The Unicorn Baby: Debunking 10 Myths of Modern Parenting by Roxanne Atkinson is out now from Jonathan Ball Publishers.

If you search the internet for parenting tips and read a few parenting books you will most likely stumble across the mythical Unicorn Baby. This is the baby who feeds every four hours and sleeps through the night, sits at six months, pees pure gold and poops rainbows.

Didn’t get one of these? Don’t worry, neither did clinical occupational therapist and mom of two ‘Non-Unicorns’, Roxanne Atkinson, which is why she’s written this book.

Combining her clinical and personal experience, Atkinson uses evidence-based facts to bust 10 anxiety-inducing parenting myths, including the myth that breastfeeding comes naturally and that you must get your baby into a perfect routine. For example:

• Myth: You need to get your baby into the perfect routine | Reality: There is no such thing as the perfect routine
• Myth: You should only feed your baby every four hours | Reality: You should practice responsive feeding, not scheduled feeding
• Myth: You must teach your baby to sleep through the night | Reality: There is no magic formula that will make your baby sleep through the night, no matter what you do
• Myth: Your baby grows and develops every day | Reality: Your baby will grow and develop in leaps and spurts.

Each of these 10 myths is explored and then debunked, helping parents to understand biologically why their baby may not be behaving as they were told they would.

Acknowledging that every baby is unique, this book helps new parents navigate the first year of their baby’s life with their sanity – and sense of humour – intact.

This book offers, among others:

• A better understanding of your baby’s brain and biology
• Tried and tested activities that support your baby’s development
• A way to rid yourself of unrealistic expectations.

About the author

Roxanne Atkinson is an Occupational Therapist with a special interest in paediatrics and in neuro-developmental therapy. She has completed both her basic and advanced Bobath-training.
Atkinson has worked at Milner Road Private Practice, Vista Nova School for children with Cerebral Palsy, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Victoria Hospital Wynberg, and in private practice in Cape Town. She also runs the ‘How to Thrive’ workshops in Johannesburg and Cape Town and runs regular Baby Screening Clinics. Atkinson has featured on international blogs such as The Delivery, as well as on local blogs such as Sealy as The Sleep Expert. She lives in Cape Town with her husband and two children.

Categories International Non-fiction

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