Customer Reviews

SLEEP (Child's Magazine Guide to)

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

 

 

This book is quick and easy to read - an absolute necessity when you're sleep-deprived. It describes problems in a simple straighforward manner and then offers many different alternatives to solve them. It explains the rationale of how these problems develop and why various solutions work. That allows each parent to decide individually how to best solve their own problem. It is very well cross-referenced within the text so that if you find you are in the wrong section, you can easily find the right one - very useful when you want to go back a reread some particular information.

This book saved my sanity. It is great because it gives you choices and options so you chose what you feel comfortable with. Three friends had babies about the same time I did, they could not believe how great my son slept. I loaned them the book, now their children are amazing sleepers.

The author approaches the topic like a newspaper reporter explaining everyone elses ideas without committing to any. If you want a grand overview of what kind of ideas are out there then take a look at this book. If you want to use the crying to sleep method use Ferber's book, if you don't want your baby to cry then go to The No-Cry Sleep Solution.

I purchased this book for help with my 8 month old's sleep pattern, and found it to be completely unhelpful. It quotes studies but does not give footnotes or other support as to WHAT studies, or any data about the studies (how many children were involved, etc.) In the sections I read, the only person quoted was Dr. Ferber.

I did like the section on determining what kind of sleeping problem the child has, but when I turned to the section for help with that problem (for me, it was a "trained night crier"), despite the book claiming that there were "fortunately...many options," the two options were cry it out (the "cold turkey" approach) and cry it out, but check on the baby every 5 - 10 - 15 minutes (the "reassuring" approach). Then the chapter ends!

The clincher for me, though, was how cheap the book itself is. The printing is on brown, easy-to-tear pages and goes all the way to the edges of the page - two marks of the truly mass mass-market paperback. Plus, the whole cover pulled completely off the spine - the glue just totally gave way - the very first time I tried to read it!

I think this book might contain better and more varied advice for parents whose children are older - there are a lot of solutions involving discussing, cajoling, and otherwise verbally interacting with your child. But for this mom, it really didn't fit the bill.

I used this book with both my kids and have given it to numerous friends/new parents. Everyone raves about it. What makes it so good is that the author provides options. Not every sleep training method is for every parent, this book provides the reader with different methods so you can find one you feel comfortable with. And you don't have to buy 5 or 6 books, it's all in there. This book is a great tool, buy it.