The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep Quotes

“Babies need to sleep in total quiet … Wrong! Rice cereal boosts an infant’s sleep … Wrong! All infants sleep longer after three months of age … Wrong! Stomach gas and cramps cause babies to be wakeful and fussy … Wrong! Crying it out is the best way to sleep train a child … Wrong!”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

“All cultures know it’s hard being a new mom. That’s why many societies reward them with one hundred days of special family care at home, so they can be fed, bathed, and babied, too. But in our society, many parents have lost that communal or family safety net. Even worse, many new parents don’t even think they want or need it. They think it’s normal for new parents to just gut it out on their own. But nothing could be further from the truth! The nuclear family—two parents and some kids—is actually a huge experiment, just a century old. And it’s one of the most unintelligent and riskiest experiments in human history. Renowned pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton tells of visiting a small Japanese fishing village where the ancient tradition was to wait on new mothers hand and foot for thirty days. “The new mothers were even fed—bite by bite—and they called their own mothers Mommy!” Brazelton recounted that in this community postpartum depression didn’t exist. Of course, few of us live in a village like that—and you can’t conjure up nurturing relatives out of thin air. But you can call on a neighbor, nanny, or doula to help you out. Getting help is neither an extravagance nor a sign of failure. It’s the bare minimum you need … and deserve! So please don’t buy into the phony idea that you are supposed to do it all on your own; since the dawn of time few parents ever did.”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

“Researchers in Pittsburgh found that infants who went to bed before 9 P.M. slept significantly longer overall (13 hours) than infants who went down after 9 P.M. (11.8 hours). But if you push for a bedtime that’s too early, your little buddy may not be tired.”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

“So while all this coziness may speed your baby’s return to slumber in the short term, it may also start an exhausting cycle: Waking ⇒ more bed-sharing ⇒ more waking ⇒ more bed-sharing.”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

“Spirited infants are constantly excited by the world. They’re the “Me, too!” kids. Since they hate missing even a moment of fun, they fight sleep until they’re so tired they either conk out mid-giggle or suddenly crumble and turn into total fussbudgets.”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

“Bed-sharing becomes safer and moving your little one to her own room becomes easier … your choice!”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

“With these six tricks—the Fast-Food Rule, Toddler-ese, patience-stretching, magic breathing, gossip/hand checks incentives, and playing the boob—you’ll prepare your tot for great sleep by building her patience and cooperation.”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

“Dogs yawn … and cats and monkeys … and even three-month-old fetuses (but not chickens).”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years

“We gain weight and suffer problems from pimples to cancer.”
― Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years