Quotes from Tracy Hogg

Start as you mean to go on.

Remember that everything you do teaches your baby. Therefore, when you put him to bed by cuddling him on your chest or rocking him for forty minutes, in effect you're instructing him. You're saying, "This is how you get to sleep." Once you go down that road, then you'd better be prepared to cuddle and rock him for a long, long time.

It takes patience and a calm environment. It takes strength and stamina. It takes respect and kindness. It takes responsibility and discipline. It takes attention and keen observation. It takes time and practice—a lot of doing it wrong before you get it right. And it takes listening to your own intuition. Notice how often

Humans, at any age, are habitual creatures—they function better within a regular pattern of events. Structure and routine are normal to everyday life. Everything has a logical order. As my Nan says, "You can't add eggs to the pudding after it's baked.

Finally, I said, "No!" rather sharply. His mum looked at me in horror. "We don't say no to George, Tracy." "Well, ducky," I said, "maybe it's time you started. I can't very well let him come round here to destroy things my girls know enough not to touch. Besides, this isn't George's fault—it's yours, because you haven't taught him what's his and what's yours.

The calmer you can keep children, the better they'll be at sleeping

The average baby cries somewhere between one and five hours out of twenty-four

Whenever your baby wakes in the middle of the night, for whatever reason, never be too playful or friendly. Be loving, take care of the problem, but be careful not to give your baby the wrong idea. Otherwise, she might wake up the next night wanting to play.

You will be a mum until the day you draw your last breath.

Unlike England, where a home health aide nips over every day during the first fortnight and several times a week for the next two months, many new parents in America don't have anyone around to guide them through the early days.

Also, some babies have an allergic reaction to the absorbent granules in disposable diapers, a condition sometimes confused with diaper rash. The difference is that diaper rash is localized, usually around the anus, whereas with an allergy the rash will span the entire area covered by the diaper, up to the waist.

I just can't get over how much babies cry. I really had no idea what I was getting into. To tell you the truth, I thought it would be more like getting a cat. —Anne Lamott in Operating Instructions

When you rock any type of baby, sway back and forward, not side to side or up and down. Before your baby was born, she sloshed around front to back inside you as you walked, so she's used to, and comforted by, that kind of movement.

Billions of dollars are spent annually convincing us we must create a proper "environment" for our babies, and parents buy into the idea big time. They think that if they're not constantly entertaining their baby, they're somehow failing her, because she's not getting enough "intellectual stimulation.

It's hard enough on them to be cast out of the cushy comfort of the uterus—some forced to squeeze their way through a narrow birth canal, others literally plucked from the womb—into the harsh fluorescent light of the delivery room. Along the way, they encounter surgical instruments, drugs, and a host of hands that pull, prick, and scrub them, typically within seconds of their arrival

Comforting your child is different from spoiling; it gives a child a sense of security

They had also tried controlled crying with Adam, which was why he, at two, was so insistent on keeping his mom nearby at all times. This was clearly a case in which the trust had to be rebuilt before any other problems could be examined.

For example, I recommend to parents who carry their infants around in order to get them to sleep that they try doing that for half an hour with a twenty-pound sack of potatoes. Is that what you want to be doing a few months from now?

What's the deal? To him, straight lines appear to be moving, because his retinas are not yet fixed.

Every baby is a person who has language, feelings, and a unique personality—and, therefore, deserves respect.

schedule is about time slots whereas E.A.S.Y. is about keeping up the same daily pattern—eating, activity and sleeping—and repeating that pattern every

Adam did not become magically more cooperative. He was still manipulative and tested his parents, but now at least his parents were taking the lead, instead of following their child.

Una rutina estructurada no es lo mismo que un «horario». Es importante repetir esto: la vida de un bebé no puede ajustarse a las agujas de un reloj.

Has your child ever slept through the night? In lots of cases we have to start at Square One. We have to look at emotional history as well, and for demanding behavior: head-banging, pushing, slapping, biting, hair-pulling, kicking, throwing themselves on the floor, going rigid when being held.