Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth M.D. (1999, Paperback, Revised)

I bought this book because I was looking for help how to get my infant in a better sleep schedule and how I could put her down and she would go to sleep without a fight.
While I believe and agree with many of Dr. Weissbluth's ideas, this book was a little radical for me. It says to close the door at bedtime and don't open again until 6am.
But in another chapter it says I can feed my baby up to 2 times during the night. How do I know when? I was a little lost.
It was good to know the sleep intervals and when I should try to put my baby down for naps and bedtime. But I won't be following every advice it was given.
But, most importantly, I did not appreciate the last chapter, where Dr. Weissbluth is rude talking about other doctors and their methods. Different people, different believes. I won't be follow it so strictly. But my baby is going down easily, I just won't ignore her when she is up.

This idiot's approach is easy to sum up. Let your child scream until it gives up. He actually tells you that if your child screams until it pukes to not clean it up until the child is asleep. Never mind that the child could easily choke. So, you don't have to read the book. Just abandon your child right in your own home until it realizes that its parents don't give a crap and it will give up and pass out. I teach karate. I would love to get the author into my class so I can use his ideology to teach him karate. And he can scream all that he wants to.

Sure, if you are not careful you can teach your child that if it plays its cards right that it can keep you in the room until dawn. There does exist some middle ground where you can be there for your child and at the same time teach it to sleep on its own. Just use a lot of love and even just a little common sense.

I do suggest buying this book. Then burn it. At least that will keep one copy from misleading someone into thinking that this guy knows what he is talking about.

My husband and I were new parents last year. We were clueless when our newborn pulled the switch on us, at about three weeks old, and decided not to sleep. We needed help and friends suggested this book. Not only did it help us understand why babies need sleep and procedures on how to get them to sleep, but it also will help us continue a consistent sleep schedule until preschool years and beyond. From the very first weeks that we were using the new sleep schedule on our baby until even now when she's 16 months, people around us say that we have a happy and content child. We owe it all to her regular naps and night-time sleep. Now we buy this book for our friends who are expecting. Thank you, Dr. Weissbluth!!!

I’m a first time mom. In the beginning I didn’t mind getting up every 3 hours at night to feed my baby. He went back to sleep right away. Then as the months passed, he wasn’t hungry at night anymore, but he kept waking up and had to be rocked back to sleep. I started searching for sleeping solutions when my baby was 5 months old, because I was constantly exhausted from getting up 3-5 times a night to sooth my baby. I asked fellow parents and my pediatrician for suggestions. The ‘Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child’ book was recommended to me over and over again.

This book is a total sleeping solution. It addresses naps and night-time sleeping. Unfortunately in order to get my son to ‘get into the routine’, there was quite a bit of crying, which was very hard for me to take. On the first night we put into practice what this book recommends, my baby cried for almost two hours. I almost gave up several times, but then I would remember that the book stresses that getting a baby to sleep through the night is better for the baby (as well as for the parents).

This book says babies need between 2-3 naps a day and stresses that sleep on the go (car seat, stroller, etc.) is not good quality sleep. Naps should be taken in a crib. Needless to say, this suggested nap schedule makes it tough to keep social commitments or get more than one errand accomplished at a time. This book guilted me into protecting my baby’s nap / sleep schedule. Most of the time, other people understand.

My baby is such a good sleeper now. He has two naps a day for 45 min – 2 hours and sleeps at night from 6:45pm – 6:30am. The part I love the best is that he is completely awake when I put him in his crib. He has learned to go to sleep by himself!

I have recommended this book to all my new parent friends. I wish I had read it earlier.

I bought the book on recommendation from my sister in law. Her child is now 12 mos. old and she has been following the book with great results. My baby is 2 months old and I have a two year old who has always had sleep issues. I feel the book has good suggestions and in the front it has common sleep problems that you can quickly find answers to in an "emergency"! It also has what to do for the different age groups. Great book

I had my first child (he was 6 months old when we got the book) and was having a hard time knowing when he should sleep, how long, all those things. He wouldn't take naps (except for maybe 30 min.), woke up at night, and had no sort of set schedule. Now that I have read the book he is a dream. he gets up at 6:30 takes a nap from 8:30 to 10:30 another one from 12:30 to 2:30 and goes to be from 5:30 to 6:30 the next morning!! 3 of my other friends follow the same pattern and have the same results. The only reason why I put "good" instead of "excellent" for the rating of this book is that it really takes a while to figure out what they author is trying to say. there is a ton of information and I just wanted him to tell me exactly what to do. Once I figured that all out, (it probably took me a few hours going through the book) then everything has been WONDERFUL!!

My sister in law recomended this book to us when we were having trouble with our daughters sleep schedule. (I guess she had heard of it from one of her girlfriends.) We read it, and followed everything it said, and within a few days to a week, our baby was completely adjusted to her new schedule, and everyone was getting more sleep! There is so much parents don't realize about how important getting enough sleep is to a child. Not only that, but I think most don't realize exactly how much sleep baby's and children really need. Our daughter is one of the happiest children, and I think a lot of that has to do with the amount of rest and sleep she is allowed to have every day. Also, since she has been on this new schedule as recomended by the book, she has not been sick for 6 MONTHS! And she is only 13 months old. Thats amazing! I also attribute that to the amount of sleep she gets (as well as a healthy diet). I recomend this book to anyone who has trouble with getting their children to sleep, or who need to just find a way to get more sleep. It's so important! Finally there is a book to explain how important sleep really is in a childs life. And they really take you step by step to help your child adjust. I think every parent should have a copy of this book in their home.

Love the book. It's the reason our new baby sleeps through the night. If you don't read any other baby book, read this one!

This book is written by a child hating sadist! I can't believe this man takes care of children's health for a living. Just goes to show you that your pediatrician is probably absolutely clueless when it comes to what is best for your child.

Read Dr. William Sears books instead. There is not phsycological problem with you if you don't want to see your child cry! Even in the movie "Gone With the Wind" Rhett Buttler fires a nanny who tries to make his daughter 'cry it out'. He fires her on the spot! Go back and watch, good daddies care about their babies too, just like good mommies.

If your husband tried to blame not having sex on the fact that the baby is in the bed with you, I'd tell him that even if the baby wasn't there you still would feel tired and worn out from a day with no help. Usually when they say it's about sex, it's the husband's way of saying that you're not giving him enough attention. Childish? Yes. Self centered? Yes. Should they feel guilty of wanting to put their own needs ahead of their child's? Yes.

If he (and you) really want sex, drop the child off at the grandparents house for the afternoon and have some daylight sex instead of that same old boring 5 minutes right before you fall asleep! An afternoon to yourselves will give the grandparents time to bond with baby and it will give you time to have some real romance and connection. A much better option than kicking your child to the cold where the wolves can eat him (that's what babies instinctivley feel).

My sister just had a baby and needed this book. I'd had good experiences with e-bay sellers thus far, so decided to buy it for her. I payed for my item and never received it, and the seller is no longer registered with e-bay. I filed a claim and haven't heard anything more about it.

Parenting has really evolved. When I first heard of sleep training it was all about the Ferber method. I thought I could never do that - how could a parent sit there and allow their child to cry and cry for hours. So I decided then - I am not doing that when I have my baby.
Fast forward 5 years later - I'm back to work in a highly stressful work environment, significantly undernourished because I'm nursing and extremely sleep deprived.My baby was already 7 months and still feeding 2-3x at night and still unable to sleep throughout. At that point I was willing to do ANYTHING! Comes a book written by Dr. Weissbluth about Healthy Sleeping habits, Happy Baby. I remembered having to read and re-read the book because my sleep deprived brain is not absorbing anything. And Dr. Weissbluth had written this thing in such a "I'm a doctor, thou shalt not understand what I say" kind a way (or maybe it was just because my brain cells were dead.)
Anyways my biggest take from that book is that - sleep is the foundation of your child's behavior, social skills, mood and even IQ level. With that I enlisted his principles and applied it to my 7 month old boy. First I established a routine - he gets bathed, fed, cuddled then while still awake placed down on his crib to sooth himself. And of course he cried, and cried and I cried and cried. The book suggested that parents should take a shower so they won't hear the crying. And so I did - I came out of the shower and he was still crying - and so I did too. Fifty five minutes later, the crying all of a sudden stopped! The book said not to go immediately or else you'll have to start the process all over again. I waited for a few minutes then tippy toed to his room - he was asleep as the edge of his crib - as if waiting for someone who never came. I cried some more.
I did not sleep that night, I was consumed with the fear that I have scarred my child for life, that he will hate me forever. I finally comforted myself with a page in the book that said - when babies get their full sleep they wake up happier. I finally dozed off and was prepared to wake up again for his nighttime feeding. I woke up looked at the clock and realized it ws 8 o'clock in the morning! Startled, I jumped out of bed ran to my child's room and there he was...sleeping like a baby. His first full night sleep. I must have made noise cause he started to move and wake up. I held my breath...he opened his eyes...and he smiled. He still loves me! And thats why I love the book.

I like the information about the natural sleep cycles of infants. Good stuff to know in order to put baby on a schedule. I can't do the cry it out approach though.

I read nine book on baby sleep altogether besides general book on caring for a baby and this one is one of my two favorites. I will read more and my list of favorites may get longer. After checking the Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child out of the library twice and needing it once again, I decided to buy it. It has a lot of valuable info on sleep itself (and nap) as well as the differences between sleep of a newborn/baby/child/teenager/adult. The Dr. also talks a lot about the importance of naps referring to them as "a food for the brain" and how to have your baby get enough of it. The book is broken down by weeks then months with guidance on how to deal with your child's sleep. The book is very well organized. You can just go to a table of contents, look up your specific problem under a certain age of a child, then read a few pages and know what to do. I had no idea that babies had to be asleep two hours after waking last, I also learned how to read my son's sleepy clues (this in itself made a HUGE difference), I also did not realize that I could put my son down at 6-7pm for the night! The book also tells you how to handle different situation such as moving, or a daylight saving time change, crossing time zones, etc. I started applying Dr. Wiessbluth's ideas when my son was 8 weeks old by first moving him out of my bed and slowly into his room (a must by the age of 3 months if you do not want to upset your baby too much). The author favors the cried it out cold turkey approach (when a baby is a few months old not a newborn of course), which, I must admit, worked for me, but I could not do it pass two nights, I switched to Dr. Ferber's approach because I could check on my son from time to time. So now I use the cold turkey approach for day-time naps and periodically check on my son at bedtime. I like it that way, and it is easier on my son too. As I mentined earlier, I could not do the cry-it-out approach but still I like and recommend the book for all the info it carries.

I don't have any amazing story about how this book fixed a sleeping problem, but it's great to be informed so you can avoid any sleeping problems. I'll be keeping it as a reference for any problems that may come up.

I have used this book for all three of my kids and it has been a life saver!
Dr. Weissbluth makes this book easy to read, understand and implement.
I have reccommended this book to other friends who also agree that it has helped them deal with sleeping troubles during naps and bedtimes.
I no longer have to fight my kids to go to bed (most nights) and they (and I) are better rested.

This book is the most useful, practical, and proven method for changing a child from waking, or not going to sleep on thier own, to one who will go to sleep on thier own and remain asleep for the entire night.

I have read numerous books on this subject and this is far superior to all others. It deals with some issues that others exclude and looks at the varoius ages and developmental levels that others neglect to include. It is the one book for every new mother and for any mother whose child is not sleeping through the night.

It has had great information and guidelines. Following these things we have seen a marked improvement in our daughters sleep patterns and he overall happiness and demeanor. She is like a different baby. All smiles and giggles when she gets enough sleep.

Joshua

I like that it helped us to establish a routine. My daughter is a bit older than was ideal to start this book, but I think it's definately helped... She went from sleeping 1.5-2 hours to anywhere from 5-8 at a time. I think there were a lot of helpful tips in the book, but essentially it's just getting a routine and letting baby cry it out sometimes. Good book for a first time parent!

Great Book. Super Informative with lots of examples and answers.
Helps to get your Infant-Child to sleep.

I decided to buy the book due to a recommendation from a friend. With a new baby, I'm still trying to find the time to read it.

The book arrived much earlier than expected and as advertised. Thank you. I'd give you above "excellent" rating if there was one.

Disliked the fact that one page was totally ripped and I didn't notice that until after I had written a positive feedback for seller.

Coping w/ my newborn son. A lot of good information. Amazing how people w/ children don't know a lot and make a wrong advise. Understanding a new born stage of life helps a lot w/ raising the child and coping w/ all the changes a newborn brings in to one life.