Sleep Resources Explained
Posted by Nicole on May 1st, 2008I have added a new page, Resources, detailing various products I recommend. I wanted to clarify a few things on that page as to why I suggest a few books over others.
What I Recommend
For babies under 3 months old, I recommend The Happiest Baby on the Block by Karp. Once your baby is over 3 months, you probably won’t find it that useful. At that point, if your baby is not sleeping well he/she likely has a sleep association and that book won’t help you much. In fact, it helps you create sleep associations, but it’s a lifesaver if you have a challenging sleeper and honestly, in those early weeks, you do what you can to survive.
For babies from birth to 10 months, I recommend Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Weissbluth. It has a lot of good information and action plans for exhausted parents at the end of each chapter. It is broken down by age, too.
For babies/toddlers 10+ months, I recommend Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems by Ferber. It has a lot of very useful information on circadian rhythms, sleep assocations, but also a variety of other information on bed wetting, nightmares, etc.
If I had to only choose one book, it would be Weissbluth’s. This is because it probably has the most practical information in a format that’s an easy read. He leans towards CIO (cry-it-out), but offers several other options and the rest of the information is useful, even if you don’t agree with CIO. Ferber’s book is a very close second and really good, but maybe more than you ever wanted to know about biological rhythms. It is far more detailed. I also think Weissbluth’s book seems to apply to younger babies a little better, in my opinion. I think when babies get very overtired, it’s difficult to follow some of Ferber’s recommendations on fixing some problems, if you have a challenging sleeper.
Why I don’t recommend “On Becoming Babywise”
I don’t recommend the On Becoming Babywise
Why I don’t recommend “The No Cry Sleep Solution”
The reason I don’t recommend The No-Cry Sleep Solution is, again, not because it does not have useful information. It does. But, once you know about sleep associations you have most of the information you need to have from this book. At this point, you will either easily be able to break those sleep associations in “gentle” ways by just discouraging the sleep associations and using some of the methods I’ve mentioned on this site. Or, you will have a challenging baby and sleeper and get frustrated that this book will not work. This is just my opinion, but it seems a little unrealistic for the really challenging sleepers and you don’t need the book to tell you that if rocking the baby is a problem, then stop.
Questions?
I hope you find some of the other resources I’ve outlined useful and please email me if you have any questions about them (info [at] picknicksbrain (dot) com).
Category: RecommendationsTags: books, resources, sleep, sleep book, sleep books, sleeping book, the sleep book
May 2nd, 2008
Have you read the Dr. Sears sleep book? I did about two years ago and remember it had a lot on co-sleeping, but some other resources as well. If you have read it or get a chance to read it, let us know what you think please.
May 3rd, 2008
@Donna Thanks for your comment! No, I have not read that book, yet, but I will and I’ll let you know. I think co-sleeping works for many families, but from what I’ve heard about the book, it makes you feel bad if you don’t. If that’s the case, most likely I won’t recommend it. I don’t like books that make you feel like you’re doing something wrong if you don’t do it THEIR way. As I say over and over, each family has to find what works for them. But, I’ll give it a read and add my comments here.
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May 3rd, 2008
I have read the book. When i was co-sleeping with Myra.
I didn’t find anything helpful in this book other than it made me feel CIO is horrible and all the references as to what children feel when they CIO…so I ended up not doing one thing that really works for 8 months.
It does talk about sleep cycles and all the facts Ferber and Weissbluth have talked about but still goes to recommending things that make those cycles and associations harder to break. For example when you read about how his wife broke the nursing to sleep, he talks about let them have the breast every wake up but as soon as they try to doze off break it away and pat and SHHH the child. I tried it for 3 nights but I was so tired that after 4th wake up i forgot to break it up many times and she would be sucking and sleeping.
Needless to say 4th night i gave up.
It is the same way with all no cry books in my opinion but then again I am converted pro CIO and C&C from a anti-CIO where I used to think any crying method is horrible and those parents who do it are not good parents thanks to books like Sears and such.
I just know that a tired parent would try anything to get sleep and it is okay to try no cry if that works for you, what is not okay is to tell parents that any crying you will be allowing is damaging to your child that is not what a tired parent wants to feel or hear when they are trying to get some sanity back in their lives.
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May 4th, 2008
@Najmi Thank you for your comments on the Dr. Sears book. I can only imagine how hard that was for 8 months, and confusing, given the guilt the book made you feel for not doing it their way. I am glad your little one is now sleeping wonderfully.
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May 4th, 2008
Yes and I couldnt ask for more. She has nights like last night where she wont sleep after i put her down but there is no crying at all, and now i just can go in after 20 or so min and tell her Myra you need to sleep and she usually does
I couldn’t have done it without Weissbluth, Ferber and YOU
I am not against no crying methods I just don’t agree that they always work and that crying methods scar children…because there is no study that shows that. Its the verdict of letting the baby cry is the horrible act of parents wanting to get rid of being parents is annoying.
There is this particular line that was my mantra in my co-sleeping days when i would get very upset and tired…i got this line from Sears book
it goes along the lines of that parenting is a full time job and that include night time as well yu cannot just let the child cry and take a leave from being a parent. That was the bottom line of that line and that is what i kept telling myself and thinking all CIO methods were shortcut parenting….I was so naive and biased.
I dont think teaching your child is CIO, its just teaching them, how to sleep like anything else some sleep training is crying some is not, depends what kids of sleeper you have….what works for me won’t work for you and that should be left for the parent to decide what they want without making them feel horrible about choosing the crying method if they do.
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May 5th, 2008
@Najmi Aww! Thanks!
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