The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

I was telling my husband today that I wanted to send flowers to the author of this book. If you are reading this because you think your baby may even possibly need help sleeping, get this book. If you have read the books on attachment parenting and cry-it-out and neither one really works for you and your child, get this book. My baby was a great sleeper. From about 3 months on she slept all night. I didn't care that she wanted to be rocked or nursed or cuddled to sleep, because it was a tiny time investment in exchange for hours of peace. Then at around 7 or 8 months she started waking up every couple of hours. As I got more impatient with her sleeping habits, she got more resistant to bedtime, and even naps. I had previously been a fan of the attachment parenting style, and in many ways still am, but as a medical student I was quickly running out of energy. I actually tried the cry-it-out method once. I realize it works well for some kids, but my baby (who did eventually go to sleep) was so upset in the morning that when she got up (at the usual time when she wants to get up and play) she curled up in my arms and just wanted to cuddle and sleep. So I bought a couple of new books, and read the first chapter of both. This one seemed very practical, and so I kept reading. Some of the things this book suggests seem so much like common sense it is unbelievable that no one thought of them sooner. Now, a week later, my baby is sleeping like a pro. I can't believe it. It was easy, painless, involved zero screaming, and no more time commitment at bedtime than I was already doing. Tonight we are visiting my mother. The baby is in a different house, different room, different bed, and still went to sleep very easily. I am completely amazed by this. As long as we know I'm a fan, I'll also say I like how the book is laid out. I appreciate that I can read some chapters on general theory of sleep and some chapters on practical steps in an organized fashion. I also like that statistics given include whether the information is from surveys or trials. I am often suspicious of claims about how most babies do things, so it is good to see the sources referenced. Perhaps it is the extreme relief of having a sleeping baby, but right now this book seems like the most valuable thing I have purchased in a very long time.

I was very resistant to considering sleep training. I believe in attachment parenting although I am certainly not an extremist. My son was 10 mo old when I purchased this book and I did so b/c he was waking 6-8 times a night and I was concerned about his quality/quantity of sleep for his health/development. So I read this book and my on was sleeping through the night in 2-3 weeks. Harvey Karp gives you many gentle tips to promote sleep in your little person that were not sleep training. There are so many tips that I cannot remember them all so you will have to read the book. But I did the white noise, dark room, adjusting bed time, coming up with a consistent bed time routine, "dream feeding," "wake and sleep," identifying sleep cues, attachment to a "lovey," ... I did all of these things plus more that I know I am forgetting for 2-2.5weeks and I still wasn't getting anywhere with my son. So I started the plan for sleep training. Harvey laid out many different ways to do this and his approach was gentle. But I can tell you if I didn't try those 2-2.5 weeks, the thought of sleep training would still have had a negative connotation in my mind. So knowing that I tried everything that I could made the idea of sleep training soooooo much easier and actual made sleep training way more bearable. Sleep training was cake actually. It took my son 3 nights and he slept through the night. The first night was the hardest. He cried 3 times and they lasted 15-50 min each. The second night it was 3 times as well but lasted 2-45 min and the third night he didnt wake up at all. He just cried for 2-3 min at the start. Then for the next few days he did the same. Then after that I could put him in his crib awake but tired and no crying. And when I say crying, it was mostly "fussing." Hope this helps a lot of people. I read this book a year ago but I felt compelled to spread the word.

Ok. This book made me cry. Not sad tears, but tears of relief and appreciation. See I am a Buddhist when it comes to child rearing. Or Goldilocks. I think there are interesting ideas and points in the extremes, but from a totally practical place extreme ideas never get implemented in my life. I am not an all or nothing kind of girl. I cannot be touching my baby 24/7 cause Mama's got to pee--and let's face it: the times I try to pee and hold a 7 week old squirming to be fed were never the smartest moments of my young mama life! I also HATE hearing her cry. I know she wants me to understand something. Just WTF it is can blow my mind sometimes. (That's where the "this is what this grimace means" charts in the Baby Whisperer books came in totally handy!) Dr. Karp's book is a book of the middle way. There is no extreme here. There is gentle child-centered/parent respecting counsel. There are a lot of ideas for you to work with. You find your own path for your own child. Sure, he can be repetitive, but the book was not made to read cover to cover in one sitting (even if Type A Mama Me did). Who cares! I am too tired to remember everything as it is. And talking about why we go crazy when we are sleep deprived from our kiddos really helped me offer myself some more grace. But ultimately what made me cry was the respect he shows children. His toddler ideas--which are over a year away for us to implement--were right at the level of a toddler's mind and understanding, while still empowering parents to gently guide their kiddos towards healthy sleep habits that help the whole family. A quick note for any parents with highly spirited little ones: We found that his companion CD worked well the first 6 weeks of our girl's life, but then it was a bust. We started one night chanting with her "OM" and it really helped. I downloaded some low register chanting of "OM" off of iTunes (sorry Amazon, but I bet you could get some here too), and that has WORKED. We have a very spritely daughter who is so nosy she does not want to sleep. Add to that the pain of reflux and we were having sleeping issues. This book really helped us, but we also benefited from the chanting, good reflux management, and realizing that respecting our daughter's learning curve gave breath and hope to all of us.

I love Dr. Karp's advice -- he is a true pediatric gem! His approach to everything is gentle, but effective. I have yet to employ all his techniques, but I feel confident doing so and believe they will work to get our little 4-month old babe to sleep through the night!

We had a fussy newborn who SCREAMED when sleeping alone...so, we let her sleep in our bed and nurse on demand (i.e., whenever she woke up) throughout the night. The problem was that we never got her out of our bed and she STILL, at 17 months, woke up 6-10 times per night to nurse herself back to sleep (which means so did I!). We are expecting another baby in January, so we needed her to sleep in her own bed, and most importantly, to sleep through the night. Because she had learned such bad habits, I was convinced we would have to do cry it out all night long. I was against this idea, especially because she is so old and remembers so much from her day. The Happiest Baby provided an alternative option, even for an older child with TERRIBLE sleep habits. After reading this book, we made the following helpful changes: 1: White noise: amazing! my daughter is a light sleeper so this really helps drown out the noise. I can even do the dishes when she sleeps without waking her (I was never able to before) 2. Lovey and a nightlight: we didn't use either before, so we bought Twilight Turtle based on a friend's recommendation. LOVE IT and recommend it. We put it in her crib so that she can turn it on whenever she needs it. 3: Later bedtime: moved from 7:30 to 8:00; made a huge difference! 4: Longer and longer: Using this approach, my daughter still cried a little but it's not as cruel as cry it out 5: Suggestions from Happiest Toddler on the Block My daughter had NEVER slept in her crib and hadn't learned to put herself back to sleep, so I thought the transition to the crib was going to be HORRIBLE But...it wasn't. The first night, she woke up only 3 times and fell asleep after 5, 10, and 5 minutes. It only got better from there. She was sleeping in her own crib through the night in only 5 days. So for the first time in 17 months, my daughter and I both got a full night of sleep. WOW! Looking forward to using this book to avoid bad sleep habits with baby number 2. Additionally, I recommend Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. His methods to get baby to sleep are cry it out and not very helpful, but he outlines sleep schedules for birth through school aged children that I found very helpful.

We found The Happiest Baby on the Block to be so helpful when our son was about 6 weeks old, not only in offering techniques that worked for him, but for giving us confidence in ourselves as parents as we learned better what to do. There are so many books out there, but ironically, in following this one, we actually gained confidence to trust ourselves and our instincts. So, when we headed into the 5 month sleep "regression," we wanted to consult Dr. Karp again in this new book as we knew we didn't want a rigorous "sleep training" method, but could see if there were any "tips" we could integrate into our family life. Once again, we were given gentle guidance and flexible suggestions to try that have helped us make our own steps in teaching our son how to sleep better and longer. This book helped with our transition to helping him fall asleep on his own, with weaning from some of the comfort and sleep cues that were no longer working, and (probably due to Dr. Karp's gentle style) once again with our confidence. There is also plenty of information in the book explaining children and sleep and what helps them most, not only for the immediate (which sometimes is about all a sleep-deprived person can think of) but for later in life. In other words, it didn't let us "off the hook", but encouraged us to work now to create good habits and coach our son on good sleeping for the long run, even when on our most exhausted nights it might have felt easier to cheat just to catch some more sleep of our own. Finally there are helpful summaries of some various levels of "sleep training" approaches should we need them in the future -- enough of an overview of methods I've encountered on blogs and in conversation to help us better understand them and to choose further resources should we need them. We found the book has given us a common vocabulary and understanding

Having read both of Dr. Karp's other offerings and found them useful, I bought this book when my son was 22 months and being a complete P in the A about going to bed. I wish I could say that this book covered new ground, but if you have read the other two Happiest books, there is not much new here. A good portion of the book is dedicated to helping babies settle down and sleep using the 5S method, which is already extensively covered in "Happiest Baby." Don't get me wrong, the 5S method works, but if you're looking for something else, you won't find it. The same with the toddler portion - if you read "Happiest Toddler," you are already familiar with the techniques. This book would be a great gift for a parent who isn't already familiar with Dr. Karp's books, but it is a retread of old ground.

LIFE. SAVER. Used the techniques outlined in this book, and both my kids are amazing sleepers. After bringing our first home from the hospital (now 3.5 years old), we looked at each other, crying, exhausted, in pain, not knowing what the heck to do with this tiny, screaming, starving human that wouldnt sleep. This was recommended to us by a friend who said "read it BEFORE you have the baby", but we didn't, and that was a HUGE mistake. So, while trying to breastfeed and dealing with the pain of a rough delivery and 30 hours of labor, and after not having slept for about 6 days, got this for the kindle and sort of read it while in a stupor, and seriously, this changed our lives. Used the same techniques for my second (now 14 months) and he still resists naps, but both of my kids started sleeping through the night at a young age. And really, my second would be a terrible sleeper if it wasnt for the techniques in this book. He takes a 2-3 hour morning nap, a 1-2 hour afternoon nap (usually), and sleeps about 11-12 hours at night. My first still takes an awesome 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon and sleeps about 11 hours at night. If you need to know what the essentials are for a new parent, this is one of them! I now buy this for every baby shower I go to. All a new parent needs is this book, a crib, a swaddle or sleep sack, a white noise machine, a wubbanub, a few onesies & footy pajames, loads of diapers, and boobs/formula. All the other stuff they tell you to get is really just for fun! :) Good luck!

Como conseguir que tu bebé se calme, cuando no te has encargado de ello en tu vida, es estresante y agotador. Este libro ofrece técnicas para ayudar en esa tarea, y el resultado resulta increíble, más aún teniendo en cuenta la simpleza de las técnicas que ofrece Karp. Para nosotros, un salva-vidas. Si acabas de tener un bebé, o vas a tenerlo dentro de poco, te lo recomiendo como una de las lecturas imprescindibles para tu propia calidad de vida.

Followed this books suggestions for sleep. Both my children were sleeping 7-8 hours each night by 7 weeks. Love this book!

This book is true bliss. Thank you so much for tips. Its helping a lot for my baby doll to doze off.

Having spent many nights awake for nearly 5 months after our baby was born, I came across this book. Wow, I wish I had it sooner! I have to disagree with a previous reviewer who said that it only suggests letting your baby 'cry it out'. It does not. (And by the way I also have the Sears book, so I'm taking nothing away from them). It a sensitive-to-babies' needs sleep book. It explains the mysteries of infant sleep, and why and how they sleep differently from adults. It is a must-have for first parents, and even second-time parents if your first child did not sleep well. The only time the author refers to letting the baby "cry it out" is if you've tried everything else under the sun! and even then he does not "recommend" it, he merely explains what you need to do in a very loving, soft and kind way, if you absolutely HAVE TO. The book is filled with many sleep solutions to suit different aged babies/toddlers. My husband and I are so relieved to have found this book, and I've already bought it for 3 sets of friends/family having babies. Do yourself and your little one a favour and get this book, and sleep tight!

Has some excellent suggestions for assisting to sleep and resettling. Offers several options for getting your child to sleep, gradually withdrawing the assistance of the parent. Does move on a sliding scale of solutions so even if you are at the end of you chain (as I was) it is informative and easy to read. Also recommend Solve your childs sleep problems by Dr. Ferber... this is to help you determine exactly why your child is not sleeping, then you can implement either Dr. Ferber or Harvey Karp's approach when solving the issue.