Alaska Sleep Education Center

All You Must Know About Baby Sleep: Top Books for Parents

The modern world allows you to find the perfect bride in any country and on any continent. You just need to choose a quality and reliable site like datingjet.com, register here, and meet a charming girl who will give you love and become the mother of your children. Pregnancy is an amazing time for women, because soon their life will completely change, and they will know the joy of motherhood. However, problems will also come with joy, because now full sleep is becoming a dream for the next few years. But this does not mean that you will be constantly tired, and the child will not sleep. In case you know some useful information, the situation can get much better. Therefore, we will show you several books about children’s sleep that will be useful for parents.

Richard Ferber – “Crying Baby Technology”

Richard Ferber is director of the Children’s Sleep Disorders Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and an adjunct professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. Ferber devoted his entire life to the study of children’s sleep. He is perhaps the most titled and serious scientist specializing in this. Moreover, he studies not only such problems as a baby who sleeps without long motion sickness but serious diseases that disturb sleep, such as anuresis and narcolepsy.

This is a detailed and at the same time very conveniently structured book. Ferber is a big fan of tables and graphs, so the information in this book is very easy to perceive. He describes the problems faced by parents of babies, toddlers, preschoolers, elementary school children, and even teenagers. Ferber developed his method of teaching children to fall asleep on their own.

Of course, Ferber is scolded for inviting parents to abandon the crying child. But the scientist writes that this method is suitable only for children over 3 months old, with a calm temperament and healthy. Ferber describes many of the diseases that cause sleep disorders and tells parents what to look for when to be alert and take the child to the doctor. And he repeats several times that such children should not be left crying.

Secondly, leaving crying, according to Ferber, does not mean giving up all night. First 3 minutes, then 5 minutes. Does not help? Then again 3 minutes. The main thing is to listen to your parental intuition.

Marc Weissbluth – “Healthy Sleep Habits – Happy Child”

Marc Weissbluth is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Founder of the Sleep Disorders Research Center at Children’s Hospital of Chicago. For over 30 years he has been working as a pediatrician and studying children’s sleep. It was he who scientifically substantiated the dependence of children’s sleep on the child’s temperament. His book “Healthy Sleep Habits – Happy Child” is also called the bible of children’s sleep.

This is the most detailed book about children’s sleep, more detailed than Ferber’s. There is not a single unfounded statement – everything is scientifically based. Moreover, Weissbluth writes not only about babies, but also about junior and middle school students.

For babies, everything is written down by the minute: what are the physiological prerequisites for poor sleep, how many hours children of different ages should sleep, how many times, whether they need a nap, what time to put the children to bed, how to help them fall asleep.

Doctors Weissbluth have also been criticized for the “fading cry” method, in which a small child is left to cry and fall asleep on its own. He does describe this method, but, as we remember, he did not invent it. And Weissbluth, like Ferber, suggests trying this method when the child is healthy and all other ways to put him to bed do not help. Another important nuance: this method is not suitable for the smallest children, up to 3 months! Weissbluth writes about this too. So critics need to read the book more carefully.

Harvey Karp – “Sleep Training a Baby”

Harvey Karp is the most renowned practicing pediatrician in the world. Even Hollywood stars bring children to his reception: Madonna, Michelle Pfeiffer, Pierce Brosnan, Demi Moore. Karp is called a baby charmer because he puts them to sleep in just a minute, shaking them and hissing in their ear. Karp, unlike Ferber and Weissbluth, specializes not only in children’s sleep, but he also developed a method of raising children from 1 to 4 years old, which is called “The happiest kid on the playground.”

The Harvey Karp is very practical and is considerably shorter than the books of Ferber and Weissbluth. Although he refers to scientific research, he does not write about them in great detail. The book is suitable only for parents of children under 5 years old. Dr. Harvey Karp talks about the most pressing problems: where to sleep for a child – in the same bed with parents or separately, why newborns sleep so much and how to monitor their sleep patterns, how the baby’s sleep is reflected in what a mother eats while breastfeeding him.

The famous Harvey Karp method is a method of putting babies to sleep for up to 3 months. The scientist proposes to arrange for them something like the 4th trimester, that is, to create conditions for them, which were in the mother’s belly: to swaddle tightly, turn on white noise, shake. This is how he puts children to sleep in a minute.

Surprisingly, Karp has been criticized for being very gentle. They say that by following his method, a child can be pampered. Karp believes that it is impossible to spoil the baby, and the mother should soothe and take the baby in her arms every time he cries. And education should begin at least nine months.

Karp, however, has great respect for Ferber’s methods and scientific research. He writes that the “fading cry” technique does work, with many of the limitations we discussed earlier, but it works. It should be used only when all methods have already been tried and did not help. Harvey is categorically against such an interpretation of Ferber’s method as leaving the child screaming all night (and Ferber himself never wrote about this).

Conclusion

By choosing the right book, you can learn more about children’s sleep, its features. Therefore, you can not only help your child learn what healthy sleep is, but also get enough sleep yourself and, most importantly, see health problems in time. Because sleep is health.

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Alaska Sleep Clinic's Blog

Our weekly updated blog aims to provide you with answers and information to all of your sleeping questions.

Brent Fisher, MBA, FACHE, FACMPE
President and Chief Executive Officer

“Alaska Sleep Clinic has a history of providing the most comprehensive sleep medicine services in the state of Alaska. Its potential has only begun. I am here to take these high-quality, comprehensive services to all Alaskans.”

Experience

Brent Fisher has held leadership positions spanning a wide variety of complex and start-up organizations: manufacturing (pharmaceutical & medical device), software development, hospitals (academic and community), medical groups, consulting, hospice, military, engineered devices, engineered plastics, and private equity.

Publications and Organizations

His writings have been published in various magazines, trade journals, and medical journals, including the Physician Executive Journal, Healthcare Executive, Modern Healthcare, Group Practice Journal, New England Journal of Medicine, and Journal of Healthcare Management (Best Article Award).

He has served on the Board of Directors of professional associations, civic organizations, and businesses.

Hobbies and Activities

Brent enjoys being with his family, serving in the community, hiking, camping, fishing, and hunting.