As a parent of a new infant one thing that is unavoidable to not think about, is the ability to get any good sleep. Well maybe not so much for my husband..but that's not totally his fault that he doesn't lactate. Regardless, I checked out some books on sleeping for babies and enjoyed this one a lot.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child is written by Marc Weissbluth, M.D. and claims to be a step-by-step program for a good night's sleep. I have to say the information found between the covers of this book have given me quite some insight in the hows and whats of sleeping in my baby.

One thing I found interesting about this book, was that it was referenced in On Becoming Babywise although the techniques presented are quite different. I did read this book before Babywise and found this book to be more informative to understanding what is going on with my growing boy.

The book is divided into three parts, part one is titled "How Children Sleep." Part two is titled "How Parents Can Help Their Children Establish Healthy Sleep Habits: You Can Prevent Sleep Disturbances from Infancy to Adolescence." The final section is titled "Other Sleep Disturbances and Concerns." There are 13 chapters each with subsections. They are all listed in the table of contents which makes for a quick reference guide.

This book is very comprehensive. It talks about so many different things that can effect sleep. There are suggestions on how to turn daytime sleepers into nighttime sleepers. There is information on what to expect in regards to sleep from colicky babies. There is information on a wide variety of special sleep problems like sleepwalking, head banging against cribs, and bedwetting.

The only thing that I didn't like about this book is that it covers problems from infancy all through to adolescence. This makes it a good book to keep and use as a reference, but something that made me feel it wasn't worth while to read the whole thing because I would forget what to expect/do when my son is 7 years old something I read when he was 2 months. I like to read books cover to cover and this book isn't set up well for that.

The writing style is a little technical, but it does well to make you believe what the author is talking about. Throughout the book are "Practical Points" where the author gives a tip or suggestion such as "Feelings of anger toward your crying child are frightening - and normal. You can love your baby and hate her crying spells. All parents sometimes have contradictory feelings toward their baby." or reminding parents not to put a baby with teeth to bed with a bottle. I found these helpful and a nice break among the chapters.

Overall I recommend this book for a thorough look at what makes babies tick when it comes to sleep and what you can do as a parent to point them in the direction you'd like. Dr. Marc Weissbluth is a pediatrician and a father of four and I trust his advice, and have followed it where I felt I could.

This has been my first entry in Sleeper54's Lean-n-Mean III Writeoff.

Recommended: Yes