The Happiest Baby on the Block- The New Way to Calm Crying and

Great Commonsense Approach to Soothing Baby
My husband and I have used all five of Karp's techniques to soothe our newborn and they work. The book explains all five S's well. The techniques are simple and effective. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 is because that the techniques really are simple, it could have been a much shorter book. There is a lot of unnecessary information in it. Overall however, great book!

Great advice but sometimes contradictory
The explanation of the "fourth trimester" is very valuable for a parent to understand, but some of the anecdotal side stories got a little tired. Karp gives a great approach to calming a baby. However, there are a few things he recommends that seem a little contradictory to me. First, he advises "swinging" a baby, which any parent knows can be very soothing (though neither of mine EVER were a fan of the baby swing. He goes so far to advise that the baby SLEEP in the swing which no pediatrician I have ever encountered favors. In fact, I believe there are specific warnings on the swing that you should never allow your child to sleep in it without an awake parent in the room. He also dismisses concerns about "weaning" the baby from his program as though it will be easy. I am currently in the process of weaning a 3 month old from swaddling as she is waking herself up trying to get out of the swaddle (yet wakes when I try to put her down asleep without it) and is desperately trying to roll over already which obviously makes the swaddle dangerous. He sort of off-handedly advises leaving one arm out, then two, etc., but this is MUCH easier said than done. I could see very similar problems with swinging, sucking, white noise... Finally, he frequently expresses a disapproval of letting a baby cry. Yet, towards the end of the book, he suggests putting the baby down for sleep awake after the 3 month mark as though they will just get themselves to sleep. My experience has been that after getting a baby used to such specific sleep conditions, it's either going to take some crying or a lot more maturing to get the baby to that point. That said, if you have lived with a colicky baby, you will do anything to calm him or her and a lot of his suggestions will work. I'm just not sure they will be as easy to do without as he claims.

Somewhat annoying, but effective
I agree with a previous reviewer that most of this book is fluff. It probably could be about 5 pages long, and the rest of it contains a lot of anecdotes, trying to persuade you that the techniques really work, plus wacky theories about evolution and why the techniques work. Some I assume are supposed to be funny, like the "story" of the cave woman watching a pterodactyl taking care of its babies. I also felt that the tone was somewhat condescending. However, the techniques really do work (at least they did for me) and that makes it worth it. If you want something that is scientifically accurate about brain development, I recommend "What's Going On In There?" by Lise Eliot. What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life It's not exactly light reading, but really interesting and not dumbed-down like this book. It also has a different theory relating to the immaturity of the brain at birth that I find much more plausible.

Great purchase
This book really helped a great deal in the first weeks of my daughters life. The calming techniques really work like magic and I wouldn't have known what to do without this book. The combination of the "S's" is incredible and worked every time. We are now trying to get her to sleep longer by continuing the swaddling (she's 7 weeks). I recommend this book for any new parent.

It works!
At first I really hated this book because he says that babies need to be in the womb for twelve months and I was eight months pregnant when I read it. But his advice really does work. The five S's soothe my newborn. And his explanations and suggestions are helpful.