Potty Training Tips While Preserving Your Child’s Sleep
Parents often have a lot of questions about toilet training and how it interacts with sleep. You’ll learn: The “potty training window” Start potty training in the daytime Use pullups for naps and sleep for now Avoiding the potty as a bedtime stall Potty training is a milestone! Sleep Training and Daytime Potty Training I […]
A Guide to Getting Baby To Nap at Daycare
In my work with parents, I constantly stress the need to be consistent. But consistency isn’t always possible if babysitters, nannies, child care centers or grandmas are also involved with your child’s sleep. To the extent possible, work with these other caretakers to develop consistent or at least not wildly incompatible, sleep rules and schedules. […]
Toddler Sleep Solutions: The Crib to Bed Transition
All too often, parents rush to get their child out of a crib or into a bed, as though it were a sign of achievement, maturity, or their guaranteed success as adults, some act like it’s the ultimate toddler sleep solution. One woman I worked with even reported an unspoken competition in her playgroup to […]
Sex After Baby – Enhancing Intimacy after your Newborn Arrives
Ellen was overcome with love for Sarah, her exquisite newborn daughter. Watching her husband Michael tenderly rock the tiny precious being they created, she thought she’d never been so happy. Ellen never dreamed that life, and love, could feel like this. For the first time, she understood the meaning of the word bliss. But it […]
How to End Night Feedings After Six Months Old
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 […]
Toddler Sleep Problems Fall Away by Enhancing your Child’s Self-Esteem
While I believe that teaching our children to sleep is one of our responsibilities as parents, I also believe that we must help our sons and daughters develop self-esteem. And the good news is that good sleep and self-esteem often go hand in hand. Self-esteem refers to how we feel about ourselves. Individuals with high […]
Excessive Crying in Babies – A Mother’s Story
When Joe and I were expecting our first baby we were convinced that I would have a natural birth and that our baby would sleep like an angel in her white bassinette that we had painstakingly prepared. Looking back on it I’m glad that at least the bassinette was prepared because we sure as heck […]
Baby Sleep Aids and Negative Sleep Associations – Break The Habit!
Baby Sleep Aids and Negative Sleep Associations – Break The Habit! What are baby sleep aids, or negative baby sleep associations? It is a connection a child makes with an action made by an adult to facilitate sleep (a sleep aid). It is referred to as “negative” because it will require the continued re-creation of […]
Sleep is a Learned Skill
Research shows it takes the average person 15-20 minutes to fall asleep. What do YOU do during this time? Some parents read, take a both, meditate, or watch TV. Children, too, need to find something to help put themselves to sleep – playing with stuffed animals, sucking their thumb, looking at books, twirling their hair, […]
“My Baby Will Not Sleep” Is All About Quantity AND Quality Sleep
First, let’s begin by addressing four of the most coveted words in parenting – “sleeping through the night” – a term most parents long to understand, experience, and feel! Throughout our sleep time, we are constantly transitioning and cycling between light and deep sleep (known as REM and non-REM). During these transition periods, we experience […]