covers how to start your child off with the most positive approach to eating, whether they are breast or bottle-fed. Parents of older babies will find information about introducing solids, feeding at daycare and when to wean off of breast or formula milk. For parents with toddlers and older children, Sarah includes advice on picky eating and food refusal, overeating, snacking and navigating eating at school, while parents of tweens and teens will find information on dieting, peer pressure, promoting a positive body image and preparing children for future eating independence. At each age The Gentle Eating Book will help parents to feed their child in a manner that will set up positive eating habits for life.