Customer Reviews

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child / Your Fussy Baby

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Before we got this book, we tried several others. None gave us what we needed to deal with a very stubborn poor sleeping boy. Dr. Weissbluth gives you the information you need to have confidence implementing his methods. He treats the reader with respect, and provides useful information such as how much sleep a certain age child SHOULD be getting.
In three days our son was taking two naps a day and sleeping for twelve hours at night. I have given this book to several friends and it is now my default baby shower present.
GO FOR IT!

I read MANY reviews before selecting a sleep book to read during my last trimester. I wasn't sure if I would be of the no-cry camp or the let-them-cry-it-out side. This book actually answered the question for me!

The author describes how a newborn, up to 4 months, should NEVER be allowed to just cry it out. They cry because they need something but they have not yet developed the ability to link a parental attention to crying and cannot play "games". The author encourages parents to do whatever you feel is needed to sooth the newborn, including rocking or nursing to sleep. After four months the author said the child can learn to "fake cry" to elicit a parental response. This is when he recommends listening for types of cries and begining to "extinguish" the crying behavior by slightly delaying your response, especially to fake cries and night whimpers.

The author is strongly in favor of ample sleep for children. He explains how much they need (it's surprising) and that parents should watch for symptoms of drowsiness and put the baby down drowsy. NOT fully awake and not crashed-out asleep. There is extensive talk about what to do with problem sleepers. All solutions involve watching for the baby/toddler to become drowsy (slowing down play, rubbing eyes) and putting them to bed then. A few minutes of fussing will probably follow, at which time you are to check on them periodicaly, but a swift drift off into sleep is always on the heels of the protest. Most all-night sleep battles are with overtired children whose bodies are producing stress hormones to keep them miserably awake. Putting to bed while drowsy (even at 6 pm in the evening) produces much happeir, more alert and more agreeable children.

He cites endless studies about how sleep makes for happier, healthier babies and how IQ has been directly linked to sleep. (Children with an IQ above 140 have been shown to get 30-40 more minutes of sleep than their peers. That's how important daytime naps and scheduled bedtimes are!)

I very much liked this book set because I felt it gave me some very good, scientific advice about how to comfort my newborn and how to change my behavior as my baby develops to ensure he has the best possible start at getting good, healthy sleep. I rated the book four stars because I realized that nearly the entire contents of the "Your Fussy Baby" book were in the middle of the Healthy Sleep Habits book and I had not needed to buy both books.

I bought this book when my twins were 9 months old and I wanted some guidance on daytime napping, and a lot of friends had recommended Healthy Sleep Habits... I didn't mean to buy 'Your fussy Baby', since mine are too old for that- so be careful when you buy this package that you get both books. I had already read a lot of books on sleep training, and while there were some really good tips here, I found 'The Contented Little Baby Book' by Gina Ford more direct. Weissbluth allows for more discretion which I think a mother needs, and overall I think this is a very good book to be read in conjunction with other philosophies, and you can adapt what works for your style and babies. A must-read if your baby doesn't sleep very much and you think it is OK that way- it's not!

I'm a pediatrician, and I did not receive any training during residency on normal infant sleep patterns. I wish I had read this book ten years ago.

Dr. Weissbluth explains in a respectful tone why sleep is so important and what happens biochemically to a non-sleeping baby. It isn't always obvious to every parent that the baby needs a sleep schedule . . . this book explains not only WHY a schedule is so important, but HOW to get the baby started on one. It took a little while for my (then five month old) daughter to catch up on her sleep, and now, at nine months, she sleeps 16 out of 24 hours -- 13 hours at night plus two naps. The book is informative but not preachy. No gimmicks, just science. He endorses both "cry it out" and "soothe to sleep" techniques, discussing the merits of each, and is supportive of either crib sleeping or co-sleeping -- whatever works best for your family and parenting style. Like many self-help books, "personal stories" are included in the text, but unlike most self-help books, the stories are used to illustrate a point and not simply to self-congratulate the author. After reading four other sleep books, I've finally found the one book I can confidently recommend to my patients and my mommy friends!

Having read and followed the superb advice (based not only on extensive research but old proven techniques), this book is the bible for raising babies. Simple but oh so effective, it guides you through all the techniques to train (yes train) your baby to sleep-something which is most important for babies (and adults!). The advice may seem hard to follow (if you read some of the so called "new-age" theories which believe babies are born with this ability to sleep), but rest assured they are right on the mark !

The results are not just a very happy/healthy baby who is full of energy every day, but very well rested/happy parents. You can enjoy raising children as it should be-with a smile on your face. Buy it and you need no other book on this subject.

Read and enjoy the book-and enjoy your babies from day one !!

I highly recommend this book and wish we had known about this book earlier than at our 3 month olds birthday. This is without a doubt allowed us as new parents to feel like we had control over the situation. Read the book cover to cover and it will start to make sense to you as you are able to interpret your baby's sleepy signs.

I highly recommend this book even for mothers who will not let their child CIO (cry it out) like myself, because is it chock full of research and information which is goads better than the other alternatives. Furthermore, it had some REALLY handy tips and information as to how important sleep is for your child and charts and figures on exactly how much sleep you should be expecting out of your baby, toddler, and even teenager (also handy are figures on how much sleep most parents are ACTUALLY getting out of their babies and kids). Weissbluth's famed "two-hour rule" is mouthed by mothers everywhere -- make sure your young infant doesn't stay away for longer than two hours -- or they're wired. For those mothers who do believe in his method of letting your child cry it out, there are plenty of anecdotes that are sympathetic and helpful in encouraging them. My complaint though is that this book is sort of poorly written (i.e. written by a doctor, and not a writer) and organized all over the place. I would love to see a revised edition with a professional writer and editor to streamline and reorganize all the information inside. It's a BIG book and it's hard to get to the practical heart of the information sometimes (especially when you're sleep deprived).

I found this book extremely helpful and it helped me teach my baby to sleep well at night and to nap during the day. She is four months-old and sleeps 11-12 hours at night and takes three good naps a day including one long midafternoon one. I keep refering back to the book for more insight and advise.

I read this book with my first son and didn't want to try it cause it felt cruel and too rigid. But, nine months later no one was getting any sleep and when I tried the sleep methods in the book my son went to sleep in his crib and slept through the night. It took a couple days to get him used to the situation, but I wished I would have done it sooner. When we had our second child I thought I knew it all, but new sleep problems arose and again I turned to this book found the answers, didn't like them, but did them anyways and guess what? They worked.

the interesting thing about these books is the amount of time he spends on the research that he and others have done on baby sleep and colic. however, in _your fussy baby_ he recommends that if you have a fussy baby you go straight to the final chapter which is basically a recap of the book. I did this and it made me feel TERRIBLE because I didn't understand his approach, so I thought he was basically saying that I was a failure at soothing my baby and it was my fault he has problems sleeping. So, don't take his advice about that, just read the book in the order it's given, and you won't have that problem.