Up All Night

The Baby Owner’s Manual: operating instructions, trouble-shooting tips, and advice on first-year maintenance.

By Louis Borgenicht, M.D. and Joe Borgenicht, D.A.D. 

This book had a lot of useful information but in a simple and easy way for new parents to understand.  Dr.  Louis Borgenicht has run his own practice in Salt Lake City, UT for the last 16 years. He is also an assistant professor of Pediatrics at The University of Utah School of Medicine.  His son, co-author Joe Borgenicht is a first-time father and is also a writer, producer, and co-author of The Action Hero’s Handbook.  This book covers everything that is involved in the first-year of a baby’s life.

I loved the theme and layout of this book. The theme is similar to an auto owner’s manual but instead uses simple terms and information relevant to newborn babies, 0-12 months. I also loved the illustrations in the book they were very self explanatory and instructions were illustrated step by step.  Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was that it isn’t meant for you to sit down and read, on the contrary, its purpose is to be a resource for you to pick up, easily navigate, and read the information you are looking for and have questions on. It has a table of contents as well as an index for you to easily find what you are looking for.  The book contains seven chapters, each of these chapters have several topics and subtopics:

·         Chapter 1: Preparation and home installation

·         Chapter 2: General care

·         Chapter 3: Feeding- understanding the baby’s power supply

·         Chapter 4: Programming sleep mode

·         Chapter 5: General maintenance

·         Chapter 6: Growth and development

·         Chapter 7: Safety and emergency maintenance

Baby’s sleep chart, baby bladder function, and baby bowel function forms are in the appendix, at the end of the book that parents can fill out. Parents are also provided with instructions within the book on how to fill out these forms.  

This book aligns with research and has the general recommendations for infants 0-12 months. There is a chapter in the book that covers growth and development that I found extremely helpful. This chapter contains developmental milestones, verbal communication and mobility, coping with tantrums, and coping with separation anxiety. They also have medical recommendations on various procedures and diseases such as circumcisions and chicken pox. The information provided is very applicable to those who have a newborn baby or even those who are around a recently new baby. The quality of writing is excellent. The content is easy to understand and to the point.  The book contains step by step instructions, expert tips, and caution notes.

I would highly recommend this book to new parents. It is fun to read, the illustrations are colorful and simple, and the book is a good resource to have. This book covers everything you need to know about your baby the first year and so much more.

-Liz

Borgenicht, L., & Borgenicht, J. (2003). The baby owner's manual: operating instructions, trouble-shooting tips, and advice on first-year maintenance. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.