Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child | Marc Weissbluth

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child | Marc Weissbluth | Good foundational concepts but overcomplicated and confusing

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Healthy Sleep Habi...

	Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child Marc Weissbluth Ballantine Books, 2003 - 345 pages average customer review:based on 1098 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

One of the country's leading researchers updates his revolutionary approach to solving--and preventing--your children's sleep problems

Here Dr. Marc Weissbluth, a distinguished pediatrician and father of four, offers his groundbreaking program to ensure the best sleep for your child. In Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, he explains with authority and reassurance his step-by-step regime for instituting beneficial habits within the framework of your child's natural sleep cycles. This valuable sourcebook contains brand new research that

- Pinpoints the way daytime sleep differs from night sleep and why both are important to your child
- Helps you cope with and stop the crybaby syndrome, nightmares, bedwetting, and more
- Analyzes ways to get your baby to fall asleep according to his internal clock--naturally
- Reveals the common mistakes parents make to get their children to sleep--including the inclination to rock and feed
- Explores the different sleep cycle needs for different temperaments--from quiet babies to hyperactive toddlers
- Emphasizes the significance of a nap schedule
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Rest is vital to your child's health growth and development. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child outlines proven strategies that ensure good, healthy sleep for every age. Advises parents dealing with teenagers and their unique sleep problems

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life saver

This book saved my life, and I love it. The background info about sleep is interesting. It gives good tips for getting your baby to sleep and it really works. Not for the "no-cry" crowd, he advocates cry it out, of ferber method.

Good foundational concepts but overcomplicated and confusing

I started reading this book near the end of my pregnancy and continued after I was discharged from the hospital but baby had to stay there in the NICU. I wanted to start off with some great sleep habits from the moment baby arrived home.

I initially was very fascinated by the foundations the book set forth in regards to how important sleep is to an infant/child's development, and feel that Weissbluth definitely knows his stuff when it comes to sleep's affect on a child's development. These first few chapters provided great foundational concepts -- that sleep, like food, is essential to healthy growth and has different qualities (not all types of sleep are created equal).

BUT... as the book moved on, I found the practical application sections extremely confusing, complicated, and sometimes contradictory, sometimes redundant. Maybe it was just that I was reading this half sleep-deprived myself (although when else are parents likely to be reading this?), but I found it very poorly organized and confusing. I was pretty much left confused as to how to simply begin a good sleep program--what were my first steps?

Along these lines, there are also so many "warnings" along the way (scattered about in a haphazard manner) that you end up feeling paranoid that whatever you do is going to mess up your baby's sleep schedule.

Although I very much appreciated the first few chapters for their foundational concepts (and I will always take these with me -- thus the 3 stars), I found this book pretty unhelpful for practical application. For practical application, I will use the No Cry Sleep Solution by Pantley, which is much more clear and concise.

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Was Okay

I actually borrowed this from the library and read it before deciding to buy, so I knew what I was buying. Still, it's just okay. It has some really good information, but I didn't feel it really said step-by-step what you should do. I also felt that the author repeated himself a lot and that the information wasn't very well organized (basically he could have used a better editor who was willing to reorganize it).

For example, he talks about how babies will most likely be able to start a sleep schedule when they're 3 to 4 months old, but then has a story about an 8 week old who he helped the parents put on a sleep schedule, but didn't really explain how or whether this was a good idea (it sounded like the parents had to just because the mom went back to work. Could I, should I, try to put my 2 month old on a sleep schedule, too, even though I'm not going back to work, just because I want more sleep? What is the likelihood he'll be able to be put on a sleep schedule early? These questions aren't answered).

But I figured for the $10, it was worth buying the book for reference. I think that "The Sleepeasy Solution" is better in that it goes through step by step what you should do and at what age. If you only buy one book I'd try that one (or borrow from the local library). For children before 3 months, I'd try "The Happiest Baby on the Block." It's a great book for how to soothe newborns and help them sleep.

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