Sleep Solutions

Sleep Solutions: Quiet Nights for You and Your Child From Birth to Five Years

by Rachel Waddilove

3 stars

 

192 pages

Published April 1st 2013 by Lion Hudson

 

I picked up this book hoping it would offer some different advice from the hundreds of other books out there written by so-called experts on getting your baby and/or child to sleep through the night. My 10-month-old still gets up once during the night wanting to eat. Even after we used the "cold turkey" method of sleep training.

Unfortunately, this book offers nothing new. It's the same advice, the same reassurances, the same everything. The only positive spin I can put on this is that since everybody is giving the same advice, it must be good advice.

In the book, Waddilove provides a rough "sleep timeline," where a parent can see approximately what a normal sleep schedule looks like. She does warn that a parent must be flexible. I agree. Flexibility is the buzz word of parenting. I wasn't a fan of the timeline idea. I felt like it was too rigid a concept to be offered in sleep solutions book. Not all babies will conform to such an idea. Nor all parents. But it can act as a decent guideline.

I do like how Waddilove is a firm, no-nonsense, yet loving, advice-giver. She is calm and confident in her reassurances. That is a definite plus for us sleep-deprived, half-crazy parents. I also appreciate her little spirituality blurb at the end of the book. It's refreshing to be reminded that our little angels are not "of the devil!" - even if they act like it sometimes.

I do like the way that the book is divided into chapters: each stage of growth is pinpointed, with special emphasis on newborns and the first year. So you can zero in on your child's age and see exactly what Waddilove says your child should be doing.

Also positively, at the end of each chapter, she relates a couple of case studies of people who successfully got their child to sleep better by using Waddilove's advice. While these testimonials help give hope to those of us who have a "waker," it also can be a source of depression - "Why can't MY baby be like that? Why don't these solutions work for me?"

Although this sleep book is organized well and provides the same advice as any other sleep solutions book, it just doesn't provide anything MORE. But it does give parents another resource to validate what all other "sleep experts" are saying.

Thank you NetGalley and Lion Hudson Plc for the opportunity to review this book.