The Fussy Baby Book: Parenting your high-need child from birth to five. Martha Sears

Know When to Say Yes and When to Say No

       Command Respect

       Help Your Child Learn Empathy

       Give Choices

       Let Your Child Know What You Expect

       Shaping Is More Important than Controlling

       chapter 13: how to talk to and listen to the high-need child

       Understand Your Child’s Viewpoint

       Getting Your Child’s Attention

       Holding Your Child’s Attention

       Encourage Compliance Before Defiance

       Guide Your Child Toward the Conclusion You Want

       Model Control

       Use Proper Body Language

       Acknowledge Your Child

       chapter 14: the payoff – for children and for parents

       Empathy

       Sensitivity

       Sense of Justice

       Awareness

       Intimacy

       Confidence

       Expressiveness

       Persistence

       Interdependence

       Ability to Make Wise Choices

       Future Parenting Skills

       Closeness

       Ease in Disciplining

       Trust

       III: stories from the experts

       chapter 15: survivors’ stories

       Too Tired to Get Dressed

       I Knew Something Was Wrong With Him

       Balancing a Medical Career and Mothering

       Robbed of a Month of My Motherhood

       A Late Bloomer

       Why Doesn’t This Baby Sleep?

       Day-Care Nightmare

       I Snuggled With My Premmie in Bed

       A Screaming Bundle of Unhappiness

       Sleepless in Canada

       Career Derailed

       He’s a Hard-to-Love Baby

       The Proof Is in the Pudding

       I Would Not Want Her Any Other Way

       Time to Move On

       Index

       Acknowledgements

       Keep Reading

       Also by the Authors

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

       a word from dr bill and martha

      We want to both congratulate and encourage you on being blessed with a high-need child. Having a challenging child will bring out the best and worst in you; we wish to help this life-changing experience bring out the best.

      Parenting a high-need child is like attending a continuous life-enrichment seminar. From the moment these infants exit the womb, in one way or another, they announce, “Hi, Mum and Dad. You’ve been blessed with an above-average child, and I need above-average parenting. If you give it to me, we’re going to get along fine; but if you don’t, we’re going to have a bit of trouble down the road.” And these babies have the persistence required to hold up their end of this bargain. Right from the start these children make it clear they need more! The good news is they also give more to everyone who cares for them.

      This book is about children who are challenging and the parents who guide them. Besides insights that we have gained from parenting our own high-need children and from counselling hundreds of parents in our paediatric practice, sprinkled throughout this book you will find testimonies from parents who have survived and thrived with their high-need children – kids you would like. We let the experts speak for themselves.

      Parenting a high-need child will be one