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)

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

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.

This is a need to "bookmark" kind of audible!

This is a must have book for new and veteran moms and dads. I drive quite a bit for my job so reading the actual book would have taken a lot longer. I will however need to go back with the paper back or with a notebook and write some notes. I bookmarked like crazy for easier referencing.

The book had a lot of repetition with some of the statistics which as a physician I could appreciate, but only added a little bit of value to the overall theme, IMO. I did skip through some of that after I felt I had learned what I needed to.

I think it will be extremely beneficial to have heard/read this before my first child and recommend it to all new moms. I'd also recommend it to anyone else who just became a mom or families with young children.

The development of the brain is fascinating to me and I connected with the analogy of starving your child from food is the same as starving your child from sleep.

I hope this sheds some light on the challenges I will have when my baby is born. There are so many examples from Mom's who wished they had read the book sooner... I'm having my husband listen to the book as well because being on the same page, and more importantly him knowing Why I'm doing something, will help the cohesiveness of our family and help raise a bright well rested little girl.

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.

It worked for my baby!

This is a comprehensive sleep book, I was reluctant to sleep train my baby, who at 6 months slept in my arms. I listened to the entire book, applied the techniques and now my baby sleeps 12 hours in his crib. We are still working on good naps.

Excellent book for young infants

I started reading this book because I have two children with sleep issues, a four-year-old and 8-month-old. I felt this book offered excellent information for preventing sleep issues in newborns and starting sleep training for 3-4 months-old infants. Passed that you could probably read chapters 1-4 and receive all the information you need to help any child older than that by applying the principles discussed in those chapters to older children. The remainder of the book is regurgitation of the same principles discussed in earlier chapters and a large amount of sleep data from the 80’s. This book could be cut in half and you’d still know more then you ever wanted too about infant sleep. The examples he uses are generally regarding very young children. Basically after the first handful of chapters I had three to five more takeaways. Read this before your first or before your next child.

Rescued me.. educated me..

This book has real scientific meaning. Beautifully explains the importance of baby sleep and how to get it and protect it. Babies sleep and all they need is a little love. What we as parents need is education and knowledge about how, when etc to get the baby to sleep. the book explains various stages in detail.... go ahead parents, educate yourselves and help your babies learn the art of restful sleeping.

It Works

I tried it before I even finished and this book worked like a charm. My family and I are well rested and happy. Highly recommended to all parents!