EVERYONE’S FAVORITE Groups
How to Get Baby To SLEEP!
Author: Jeannie Fleming-Gifford
When it comes to ensuring quality sleep for your baby, there's no shortage of opinions. For example, a quick "Google" search yields more than 8 million results, as well as the oodles of answers you'll get from family and friends.
To help solve the puzzle, here is a quick list of the most popular books on sleeping and a synopsis of their theories:
- Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. Major themes of this book include:
- The difference in daytime and nighttime sleep and the importance of both.
- Working with your baby's natural, internal, clock.
- Common mistakes parents may make to get their baby to sleep, including rocking and feeding.
- Analysis of sleep needs for different temperaments--from quiet infants to active toddlers.
- The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by
Elizabeth Pantley. Touting an opposite approach to the "cry it out" methods, this book tackles sleep issues with step-by-step tactics that will (hopefully) ensure a good night's sleep without tears (for both you and baby:). The heart of this book explores:
- Issues that may be preventing an infant from sleeping through the night.
- Helping parents support their baby's natural sleep rhythms.
- Creating a personalized, step-by-step plan to get your baby to sleep through the night.
- Use of a "Persistent Gentle Removal System" that will teach baby to fall asleep without breast-feeding, bottle-feeding, or using a pacifier.
- The Baby Sleep Book: The Complete Guide to a Good Night's Rest for the Whole
Family by William and Martha Sears. The title recognizes that if your child isn't sleeping, chances are, neither are you. Issues and theories this book addresses include:
- Nighttime separation anxiety (baby's fear of being alone and/or without you).
- New infant sleep research from the Mother-Baby Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame.
- Personal stories from parents of children with a wide range of sleep habits.
- The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn
Baby Sleep Longer by Harvey Md Karp, pediatrician and professor. When it comes to books, you have to be intrigued by the title of one that starts The Happiest Baby on the Block… Indeed, you are not alone. This is one of the most popular books on babies and sleep and with good reason. The popular theory in this book explores:
- The "fourth trimester." Yes, pregnancy may end for you after the third trimester, but Karp theorizes that some infants are not ready for their new surroundings: "When you bring your soft, dimpled newborn home from the hospital, you may think your nursery is a peaceful sanctuary.... To him, it's a disorienting world part Las Vegas casino, part dark closet!" The book teaches a five step process which is used to imitate life for baby as it was in the uterus. These processes include: swaddling, side/stomach position, "shhh" sounds, swinging and sucking.
- On Becoming Baby Wise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. Popular and controversial, this book tackles sleep issues through a (some might say "rigid") scheduling process.
- From baby's first days, a baby is "guided" through their day vs. a parent responding to an infant's "unknown" needs. This includes helping to establish when an infant sleeps and eats.
- The book also theorizes that a baby's first year is made up of four developmental phases, and, with each of these, a baby will begin to go progressively longer between feedings, thus sleeping through the night.
What's right for your baby?
The bottom line is that you are the parent and know your baby best. Use these books and all other advice to guide you along the way.
