One of the country's leading researchers updates his revolutionary approach to solving--and preventing--your children's sleep problems

Here Dr. Marc Weissbluth, a distinguished pediatrician and father of four, offers his groundbreaking program to ensure the best sleep for your child. In Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, he explains with authority and reassurance his step-by-step regime for instituting beneficial habits within the framework of your child's natural sleep cycles. This valuable sourcebook contains brand new research that...

- Pinpoints the way daytime sleep differs from night sleep and why both are important to your child
- Helps you cope with and stop the crybaby syndrome, nightmares, bedwetting, and more
- Analyzes ways to get your baby to fall asleep according to his internal clock--naturally
- Reveals the common mistakes parents make to get their children to sleep--including the inclination to rock and feed
- Explores the different sleep cycle needs for different temperaments--from quiet babies to hyperactive toddlers
- Emphasizes the significance of a nap schedule

Rest is vital to your child's health growth and development. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child outlines proven strategies that ensure good, healthy sleep for every age. Advises parents dealing with teenagers and their unique sleep problems

I disagreed most with the idea that it is generally a good idea to allow children to cry as long as it takes to get them to sleep at night. Will this method do long term psychological damage? The author says no, and I agree that is probably correct. Okay, so the child won't be delinquent as a teenager, or hate you as an adult. But as a parent, my question is which method is easiest on the child in the short term, as well as being effective in the long term? Frankly, I don't want my child to be unnecessarily miserable, even if it's only for a few nights. Further, I simply couldn't listen to screaming cries for any length of time without intervention.

For the parent interested in sleep "training", I think Dr. Richard Ferber offers a better method. Even Dr. Weissbluth admits Ferber's method's work- he simply thinks they may be too difficult for some parents to apply. Well, I think a little more difficulty may be worth while if the child has an easier time.

Oddly, Dr. Weissbluth claims to have no problems with the "family bed". However, I find his family bed advice confusing, and most of the tips he offers throughout the book seem to be incompatible with the practice. If anybody is practicing the family bed, they should definitely go with Dr. William Sears, whose advice is much more compatible with that arrangement. Dr. Sears is also a good choice for those who find Dr. Ferber too harsh and want the gentlest methods possible.

I tend to disagree with the view of some "attachment parents" that babies always develop the sleep habits that are best for them. There are babies who simply need parental leadership here, and there are also babies whose habits are disruptive to the family. So if parents think their baby has a problem, they should read several books about the topic, and adapt the different views to their personal situation and temperment of their individual child. I think that will lead to a better solution than reading just one book and treating it as a bible.

87 of 92 found the following review helpful:


This is the best book on sleep I have found...  Oct 03, 2000
Hurry for Dr. Weissbluth! My one year old is now going to bed at 8 and sleeping through the night (4 nights and counting) for the first time in his life. He is also beginning to nap in his crib. A cloud has lifted from our house. This book combines discussions on sleep research with practical how-to information. Weissbluth emphasizes keeping the child from becoming over tired and training the child to achieve sleep continuity. He does recommend allowing a child to cry if neccasary, but that is not the ideal or primary thrust of the approach (like Ferber). I found this approach to be more logical and research based than many popular sleep books. It is better than Sears' "Nighttime Parenting" if you have a child with real sleep issues. It is more scientific and practical than "Babywise" (which my pediatrician says is based on poor research). It is a gentler approach than Ferber, who I feel puts too much emphasis on the act of crying. Also, this approach allows greater flexibility than Ferber's method.

45 of 45 found the following review helpful:


What a relief!  Mar 11, 2002
Though I love the idea of attachment parenting, and have tried diligently to attend to my son's needs 24/7 for the past 13 months, I was getting wiped out. I had to face the fact that I had absolutely no time to even use the bathroom by myself, and that mothering without a break at all was causing me to be impatient, grumpy, and ill-tempered with my child and husband. I was not at all the picture of the serene, smiling, educated attachment mom that I wanted to be. So, I gave in. I bought this book on Wednesday, and it's now the following Monday. My 13-month-old son is napping calmly twice per day, and he continues to sleep through the night. Previously, his night sleep was great, but he would only nap if I would hold him, thereby immobilizing myself for one to two hour stretches, twice per day. Plus, this sort of sleep was not restorative for him.

I give the book only 4 stars, though, because some degree of crying seems inescapable, and I wish that it weren't. At worst, however, my dear child cried for 15 minutes. Now, he doesn't cry at all, or for just a second. Can you imagine laying your child in his bed, saying "sweet dreams, little one," and closing the door without a fuss? Plus, Dr. Weissbluth helped me to differentiate between crying for needs and "protest crying." He doesn't advocate sending the child to bed when he's not tired, and having him cry until he's so exhausted he falls asleep. This is important. Best of all, I am recharged and ready to play with my son, read to him, cook for him, take him visiting and to the park... previously, I was just too exhausted to do this stuff cheerfully or well!

Dr. Weissbluth's method stresses flexibility, and he gives many options. There are concessions made for co-sleeping mother-child pairs, as well as moms who would like to nurse their child to sleep. He understands that all children (and parents!) are unique, and his book can help all types of families to better enjoy their time together. WHAT A RELIEF!

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