Nighttime Parenting: How to Get Your Baby and Child to Sleep (Plume) [Paperback]

William Sears (Author)

Book Description

Series: Plume | Publication Date: October 1, 1987

Providing parents with a thorough understanding of why and how babies sleep differently from the rest of us, Dr. Sears--an affiliate of La Leche League International--helps them find a personalized solution to getting a good night's sleep for their children and themselves. 16 photographs and 16 line drawings.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William Sears, M.D., is a pediatrician in private practice in Pasadena, California, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California, and a writer and frequent speaker on parenting and child care. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 203 pages
• Publisher: Plume (October 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452264073
• ISBN-13: 978-0452264076
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,656,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Sears, M.D., received his pediatric training at Harvard Medical School's Children's Hospital and Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. He has practiced as a pediatrician for more than thirty years. Martha Sears is a registered nurse, childbirth educator, and breastfeeding consultant. The Searses are the parents of eight children. Drs. Robert and James Sears are both board-certified pediatricians at the Sears Family Pediatric Practice in San Clemente, California. All four authors live in southern California. More information about the Searses can be found at www.SearsParenting.com and www.AskDrSears.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alternative to "Crying it Out", March 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Nighttime Parenting: How to Get Your Baby and Child to Sleep (Paperback)

This book is pro family bed and is mainly for the breastfeeding mother. Dr. Sears does not advocate "crying it out." If you are not breastfeeding, do not buy this book. Dr. Sears believes that babies do not have the same sleep cycle as adults; therefore, parents of babies who sleep through the night should consider it a luxury. I found this book to be helpful, only because a lactation consultant recommended co-sleeping. I refused to use the "crying out" method and this book makes me feel good about choosing the family bed. This arrangement has worked for the past 7 months. Regarding the other reviewers who say that co-sleeping is not practical for the working mother, this is not true for everyone. I know plenty of people who co-sleep and work full-time. They say this is their way of being close to their child while they are away from them during the day. He explains this in the book also. Dr. Sears comes across as very caring and loving. I trust a man who has reared 8 children! He also explains why babies wake during the night, how to eventually wean your toddler from your bed, and how to get your toddler to take naps, etc.

157 of 172 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Even family bedders can have sleep problems, December 14, 1999

By 

C. van Dijk (Arlington, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nighttime Parenting: How to Get Your Baby & Child to Sleep (Paperback)

Another reviewer mentioned that this book might be best for parents of newborns, not older infants. I have to agree. I picked it up when we started having lots of night time problems with our daughter, who slept in our bed. It outlines various problems, and the answer to each problem is: let your kid sleep in bed with you. Well, what if you are doing that, and you still have problems, like a child who wakes up several times crying, or who moans all night in her sleep, or who kicks and pushes mom all night long? I like the idea of family bedding, but it is NOT the cure-all that this book would have you believe. My child does not wake up happy just because she is in our bed, in fact, she often still wakes up crying. But there do not seem to be any books out there that actually address sleep problems for family bedders. Ferber's book was revolting; Sears' was a disappointment, with no real answers to sleep problems.

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new here, December 12, 2001

By 

Diana E. Carroll "dbang-mom" (Acton, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nighttime Parenting: How to Get Your Baby and Child to Sleep (Paperback)

I have a large library of Sears books (The Baby Book, the
Birth Book, etc.) I practice co-sleeping and attachment
parenting. I bought this book because my 6 month old twins
were causing my family to be severely sleep deprived.
Unfortunately, if you are already familiar with the writing
of the Sears', you won't find anything particularly new
here. It isn't that I *disagree* wht the principles in the
book, just that I thought it should go further. The "same
old" advice in the other Sears' books wasn't working for
us -- our family was falling apart. I wanted an alternative
to Ferber (which I also bought). This book continued to
say what the Baby Book said: your kids will sleep well if
they sleep with you, nightime nursing is the simplest
way to keep your kid happy at night, etc. Maybe all this
works for singletons, but not twins. I'd love to find a
book that gives really *practical* advice that still supports
the Attachment Parenting philosophy I believe in!

(Here's an example of unhelpful advice: In response to a
question about "My kid is too squirmy and keeps me up",
Dr. Sears responds that this is a result of the kid having
started in a crib and later moving to co-sleeping, and
that if you give him time, he'll adjust. This was not
helpful to us, who co-slept from the start, and had
given the kids PLENTY of time, and they were still disrupting
our sleep.)

PS: The good news is that eventually, without any helpful
advice from any books, we managed to survive the sleep
situation, and at 2 years old, we have a much more livable
sleep situation while still practicing AP!