Books on how to help your infant or toddler sleep better

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The No-Cry Sleep Solution:
Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night
by Elizabeth Pantley, William Sears

This book is amazing
Reviewer: Betty Tehrani from Orlando, FL United States

  This book saved my world!! My daughter was waking up every 45 minutes for months. She nursed all night long. I was a walking zombie!! Nothing was working and everyone insisted I had to let her cry. I finally did and she vomited all over her crib. I vowed I would never do that again. I finally found out about this book. I did a couple of things and she went to every 3 hours within a week. I didn't feel like I could really structure my days around her naps and I had a hard time with the bedtime ritual. Finally I realized I had to try. I followed everything she said and it has changed our lives. We are more organized. She naps like a champ!! 2 hours everyday. It used to be whenever she fell asleep in the car and would sleep max 45 minutes. She also is up to 8 hours straight at night!!! She sleeps 11 1/2 total, so only 1 wake up. She has recovered quickly when we travel. She is now 14 months old and it really didn't take long. I can't say enough about this book. You must trust it and do exactly what she says! It will work I promise!! I tell everyone I can about this so no child endures the traumatic crying sessions. This book proves they don't have to.
 

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Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems
by Richard Ferber

Rest for the weary!
Reviewer: A reader from Bloomington, IN

   I am the mother of a 5 month old and was searching for information to help him to sleep through the night. This book was recommended by a number of moms so I bought it, even though the work involved letting my baby cry, which I really wasn't sure I could handle. After reading the applicable chapters, my husband and I implemented Dr. Ferber's ideas and my son went from sleeping 5 hours before waking in the night to 8 hours - in 2 days! We have had consistent progress in improving his sleeping and napping habits and he is resting better each night. Last night he slept 11 hours straight and woke happy and well rested.

   The main thing this book taught me was the importance of being consistent - sending a consistent message to your child and doing so with love and caring. It also helped me to analyze my son's sleeping habits and look at what was behind his waking up to determine what should be done about it.

   I would highly recommend this book to parents who are looking to establish good sleeping habits or correct problems that have arisen.

The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer
by Harvey Karp, MD

See also the DVD Video Version!

The most helpful book re: infant sleep I've found yet!
Reviewer: A reader from Rochester, NY

   This book saved me! This is the only book that thoroughly addresses sleep and comforting fussy babies during the first three or four months. Most books offer only a cursory discussion, and little helpful advice. Dr. Karp gives helpful tips, whether you co-sleep or put your baby into a crib at night. His tone is completely non judgmental; he doesn't make you feel like a bad parent for not wanting to carry your baby around all day - an impossibility for a mom of twins.

   I bought this book 2 days ago. One of my 2 1/2 month old twins was sleeping through the night, the other was up every 1 or 2 hours. After following the suggestions in this book, especially swaddling, my poor sleeper slept from 11 to 2 the first night, and went right back down after she was swaddled again at 2 - without a snack! Last night she went until 4:30, and again went right down until 6, without eating or fussing. I am a new woman! I will be giving this book to all my newly pregnant friends.

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Sleep: How to Teach Your Child to Sleep Like a Baby
by Tamara Eberlein

   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.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
by Marc Weissbluth

  I have been a mom for six months now and I've learned more than I would have imagined. Most importantly I recognize that nothing in life is as straightforward as any book makes it out to be and it took me a long time to come to terms with that. I have waited for the day that I could write a review of this book reporting my AMAZING results. I decided to write now instead!

My son slept in bed with my husband and me for the first five months. We did it because we believed that was where a baby should be, and it worked for all of us. My son also did all his napping in a cloth sling. As he grew, this started NOT working for us, and I did some serious soul-searching.

I consider myself an attached parent. I have difficulty bearing my son crying, ever. If my son would have been able to continue napping with me I would have done it. But he didn't. Every time I would put him down, he would immediately wake up, either at bedtime or for a nap. It got to the point that he would go 12 hours during the day without any sleep at all and only be able to get to sleep at night nursing. He wasn't a raging beast, he just seemed like he needed more sleep. My gut, my instinct said sleep was important and that he wasn't getting it. Especially when people said, "When he needs to sleep, he'll sleep!" Not my social butterfly!

I believe Weissbluth knows what he is talking about. I have observed my son for two months now and can see the periods of wakefulness in his arousals at night, the maximum time he can be awake without becoming overtired... all these things make sense and I have seen them in my son. He now takes two naps (which vary in length daily) and I put him down awake. I also put him to bed awake at night. MOST of the time, this works without causing him distress. Sometimes it doesn't, and we both cry for a while.

As I said at the beginning, I waited to write a review so I could report a "perfect" result... Life isn't perfect. When my sweet baby needs to sleep, I try to help and let him take it from there. Most of the time he gets there without getting crabby; sometimes he's ticked. Life is like that. I don't think I'd be doing him any favors if I wasn't consistent.

You know your own child. If your child needs you, you know. If your child is overtired, you know. This book will help you slowly but surely figure out how to keep your child from being overtired and most of the time it will work. I still have trouble coping when he has trouble getting to sleep, but certainly all of us are in better spirits more and more often, because my son is much more well rested.

I absolutely believe sincere effort to observe your own child and watch his or her cues is the key -- you want to give your child what he or she needs. All parents do. Sleep is a big need. Good luck!
 

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Secrets of the Baby Whisperer:
How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby
by Tracy Hogg

  I purchased this book which was recommended by a friend of mine as well as a nurse at the hospital at which I delivered. It, in my opinion, is a "must have" in the layette!

Babies, as young as a couple of weeks old DO respond to a "routine." My son was colicky for about 5 months and rarely slept for more than 1 hour at a time (and we were lucky with THAT). Thanks to this book, I was able to establish a sensible routine for eating, sleeping and playing, which we still follow today. It also recommends that babies sleep about 1 out of every three hours, and sure enough, by implementing what Ms. Hogg recommends, a pattern emerged and now I have the BEST routine with my son. He is a fantastic eater, sleeper and napper, beating out all my friends' babies of similar ages. It's critical to provide babies with structure, and I'm living proof that they respond very, very well to it. My baby never cries, you can set your watch by his naps and sleeping, and he's slept through the night consistently (from between 8-9 p.m. until between 7 and 8 a.m.) since about 5 months.

Get this book now, and have a little sanity.... your friends will be jealous of how "together" you have things!

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