| The Happiest Baby on the Block |
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| Reviewed by Ceri Balston | |
| Wednesday, 20 August 2008 | |
    In the Happiest Baby on the Block, Dr Harvey Karp, noted pediatrician and child development expert, reveals the amazing secret used for centuries by the world’s top baby calmers – the calming reflex. This reflex is the “off-switch” for your baby’s crying. There are five techniques demonstrated in the DVD which are referred to as the five S’s, these are; swaddling, side/stomach, shushing, swinging, and sucking. Throughout the DVD Dr Karp takes many babies who appear to be crying inconsolably and by applying the five S’s very quickly activates the baby’s calming reflex and manages to get them into an adorably tranquil state, its very impressive to watch. Dr Karp does make it all look very simple, which he attributes to his twenty plus years of practicing and employing the techniques, but we’re sure that part of his secret is the fact that he has an aura of serenity that the babies pick up on that comes from being able to hand the babies back to their parents after his job is done. It’s not so easy to achieve this state when the pressures of parenting start to take their toll, the serene state soon goes out the window, but maybe we’re being a little bit cynical. There’s a great bonus section to the DVD which includes over twenty-five question and answers to some of the most common calming problems parents experience. There’s also a 45-minute ‘sounds from the womb’ track to give you at least some of the tools you need to help your baby feel comforted. We wouldn’t say that we’re as effective as calming our son as Dr Karp was calming the babies on the DVD but the techniques we’ve learnt have certainly helped and have been added to our armory. |
This is the powerful story of the author's struggle with Multiple Sclerosis and how a healer's unusual prescription of mindful altruism - to 'give away 29 gifts in 29 days' - ignited her energy, her happiness, and invited more abundance into her life.
