Sleep Research and Parenting: What’s Relevant?
New research suggests that poor sleep leads us to be selfish and less grateful to others. What does this mean for parents? Should it mean anything?
Routines vs. Schedules
Oftentimes parents confuse routines and schedules and aren’t quite sure what is best for babe, despite there being a rather striking difference between them. So let’s review them both to see which is more biologically normal for your child…
Sleep: A Misguided and Unhealthy Obsession
We have a real obsession in Western nations, and I’m not sure it’s a healthy one. We are completely, totally, obsessed with sleep. And not in the “I love sleep” kind of way, but in a much more insidious way.
Does a new study really support leaving your child to cry?
So, what is this new research? It’s an article by Masha Weinraub and colleagues on sleep patterns, notably night wakenings, in children aged six months to three years . Now, let’s ignore what the popular press has reported and actually look at the study itself…
For the Love of Sleep
In many ways, sleep is a social activity and is hugely important to our social well-being. Though we sleep alone in our society, this is not how we have evolved, and we see this when we return to shared sleep when we marry or live with another person.
Co-Sleeping is Bad for Mom? Not So Fast…
Recently an article has made the rounds on various news sources stating that co-sleeping has negative effects for mom, but a closer look at the research suggests that this is not all what it seems.
A Not-So-Blind Review of the Recent CIO Research
Recently, an article by Anna Price and colleagues has been covered in the media as it supposedly touts that there are no long-term effects of infant sleep interventions. I got my hand on the article (which is still in early release through Pediatrics) and decided to write my own peer review.
Co-Sleeping on Trial: The Vanessa Clark Case
On April 5, 2012 Vanessa Clark was found guilty of child endangerment in the death of their 2-month-old son Tristan in July 2010. What did she do? She co-slept with him. There are multiple things wrong with this though and we need to look at all them to understand how flawed this outcome and entire situation is.
The “Difficult” Baby: Part Two
In this part, we’re going to look at the last piece of pertinent information—viewing the difficult infant as a ‘plastic’ infant—and then finishing with a look at what we can do going forward.
Crying-It-Out: An Addendum
You see, the person questioned the conclusions from the Middlemiss study which found high cortisol activity in children undergoing a sleep training program in New Zealand. This is my response.