Part of me wants to tell every parent-to-be to get this book. There is a lot of good information. The sentence that really hit home for me: "Part of the problem with parenthood is that nobody ever tells you just exactly on which day a nutritional necessity such as middle-of-the-night feedings or a bedtime bottle suddenly becomes a bad habit in the making." So true! You start off practicing demand feeding and rocking your newborn to sleep and all of a sudden you have an older infant with all kinds of problematic sleep associations. This book does do a good job of pointing out those areas that can lead to problems down the road. If only I had read the chapter "Drinking and Dozing Don't Mix" long ago.
And second (and what is bothering me a great deal), is that I think they are creating what Best for Babes calls a booby trap - "the cultural and institutional barriers that keep mothers from making informed feeding decisions and carrying them out. 'Most moms want to breastfeed, and don’t realize how they are being undermined by the very institutions that should be helping them. Whether they breastfeed for 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years or not at all, they deserve to achieve their personal goals.'" I think the AAP is sending out mixed signals and undermining their own recommendations regarding breastfeeding.
The AAP recommends breastfeeding exclusively for six months and support for breastfeeding for the first year and beyond as long as mutually desired by mother and child (while the WHO and many other nations recommend breastfeeding until 2 years of age). Yet this book, put out by the AAP, reads as though they expect that most readers will be formula feeding. There is very little mention of breastfeeding in general, and one of the only times it's mentioned is a warning that if the baby is taking in more than 32 ounces, more "food" may be in order. What really bothers me though is that there is ZERO guidance with respect to nutrition and breastfeeding after one year of age. It's as though with one side of their mouth they are encouraging breastfeeding until at least a year, but with the other side they never expect you to get to that point or give you any guidance how to do so.
My advice? Get it. But take what they say with a grain of salt. And if you want to breastfeed, also look at other more supportive sources like The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding