[.ca] Silent Nights: Overcoming sleep problems in babies and ... (ISBN 0195517865)

Infallible guide to teaching your child or baby to sleep:
This book is great. Easy to read, common sense, and it works. I used it for teaching both my kids to sleep and they both slept through (8-10 hours) from about 8 weeks. Whenever they had relapses I returned to the book and they would be sleeping well again in a day or two. I have recommended it to about 14 other families in the past 4 years and it has worked for all of them. It helps you to understand how kids sleep, why they sometimes don't, and how to teach them this important skill. Buy it, try it (really try it, don't just dabble). It really does work. Well-rested kids are happy and healthy kids and have happy parents. Do your kids and yourself a favour and BUY THIS WONDERFUL BOOK!

Getting babies to sleep isn't easy:
Its not natural or easy, and most of don't have mothers or grandmothers living with us who have a wealth of experience to call on - or who have recently mothering small children themselves. I think that is where this book proved so good. It provides a wealth of easily accessible knowledge on sleeping and sleep patterns in babies which might once have been provided by our mothers to us as new mothers. Its nicely laid out to make it easy to jump to the bits which you want to read about - basic care - feeding, starting solids, the basics of sleep, the first six weeks, the first two years and so on. There is even an instant diagnosis section at the back of the book in case you are somewhat in a hurry (as you often are with a crying baby) This book also came reccommended to me by Plunket which is the New Zealand support for new mothers. I read this in conjunction with Tracy Hogg's book 'The baby Whisperer' and both have proved life savers for me. My baby goes down quietly at night and sleeps through without a peep. She is also happy and much more relaxed and I don't feel like the devil incarnate for making her do something which she just doesn't want to do. If anything this book is about making mothers feel good about what they are doing because it helps you to recognise how to do the right thing for your child.

Don't waste your money...:
Dr. Symon is basically a proponent of letting babies "cry it out." If you believe in the cry it out philosophy, then this book is just common sense. If you don't believe in crying it out, then you're not going to like what he has to say anyway.

Can't say enough about this book:
I borrowed this book from the library on the recommendation of a friend. I was getting nowhere with my son and his sleeping. This book certainly saved my sanity and assured both me and my husband that it was okay to let the little guy cry. If you're not a fan of leaving them to cry then you will hate this but we'd tried everything else and it didn't work. This book got us on track within 3 days. I have since brought the book and recommended it to various other friends with children with sleep problems and they have all had success. I've gone thru' mine with a highlighter and keep it hand for points of reference. Covers everything from sleep associatioin tools (dummy, blanket mum, dad) and why you shouldn't let them fall asleep in your arms. Easy to read, I read the revelant bits to me in a day and found myself nodding in agreement and reading passages aloud to my hubby. Worth it's weight in gold.

An Excellent Book that has Helped Many Families:
I work in the medical practice where the author of this book consults with parents of their newborn babies. The amount of families and marriages this book and the philosophies behind it have saved are quite impressive. It is a regular thing to hear parents tell Dr Symon "You have saved our marriage! Thankyou!". Children have come into the practice looking exhausted, irritable and irrational. Sometimes only a couple of nights after the baby has been seen, parents report back that their baby (and the parent) is sleeping wonderfully well, and that the family atmosphere has changed from one of tiredness and exhaustion to one of warmth and happiness. I thoroughly recommend this book as I have seen the wonderful results it has had on many families.