Customer Reviews

Nighttime Parenting: How to Get Your Baby & Child to Sleep

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

This book provides practical information on finding a solution that will meet the needs of your family (needs of baby AND parent). It advocates responding to your baby's needs in a way that is very natural and loving.

Co-sleeping with your baby is not the only solution Dr. Sears suggests. For more information on co-sleeping historically and cross-culturally, I recommend The Family Bed by Tine Thevenin. If you're looking for solutions to your older baby's sleep problems, you may also want to see The Discipline Book by Dr. Sears.

I understand the urge of parents who want to have their babies trained to sleep through the night in a nursery room -- some times I wish for the free time I imagine that affords. But we have fewer night problems than people we know who follow other methods. It's easier to make choices as a parent when you sort your wants from your needs. Babies ask for what they need. We have a very peaceful time as a family by following Dr. Sears advice and it really shows in our toddler's daytime and nighttime behavior.

For parents who are looking for an alternative to the "cry-it-out" theory of getting their baby or child to sleep, this is the book for you. William Sears provides practical advice on everything from the causes of night-waking in infants and children to the best furniture to buy for the children to sleep on. He covers important information about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, night terrors, bed-wetting, thumbsucking, nighttime fathering tips, nighttime parenting of high-need babies, and much more. Working moms will particularly like this book because it will give them practical advice on how to ensure their young baby "knows who their mom is!" Sears' advice not only works, but it just plain "feels right". I've raised my two kids (now 2-1/2 and 10 mos) using his advice, and it really works. A "must buy" for every parent's library.

Nighttime Parenting is the book that will help you really help your baby to sleep better, not "train" her. It is for parents who are willing to have patience with their babies, and not try to force them into rigid patterns before they are ready. I have an 11-month old baby who wakes up at night. I have read Ferber and Mindell and some of the others who advocate "sleep training." But I just couldn't let my baby cry herself to sleep, as they recommend. That's what it comes down to. Really helping your baby takes time, and effort. It's not easy, but did we really choose to become parents because we thought it would be easy? After using the suggestions in this book, my baby is now sleeping much much longer stretches than she was three months ago, and I am thrilled. I also don't mind getting up once or twice a night to comfort my precious daughter. This book is not for everyone. If you want your baby to sleep 11 hour stretches without bothering you, then you probably want the Ferber book. But, please reconsider, for your baby's sake.

This is a fabulous book for parents who want to treat their children with respect and kindness. The Ferber method of letting your child "cry it out" is disrespectful to the small baby and child - it doesn't allow for the fact that children are biologically designed to sleep with parents. Sleeping with a parent lets infants develop healthy sleeping patterns and actually can lessen the chances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome occuring.

This book explains the reasons why small babies are not designed to sleep through the night - they have a biological need for food every few hours, and this is why they don't always sleep in the ways that adults do. If adults understand that babies NEED to wake up, and aren't just being "cranky" or "difficult," they are better able to parent their babies with respect.

Sears has excellent ideas for childrearing and has written a book that clearly explains sleep theories. It won't so much teach you how to MAKE your child sleep as it will tell you that it's all right for your child to learn slowly and gradually.

When I read Nighttime Parenting I was already co-sleeping with my first baby and was quite familiar with this concept. Although this was the norm for my husband's culture (he's Japanese), for the most part I thought co-sleeping was an obscure sort of out there idea for most parents. I was wrong! In the many years since I initially read this book I have become the mother of three. My husband and I have practiced every variation of the family bed with wonderful results. Our children have grown into loving and affectionate human beings, co-sleeping and having their nighttime needs met is very much a part of that. Yet, I've felt surprise that although many parents react with horror to such an idea as babies and children sleeping with their parents, many, many more have secretly confided that they are doing the same thing!
The fact is, that although learning to co-sleep with your baby is initially an adjustment, having a baby PERIOD is an adjustment. You aren't going to get much sleep no matter what you do. But having your baby RIGHT THERE to attend to his needs in the middle of the night is EASIER. You sleep better, they sleep better and it's good for everyone.

Dr. William Sears is a well respected pediatrician who is not only extremely knowledgeable from a medical standpoint, but as a father of several children (8 or 9? something like that!) He and his wife are amazing partners who teach by example how to meet everyone's needs, including their own. This book is not only a classic standby, it is continually inspiring to read it and feel good about parenting instead of society shaming you for doing something that has been practiced by healthy families for millions of years. Read his book, embrace your heartfelt desire to cuddle your baby, and feel GOOD about meeting everyone's needs in your family.

I am so glad I read this book because it helps me feel OK about our family bed. HOWEVER I was hoping for some ways to get our baby to sleep better but solutions are sorely lacking. For those I found another Sear's recommendation: The No-Cry Sleep Solution, which supports cosleeping but also offers ways for everyone to get better sleep. If you want your family bed validated this is a great book.

First let me say that I am a HUGE fan of Dr. Sears and attachment parenting, but this book was a waste of money. Nothing in here helped to resolve my 18 month old's sleep difficulties. Nearly half of this book is spent convincing you of the benefits of attachment parenting and keeping a family bed. We were already doing this, yet she would sleep only for a few hours and then wake up to play. It had been over a year and a half since I had slept more than 3 hours at a time!

The section on causes of nightwaking in a toddler includes common sense causes that you already know: noise, hunger, temperature, stuffy nose. The extensive list of food that helps sleep? Well, this section is primarly about night nursing which does not always help with family spacing and can cause "baby bottle mouth" tooth decay despite Dr. Sear's claims to the contrary. The actual list of suggested food include a general statement of foods containing tryptophan and a suggestion of several others.

To be a good parent you need sleep! So I bought Dr. Ferber's book Solving your Child's Sleep Problems after a friend explained to me that it's not just about "crying it out." In this book, I really learned about children's sleep patterns, and how many things contribute to their sleep habits. I tried giving my daughter more structure - waking her and feeeding her at the same time every day (schedules are a big no-no in attachment parenting) - instituted a bedtime routine, and weaned her from her middle of the night snacking. She never once cried it out or was left alone in a crib and she now sleeps in 8 hour stretches! Now, if I could just stop waking up to check on her...