We are first time parents and found this book to be a fantastic resource in learning how to calm our daughter's crying. Although this book is aimed towards calming babies with colic, it applies to calming all babies, whether they have colic or not. The techniques by Dr. Karp work amazingly when performed exactly how he has described without modifications. This is an excellent resource for all new parents and for those wanting to learn techniques to calm their babies' crying.

I read about this book online, and found that lots of ppl enjoyed it. Some of the tips about a colicky baby were great, but the book was filled with tons of "fluff". I don't know if I would recomend this book as you can read about the main points online.

This is the best book out there for getting your baby to sleep - the only people this book doesn't work for are those who don't try it. People may say their baby " doesn't like" some of the steps in this book but go for it and it WILL work! I have used this method with both of my babies and my friends' babies and it ALWAYS works. Don't waste another exhausted, frustrated minute - get this book!

A helpful book for parents seeking effective strategies for dealing with their challenging children. As a social worker, I often recommend this book to my clients who are looking for easy to use, effective parenting strategies.

Other parenting books I recommend:

Connected Parenting: Transform Your Challenging Child and Build Loving Bonds for Life

The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children

1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children

Kids Are Worth It! : Giving Your Child The Gift Of Inner Discipline


Liana Lowenstein, MSW
Author of, "Creative Interventions for Troubled Children and Youth"

I bought this book when I was pregnant and heard about his methods on television. After seeing a clip on T.V. and how fast the babies calmed down, I was sold. Once I had my son he didn't have colic but he did have his moments of being fussy and it was difficult to calm him down. After using the 5 s' it was less than a minute to bring him into a state of calm. Truly amazing to me how something so easy and simple could work so well. We also purchased the DVD as it is helpful to have a visual aid in learning these techniqes. The DVD was also a great buy as it has the calming sounds available that we would play all night to keep our little guy in a peaceful sleep (you get use to it sleeping with this noice, trust me). I would say that this is one of the best items we have bought for our baby. Our son is now 7 weeks old and has truly benefited from these techniques as he sleeps soundly and only wakes for feeding through out the night.

This book made the life of a brand new parent (both my husband and myself) so much better. This is one item that every new parent should have in their "Bag of Tricks" ready to go when they meet their new little one. Both of my kids had extended fussy times at night for their first 3 months, and the tips in this book helped us understand, and work through this challenging time.

Without this book we would have been lost, it saved our sanity as parents and made the first three months of our daughters life much less tramatic for her. If your baby has colic, this book is a must read.

I am a first time parent and was desperate to find some solution for my sleep deprived state. I was seaching and reading everything on the internet that dealt with colic babies. What I noticed was this book was mentioned by other parents with colic babies. I thought I would give it a read. It has been a life saver!! You can easily read this book in a day because the most informative part of the book is about 10 pages long, and it is literally a 5 step (or less) process, the 5 S's, swaddling, side, shhh, swing, suck. I had tried swaddling my infant straight out of the hospital but he would wiggle out of it and then begin his crying fits, so I gave up on that and soon realized my child was never sleeping more than 11/2 hours. Now I know I was doing it all wrong. The swaddle needs to be very tight. If it's not tight, your baby will not like being swaddled. Add the Shhhh, and Swinging and my baby was fast asleep. I really can't thank Dr. Karp enough. It really works but you need to be persistent. It took me about 2 days to get the hang of the steps and for my baby to move from sleeping only every 11/2-2 hours in the night to 3-4 hours in the night (@ 7 wks of age).

My husband and I read this book before our son was born and we felt very prepared for the ups and downs we were going to face. When our son was six weeks old he was sleeping six hours a night, eating well and gaining weight at the top of the charts. Following all the techniques in this book saved us. We had a couple rough nights...literally a couple and my husband and I would take turns reading the book to the other while trying the techniques until we found the ones that worked in the right combo for our son. He slept swaddled until about 3 months when we weaned him from it as the book suggests. At this point we also moved him from the bassinet in our room to his crib in his room. Although my son is an easy baby who adapts well to change, I feel a lot of this is because of the atmosphere we created for him, thanks to Harvey Karp.

This book is completely amazing! Our son was nine weeks old when I bought this book and was not sleeping for longer than three to four hours at a time. It was absolutely brutal trying to get him to go to sleep at night. The night after I read this book we followed all of the recommendations and he slept through the night (8.5 hours) straight through. He was relatively easy to put down for the night. He's now slept through the night each night since and each morning I have to wake him up for his feeding.

By the time my baby was 2 months old, I thought I just couldn't cut it as a parent. My baby was so fuzzy, I thought I must be doing something wrong, as nothing I did could help her settle. After reading about colic, I realized that my daughter was a textbook case. The only problem was, everywhere I turned, there were no answers on how to cope with a baby with colic. Thankfully I found this book!!! I followed the techniques, and after a little practice, they became second nature. My daughter responded very well, and we are very thankful for Dr. Karp!!! This book is very easy to read and strategies are easy to implement.

The author starts with a realistic description of what the first three months of a baby's life are really like, and offers a way to help parents cope with it. His theory made a lot of sense to me, and his solution helped me a lot with my daughter (almost like a recipe book).

Finally a book that says you shouldn't feel badly if you can't leave your child scream in the crib for hours! I wish I had this book when I was pregnant and could have read it then. It would have been interesting to see if this system had worked with my little guy. The only thing that I would improve about this book is that my baby was about one month too old to use the method, so I would have like to have seen potential solutions to help with babies older than 6 months. However, the book was very well written and user friendly. The language was very accessible, which was a definite advantage to a sleep deprived mom! Next child I will have this method on the go from the beginning.

This is the most amazing system to calm a crying baby I have ever seen. I wish I'd had it for my first child. Our second baby was not a difficult baby - BECAUSE of this book. The techniques are easy to learn and take very little effort. In fact, if one parent reads the book, they can easily teach the other. Also, it is a very simple read, so is nice for last minutes of pregnancy, when you have enough cluttering up your brain!

I tell everyone about this book. As a first time parent I was scared I wouldn't know how to handle an upset baby. I've tried many of Dr Karp's suggestions and they worked!! When my daughter was a week old we were getting very little sleep and were walking around like zombies! I began using some of the techniques in the book and she began sleeping longer periods at night!! She is now a month old and is sleeping for 6 hours at a time, nursing, then sleeping for 3 more hours! As a well rested new mother I am better able to handle upsets and be a better Mom to my daughter. I highly recommend this book!

This is the best book for new parents. I wish I would have read it before our son was born! The technique really works and DOES NOT involve letting your baby cry himself to sleep. I have lent this book to two other new moms and they swear by it as well. My son went from sleeping 2 hours at a time to 8 hours within one week. This book has been our savior! I am online now ordering two more copies as gifts for other moms. This is something they should give every new mom before they leave the hospital. I am not one for filling out book reviews but this one deserves the time!!!!

This is a well written book -- highly recommend it!