During the first year of parenthood, perhaps the biggest issue that parents face is sleep. No one gets enough of it–not Mom, Dad, or the baby! I found the biggest struggle to be how to get my baby to fall asleep in the first place; he would get tired then cry and cry…and cry. Then came the inevitable sleep training phase, of which there are countless strategies on how to handle. It’s all confusing and overwhelming–especially when you’re sleep deprived–and it leaves many a new parent wondering whether their child will ever actually sleep through the night. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be turning to books for help along the way. Here are five that I found useful and hope you will too.
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. This book is the sleep bible for many parents. Written by pediatrician Dr. Marc Weissbluth, it covers sleep issues from birth to adolescence–with most of the focus on the first two years. Many parents find his research on sleep science extremely helpful in understanding their child’s sleep patterns–like why a baby might nap better at certain times of day or wake up super-early in the morning. He also offers a range of plans for solving child sleep problems, from “let cry” to “partial ignoring.” If nothing else, the personal stories in the book from parents who have been there provide hope to the truly desperate!
The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program by Polly Moore. There are so many baby sleep theories out there that at first I wasn’t sure what to make of this book. But desperate to better understand my son’s sleep patterns in the early weeks of his life, I gave it a quick read. It turned out to be one of the most useful books I’d come across. The premise is that infants typically get tired about 90 minutes after waking in the morning, and continue on a similar pattern throughout the day. Written by Polly Moore, a neuroscientist who has spent over 20 years studying sleep (and who battled sleep issues with her own children), the book helps parents devise a sleep schedule that fits their baby based on the 90-minute theory and your baby’s unique sleep signs. I found it especially helpful%uFFFD to read the stories from other parents she’d worked with–Moore even publishes some of their baby’s sleep schedules so you can see what worked for them.
Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber.
Ferber often gets a bad rap for his method for teaching children to
soothe themselves to sleep–commonly referred to as “Ferberizing,”–but
it’s largely misunderstood and his book is actually filled with very
useful information about infant and child sleep. As the founder of
Boston’s Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children’s Hospital, he
offers helpful advice for tackling common sleep issues such as night
waking and strategies for developing good sleep patterns and schedules. I
found myself downloading his book one night at 3am when my
son was seemingly wide awake and ready to play and I was about to lose it.
The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. Intended for those looking for a gentler way to teach their children good sleep habits, this book is a popular choice among parents, and many moms and dads I know have used it with good results. After I was convinced that my son did not respond well to crying himself to sleep–he only seemed to get more and more worked up–I decided to give the theories in this book a shot. In the end, I found the author’s strategies for other sleep issues—like weaning your baby off the pacifier when he’s dependent on it for sleep—the most helpful. But I appreciate that the author, a parent educator and mother of four, takes a “no-cry” approach.
Smooth Baby Sleep by Diana G. Blanco. Diana Gonzalez Blanco is the sleep consultant who ultimately got my son to sleep through the night. Just as she helped solve my family’s sleep issues, I’m sure her book will help countless other parents do the same. In the book, parents will find a simple and customizable sleep plan that works from birth to toddlerhood. Following Blanco’s gentle yet steadfast approach, parents can expect to teach their child to sleep through the night, take longer naps, solve night-waking problems, end witching hours, balance breastfeeding and sleep, and much more.
