Top Parenting Books To Get You Through The Years

From the moment you find out you're pregnant, to dealing with a hormonal teenager, parenting can and is, a minefield of worry, self doubt and questioning. With each milestone that comes to pass you'll find a plethora of guides and manuals to advise you through it.

So how do you pick the best of the books out there and aboud stocking up with enough self help guides to rival Bridget Jones? You sneak a peek at out top five: the ultimate guide to the best of parenting books for every occasion.

Being pregnant is a joy and all that, but let's be honest, it's not without it's weird and wonderful side effects. Swollen ankles, weak bladders... this can all be a bit traumatic to read about when you've just discovered your happy news.
That's why Jenny McCarthy's BELLY LAUGHS, is a great alternative to the more traditional pregnancy manual.
Full of humour, this tells it like it is, but in an enjoyable way: exactly how pregnancy should be!

Being a new mum is more than a bit nerve racking. How often should you feed? Which way should you put them down to sleep? Should you be obsessively checking the baby monitor a hundred times a night or two hundred? (Or was that just me?)
KEEP CALM: The New Mum’s Manual by Dr Ellie Cannon, helps to ease these neuroses without fuelling them.
She puts aside the notion that there are set rules to follow (yay for not mum shaming!) and suggests you follow your instincts instead, however giving you some rough guidelines as a rule of thumb for when you're unsure.

Was that a cough? Is it croop? As a parent it may be tempting to turn to the internet when your child is ill, but unless you want to convince yourself that your child has Hand, foot and mouth, rubella, chicken pox and a side order of whooping cough, I wouldn't recommend it.

Instead get yourself a copy of a straightforward health reference book like this one, YOUR CHILD'S HEALTH: The Parents' One-Stop Reference Guide To: Symptoms, Emergencies, Common Illnesses, Behavior Problems and Healthy Development.

Having this on the shelf to refer to saves hours of internet surfing as you read post threads on Netmums describing every symptom under the sun whilst you try and diagnose your child's sniffle.

This is definitely the most controversial of our categories and the most difficult to select a book for. At the end of the day you need to decide which approach you want to take (strict routine/cry it out/cosleeping) and then find the appropriate book to guide you down this path.
If you are still on the fence about sleep methods however, Tracy Hogg's, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer might be worth considering.
This book advocates routine, but a simple one of feeding, play and then sleep (in a nutshell) that can be implemented when it suits you, so long as you are consistent with that sequence. It's got great reviews and bedtime routine guide books are well worth having...what else will you read at 3am when the little one refuses to sleep?!

My child skipped the 'terrible twos' and I felt all kinds of awesome as I marvelled at my clearly fantastic parenting skills. Then he hit 'three' and the tantrums kicked in: it sucked.
Whatever age your child starts to tantrum (and I'm confident most of them do at some stage) it's nice to know there are enough of us out there struggling with it for there to be a huge selection of books available on dealing with it.
There's something about the title POSITIVE DISIPLINE:The first three years- that appeals to me as a parent. The first word.
It is packed full of strategies that focus on balancing firmness with kindness, something that can be a struggle with many parents.

What are your most popular, must have reads as a parent? Get sharing in the comments below and perhaps we'll do a review soon.