Rating: 
Summary: The book I would give expectant parents.
Review: The hallmark of a good self help book is one in which the author captures word for word the very thoughts I have regarding a dilemma. I found myself chuckling at the number of times Weissbluth was able to state my exact feelings regarding how to deal with a crying child. Relieved too, to know that I was not alone in my faulty thinking on the subject. I laughed too, at the number of misconceptions about handling such moments I had picked up over the years. At 41 and as a first time mom I was amazed at how many misconceptions were affecting my ability to handle our son's crying. Weissbluth not only accurately outlines common mistakes in handling sleep and crying infants. He systematically debunks misconceptions with sound research. Then offers relatively simple things a parent can do to reduce crying jags in a infant. After consistently applying Weissbluth methods and making adjustments along the way to suit our son's specific needs he is now, at three months, sleeping through the nite, taking two naps a day. His disposition is wonderful and a delight to all who know him. One morning, not too long ago, our son was cooing up a storm and smiling back at my husband. My husband then asked me if it was "normal" for a baby to be so content and easy to deal with? I said "Yes!" Right then and there I knew I had made a wise decision to read and apply all that I had learned in "Healthy Sleep Habits/ Happy Child." I bought two copies. One to keep and one to give at the next baby shower. I also highly recommend "The Self-Calmed Baby" By William A.H. Simmons.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent material, makes sense
Review: This is a wonderful book for all parents to read. It's jam packed with information related to sleep paterns in children. My son is 8 months old and we just started trying the methods in the book. Previously he had been waking up every 2 hours to nurse and not taking any naps beyond 20 minutes at a time. He is now sleeping for 8-9 hour stretches at a time and napping 2x a day for 1-2 hours. Although we have a hard time letting him cry, it's not really crying, it's more whimpering and winding himself down to fall asleep. I still nurse him to sleep at night, and he soothes himself back to sleep in the middle of the night. We are on day 3 and it's improving daily. Highly recommended for all. Great book, even for those opposed to crying it out as I was.
Rating:
Summary: Marriage Saver
Review: This book saved our marriage. It is easy to read and understand and the ideas are mostly common sense. However, when there is a new baby in the house some times it is not so easy to think logically. My Children are 7 and 4. Thanks to Dr. Weissbluth it only takes about five minutes to put our kids to sleep. My wife and I have given at least 10 copies as new baby presents.
Rating:
Summary: Tough love
Review: I found this book to be VERY useful in getting my daughter to sleep through the night at 11 weeks! As he writes, there are some setbacks at certain developmental stages but if you know why there are hiccups in your happy babies routine then you can deal with it and get right back on track. It is the hardest thing in the world to listen to your baby crying even for 1 minute but it is in their best interest to do this. The most my baby ever cried was 8 minutes and she's now a happy, healthy 21 month old.
Rating: 
Summary: Sometime Helpful, Sometimes Not
Review: I think maybe my expectations of this book were too great. While it was very good in some cases of my daughters inability to sleep, it recommends that you must keep your child on the same schedule EVERY NIGHT! I don't know any family in todays world that can do this. It simply isn't practicle. It sets up a very rigid sleep schedule that was impossible for my wife and I to keep. I did find it useful for specific problems like how to get my daughter back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the evening. Anyway, it wasn't as good as Mom's and Mother-in-Laws good old fashioned advice!
Rating:
Summary: The Sleep Bible!
Review: This book became the "sleep bible" of a Mommy talk class I attended when my daughter was about 8 weeks old and not napping. We really liked it because it gives extremely helpful and basic advice on how to teach your baby to develop healthy sleep patterns...basically how to recognize the signs of sleep in a child before they get to the screaming, red-eyed, exhausted state. It helped us first time parents understand that a certain amount of crying is to be expected with naps and bedtime, and we aren't "evil parents" if she does cry! With this book, we were able to help our daughter develop a great sleep pattern, by watching her and understanding when she needed to sleep, and the importance of naps and sleep to her health and attention span. I think I highlighted the entire book with a pen! A must read.
Rating:
Summary: The Sleep Bible!
Review: This book became the "sleep bible" of a Mommy talk class I attended when my daughter was about 8 weeks old and not napping. We really liked it because it gives extremely helpful and basic advice on how to teach your baby to develop healthy sleep patterns...basically how to recognize the signs of sleep in a child before they get to the screaming, red-eyed, exhausted state. It helped us first time parents understand that a certain amount of crying is to be expected with naps and bedtime, and we aren't "evil parents" if she does cry! With this book, we were able to help our daughter develop a great sleep pattern, by watching her and understanding when she needed to sleep, and the importance of naps and sleep to her health and attention span. I think I highlighted the entire book with a pen! A must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Writing, Great Advice from our children's doctor
Review: First, a disclaimer. Marc was our kid's pediatrician when they were babies (We've since moved.) So there was no way that we weren't at least going to TRY this method. Marc is a nice man and a good pediatrician. That being said, the man simply cannot write. This book is not easy to read. However, once you muddle through its somewhat murky wording, you will find some of the best advice on sleep that exists. As the book states the earlier you use these methods the better. We started at three months which is earlier than the book calls for but which Dr. Weisbluth suggested for us because our kids were good eaters and thus ready to sleep through the night early. His best advise for parents: if you can't stand hearing your baby cry, take a shower when you first put your baby down. (The other parent can be listening if that makes you more comfortable.) The time will pass and you won't hear a thing. I won't go into all the details excpet to say my kids sleep like angels and even ASK to go to sleep when they are tired. We don't fight about bedtime.
Rating:
Summary: Great ideas in here
Review: Weissbluth's ideas make a lot of sense. His main point is to notice your baby's regular sleep patterns and to create a flexible schedule around that so your baby doesn't become overtired. Once your baby gets enough sleep during the day he will sleep better at night, the key is to put your baby down when he is tired and not let him play when he should be sleeping. That may mean going in and rocking him back to sleep if he wakes in the middle of a nap, or letting him fuss--it's your choice. He never once said (as somebody else claimed) to let babies cry 3 or 4 hours, he said not to let them cry more than an hour. He also states that you don't have to let your baby scream at all, you can rock him to sleep if you choose but to just be consistent. And if you put your baby down during that "sleepy" stage you can do it with no crying whatsoever. He also says that all babies are different and if you don't feel comfortable in scheduling sleep to try again when your baby is older. This has worked great with my kids, I started sleep scheduling when they were 4 months old and had started wanting to play instead of sleep. Like everything else, I took the ideas in here and altered them to fit my own life and parenting style. The main points are good ones, although I think a lot of people get caught up in the "crying it out" issue and don't understand that that's not what this book is all about.
Rating: 
Summary: Abuse packaged in a book
Review: Of course babies that are ignored will eventually stop screaming, you are telling them that they aren't important and you are not responsible for them when it is dark. Dogs get better treatment that Weissbluth gives children.
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