Review of The Sleepeasy SolutionFor many weeks we have been reviewing infant sleep training books. Just type the word "sleep" to search our blog for previous reviews by Dr. Harvey Karp, Dr. Richard Ferber, Elizabeth Pantley, William Sears, Gary Ezzo, Gina Ford, and Kim West.
The next book in the series is The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep from Birth to Age 5 by Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack.
Jennifer Waldburger, LCSW, is a trained psychotherapist and partner of Sleepy Planet, the preeminent parenting/sleep company in LA. She is a former writer and editor for Town & Country, Redbook, Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar.
Jill Spivack, LMSW, is a psychotherapist who worked as a pediatric sleep consultant who co-founded Sleepy Planet, Inc., in 1999. The two offer private sleep consultations for celebrity clients and others, standing-room only workshops and regular keynotes at Baby Expos with audiences of over 300. They have appeared on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, Inside Edition (feature piece) as well as in The Wall Street Journal and Fit Pregnancy.
The key to their method is addressing the emotional needs of both the parent and child because not addressing the parents needs as well, most sleep methods fail. The techniques are based on well established behavioral principles, are results oriented. Rather than being a strict "cry it out" method they try to emphasize teaching a child how to "soothe itself method" with occasional crying.
Breastfeeding is addressed because breastfeeding parents have a harder time keeping their babies asleep during the night. They recommend giving the child an item that they are to associate with the parents in their bed. How to help a child who gets hungry, thirsty, or scared at night. How to wean a child that is over 15-pounds and older than five-months old, from having milk before bedtime. They describe how to make the child’s room desirable for sleep, to read books, change clothes, and dim the lights before bedtime. Subjects such as family-beds, post-partum depression, and teething are also addressed.
The authors are open-minded in their writing when addressing the different parental styles. This book is easy to read, compassionate, and they claim within five days you will see major results.
Have you used this book successfully? Do you prefer a gentle or strict infant sleep method?
3 comments:
Seen reviews that all these Los Aageles celebrities love this book including Conan O'Brien.
Personally I like routines and some structure but you can't make a baby sleep or eat if they don't want to. Also, can't stop them from sleeping if they want to. I think crying it out is very harsh but if it's done in small time intervals the concept works. Just wait until a child is over 6 months old and never ever let them scream. A little grunting fine, but pure terror not good.
Using your instincts is better than following ANY book precisely. No book can address each individual child. Use books as guides, read them all, do what feels right. I find most nannies and parents much much prefer the gentle approach. No one ever worried about a baby being rocked to sleep and fed when they cried.
The Sleepeasy Solution book was a total godsend to my family. In the course of roughly 7 days of sleep training using this method, my 6 month old went from having an increasingly difficult time settling to sleep at any point between 7 and 9:30 pm, to going to sleep like clockwork at 7:30 on the dot. I now set her in her crib perfectly awake at 7:25 pm, she instantly turns on her side and begins sucking her thumb and within moments is asleep. If there is any crying at all, it lasts less than 3 minutes.
They have a DVD The Sleepeasy Solution DVD & Sleep Manual. The DVD is great because you can actually see real parents as they are sleep training and it takes only 45 minutes to watch and understand.
Nanny Maria Lopez
Miami FL
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