Product Description

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
-

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #394 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-12
• Released on: 1999-04-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 345 pages

Review
“I love Dr. Weissbluth’s philosophy that the most important thing to have is a well-rested family. And fortunately, thanks to this book, most days (and nights) we do!”
–from the Foreword by Cindy Crawford


From the Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher
I read this book when my second child was born last fall. My first baby was a terrible sleeper, and I was determined not to go through that same nightly hell -- rocking, singing, walking, coddling for hours only for her to wake up when I finally placed her in the crib. So, with my son, I decided to be prepared. And Dr. Weissbluth's methods were amazing. Who knew that babies would actually like to go to sleep early? By watching my son's moods, I learned that he really needed more evening sleep, and two lengthy naps, one in mid-morning and another in early afternoon. Bedtime at 7:30 and he sleeps until 6:00 am! He's happy, energetic and bright. I'm truly convinced that if I had tried to go through the "crying to sleep" method again (my husband and I did attempt it with my first kid, but found it absolutely agonizing), we would have all had a miserable few months.

Now I know why the good doctor gets phone calls from all over the U.S. asking for advice. He is one of the leading pediatric sleep researchers in the country, and is frequently consulted by top parenting and child care magazines.

I'm so utterly devoted to this book, that I'm happy to announce Dr. Weissbluth will be updating the research in a new edition of HEALTHY SLEEP HABITS, HAPPY CHILD due out in 1999. Same life-changing concepts, but with additional testamonials from parents who've used this book so successfully in the past.

Inside Flap Copy
One of the country's leading researchers and pediatricians reveals a revolutionary new approach to your child's sleep in this complete guiding to solving -- and preventing -- sleep problems. Includes a step-by-step program for establishing good sleep habits and individualized guidelines from infancy throughout the growing years.

Customer Reviews

Complete waste of money and time
I bought this book on recommendation from my daughter's pediatrician. I found it very confusing with no real "action plan" drawn up besides letting my baby cry it out. This book is written from a very arrogant perspective. He reminds me of the doctor that told me there was no benefit of nursing past six months. After spending almost 17 dollars on this book...I think the only thing it will be useful for is starting a fire this winter. A terrible, close-minded book with no healthy solutions for our family!

Worked for us so far!
I purchased this book with two others and after reviewing not less than four total, I would say Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child would be the best of the lot and if you can only afford one book about this topic, get this one. That said, this book should only be read by people with excellent mental filtering abilities. I ignored much of the dialogue regarding the ADHD implications, etc. Many I have spoken with, including my husband felt the book contradicted itself "never wake a sleeping baby" "wake baby if..." I understood where others felt the author contradicted himself but I think the real issue is the Dr. Wiessbluth isn't very good at describing moderation, presenting both sides of the coin, and then trusting our parental instincts.

All of that sounds sort of negative. Here is what I learned. 1. My baby wasn't getting enough sleep. 2. She wasn't going to sleep early enough and wasn't on a regular or consistent sleep routine. 3. Her sleep environment was too "busy" and needed "quieting". 4. I wasn't allowing her the opportunity to develop self quieting skills nor allowing her to learn how to get to sleep. 5. I wasn't guarding her nap time sacredly enough. And finally, (6) car seat sleep isn't restful sleep.

After reading this book we made changes around the aforementioned are VERY happy with the outcomes. Our baby naps two times per day for about 1.5 - 2 hours with approximately 2.5-3 hours between nap times. She goes to bed about 2.5-3 hours from the time she gets up from her last nap and stays asleep, in her crib for 10-12 hours each night. It isn't always this way (teething, colds, etc.), but it sure is a lot better than waking up every 4 hours to a crying or wide awake and playing infant. She does wake up occassionally very early in the morning but plays by herself in her crib and falls back to sleep on her own without any "help" from us.

Again, prepare yourself for what seems like contradicting information or suggestions, they aren't at all truly contradicting, just trying to infuse moderation, common sense, or freedom to experiment in order to achieve maximum healthy sleep results.

Good luck and happy sleeping.

great advice, bad editing
This is our first baby, so I don't know if we are lucky or if adequate sleep has made him perfect! He is either smiling and laughing, exploring or sitting in quiet contemplation. But, this book is confusing because it was poorly edited. My advice is to stick with it and revisit it frequently until the basic points make an impression. The biggest problem with this book and philosophy is that once you buy into it, it is unbearable to see over tired children in public. Seeing tired babies out with their parents at 8 and 9pm at a weekly outdoor concert in my town was a total buzz kill.