Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five Paperback – December 6, 2011

As a young father who has largely avoided the litany of parenting books on the market, I didn't know what to expect from John Medina's "Brain Rules for Baby." Purchased on a whim at the recommendation of a friend, the book sat on my shelf, unread, for several months until I realized that my somewhat laissez-faire style of parenting probably wasn't in the best interests of my children - my 15-month-old son and a baby daughter in the oven. Devouring its contents in about a week, I am very glad I had this epiphany sooner than later.Despite being a "developmental molecular biologist" by trade, Medina is a refreshingly savvy writer, opting to avoid much of the jargon that would make the book impenetrable for the untrained layman like me. The book is divided into five clear, topical sections:- Pregnancy (how to help your baby develop while in utero)- Relationship (how to avoid the relationship pitfalls many couples experience post-partum)- Smart Baby (how to optimize your child's brain development and intelligence)- Happy Baby (how to raise a happy, well-balanced child)- Moral Baby (how to help your child develop and nurture their moral compass)Medina does his best to base his recommendations on robust scientific research, which is a plus. As he states early in the introduction, "To gain my trust, research must pass my `grump factor.' To make it into this book, studies must first have been published in the refereed literature and then successfully replicated . . . Where I make an exception for cutting-edge research, reliable but not yet fully vetted by the passage of time, I will note it" (pp. 3). You can tell that he was very careful about choosing what material to include, later citing his distaste for research based on, "shoddy designs, biased agendas, lack of controls, non-randomized cohorts, too-few sample sizes, too few experiments - and lots of loud, even angry, opinions" (pp. 143). Medina knows his statistics, which makes it easier for me to trust that the recommendations he presents in the text have a solid foundation.Perhaps inevitably, it's hard to read a book like this and not feel somewhat inadequate and/or guilty - especially if you already have kids. I couldn't help but think of how much TV I've already let my little boy watch, how much more I should be talking with him to bolster his language acquisition, etc. Fortunately, Medina readily admits that the ideal is not going to be the reality when it comes to parenting: "A family based on every suggestion in this book is fantasy" (pp. 254). Being a parent has its own learning curve, and we're never going to perfectly implement best practices. But if reading this book only makes me a _slightly_ better parent, it will still have been worth it.So why not five stars? As much as I appreciate Medina's "grump factor" in filtering out unreliable data, there are two important topics I felt should have received much more coverage, considering their relative importance in a child's development: nutrition and music. Aside from nutritional imperatives for pregnant mothers, Medina has surprisingly little to say about nutrition beyond the breastfeeding stage. Perhaps he thought nutrition, one of the most controversial subjects out there, was intuitive?As for music, Medina has a bit more to say, but I have mixed feelings about how he presented it. I counted only a couple instances where Medina had something positive to say about the effect of music on a child's development, and in both cases music is cited as helping children better perceive others' emotions, increasing their "ability to establish and maintain friendships" (pp. 273). That's it for the positive; otherwise, Medina is fairly snarky in his dismissal of pro-music research, such as the idea that playing classical music will have a positive effect on a child's development. While I respect his good intentions to clear up erroneous myths, I fear that parents might walk away from this book believing that music is non-essential at best, irrelevant at worst - a tragic conclusion either way, in my opinion.Admittedly, I have a bias: I was raised by a mother who has been an advocate for music education and has proclaimed the positive effects of music on the brain for as long as I can remember (she even wrote a book on it: "Good Music Brighter Children"). Music has always been a major part of my life, and I intend to make it a priority with my own children. Considering Medina's admittance early on that, "Most of the data we have [regarding baby brain development is] associative, not causal," (pp. 7) it seems rather irresponsible for him to dismiss much of the positive research regarding music and brain development so flippantly. While music is certainly not a cure-all, I have good reason to believe, both from anecdotal experience and from the positive research I have read, that the effect of music on the brain goes far beyond simply helping children better perceive others' emotions.Despite my qualms, I would still highly recommend this book for prospective parents. What Medina left out does not invalidate what he included. There are some really excellent, practical ideas that all parents could benefit from (the book even closes with a "Practical Tips" chapter that breaks down much of the research into applicable chunks). While I am not an expert on "essential" parenting books, I am inclined to keep Medina's work within arm's length as I work on raising my young children.

This is one of my favorite thing to give to new/expecting parents & grandparents. It's incredibly well written and edited. I don't know a lot of science based texts (and this is VERY scientifically sound writing) that I would call a "page turner," but that is exactly what this is. The word "rules" in the title turns a lot of people off, understandably - babies don't need rules - but I assure you that there are NO rules of anytype in the way it comes across. It's a fascinating read that I wish was required reading! All OBs should give this to first time parents at their first appointment!

This book was a terrific read, and it offers simple ideas on how to help your baby develope. Shocker here - it promotes lots of things that DON'T involve buying expensive DVDs or toys. I can't say more without letting you get away without reading it... I loved that it discussed the science behind his suggestions, and that things weren't preachy or judgemental (as many of the baby development guides and parenting books out there are.)

This book is great. It helped me (a new dad) understand a lot of the emotional/physical changes my wife is going through and prepared me for some conflicts that were sure to arise. The book also delves into the science of how a baby develops and gives pointers (back with studies) on how promote healthy development. I plan on purchasing a copy for my brother as well.I was also lucky enough to catch a presentation by the author during a conference in California. Great information!

Our group is starting an educational pre-natal clinic for expectant mothers and fathers to teach them how to jump start their baby's brain and learning. We will use this small book as one of our teaching aids. We also have lots of the work by Glenn Doleman, as well. I reared such a child and she was a Duke Tip scholar (Duke University) at age 13 and in Europe studying at 15. By age 30 she had been to 35 foreign countries on her own and taught school classes in some of them.

This book is amazing about telling you how baby's thinks all the way up until there 5 years old. I mean I have two girls and one of them are 5 years old, And most of the things that it talks about I'm going throw right now with my 5 year old I really wish that I could have read this way before I had my first. But its one the best book that I have read!