Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition | Richard Ferber | Finally Fast Asleep!!!!

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Solve Your Child's...

	Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition Richard Ferber Fireside, 2006 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 418 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Co-sleeping mom and dad are now Ferber converts

My husband and I co-slept with our daughter for 14 months, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Those months were really great, and I think during the early months it's a life-saver for mom to get some sleep while nursing all night.

I still think 4 months is too early to "sleep train," but maybe 14 months is too long for some parents to wait. There's probably a middle ground somewhere, but nevertheless I feel like by 14 months our daughter was really ready to sleep on her own. We both read Ferber's book, picked a week when we didn't have many other responsibilities, prepared for the worst - and then.

Easy. She barely cried - 22 minutes total (broken up into 3, 5 then 10 minute intervals) - to begin with, woke up twice the first night, crying even less each time. The second night was easier, the third night she slept 10 hours without a peep.

Now, she prompts us when it's time for sleep by getting her toothbrush and book. Bedtime is easier that it ever was even during co-sleeping, when it sometimes took me an hour to get her to sleep!

We are now 1 month post "sleep training," and most nights she has slept straight through the night. The few times she has woken up, she either falls back asleep after 2 second of crying, or goes right back to sleep when my husband reassures her. Mostly she is just quiet as a mouse.

Yes, we are all getting better sleep, but it's even larger than that. She is happier during the day, she seems MORE confident than before. I think some of the bad experiences with Ferber are due to 1) not actually reading the book 2) not following the instructions in the book 3) doing it too early - i.e. expecting a 4 month old to sleep through the night 4) doing it too late - i.e. when the child can get out of their crib.

I can't recommend this book enough. Dr. Sears is great, I read his books too, but frankly it is so obvious that Ferber is the expert on sleep. Cosleep early to make breastfeeding easier, but by all means give your child the skill to fall asleep on their own when they are ready.

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Finally Fast Asleep!!!!

My 19 month old son started waking at 3am almost every night when he was around 17 months and is awake for about 2 hours while we rock him back to sleep. Then, 2 weeks ago he started freaking out when we would put him in his crib awake and tried to climb out immediately. I knew this was a safety hazard and I decided to move him to a toddler bed. I realized that with my worry of him climbing out, I was rushing in to get him back to sleep. These late nights and middle of the morning wakings have taken their toll on all of us, but my biggest concern was for my son. I could see in his tired little face that he wasn't getting enough sleep and it just wasn't healthy for him. The toddler bed turned into another challenge because he thought it was a fun game to run around his room while I tried to catch him. If I put him on his bed, he just jumped right off and thought that was funny, too. Finally, out of desperation, and him not taking anything I said seriously, I started researching different methods to use to get him to understand this is serious and that he needs to go to sleep when I tell him. You can't reason with an 18 month old regarding bed times and why they need to go to sleep. And my son obviously had figured out I was in a predicament and he was in control. (oh, and the other thing is that we could no longer rock him to sleep either, he thought it was a great game to pretend he was sleeping on our shoulder and then pop his head up and smile at us - this game could go on for hours!) So, I debated and finally decided to try the Ferber Method. And let me tell you, the first night, he screamed and banged the door and stomped around his room. He was very upset and angry. And if I wasn't so tired myself, I probably would have given in, but I'm glad I stuck to it. I waited 5 minutes, went back in, then 10 minutes, then back in, then in the next 10 minutes, he quieted down and fell asleep on his rocking chair, I moved him to his bed and he slept through the night. The next night I did the 5 minutes again (I didn't feel right extending it longer the way the book says to), then 10 and this time by the end of the first 10 minutes he had quieted down and settled in for the night - with much less drama. Then, last night (our 3rd night doing this) he yelled, banged the door and was asleep all within 3 minutes! And every night he's slept straight through until morning. He's always been a happy, fun kid, but there was a special calmness and he just seemed to feel better yesterday. He's listening to me more during the day and we had so much fun together without as many power struggles. I think because he's getting uninterrupted sleep, he can function better during the day. If you read the Ferber book, what he says makes so much sense - and really, because you are going back into the room to let your child know you're still there, tending to him, caring about him, it's a humane way to set limits with your child regarding bedtime. If you have a super active, independent, smart toddler trying to get the upper hand with you at bedtime, my experience with the Ferber method is that it's worth a shot. And you can start with much smaller increments of going in to check on your child than the standard 5, 10, 15.... I also asked advice from my friends who have older kids who are well behaved, nice children. And funny enough at some point in the toddler years, they all tried some version of the Ferber method!

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The only book that helped us see results

This was the last book in the line of many many books that I read...I kept putting it off for fear that "Feberizing" my child would cause him great harm. But my son was still waking up many times a night and seemed ravenous each time. Even my pediatrician couldn't explain why my son kept waking up...he said it sounded like we were doing everything right. After reading the new expanded edition, I find it hard to believe why Ferber has such a bad rap as being harsh. There are several different approaches listed in the book and they all use love and care....with a little bit of crying (we had NO luck after months of the "No Cry Sleep Solution"). This is the only book that showed me the real problem with my son's frequent night wakings...he needed to be weaned off of his nighttime feedings. It is working...I can't believe it. After 4 months of sleep training, something is finally working. Every baby is different and other books might work for other people...but I am so thankful I finally picked up this book.

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Life-saver for exhausted parents

We were exhausted when we finally bought this book; trying to get the baby to sleep every night was a long battle, and he would only sleep for a few hours at a time. I recommend reading the first 3 chapters as Ferber does (he explains how sleep works - so insightful), then find the chapter that matches your problem...it was a fast read this way, which is great for tired parents, and Ferber has loving advice for getting your child to sleep on his own. Our son goes right down for the bedtime now, and though he still wakes up once or twice during the night, it isn't for long and normally he puts himself back to sleep. Overall our lives are so much easier now that we've tried this method.

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