Marc Weissbluth's Blog, page 8

Unanswered Question #2

When a child transitions from 2 naps per day to 1 nap per day, total day sleep and total 24 hour sleep is less. Do all children or only some children benefit from an earlier bedtime?

One possibility is that moving the bedtime earlier 10-30 minutes prevents a second wind, bedtime battles, night wakings, and early morning wake-ups in all children. If true, than this earlier bedtime might be only temporary as the single nap migrates from late-morning to mid day and then the bedtime might be moved back to its original best time. Or the earlier bedtime might be the new normal and permanent time.

Another possibility is that the shift to an earlier bedtime is only useful for those children who usually had been going to bed a little too late. Under these circumstances, when they reduce the number of naps, they are at risk to accumulate a major sleep debt. Only these children really need to have the bedtime moved earlier.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Marc

Filed under: Uncategorized

Unanswered Question #1

When you move the bedtime later to prevent early morning awakenings,

Did you make the bedtime later gradually or abruptly?

How long did you do this before you saw success or quit because it did not work?

Please state your child's age and whether your child had self-soothing skills, bedtime issues, or nap problems.

Marc

Filed under: Uncategorized

How Do You Define "Self-Soothing"?

Self-soothing is the ability to fall deep asleep with or without a pacifier and/or swaddling after becoming drowsy from parent's soothing efforts. Typically, the child is placed in a crib before he is in a deep sleep.

Self-soothing is absent when a child always falls deep asleep at the breast, in parent's arms, in a moving swing, and similar circumstances.

Variables might include the child's age, the presence of absence of colic, the soothing skills of the parents, the self-soothing skills of the child, the duration of preceding wakefulness, the timing of the bedtime after 6 weeks of age, the timing of naps after 3-4 months of age, and so forth.

If it is common for most parents to spend 10-20 minutes soothing before they put their baby down drowsy but awake, then what do you say to parents who spend much longer durations soothing their baby to sleep. Sometimes this might be viewed as unwanted but necessary (e.g. during colic or immediately post-colic) or interfering with the development of self-soothing skills in their baby or a symptom that something is wrong with the sleep schedule.

My impression is that self-soothing skills are a prerequisite for long-term healthy sleep habits and the earlier they are developed the easier it is for the entire family but remember, about 20% of babies (colicky) will have difficulty learning self-soothing until about 3-4 months of age.

What are your thoughts?

Marc

Filed under: Self-Soothing

Six Sleep Problems and Solutions eBook Available on iPhone/iPad/iPod

When the ebook goes live on Apple's platform, we will let our readers know!

"Six Sleep Problems and Solutions" eBook is now available for download on the iPhone/iPad/iPod(for 99 cents). Please download the free App "iBooks" to your mobile device prior to getting our eBook. We collected the three published sleep consults on this blog and three unpublished consults, edited them for readability and made an eBook. The six cases address some of the most common sleep problems. Additionally, the reader can see the progress and the parent's reactions as they go through the process. It is also available for the Nook and for the Kindle (see the link on the sidebar of the blog.

Enjoy!

Marc and Daniel Weissbluth

Filed under: Announcement

More Than One Child

How many comments have you read where a parent states that she did things differently with her second or third child? And the subsequent child or children sleep better than the first and/or the first child is still the problem sleeper.

Please share your stories to give first time mothers the hard-won confidence and knowledge that you acquired from your first child.

Marc

Filed under: Barriers to Sleep Solutions, Sleep Problems & Sleep Solutions, success stories

SIDS and other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths

SIDS and other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths

Summary of Recommendations

AAP 11/1/11

(Emphasis added)

1. Back to sleep for every sleep until 1 year of life. Side sleep is not safe. Once an infant can roll from supine (back) to prone (stomach) and prone to supine, the infant can be allowed to remain in the sleep position that he or she assumes.

2. Use a firm sleep surface. Infants should not be placed for sleep on beds because of the risk of entrapment and suffocation. Sitting devices, such as car safety seats, strollers, swings, infant carriers, and infant slings, are not recommended for routine sleep. if an infant falls asleep in a sitting device, he or she should be removed from the product and moved to a crib or other appropriate flat surface as soon as is practical.

3. Room-sharing without bed-sharing is recommended. Devices promoted to make bed-sharing "safe" (eg, in-bed co-sleepers) are not recommended. Infants may be brought into the bed for feeding or comforting but should be returned to their own crib or bassinet when the parent is ready to return to sleep.

4. Keep soft objects and loose bedding out of the crib. [Bumper pads] are not recommended.

5. Pregnant women should receive regular prenatal care.

6. Avoid smoke exposure during pregnancy and after birth.

7. Avoid alcohol and illicit drug use during pregnancy and after birth.

8. Breastfeeding is recommended. The protective effect of breastfeeding increases with exclusivity.

9. Consider offering a pacifier at nap times and bedtimes. It does not need to be reinserted once the infant falls asleep…he or she should not be forced to take it.

10. Avoid overheating.

11. Infants should be immunized (because) immunizations might have a protective effect against SIDS.

12. Avoid commercial devices marketed to reduce the risk of SIDS (such as) wedges, positioners, special mattresses, and special sleep surfaces.

13. Do not use home cardiorespiratory monitors.

14. Supervised, awake tummy time is recommended.

Marc

Filed under: SIDS

Sleep/Wake Patterns, temperament, and overall infant development.

This is the title of a paper published in the Journal Early Human Development 84(5):289-96, 2008 May.

"Our findings highlight the importance of considering maturational and regulatory aspects of sleep when evaluating infant daytime behaviour."

"Increased nocturnal sleep was correlated with increased approachability."

They observed that infants who sleep more at night are less withdrawing and more approaching to novel stimuli.

Have you noticed this?

Marc

Filed under: Temperament

Repost: Daylight Savings Time

If your child's bedtime is 6pm, then after we change our clocks, still put your baby to sleep at 6pm. We eat, play, rest, and bathe around the same clock times and these social cues help tell the child when bedtime is coming.

Sweet Dreams!

Marc

Filed under: Bedtime

Six Sleep Problems and Solutions is now on Kindle

When the ebook goes live on Apple's platform, we will let our readers know!

"Six Sleep Problems and Solutions" eBook is now available for download on the Kindle (for 99 cents). We collected the three published sleep consults on this blog and three unpublished consults, edited them for readability and made an eBook. The six cases address some of the most common sleep problems. Additionally, the reader can see the progress and the parent's reactions as they go through the process. We will have it on other platforms (like Apple) shortly and will let you know as they go live.

Enjoy!

Marc and Daniel Weissbluth

Filed under: Announcement [image error] [image error] [image error]

The App Gap and the Shut-Up Toy

Today, there was a great article in the NY Times that pointed to not only high levels of screen time but highter pediatric use of "Apps" in higher income households. There is no evidence that these Apps are educational in the face of growing body of evidence that screen time is harmful

My two guesses as to why there are differrent media profiles for differrent income households are:

1. Price of mobile devices/tablets which eventually go down over time.

2. Growing anxiety among more affluent parents that their child will be left behind in an increasingly interconnected and digitally sophisticated world.

I would be interested in your thoughts.

Daniel Weissbluth

Filed under: Hot Topics in the News [image error] [image error] [image error]