The Newborn Handbook: Your Guide to Bringing Home Baby

by Smita Malhotra

A practical weekly handbook for the first 3 months of parenthood—from a pediatrician and parent

The saying “babies don’t come with a manual” may be true—but newborn books are a good place to start. Parenting is a process of phases and milestones, and newborn books are invaluable. Each new stage, as important as the last, serves as a building process for years of parental education and care. The Newborn Handbook will gently and sequentially lead you through each week of caring for a newborn in the first three months—the weeks and months that can be both exhilarating as well as nerve-racking.

From how to prepare your home prior to baby's arrival, to both parents' contributions to the stages of early development, this standout in newborn books prepares you for all of the challenging situations to come. This is not just a biological mother's physical prep; it’s a trustworthy source of bottom-line, practical information as you navigate each new and exciting day.

Go beyond other newborn books

Baby steps—Each chapter follows your baby’s age sequentially, so you can intuitively follow along in each growth stage.All parents included—This inclusive book is filled with practical advice for all parents and caregivers—even non-biological. Helpful resources—Discover helpful references and resources section in the back with some great additional information.

When it comes to newborn books, let The Newborn Handbook be your “manual” to successfully starting parenthood.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Family, Reference

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 4, 2020

Reviews

[Patrick Tully · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read! Truly a handbook, if I'm honest, which I like because you can reference it after reading. Also, the illustrations in it were pretty diverse, which I was into. This book even mentions Covid-19 (but not anything intensive), so I found that interesting. The way the book was organized has been mentioned in other review, but I think the weeks that are presented are for you, the parent, and not necessarily the baby. Like, what do you do in the first week of being a parent? Your child isn't 1 week old yet, so I think that was confusing for some people, but I understood!

[Katie Marquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple and accessible which ultimately I appreciated since a lot of this information can seem overwhelming. There were some helpful lists, and good overviews for the first three months. I'd label this a good introduction for people who know nothing about newborns aka me. I can't yet speak to the accuracy or efficacy until the baby arrives, but it helped me feel a little less overwhelmed. Sometimes I wanted more information, but again I think the point of this book was simply an introduction.

[Griffin Youngstrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just efficient and didn't overwhelm me. Just shot right tobthe point on every week of a newborns life.

[Ange G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good book for what to expect for the first 6 months with your newborn turning into an infant. It wasn’t too heavy with information, a light introduction.
This makes me very excited to meet my little girl. 💖

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Approachable + easy to read + good advice = exactly what I want in a parenting book. I read it in under an hour while my little one napped.

[abbiealwaysreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ✨Entering my parent era✨ read

[Jakob Peter]

Audiobook / brb downloading an app that helps track my baby’s eating and pooping

[Willow Rankin · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone who hasn't read many pregnancy or parenting books - this was a fantastic one based on the newborn phase. The book was full of useful tips, and was not patronising but approachable.
I did enjoy the latter half of the book with the breakdown into weeks - although this did get repetitive at times.
However, where the book loses a star is that it is very Americanised; and full of advice for newborns in America. Especially in regards to seeing your paediatrician. In the UK you see your midwife or nurse.
Overall, a fantastic book and am glad to have a few more tips in my wheelhouse.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baby girl will be 15 weeks old on Saturday, and I start orientation for my new job on Monday 😭 I guess we no longer have a “newborn” per say, but as our neighbors said earlier today (and we agree) she’s still in the “nugget” phase…which sounds a lot nicer than what we were calling the “potato” phase lol

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who knows very little about newborns, I loved this. It truly reads like a handbook. Short and sweet, but informative about the basics as well as questions/concerns that I wouldn't even know to expect. I appreciated that Malhotra is a pediatrician with professional advice. There was no product placement or judgement.
This book gave me the baseline knowledge I need to jump into more detailed/complex reads- on things like sleep training, brain development, tummy time etc. However, it is so practical that I know Alex and I will return to this again and again!

[Talia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malhotra’s Newborn Handbook is informative, very easy to read/navigate as a functional handbook, and filled with compassion and practical wisdom. The illustrations and visual composition are also beautiful and prevent the information from ever feeling overwhelming. At the moment, it has been a particularly great resource for helping me build my baby registry.

*gifted from Nash

[Margaret Weinberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this over the course of several months, sometimes ahead and sometimes on the corresponding week. Honestly one of my favorite baby books - it is short and gives you just enough of what to expect each week as your child grows without overwhelming you with information.

[Mama Potato · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was scant on details. I know I’m a new parent but this felt obvious. It didn’t go into enough details to make it feel useful in any way. Unless you’re lived under a rock and never seen a baby I don’t know how this would be helpful.

[هديل خلوف · Rating 5 out of 5]

very informative and useful ! it helped me out a lot during my journey with my baby who's 3 months old now =)

[Daniela Mendoza]

🎧

[Scarlet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a quick read and did a great job at encouraging, without being biased. I appreciated the break down of each week with your newborn. The guide was practical and addressed a lot of questions and things that first time parents may have on their minds. I like that I can easily refer back to passages in this book at different phases and milestones in my baby’s life once she’s born. This book could definitely be read in one sitting.

[Rena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and to the point which I appreciated because I feel like if you've just brought a newborn home you probably don't have a lot of time for reading. I would have enjoyed more scientific facts, and I think it would have been beneficial to have one of the examples show a drawing of a bell curve and explain how norms work and what it means if your baby is one one side or the other of the curve.

Reread, each chapter at the week my baby was. It was nice to read about the new things that he was developing every week.

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to understand info for before birth to three months

Wish I had found this book before my baby turned three months but I decided to read anyway and I’m glad I did. I was able to pick up some new insights to my baby’s behaviors. This would be perfect for a first time mom since she doesn’t overwhelm you with tedious information but presents it in a way that doesn’t feel condescending but rather empowering.

[Savannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book. It was kind of cool to read along and read about what my son was learning or noticing that week. While a lot of this is things I already knew, this would be a good book to read if you don’t have access to new parent classes or have never had any experience around young babies. It does have lots of good information. A good book to give new parents and it did offer some new learning for me! I would recommend to new parents with little experience around babies.

[Lolo Onda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick listen in audiobook format. I don't think anything shared in this book was overly groundbreaking or overly informative as I felt like much of this information was more so common knowledge (or maybe that's because i've read numerous childbirth books already!) I think that the information was presented in a fairly unbiased, clear cut formula would make it easy for new parents who might be feeling overwhelmed with everything that comes with being a new parent to a newborn.

[Sarah G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really solid, non-judgemental, basic foundation of knowledge for the first three months. I appreciated how straight to the point it was, and while some info was very rudimentary, it did also cover core expectations and guidelines from a research-backed perspective. It’s probably not the book for super in-depth developmental information, but it definitely covered core basics easily and efficiently.

I whipped through this in just a few hours. Definitely a helpful resource.

[sammi_reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5- not terrible, but not super informative. The book also was poorly edited, with the wrong ages appearing in later sections under different age labels. Most of this is stuff you've heard before, although talking about the day-to-day may relax a nervous parent who is unsure what they will actually do with baby all day, so I appreciated that.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kindle Unlimited.

Quick and easy read about a newborn’s first 12 weeks. General information for a quick overview - would recommend reading other books for more details and information. Plus: new edition that includes tidbits about pandemics and Covid-19; and the resources at the end are up to date and valuable.

[Jacquline Ard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this is not a detailed book on handling a newborn. It's basic and minimalist. It's easy to read and not overwhelming, and every chapter focuses on each week (up until a newborn becomes an infant at week 12). The author also wasn't biased when it came to newborn feeding among other touchy subjects.

[Alyssa Dondero · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll have to update this rating later on, since I feel like I can’t properly rate it without my child being born yet! But I felt like it was a breeze to read through, with just enough detail/insight. Feels like the spark notes version of what to expect the first 3 months of the baby’s life.

I’ll update the rating after my son is born.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a corporate pamphlet and assumes that all babies will basically live a lifestyle befitting that. Over 1/3 of this book was just about hospital birth and not even really about infant care. Although there is some decent advice, especially if you want to do everything for convenience for your office worker life, I wouldn't pay money for this guide.

[ahsensbooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

35 % in and i'm dnf'ing this book because that's not how you change diaper. you shouldn't lift your baby's bottom by holding their ankle and lifting them up. it is bad for their vertebral column. you should gently roll your baby to the side just a little. this book is written in 2020 and by a pediatrician so im really surprised.

[Debby Kuruvilla Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a very quick overview of the first 12 weeks with your baby, full of information on what to expect within that time period (development, doctor’s appointments, things you can do to make it easier, etc.) I listened to this book and took some notes on each chapter, and I’m sure they will be a valuable resource to me during the first 3 months with my baby.

[Maryam Toumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro interessante e scorrevole che ho letto durante la mia gravidanza, mentre attendevo il mio turno per le ecografie. Dà un’idea generale di cosa aspettarsi e come comportarsi quando nasce un figlio. Linguaggio semplice, non scientifico. Ideale per chi desira avere un’idea e magari non sa a chi chiedere.