Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems

I have read all the reviews published up to date and need to clarify several things from the previous comments of other readers. I love Dr. Sears and practiced attachement parenting for the first 6 months. Our son slept with us in our bed for 6 months. At the end of the 6 months we had to go to bed with him at 7pm since this he could not sleep in his crib. We had practiced attachment parenting (Sears) and this is what he had learned to expect. He could only sleep in bed with us next to him. Add to this that my baby could only sleep with us and ate 80% of his milk during night time. So not only were we in bed with him by 7pm, but also feeding him all night long. When the morning rolled in, my husband and I felt like zombies. We were exhausted and fighting with each other all the time due to the stress and exhaustion.I was then recommended Ferber. I was terrified as I had heard horrible things and I do not believe in Crying it out. Howeverm I had already tried the No cry sleep solution and this did not work for us. So I gave Ferber the benefit of the doubt and decided to read his book. I focused on chptrs 5 and 6.First, you do NOT need to let your baby cry it out. Ferber explains it very clearly in his book. He suggests a timetable, but leaves it up to the parents to change the suggested minutes on the table to meet the baby and parents' needs. For example, he suggest to let the baby cry for 5 min and increase gradually, but that the parent can change this to any minute they wish. I would only let my baby cry 1 min at a time and would them run into his room and confort him for 3 min. I am not sure how the previous readers would be considered detachment parenting!!!!I did this for 2 nights. After two nights my baby was sleeping through the night.In order to correct his night feeding, we gradually reduced his night intake. Ferber suggests doing this over a week. Since I did not want my baby crying, I implemented his program over a 4 week period. During these 28 days, my baby cried once!!! I know can sleept through the night and so can my family. We all wake up rested and ready for another day. My husband and I are no longer exhausted nor fighting due to exhaustion.In conclusion, give this book an opportunity. Remember, you can tailor his program so it is as gentle as you wish. I believe that the people that are giving this book a bad review is because they chose to let their baby cry all night long, did not modify the program/timetable and truly this is unacceptable!

My pediatrician recommended this book. It saved all of us from many tired nights and days. I have bought several of these for friends and always give them as baby shower gifts. Every parent that I have talked to had success with this method. It was very difficult the first week. Consistancy is imperative. You have to be willing to be strong the first week and commit yourself to the method. There will be some crying in the beginning. I won't lie. I almost gave up but am so glad that I stuck with it. I would recommend using this book starting between 4-6 months of age. If you have a healthy strong infant, they should be able to sleep 8-10 hours at a stretch (night) by that age. There have been times when I have had to revert to this method again (after illness, vacation, milestone, etc). It has not failed to work. My son went from using the pacifier, nursing 2-3 times a night, and no naps (unless I was holding him)at 4 months of age to sleeping 10-12 hours and two 1-2 hour naps a day. It really has made him a happier child and me a happier mom. I will just kiss him, give him his lamb and blanket, put him down awake and walk out of the room. No crying or fussing. People have been amazed. I am amazed. My son is very happy and attached to my husband and I. This method has not had any negative effects on him. In fact, it has had the opposite effect. Sleep is so important to all of us. Children do most of their growing while they sleep and a healthy slumber has shown to increase longevity. My son is 16 months old now. He is in the 75-95% for his age. He looks at his crib as a comforting place. Most nights, he cannot wait for me to put him down. He will go to the stairs and wait at the gate to go to bed. He will reach for the crib as I am hugging him goodnight. It has given my husband and I time for ourselves at night and during the day. I was very grateful for Dr. Ferber's research and method. It was an easy to read book and I refer to it often.

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My baby was waking every two hours for feeds throughout the night. Some nights it was every hour for part of the night. Sleep deprivation over a long period can seriously impact on your life - your physical health, your emotional and mental well-being, your relationships, your ability to function well on even the basic things, let alone a paid job. I have an older child who is at school, and I had never had the problems with sleep that I had with my second. I didn't think I would need help when I'd done it all before.Scouring the internet for advice and tips, I was always coming across the same view - that making your baby cry for long periods of time was cruel and damaging. Every mother I spoke to who sympathised with me seemed to fall into one of two groups. Those who felt the same as the views on the internet - leaving a baby to cry is cruel, or those who had not been able to do anything to improve their child's sleep, and put up with it for another year or more. I was not prepared to leave it, and so, influenced by the 'crying is cruel' brigade, I tried the 'No Cry Sleep Solution'. But it didn't work for me, even though I followed all the advice and stuck with it for two months. It made things worse. My baby cried anyway, because he always cries when he is tired.Yes - it is tough leaving your baby to cry, but you may as well get used to it. As children get older, they get even more gifted at working your heart strings. You need to learn now where to draw the line and be strict. If you can do this, it will improve your confidence as a parent no end. You need to take control. Once your baby is sleeping soundly every night, and waking up with smiles of love, you won't be feeling cruel anymore. My baby is also starting to nap better in the day as well! It's just a few days or a week of difficulty at the most, and then you have your problems solved. Some have managed it in just a day.What I like about Ferber is his no nonsense approach. He clearly describes the different types of sleep problem scenario. You identify which one fits your scenario, and take the appropriate action. This guy has a hell of a lot of experience of sleep problems, and I trust his judgement.

I don't normally post reviews but decided it was about time to start after reading this book. Our baby is 5 months old and has always been a terrible sleeper. Some night he would wake crying every 10-15 minutes and I would end up feeding him every couple of hours as a way of getting him to stop crying or go back to sleep. Most night he would end up in our bed as I was just too exhausted with the constant in and out of his room. We bought this book hoping it would give us some ideas but I didn't expect it to have as much effect as it had. The book is great at outlining the science behind sleep so you can identify what your problems are and then there are detailed chapters for each problem. Our main issue was sleep associations as our baby needed rocking to sleep and comforting every time he woke during the night. Now the main method to deal with this problem is controlled crying which I know is very controversial but for us it was something we were willing to try. We made sure we had a definate plan that we were both onboard with and set aside a long weekend when we knew we could both be involved. We expected it to be really tough and upsetting but it wasn't as bad as we thought with out baby crying for max of 15 mins at a time. By day 3 that was down to 5 mins and now 1 week on he is pretty much sleeping through the night, I give him a dream feed while he is asleep at about 1 am to make sure he's not hungry and he's then sleeping until 6.30am. No more coming into our bed and we are able to put him down in his cot without much fuss even for naps during day.I can't rate this book highly enough, it has worked wonders for us in such a short space of time. Even if you are against cc there are others methods mentioned and the background chapters at least help you understand why your child is not sleeping well rather than just hoping they will grow out of it.

i first read this book nearly 30 years ago as an exhausted and slightly deranged single mother who had not had a period of uninterrupted sleep longer than 4 hours for over 6 months, and as my title suggests, it changed everything. i have sung it's praises and handed out copies to exhausted Mothers ever since - it really is that good.Written so as to be accessible even to the profoundly sleep deprived it takes you first through the basics of what we know about sleep and sleep patterns and then explains how to help your baby learn healthy sleep habits using what is now known as the "controlled crying" method.I won't lie and say that the first or second night i followed the instructions were easy, but the third was a breeze and after that my baby never had sleep problems again (and neither did the following two). Allowing your baby to cry, even for controlled, meticulously timed, periods is hard, but as the book explains, you are doing something wonderful for your baby in enabling them to access deep, sweet, healing sleep (and to have a parent who is properly rested and thus best able to care for them).It works - try it.

I was sooo sceptical of all these 'miracle cure' baby books, and I bought this more out of desperation than any hope of achieving the miraculous results apparently enjoyed by the majority of reviewers. My 9 month old was still waking several times a night, and seemingly nothing could convince him to sleep beyond 5.30am. Honestly, I was starting to go crazy from lack of sleep, and I'm sure I wasn't always the best mum in the world because I was just so zonked.Anyway, to cut a long story short, I saw a vast improvement almost immediately and things have got better and better until last night when, just a week after starting the sleep training, my little one slept right through from 7.45pm until I dashed into his room at 7.15am. He was awake, but wasn't crying. It felt like a miracle!I have to admit that I didn't read the whole book and skipped to the juicy bits, but just a small change in the way I was dealing with night wakings has made such a HUGE difference. Although it seems a dramatic thing to say, this book really has changed my life. I'm so happy both baby and I can now enjoy a good night's sleep. Now I just need to tackle the napping...