Let me start this off by saying I am a huge fan of Dr. Anne Zachry, so when she contacted me and asked if I'd like to check out her book, Retro Baby for review, of course I said yes!
Dr. Zachry is an occupational therapist and child development specialist. Dr. Zachry's research focuses on tummy time, as well as the impact of baby gear on child development. I recently had the opportunity to hear Dr. Zachry present at the 2014 AOTA Annual Conference and her passion for educating parents and therapists about the importance of tummy time is inspiring! I found myself nodding and thinking "Yes!" to many of the things she said. I could feel the energy of the room elevate as she spoke.
Want to know the biggest piece of take-home advice I got from Dr. Zachry's presentation?
"Parents need to know that tummy time is safe and they need to know about the potential implications of not doing tummy time."
Yes! And that is where Retro Baby comes in as an excellent resource to help occupational therapists educate parents on the importance of not just tummy time, but also on cutting back on gear and getting back to the basics!
This is what you'll find in Retro Baby:
Chapter 1: How the Baby Product Industry Affects Your Child's Development - This chapter highlights common baby devices that are frequently overused.
Chapter 2: Set a Solid Foundation - Grow, Baby, Grow! This chapter reviews the stages of movement development that occur during the first two years of life.
Chapter 3: How Senses and Experiences Shape Your Babies World - This chapter covers how the sensory systems work, including the proprioceptive and interoceptive systems.
Chapter 4: Keep Your Sleeping Baby Safe and Practice Tummy Time - This chapter contains research supported safe sleeping recommendations, as well as tips for engaging your baby in tummy time.
Chapter 5: Prevent Positional Skull Deformities - The combination of back sleeping, limited tummy time, and the overuse of baby gear is leading to an increase in positional skull deformities. This chapter contains tips on how to prevent these deformities.
The second half of the book contains developmental milestones for each phase of growth, toy tips, activities, and advice on common equipment.
Chapter 6: Building a Solid Sensory-Motor Foundation: Birth to 3 Months
Chapter 7: Enhancing Development with Retro Activities: 4 to 6 Months
Chapter 8: Enhancing Development with Retro Activities: 7 to 9 Months
Chapter 9: Enhancing Development with Retro Activities: 10 to 12 Months
Chapter 10: Enhancing Development with Retro Activities: 13 to 24 Months
Epilogue - The epilogue contains a great chart containing common baby devices along with the maximum time recommendation for each device.
As an occupational therapist working in early intervention, I'm actually not a fan of baby development books and I wasn't really expecting Retro Baby to be any different. I think these types of books tend to just stress out parents and give conflicting advice.
And then I opened Retro Baby and I couldn't stop reading! Retro Baby is the one book I would recommend to any parent! It is easy to read and understand, and not at all intimidating or condescending. The activities in the book are simple and effective. You don't need all of that fancy baby equipment-you just need this book! I frequently loan out my copy of Retro Baby for parents to read through, but I also use the book for myself! I love getting new ideas for therapy and these activities are perfect for an anyone working in early intervention.
Who should read this book? Parents and soon to be parents, especially those working on their baby registries! Grandparents, aunts and uncles. Anyone who works with babies or is going to school to work with babies, or those who dream of one day working with babies. Anyone who thinks they already know all there is to know about baby development.And especially, anyone who is tempted to spoil the babies in their life with all of the latest baby gear!
To get your very own copy of this book, you can find it on Amazon.
Connect with Dr. Zachry:
*I received a complimentary copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own. Amazon links throughout are affiliate.
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