Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, 4th Edition

A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

By: Marc Weissbluth MD

Narrated by: LJ Ganser

The perennial favorite for parents who want to get their kids to sleep with ease - now in a completely revised and expanded fourth edition!

In this fully updated fourth edition, Dr. Marc Weissbluth, one of the country's leading pediatricians, overhauls his groundbreaking approach to solving and preventing your children's sleep problems, from infancy through adolescence. In Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, he explains with authority and reassurance his step-by-step regime for instituting beneficial habits within the framework of your child's natural sleep cycles. Rewritten and reorganized to deliver information even more efficiently, this valuable sourcebook contains the latest research on:

• The best course of action for sleep problems: prevention and treatment
• Common mistakes parents make trying to get their children to sleep
• Different sleep needs for different temperaments
• Stopping the crybaby syndrome, nightmares, bed-wetting, and more
• Ways to get your baby to fall asleep according to her internal clock - naturally
• Handling nap-resistant kids and when to start sleep training
• Why both night sleep and day sleep are important
• Obstacles for working moms and children with sleep issues
• The father's role in comforting children
• How early sleep troubles can lead to later problems
• The benefits and drawbacks of allowing kids to sleep in the family bed

Rest is vital to your child's health, growth, and development. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child outlines proven strategies that ensure good, healthy sleep for every age.

©1987, 1999, 2003, 2015 Marc Weissbluth, Trustee, Marc Weissbluth Revocable Trust (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"I put these principles into practice - with instant results. Dr. Weissbluth is a trusted resource and adviser." (Cindy Crawford)

Waste of time

This book will put you to sleep. There are some good concepts but the entire book is so redundant and goes in circles. Too much science and published research, just tell me how to get my baby to sleep better! Buy any other sleep training book.

My take-aways

1. Although at the very beginning author claims he does not represent cry it out method, he does. An since leaving my baby to cry means leaving her hysterically screaming, my motherly instincts do not allow me to do that.
2. I did like the explanation of sleep rythms and scientific part of it, however I did not get much practical advice or action plan for my situation. If a baby is a good sleeper or easy going, it is probably easier to apply his methods, but if a baby a)is hard to get to sleep, b)sleeps poorly, c)does not sleep in her crib or alone, then an advice “maintain regular sleep schedule” or “do early bedtime” etc is not big of a help.
3. After listening to this book, I have realised how vitaly important is a good quality sleep however now I feel even more desparate, because I cannot get my baby to sleep according to these guidelines and therefor harming the baby. So, overall book was not much help.

Also, most of the information is being repeated over and over again.

good information but repetitive

Did not work well as an audiobook due to very repeated points that would have been better skimmed, along with charts that don't translate well

Great info, yet repetitive

Wish could have had this book in a summary. Great info and good ideas, but it’s way too long and repetitive. Felt like I had to listen until the end to make sure I wasn’t going to miss new information. Good principles to put into practices.

Eye opening and amazingly helpful

This book is worth every penny on cost and every minute in listening/ reading. I began implementing the advise on the first day. it has taken me over a month to finish, but was enlightening and extremely helpful in more ways than I can list on this short review. I also bought the hardcopy so I can flip through and re listen as well as visually see the charts and data he refers to. yes, the book repeats a lot of facts/ statements. I actually appreciate this as such a large book can be difficult to retain sometimes. Thank you Dr. W for writing this book.