This method, in which children share a bed with their parents, is common in many cultures and is part of a child-rearing philosophy known in the United States as the one called attachment parenting. It’s a sleeping method more than a technique for getting a baby to sleep well. This approach, not to be confused [...]

The gist of this preventive method is that you never let your baby of 4 months or older become overtired, because being too fatigued may be the root of the sleep problems. Instead, you anticipate your infant’s natural sleepiness and put him down, at naptime and at bedtime, accordingly. The approach works as follows: Keep [...]

This technique is based on altering a baby’s sleep habits by waking her at prescribed times. Here comes the idea my dear readers: For one week, keep track of the times the baby wakes each night. Then, try to beat her to the punch. If she wakes at 12 and 4 AM, for instance, go [...]

Probably the most popular getting-baby-to-sleep technique is the Ferber method, named for its creator, Richard Ferber, M.D., director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children’s Hospital, in Boston. It’s based on the notion that babies make associations with falling asleep, whether at bedtime or after waking in the middle of the night. So [...]

Unless and until you’re one of the blessed few, you can fail to remember about getting anything close to six to eight hours of uninterrupted snoozing for at least the first three months of your baby’s life. Infants have muddled or fragmented sleep. That means that newborns don’t sleep for long periods the way we [...]