What is Normal Infant Sleep? (Part I)
Simply being made aware of normal sleep patterns can help alleviate the stress and anxiety parents feel, leading to happier times for the entire family. So what is normal?
Simple Ways to Calm a Crying Baby
Helping an infant return to sleep easily, then, is an essential gift to give our infants—as well as an important goal for parents who need to rest. The science of nighttime care provides a good foundation for parents trying to calm their babies. It clarifies what is important to know about calming babies and why certain types of calming are most likely to be helpful.
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…
Is Post-Partum Depression a Modern Day Problem?
What I question is whether or not we can consider the high rates of post-partum depression seen around the world a product of our industrial evolution, which is certainly influencing families globally.
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.
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.
Science Misunderstandings Understood
When you write about science articles, there are bound to be some things that people just don’t get. The thing is, it’s hugely important that we do understand what science is saying if we’re going to use it to help people understand the potential outcomes of their parenting choices.