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Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child |
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Reviews |
| | a must have  |
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Two friends gave me this book before I had my baby, and it was immensely helpful! I didn't read it ahead of time, but it is broken down into quick and easily readable parts - going by how old your baby is by weeks or months. It was right on in my experience. Succinct and very realistic. Offers more than one way to deal with/approach sleep issues too, so you can try which ever method seems most appealing to you. |
| | Totally different child!!!!! |
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PLEASE, if you have a child who doesn't sleep or EAT well, get this book and try it. My 6 1/2 month old has never eaten well (formula allergy as a newborn, became a snacker later on). She rarely ever finished a 4 ounce bottle even though I knew at this age she needed more; she just didn't act interested. She was hyper and couldn't settle and really eat until she was half asleep; so we ended up doing night feedings more than we should have at this age. Six nights ago we decided to let her cry it out. That first night she cried for only 45 minutes at bedtime. She woke at 10 and 3 and cried again for about 45 minutes. It was tough but the next night she only cried a little and it was more of a sleepy/fussy cry, not so angry as the night before. After two nights of me not disturbing her with patting and replacing the pacifier and unneccessary feedings, she ate 5 ounces of formula every four hours on the dot during the day. I couldn't believe it. She was overtired and that was why she was hyper and not eating well. She has been eating like a little piggy all week long. Now she sees her bottle and yells for it. She doesn't fight with it or slap it out her mouth after only an ounce or two. I'm amazed. Please don't just resign youself to believing that your child is a bad sleeper or a bad eater. I had almost convinced myself that she just didn't have a great appetite and she was just a restless sleeper. How wrong I've been! My sweet baby is even sweeter. Now for nap and nighttime, we snuggle for a few minutes and I lay her down awake. She snuggles down and goes to sleep. She occasionally fusses a little at naps, but nothing at night. She's down at 6:30 or 7:00 and up around 7:00 the next morning. I do a sleep feed at 11:00pm and nothing else until she gets up for the day. She actually had the early bedtime before and would be "down" for 12 hours, but with all the waking and restlessness off and on all night. Obviously that was not quality sleep because it did not produce the results this has. Don't believe those books that say pat and shush your baby all night long and if they cry, they'll be warped(see Baby Whisperer book). They desperately need deep sound sleep and it is your job to make sure that they get it. I feel terrible for not sleep training my baby sooner. She could have been eating and sleeping so much better for the past two months (Dr. Weissbluth says you can't start true sleep training until 4 months of age). All in all, this book is a fabulous science based take on the importance of healthy sleep and how vigilant parents need to be to make sure their children get it. I would recommend this to anyone needing help with sleeping through the night or naps. |
| | This book is GREAT! |
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This book is wonderful and saved my life more than once. If you have trouble getting your baby to sleep - read this book! The first half is a little tedious, but there is a lot of great info there. The second part tells specifically what to do for each age range. READ IT! |
| | Referred by good sources  |
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Many good friends and professionals referred this book to us. Not just the friends that have no babies ;) but Mom and Dads that have had sleep concerns.
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| | Great book. It's OK to let kids cry. If you the parent have a problem with this, maybe there are deeper issues...? |
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In response to the review by By Maria C. Bernhardt, I think the story she mentions IS a success story because it allowed for the child in question to develop better sleep habits and the parents to finally get some well deserved rest. There is nothing wrong with letting your child cry a little...or a lot if need be. In the story she refers to, the child had a history of terrible sleep habits and his parents were suffering. Yes, as a parent you need to put your child and his needs first. Sacrifice is not simply an added boon...it is a requirement of this role. At the same time, you as a parent have biological needs for sleep. And allowing your child to act as family tyrant simply because s/he has not developed healthy sleep habits is not playing the role of loving parent...it is allowing your child to become sleep deprived (leading to all the short and long-term problems that the author mentions in his book) and yourself to step down from the role as parent and become a spineless bystander. Does this mean that all parents must cruelly leave their children unattended, crying and alone to fend for themselves? Certainly not. What it does mean is that parents shouldn't be afraid to allow their children to cry if that crying will lead to a lifelong pattern of healthy sleep and a happy child. Not all children will or need to "cry it out" (a point which the author reiterates again and again throughout his work), but some will. And there's nothing wrong with that. If you can't allow your child to learn to soothe himself to sleep at this point, I firmly believe that you need to examine yourself and why you have so many issues with this. The issues and problems involving babies never disappear...they simply morph into more complex and difficult issues like peer pressure, what college your child will attend (if at all), sex, drugs, schoolwork...the list goes on and on. If you can't say no now for his or her present and future benefit, will you be able to later on when your child has a stronger will and the mobility and freedom to defy you if s/he truly wants to? |
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