Sleep Book Summaries | Gentle/No-Cry Methods | Sears, Pantley, Karp

Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent's Guide to Co-Sleeping by James McKenna: The ultimate attachment parenting sleep book, James McKenna's book is the first research-based book for parents that is fully dedicated to the subject of cosleeping. McKenna is the director of the Mother-Baby Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame. See: Interview with James McKenna; My Review.

Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady's Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep, Stay Asleep and Wake Up Happy by Kim West: This book presents a very realistic gentle sleep solution. I like the fact that "The Sleep Lady" (a.k.a. Kim West) states in her introduction that while she's very much in favor of minimizing crying, she can't guarantee that all crying will be avoidable for all babies. This is a realistic statement and helps to remove some of the unnecessary guilt that has been injected into the sleep discussion over the past few years.

Nighttime Parenting: How to Get Your Baby and Child to Sleep by William Sears, M.D.: This book is a classic -- the book that helped me to gain a perspective on the sleep issue back when I found myself pacing the floor with my first-born!

In Search of Sleep: Straight Talk About Babies, Toddlers and Night Waking by Bonny Reichert: This is one of the more sensible books to be written on sleep over the years, but one that not too many people know about. I really like the down-to-earth, friendly tone and the fact that the author isn't promoting a particular sleep agenda. The author isn't offering a sleep program per se but rather explaining to parents why it takes babies time to learn how to sleep through the night and why this process shouldn't be rushed.

The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer by Harvey Karp, MD: This book provides excellent advice about soothing fussy babies and helping them to get the sleep they need.

The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley: No sleep book list these days would be complete without a mention of Elizabeth Pantley's bestselling guide to infant sleep. The book's key strength is Pantley's explanation of gentle infant soothing techniques, like helping a baby to be less dependent on the breast for falling asleep. Pantley has done a great job of summarizing a lot of helpful advice on sleep (e.g., pretending to be asleep when baby wants to nurse during the night when you're cosleeping to see if baby will settle on his/her own). The title is a bit misleading, given that the method allows for crying. Ideally, this book should be considered a sleep-soothing rather than a sleep-training resource (more in the category of a "Happiest Baby" book). The book encourages inconsistency rather than consistency in sleep training, something that goes against the basic principles of behavior modification.

Comments

[djahna]

Thanks for the summaries. You've just narrowed down my choices.

[Putting Baby to Sleep]

Thanks for all the info on putting babies to sleep.

[MommyB]

It so hard to figure out what is going to work for my baby. Especially since my two daughters are totally different sleepers.

[Mark Person]

Great idea. oh.. thanks a lot. it would be a great help. i found some other tips in the internet and found some cool tips also on putting babies to sleep. but this seems so cool. thanks a lot.