This book is the first in a series planned to give parents the basic tools of parenting and to offer solutions when problems arise.

The text is non-prescriptive and case-studies encourage parents to be confident in the choices they make about their own parenting style.

The first four chapters deal with new babies. Parents are inspired to try different methods, be aware of possible discomfort and accept that sometimes babies just need to cry. There is information about infant massage, cranial osteopathy, bed sharing and swaddling.

When dealing with babies over six months, the author considers daytime naps, settling at bedtime and night time waking. Nightmares and night terrors are discussed and the author looks at the idea of introducing the older child to meditation/relaxation techniques.

The book concludes with ways of sharing peaceful times together, with appendices including information on cot death and postnatal depression, as well as a list of addresses.

This book will be valued by parents who are stressed by a crying, sleepless infant. Health visitors should not hesitate to recommend this volume to parents.

Christine Bidmead Health visitor/training facilitator, Centre for Parent and Child Support, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, London

Sound Sleep does not sound like the type of book that two war reporters, George Alagiah and Kate Adie, would feel the need to launch. And yet that is what they will be doing in Westminster on Thursday. Sound Sleep - calming and helping your baby or child to sleep, written by Sarah Woodhouse from Norfolk - may sound like a gentle read for parents, but its origins are far more hard edged than that.

It aims to reduce parental violence against non-sleeping babies and children. According to the Community Study of Physical Violence to Children in the Home, commissioned by the Department of Health in the UK, 91 per cent of babies and children had been physically punished and, shockingly, 75 per cent of babies had been hit by their parents before their first birthday.

The BBC reporters will be using the launch to speak out against violence to babies in the UK. Both support the work of a national umbrella organisation called the Parenting, Education & Support Forum, and Sound Sleep is the first in an inspired series of books entitled Right from the Start, funded by the Right from the Start Foundation, which comes under the umbrella. There are about 15 publications planned in all. The foundation's aim is to help parents, child carers and teachers reduce the growing stress and violence in children's lives.

Sarah, who is 68, set up Right from the Start "way, way back" she said from her home in North Norfolk. "The 'jerk' which started me off was 25 years ago, when I was helping in a NSPCC therapeutic play group for mothers and children together. There was a four-year-old so damaged, lonely and under-loved, looking at his face was like a jolt to the heart.

The little boy was asked to draw himself. Sarah said: "He spent an hour trying to rub himself out with a sort of fear and suicidal despair. All he wanted was to end the agony of living. "I remember thinking with an absolute certainty that whatever I do for the rest of my life it's going to be something to prevent any child from feeling that way.

"His little face haunted me for months.

Sarah spent many years as a probation officer, home tutor with excluded students, counsellor, adviser and NSPCC officer. She also has four children and 11 grandchildren. "You can then really write about it straight from your experience."

From her time working with excluded students, one thing became clear to her. "From conception to about three years old is when children learn all the things that matter most, that hurt most. The damage done is indelible."
She also witnessed ordinary people turn violent towards their children through sleep deprivation. The book Sound Sleep proposes timed settling, which can be a rescue remedy when the parent has been driven past the point of coping - often the stage when the authorities get involved.

Sarah said: "The trigger for slipping into this kind of violence is because the baby has cried, screamed, and woken their parents up so much in the night, they have lost control."

She added: "We forget what it's like to be happy. Really to enjoy each other and our children." Crucially, timed settling should only be undertaken with the guidance of a doctor. nurse or health care professional; although quickly effective (one week is usually sufficient) it requires preparation and thought.

As well as having the support of George Alagiah and Kate Adie, whom Sarah knows, Sound Sleep has backing closer to home. Heather Riseborough, team leader in health visiting in North Norfolk, said Sound Sleep was "a BIG help; clearly written, good advice, with many useful stories by parents." She added: "It helped me to stay calm and try out new ways of coping. It worked wonders for me."

On Thursday, Mr Alagiah, patron of the Parenting, Education & Support Forum, will speak about the importance of parenting, informed by both his own experience, and his wide experience of witnessing shattered lives and bodies on the field of war. Sarah said: "Nothing in the world goes wrong except through the breakdown and loss of good human relationships."

Emma Outten

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