Like most new parents, you will probably be inundated with parenting advice during the first year of your baby’s life. When she sneezes or spits up or has a fever, you’ll not only receive unsolicited guidance from friends and family, you’ll also be tempted to click on to countless informational websites where it can be overwhelming to sort through the sage and not-so-sage advice. And as happens after most Internet searches, you’ll likely end up with more questions than answers. That’s why I’ve written this book: to answer your questions about caring for your baby and to be your common sense pediatrician-in-residence.   

What do I mean by common sense? The philosophy behind Eat, Sleep, Poop is what I call Common Sense Parenting. It basically boils down to this: raising a child should be enjoyable and as stress-free as possible. The most current science and medicine are certainly important when dealing with your baby’s health and well-being, but so is parenting in a way that feels comfortable and makes sense for your family. I want you to be able to use common sense in raising your baby so that health and safety fit in easily with the fun of having a child. And trust me: it is fun, as well as challenging. 

Although humankind has been raising children for a very long time, in this age of overstressing and overparenting, some parents and doctors would have you believe that caring for a child requires systematic calculations, precise schedules, and the input of a host of experts. I believe that informed common sense is your best tool. During this fascinating first year of your baby’s life, I want to empower you to look at your child’s green poop and smile rather than worry; to calmly treat a temperature of 102 knowing that everything will be okay; and to have faith that your baby will learn to sleep through the night without holding a grudge against you.

Eat, Sleep, Poop will give you answers to such new-parent questions as: What should I feed her when she’s ready to eat solids? How often should she take a nap? Why does she have a fever? Why is she crying for no reason? What’s that crusty rash on her scalp? And it will also help you figure out when you can handle something on your own and when you should contact your doctor. Included in the back of the book is a section of fact sheets that you can photocopy or tear out for easy reference to help you quickly answer your most common concerns.

As a new parent, I realized that my experiences with my daughter during her first year of life were as valuable (and in some cases more valuable) than my medical training. When my wife was pregnant, my patients used to say to me, “You’ll see, it will be different when you have your own.” I used to smile and nod but think to myself, nothing is going to change. I have seen thousands of children, why would one more change anything that I say or do? But it does. Not only do I now scrutinize my own advice as a doctor, but I also find myself questioning some of it as a father. It was enthralling to watch my daughter go through her first year as I was writing about it and it was fascinating to watch the concerns of my patients become my own.

The most surprising part of parenting is how we dealt with each new situation. For example, as a doctor it is easy for me to tell parents to sleep train their child by letting them cry through the night, especially when I am in the comfort and silence of my own home. Unfortunately, the same advice was not so easy to follow when my own child was crying in the next room. This is why I have featured sections called “daddy versus doctor” throughout the book. They illustrate the two very distinct roles of being a daddy and a doctor.

I have also added my common sense parenting bottom line to each topic in the book that sums up a parenting concern in one to two lines. I want families to get back to basics and just like the title, Eat, Sleep, Poop, make parenting fun and simple. Don’t overthink it. In today’s world we have enough things to worry about: the mortgage, our jobs, the economy, how to pay off those pesky student loans. Shouldn’t raising your child be fun? And really, it can be.