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

I bought this book thinking it would solve my six month old's sleeping problems but made them worse. The progressive waiting and not picking up my kid when she was crying made her very mad and unable to sleep. After 2 weeks of working on the Ferber method she cried for 3 hours straight. I don't have a problem with Ferber's ideas and principles but there isn't a chapter on what to do if his way doesn't work. A little egotistical on his part that he didn't include a chapter on failure.

As the wife of Harvard Sleep Researcher, imagine my disbelief/distress when my 4-month old was only able to fall asleep via nursing and stay asleep by resting on my chest. My husband suggested the Ferber method and provided me with numerous studies supporting the idea that a little crying is not harmful and WILL NOT make a child insecure, as long as the child is loved and attended to while awake and alert. I resisted his suggestions and was willing (even though I dreaded each evening because I went to bed at 8:00 with a child on me and woke to nurse 3-4X per night)to wait until my son was 6 months to "Ferberize." Last Saturday my husband encouraged me to try the program for 3 nights and thank goodness we did! The first night was tough, but on night 2 our child slept from 8 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. with only 6 minutes of crying and last night he slept from 7:45 until 6:30!!! And he is napping longer during the day and is happier and more playful than ever. I feel like I have freedom again, this method is helping my child and me to have a happier life!!

One note, since we will be traveling for most of August, we have decided to have our son sleep in his pack and play for three nights before we leave town, since he will be sleeping this way for several weeks. We also have prepared ourselves for a few nights of "re-adjustment" when we return from our trip.
Remember: Be strong, be flexible and sleep will happen!!!!!!!!

I stumbled upon this book during an early-morning routine of trying to find some "magic sleeping pill" for my feisty almost 2-year-old. I loved the synopsis of the book, but balked at it being "FERBER"! Like a Pavlovian response, I'd been trained to run from the "cry-it-out" guy. Long story short, that's not what he's all about and actually has a very reasonable and balanced approach to sleep problems. Admittedly, I'm not through the entire book yet, having needed to jump immediately to my child's specific sleep problem, but I am encouraged by the progress made so far and besides, his writing style is great--easy to read and really funny and informative. Can't wait to finish the book...after I catch up on my own sleep!

I bought this book after trying the "no cry sleep solution" which wasn't working. After reading this book and finding out I was actually doing more harm than good by nursing or rocking my daughter to sleep I felt better about letting her cry for a while. Knowing I would be checking on her made me feel better too. So the first evening I put her down and she cried a total of 2 hours before falling asleep with me checking on her every interval as in the book. The second night she fell asleep after 13 mins and the third night after 1 min of just noises not crying. The first day for her naps I did the same and she fell asleep after 8 mins each time with only 1 check. The second day only 5 mins and third right away with little crying. Now a week later she is sleeping 7 hours straight at night and only waking for her feed (she is 4months old) and naps she doesn't cry at all just falls asleep when I put her down. She is so much happier now too that she is not tired from a lack of sleep.

I would definitely recommend following this method to anyone, I know how hard it is hearing the cries but they are cries of frustration at not knowing how to fall asleep rather than needing you I believe.

This book was extremely helpful in getting my little one to fall asleep on his own and stay asleep. I was never aware of his negative sleep associations prior to reading that chapter-but it makes perfect sense.