The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night: Foreword by William Sears, M.D. (Pantley) [Paperback]

Elizabeth Pantley (Author), William Sears (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2002 | Series: Pantley

There are two schools of thought for encouraging babies to sleep through the night: the hotly debated Ferber technique of letting the baby "cry it out," or the grin-and-bear-it solution of getting up from dusk to dawn as often as necessary. If you don't believe in letting your baby cry it out, but desperately want to sleep, there is now a third option, presented in Elizabeth Pantley's sanity-saving book The No-Cry Sleep Solution.

Pantley's successful solution has been tested and proven effective by scores of mothers and their babies from across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Based on her research, Pantley's guide provides you with effective strategies to overcoming naptime and nighttime problems. The No-Cry Sleep Solution offers clearly explained, step-by-step ideas that steer your little ones toward a good night's sleep--all with no crying.

Tips from The No-Cry Sleep Solution:

• Uncover the stumbling blocks that prevent baby from sleeping through the night
• Determine--and work with--baby's biological sleep rhythms
• Create a customized, step-by-step plan to get baby to sleep through the night
• Use the Persistent Gentle Removal System to teach baby to fall asleep without breast-feeding, bottlefeeding, or using a pacifier

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"At long last, I've found a book that I can hand to weary parents with the confidence that they can learn to help their baby sleep through the night--without the baby crying it out."
--William Sears, M.D., Author of The Baby Book

"When I followed the steps in this book, it only took a few nights to see a HUGE improvement. Now every night I'm getting more sleep than I've gotten in years! The best part is, there has been NO crying!"
--Becky, mother of 13-month-old Melissa

A breakthrough approach that offers hope to exhausted parents looking for gentle ways to help their baby sleep without the heart-wrenching tears

Are you suffering through sleepless nights and having to fend off a barrage of heartless advice about letting your baby "cry it out"? The No-Cry Sleep Solution will show you how it is entirely possible and within your grasp to help your baby fall asleep peacefully--and stay asleep all night long.

Until now the only two ways to deal with sleepless nights were to let your baby cry herself to sleep or to become a sleep-deprived martyr and tough it out from dusk until dawn. At last, there is a practical and effective third way, thanks to Elizabeth Pantley, a parent educator and mother of four. Pantley is like a best friend who's been there and is full of caring advice to help you and your baby get a good night's sleep. Her ten-step will lead you through the process one day at a time by:

• Shedding new light on your baby's sleep patterns and helping you set realistic goals
• Showing you how to analyze, assess, and improve your baby's sleep patterns using sleep logs
• Offering a variety of sleep solutions that fit every parenting style, whether you cosleep with your baby or she sleeps in a crib or whether you breastfeed or bottlefeed
• Creating a tear-free customized sleep plan that works for both you and your baby

Don't let sleep deprivation keep you from enjoying your baby. The No-Cry Sleep Solution is full of reassuring advice and words of wisdom from other parents who have had success with the program. It will give you the tools you need to effectively and gently reach your goal--a good night's sleep for everyone.

About the Author

Elizabeth Pantley, author and parent educator, is frequently quoted in numerous magazines including Parents and Parenting. She and her husband live in Washington state with their four children--and all sleep through the night.

Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; Ex-Library edition (March 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071381392
• ISBN-13: 978-0071381390
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,186 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diseases & Physical Ailments > Sleep Disorders
  • #34 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Parenting

More About the Author

When asked to define myself, the first thing that comes to mind is not the business that that brings in my paycheck, but the pursuit that occupies the majority of my days and the biggest chunk of my heart: Mother. I'm a mom of four wonderful, loveable, magical children. I've managed to create a rich and rewarding career as an author of books for parents, and as a speaker on this epic and important topic. I have the pleasure of writing about the things that bring families more peace, and the fun of chatting with people every day about our children and calling it work. I travel around the world to share what I know, and learn many new things from other parents on my journeys. I have presented at many conferences, hospital parenting programs and other events. I'm the author of nine parenting books available in 24 languages -- showing that parents are the same, no matter where in the world they live or what language they speak. My email box is filled daily with reader mail from all over the world -- my virtual pen pals. I have several new "No-Cry" parenting books in the works.

You can get more information, pictures, articles, contests, and more, at my web site: http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1,080 of 1,136 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you comparing sleep books? October 1, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

OK, I admit it. I bought all of them. Here's how they compare:

Ferber: Advocates crying to sleep with parent soothing on a time schedule. Put your baby in the crib. Come back to pat and say soothing words at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, etc. Increase the times every night. Hopefully your baby will stop crying and go to sleep. Lots of scientific discussion about sleep.

Weissbluth: Advocates crying to sleep without parent soothing. Open-ended time - no limit. You are "leaving him alone to forget the expectation to be picked up." Has a section on children over 7 years old.

Mindell: Advocates crying to sleep with parent soothing, on a schedule similar to Ferber but with more frequent checks on the baby.

Pantley: Advocates using gentle techniques to avoid crying. Focus on understanding why baby is waking and fixing problems with routines, new associations, and gradual changes in patterns. Supportive of breastfeeding and co-sleeping as well as crib sleeping and bottle feeding.

420 of 447 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Practical (and effective!)Guide for sleep-deprived parents October 30, 2003

By kimberly beck

Format:Paperback

As a mom of three, including a very high needs infant and then twins, I know sleep deprivation! As a Childbirth Educator and Doula, I have a fairly extensive knowledge of typical infant sleep cycles and behavior. But as any sleep deprived parent can attest, you can be so overwhelmed, exhausted, and desperate for sleep that you are tempted to try anything and need some support and guidance. The two most common suggestions parents are given are to let the baby "cry it out" or to "just deal with it and know this too will eventually pass", neither of which validates the feelings of these desperate parents or gives them practical ideas for trying to meet both their needs and those of their baby, and often, makes them feel worse either because they can't stand to let their baby cry nor feel they can continue to go on being exhausted and sleep deprived, they want and need help NOW.

This book is that help. I bought the No-Cry Sleep Solution when my twin son and daughter were about 9 months old. I was exclusively breastfeeding them and attachment parenting them and did not want to stop that parenting style, but was desperate for sleep. Elizabeth's book was informative, easy to read, easy to follow, and most importantly comprehensive. She does not advocate for any one method of helping babies and parents to sleep, but rather gives weary, exhausted, and overwhelmed parents useful information about what reasonable expectations for sleep are, emphasizes safety, and then gives them easy to use tools they can use to identify sleep issues and many techniques they can choose from to try to bring more sleep to everyone, regardless of sleep arrangements or feeding style! I especially like her sleep logs and analysis tools. Within a few weeks of reading her book we were all sleeping better and I was less stressed as I was able to understand the reasons behind the waking and address them without tears for me or my babies! And yes, we are now all sleeping all night!
I highly recommend this book if you are looking for ways to gently and lovingly help your baby (and yourself) learn to sleep better!

628 of 680 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars not good for seriously exhausted parents. January 27, 2005

By first-time mom

Format:Paperback

At 3 months, my son was sleeping 7pm-4am, waking up to feed, then back down until 7-8am. Then the holidays hit, and everything fell apart. Suddenly he was waking up no less than 12-15 times between 10pm-6am. After 10 days of getting less than 4 hours of (interrupted) sleep each night, my husband and I determined we needed to take action to help the poor kid get back on track. We bought three books - Ferber, "Healthy Sleep Habits" and this one.

Of course we wanted to follow the no-cry solution. Who wants to put their child (and themselves) through the misery of cry it out? I truly believed that cry it out was the wrong thing to do and was positive this plan would work. My husband and I committed to the program and agreed we'd follow it "as long as it takes."

It took all of our energy to read the book cover-to-cover, put together a sleep log and then lay out our sleep plan. The author instructs you to have "patience" and to celebrate even the smallest improvements. What she doesn't really acknowledge is that, when serious sleep deprivation has you at each others' throats, weeping hysterically at the drop of a hat and feeling resentful towards your poor innocent baby, "patience" is something nearly impossible to come by.

After 4 weeks of working with our sleep plan - following the guidelines 'round-the-clock - our son was still waking up 6-8 times a night and napping poorly during the day. This was an improvement over waking a dozen times a night, but still he had huge dark circles under his eyes, startled easily, cried at nothing. He was miserable. We all were.

Despite the 300 other reviews here that say basically "if you really love your baby, you won't let him cry it out" ... I LOVE MY BABY. And we finally decided to let him cry it out. And now? Now I have a happy, well-rested baby. And we have our sanity back.

This book has some good ideas. I'm sure that if my son were waking up only 2-4 times a night, I would have been able to stick with the plan as long as necessary to make it work. But when my child was waking up every 45-60 minutes all night long, night after night, I finally decided that - for our entire family's sake - we required a more radical, doctor-approved intervention.

My point in writing this review is not to defend my actions. It's to offer a different viewpoint amongst the crowd and to bear witness for other exhausted parents ... if this doesn't work for you, YOU ARE NOT A BAD OR SELFISH PARENT. Choose the method that fits your situation and follow it to the letter. And congratulations for wanting to help your baby get the restorative sleep he or she desperately needs.