Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child Book

I really love this book - though I notice I almost always hear negative reviews and comments about him which is a huge shame. People think of him as having a "cry it out" stance and of being anti-"attachment parenting" but this couldn't be further from the truth. What is great is that he doesn't have one philosophy or think there is one method of doing things. He gives many different sleep strategies that include no crying, some crying, and "cry it out" and he tells you which strategy is likely to work for which type of kid. He also has no issue with co-sleeping - he thinks you have to find whatever sleeping situation works best for your family. The best part is he provides data and scientific evidence on sleeping so you really understand the process of how it works and why it's important and how much sleep your child needs. He's so open-minded and tries to provide information for so many different situations (like if a parent has many support resources, or very few) because he recognizes that each family and child are different - but this is exactly why he is so misunderstood and why the book is so hard to read! Because he presents you with so many possible scenarios. But believe me it's well worth it. We ended up doing a mixture of things he suggested until we found what worked. Some of the things he said we ignored but some we really took to heart. In the end what comes through to me about this doctor is that he deeply cares about mothers (and their babies) and recognizes the many challenges that face them. But instead of trying to gloss over those challenges (or act like they wouldn't be there if only you had the RIGHT parenting philosophy) he paints a realistic picture of them (he acknowledges that some husbands aren't supportive or that some parents don't have outside family to rely on) and he gives advice on what to do in light of those situations (not how to fix the impossible).