Dr. Shelly K. Weiss, MD, FRCPC, is a pediatric neurologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the co-director of its Sleep Disorder Clinic. An assistant professor at the University of Toronto and member of the executive board of the Canadian Sleep Society, Dr. Weiss has lectured around the world on the area of pediatric sleep disorders.
Introduction
If you have problems with getting your baby, toddler, school-aged child, or teenager to sleep at night (or in the case of teenagers, getting them to wake up in the morning), you are not alone. Many parents have concerns about their children's sleep, no matter the age of their child. Research studies tell us that approximately 25% of all children experience some type of sleep problem. Even though some of these problems are not disruptive, severe, or long-lasting, others may result in significant consequences for your child's daytime behavior, family function, and academic performance. Your child's sleep problems may also have a significant impact on your sleep. Coping with multiple sleepless nights while caring for or worrying about your child is not easy, to say the least. Sleepless parents can quickly become as irritable as their sleepless children.
Thankfully, there are many ways to prevent and treat sleep problems in children. In addition to speaking to your child's medical doctor or nurse, you can read about sleep problems in various parenting magazines and numerous books on this topic. There is also a world of collective wisdom concerning children's sleep -- every grandparent, friend, neighbor, and co-worker seems ready to offer advice based on their personal experience. However, much of this information, including that offered by the experts, is confusing. Our book is designed to dispel confusion about sleep problems by offering you the best information on children's sleep available, based on recent scientific research and our extensive clinical experience at The Hospital for Sick Children.
We have written this book for expectant parents who want to prevent childhood sleep problems, as well as for parents who want to solve existing sleep difficulties in their children. How you expect your child to sleep is ultimately your choice, based on your own sleep experiences, cultural influences, parenting style, and knowledge of sleep in children. There is no single correct method to improve sleep in children in all families, but some methods are more effective than others for establishing healthy sleep habits and for restoring healthy sleep once it has been disrupted.
Better Sleep for Your Baby and Child is divided into three sections. In Part I, we present basic information on healthy sleep, answering such questions as, What is sleep? and How much sleep does my child need? We present preventive strategies for good sleep hygiene and discuss the various options for sleep arrangements, including sleeping with your infant in your own room. In Part 2, we describe various sleep disorders as they occur through the ages, from birth to adolescence, and introduce behavioral and drug treatment strategies. In Part 3, we provide a step-by-step guide to treating specific sleep disorders, ranging from childhood insomnia and sleepwalking to nightmares and bed-wetting. Although many childhood sleep problems can be solved with a behavioral approach, we indicate when you need to consult your doctor for medical or surgical options for other sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy (medical) or sleep apnea (often surgical).
We trust that the prevention and treatment strategies we recommend will enable your child to establish better sleep habits that will help lay the foundation for lifelong health and well-being.
- Dr. Shelly K.Weiss, MD
