Parenting Excerpts

The Mother of All Toddler Books by Ann Douglas
Reprinted with permission from Wiley Publishing, Inc.

You’ve just been through an intensive yearlong training program designed to build your patience, increase your stamina, and test your ability to survive with little or no sleep. The goal of all this training? To prepare you for the Mother of All Challenges – surviving the toddler years!

While raising a toddler certainly isn’t for the faint of heart or the squeamish, it isn’t nearly as difficult as some people would have you believe. The very same people who had you scared silly about going into labor are doing a similar number on you right now, convincing you that parenting a toddler is guaranteed to be an exercise in torture. Their eyes positively gleam as they bombard you with hair-raising tales of temper tantrums, hunger strikes, and the perils of potty training. The end result? You’re left with this sinking feeling that you’ve just signed up to be a contestant on the most frightening reality television show to date: Toddler TV!

Fortunately, the scaremongers are about to fall off your radar screen for the next 10 years or so, patiently biding their time until they can terrorize you with even scarier tales about teenagers. Until that happens, tune them out. After all, you’ve already figured out that their stories about 15-pound newborns, 96 hour labors, and foot-long episiotomy scars were, well, a little overblown. So, it hardly makes sense to buy into their toddler tall tales.

Before we get too much further into the book, we had better tackle an important terminology issue: the definition of the word toddler. If you pick up an armful of books, you’ll see that child development experts aren’t exactly in agreement about the term. Some experts insist that toddlerhood begins at age 12 months; others don’t grant a baby toddler status until age 18 months, or until he’s actually walking. Where the real disagreement arises is in deciding when to mark an end to the toddler years. Some experts claim toddlerhood lasts until a child starts school (around age five). Others argue that the toddler years come to an end as soon as a child turns three, at which point he becomes a preschooler (ages three and four).

I tend to buy into this last school of thought. The reason is simple: I can’t imagine lumping one-year-olds and four-year-olds into the same category. It’s hard enough to talk about one- and two-year-olds in the same breath, given the lightning speed at which developmental breakthroughs occur during the toddler years. Preschoolers are practically civilized beings in many ways, while toddlers – well, let’s just say toddlers are not. So, there you go: that’s my rationale for focusing on one- and two-year-olds in this book and leaving the three-and four-year-olds for the next book in this series: The Mother of all Parenting Books.

As you’ve no doubt noticed by now, books about toddlers tend to fall into one of two distinct categories: books that focus on toddler behavior and books that focus on toddler health. The Mother of All Toddler Books covers both topics in exhaustive detail, doubling as a parenting book and a pediatric health reference book….

If you take a quick flip through the book, you’ll find a smorgasbord of valuable information, including:

• a frank discussion of the joys and challenges of parenting a toddler;
• detailed information about the key developmental milestones for the toddler years;
• the facts about how your toddler’s play style will evolve over the next two years;
• money-saving tips on choosing toys that will deliver the most bang for the buck;
• nitty-gritty advice on coping with all the toddler-related clutter in your life; storing toys, organizing art supplies, taming your toddler’s stuffed animal collection, and so on;
• the facts about discipline: what works and what doesn’t;
  parent-tested advice on coping with temper tantrums, biting, whining, and other frustrating types of toddler behavior;
• sure-fire techniques for brushing your toddler’s teeth, washing his hair, and otherwise keeping the dirt and grime at bay;
• hard-hitting advice on choosing clothing and doing battle with the most common types of toddler-related stains;
• potty training do’s and don’ts from parents who have survived this toddler rite of passage;
• the dirt on training pants, musical potties, and other potty-training paraphernalia;
• the secrets to serving up nutritious, toddler-pleasing meals;
• the important information about choking, allergies, vitamin supplements, and other food-related health concerns;
• tried-and-true methods of coping with night terrors, bad dreams, the transition from crib to bed, and other nighttime parenting challenges;
• practical guidelines for coping with fevers and other toddler related health concerns that have you hitting the panic button (and speed dial) after 3 a.m.;
• the facts on ear infections and antibiotic use;
• the inside scoop on traveling with a toddler;
• helpful suggestions on preparing your toddler for the birth of a new baby and practical advice on a variety of other family-related challenges;
• detailed information on potentially life-saving first-aid procedures;
• highly comprehensive safety checklists designed to help you toddler proof each room of your home;
• a detailed glossary of pediatric health terms;
• a directory or organizations of interest to families with young children;
• a directory of Internet resources of interest to parents with young children;
• toddler growth charts;
• immunization schedules;
• a list of recommended resources.

Of course, what makes The Mother of All Toddler Books really special are the contributions of the more than 100 parents who agreed to be interviewed for this book. I pulled together their best advice on weathering the biggest challenges of the toddler years and sprinkled their funniest and most touching anecdotes throughout. It’s their from-the-trenches words of wisdom that really bring this book to life. After all, who better to turn to for advice on potty training than a mother who’s just cleaned up her toddler’s third puddle of the day?...

As you have no doubt gathered by now, The Mother of All Toddler Books is unlike any other toddler book you have ever encountered. It’s comprehensive; it’s fun to read; and – best of all – it’s based on nitty-gritty advice from other parents, the true experts when it comes to navigating the sometimes wacky but always wonderful world of toddlers.

I hope you enjoy the book.

back to nutsense