THE GOOD SLEEPER: The Essential Guide to Sleep for Your Baby (and You), is written for exhausted parents (and you), giving them immediate access to the information they need! Reassuring and easy to understand, Dr. Janet Kennedy addresses head on the fears and misinformation about the long-term effects of crying and takes a bold stand on controversial issues such as co-sleeping and attachment parenting!
With polarizing figures and techniques dominating the marketplace - and spawning misinformation across the internet - Dr. Kennedy’s methods and practices create an extensively researched and parent tested approach to sleep training that takes both babies' and parents’ needs into account to deliver good nights and days of sleep, and no small dose of peace of mind.
THE GOOD SLEEPER is a practical, empowering - and even entertaining - guide to help parents understand infant sleep. This research based book will teach parents the basics of sleep science, determine how and when to intervene, and provide tools to solve even the most seemingly impossible sleep problems.
The ugly truth is there is no one-size-fits-all technique. Parents are left having to navigate an overwhelming number of options, often giving up altogether because they can’t agree on a strategy, don’t understand the principals behind them, or out of sheer exhaustion at and confusion over the voluminous, often contradictory advice.
Kennedy is a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of NYC SLEEP Doctor, a specialty practice dedicated to the treatment of sleep disturbance in babies, toddlers and adults. A media mainstay, she provides in-home behavioral assessments for parents of babies and toddlers— developing a step-by-step treatment plan to address sleep problem—and teaches her acclaimed Raise a Good Sleeper class to new and expecting parents at pediatric offices, moms’ groups and private meetings around the country. With THE GOOD SLEEPER, she cuts through the noise that is parenting sleep advice to provide counsel that is authoritative, clear, practical and empowering—and affords parents a fundamental grasp of infant sleep: how it works, how much they need, and how to shape good habits.
THE GOOD SLEEPER focuses on:
• The physiological process of sleep, drowsiness and overfatigue.
• Maintaining a short period of wakefulness between naps.
• The importance of teaching a baby to self-soothe.
• Preference for extinction methods vs gradual extinction or so-called "no-cry" solutions.
BUT THE GOOD SLEEPER GOES FURTHER:
• The first 3-months is defined as its own gradual sleep training process to avoid the necessity of extinction.
• There is a focus on concrete soothing strategies that keep the baby calm and the parents sane.
• The distinction is made between soothing strategies appropriate in the first 3 months and those appropriate as the baby’s response to stimulation changes. There is focus on identifying the point of transition and phasing-out appropriately.
• The method provides a clear framework with enough flexibility to fit into the reality of parents’ lives.
• The difference between a child’s needs vs desires or habits is emphasized, underscoring the parent’s role in prioritizing needs such as sleep and self-soothing over the child’s desire for round-the-clock contact.
• THE GOOD SLEEPER addresses head-on the fears and misinformation about the long-term effects of crying and takes a bold stand on controversial issues such as co-sleeping and “attachment parenting.”
• Parents are addressed as people undergoing a huge life transition complete with their own feelings, struggles, and adult sleep issues. Dr. Kennedy uses her expertise in these areas to help new parents through this adjustment, empowering them to be decisive in their new roles.