Baby Sleep: Sleep Environment May Be More Important Than Genetics

Sleep Environment May Be More Important Than Genetics When It Comes to Sleep A recent study in the journal Pediatrics, found that baby’s sleep environments have greater impacts on sleep than the genetics they were born with. Of course, the age-old debate continues when talking about the importance of environment versus genetics (or nature versus nurture), […]

Helping Children Sleep: 6 Back-to-School Sleep Tips

After a few months of throwing your schedule to the wind due to vacations, traveling, long days, BBQs and family fun, the time has come to get back on to a healthy sleep schedule! Here are some back-to-school sleep tips for helping children sleep: 1. If your child’s wake up time has been all over […]

Sleep Averages: How Much Sleep Does Your Child Need?

Below are some general guidelines as to how many hours of sleep the AVERAGE child requires at various ages (taken from “Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems” by Dr. Richard Ferber). Remember, every child is different- some need more or less sleep than others- but variations should not be huge. Sleep Averages AGE NIGHTIME SLEEP DAYTIME […]

Baby Sleep Help: To Wean or Not to Wean the Pacifier

Baby Sleep Help: To Wean or Not to Wean the Pacifier “My 10 month old still sleeps with a pacifier and sometimes he’ll wake up in the middle of the night and cry because it fell out. If I get in there quick enough and put it back in his mouth he’ll sometimes go right […]

Consistency is Your Key to Baby and Toddler Sleep Coaching Success!

We all know it is important to be consistent in parenting but it’s hard to be 100% consistent- especially in the middle of the night when we are tired and not thinking clearly (and you’re in the middle of sleep coaching). Parents need to begin by talking about their goals, making sure they agree on […]

Baby Sleep: A Drowsy Baby is a Baby Ready For Bed

People always ask how they can help their baby sleep. Often in my book, “Good Night, Sleep Tight”, I will instruct you to put your baby down to sleep when she is “drowsy but awake” so she can learn to do that last part of falling asleep on her own. If you have trouble visualizing […]

Baby Colds: How The Sniffles Can Mess Up Your Baby’s Sleep Patterns

baby colds

Baby Colds: How The Sniffles Can Mess Up Your Baby’s Sleep Patterns Guest Post by Lewis J. Kass, MD For those of us who were forced to take physics in high school or college, you may recall a physical property related to the flow of air through a tube. That property stated that as a […]

How to End Night Feedings After Six Months Old

how to end night feedings

The most common problem by far that I have encountered with children and behavioral sleep disorders is that most children who experience problems falling asleep have never learned to fall asleep without a breast or bottle in their mouths. This problem of needing this sleep crutch compounds as they get older and no longer physically […]

Creating A Secure Mother-Baby Attachment

Many of the families Peter and I have worked with in our practices tell us they have been influenced by literature referring to “attachment theory”. I spent some time writing about this in “Good Night, Sleep Tight“, but I thought it would be helpful to write more about how to create a balanced, secure mother-baby […]

Why Does My Baby Fight Sleep? – Sleep Coaching the Super Alert Child

Sometimes I hear parents who haven’t tried my system, predict that it could not possibly work for their child. They believe it will only work for “easy” or “mellow” babies. It can work for all children, including some babies, toddlers, and preschoolers with special emotional needs or physical challenges. Patience and consistency are important for […]