[newtothis]

just wondering if anyone has ever read this book and what the basic premise is or 'schedule' is.
from what i gather online it's feeding the baby every 4 hours, then keeping them up 4 hours before bedtime?

any success stories?

[Tobaira]

Haven't heard of it. I can't imagine keeping the girls up for 4 hours though.. seems like they would be so overtired they wouldn't sleep.

[J-squared]

I have heard of this book and I think it borders on neglect for newborns. It might work (or it might not), but I'm not sure at what developmental cost to a child and its natural rhythms. Newborns should be fed on demand within reason whether they are nursing or bottle feeding and forcing them to go four hours without food or drink is unreasonable and not developmentally appropriate. I don't go four hours without a drink or a snack most days and I'm an adult.

I also agree with the previous poster that being awake for 4 hours is a lot. They should take a nap after about 2 hours of awake time or so (maybe more, maybe less depending on the individual baby--my son goes 2.5 hours between naps, but my daughter is only going 90 minutes between naps and they are 5 weeks old).

My experience is that anyone can write a book on baby sleep, but very few books actually deal with it in a developmentally appropriate way.

[MarchI]

Sorry but babies sleep through the night when they want to. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child does deal with this in a developmentally appropriate manner. I don't agree with the CIO portion of it but the rest of the advice helped my two learn to go to sleep and sleep well on their own.

[idril]

I have read about 1/2 of this book. Honestly, it scared me so I returned it to the library. It was just too rigid for me. I really really really wanted my girls to sleep through the night as soon as possible, but I don't know... women have been doing this for thousands of years. I don't think there's ONE secret that works for everyone that only one author has figured out.

The reason I decided not to follow this book was that I didn't feel comfortable feeding my girls only every four hours with no flexibility, and the amount of awake time between feedings was more than my kids could handle. My girls were strictly on breastmilk and they were ready to eat after three hours. Making them wait an extra hour seemed kind of cruel. I'm sure the strict four hour schedule would work for many families... just not mine.

Oh - I forgot to add... my girls slept through the night (7pm - 6am, with one "dream feed" at 11pm) when they were 16 weeks old. We didn't follow any particular theory - just had a lot of consistency, and luck!

This post has been edited by idril: 23 April 2012 - 11:52 AM

[newtothis]

right now we feed her at 8 and at 11, we do do a dream feed but she re-awakes anywhere between 3-4.
this morning she slept from 4 am - 9 and i actually WOKE her at 9 because i had no idea what to do, lol.

at times she sleeps 3 hours, other times 5 so we are obviously just looking for a long stretch. ;)

during the day she naps in a swing; i'd love to get her away from that as well. however, when i put her in her boppy (where she does sleep now at night), she's all over the place and can't get comfy.

[Mom2S&Twins]

MarchI, on 24 April 2012 - 12:48 AM, said:

Sorry but babies sleep through the night when they want to. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child does deal with this in a developmentally appropriate manner. I don't agree with the CIO portion of it but the rest of the advice helped my two learn to go to sleep and sleep well on their own.

I used HSHHC as well since he was our pediatrician back then. My oldest did 12 hours by 12 weeks but she was fed at least every 2 1/2 hours. She was a big girl who loved to eat during the day and did very well at night. My twin girl was quite similar (by 4 months she was fine) and my son took about 6 months (he had severe reflux spitting up blood, medication, so things were not as smooth). Mine went to bed early, soothed themselves to sleep and yes, sometimes it did include CIO. They were not able to stay up that long but I had the twins on 2 naps by 6 months because I basically put them all on a similar afternoon nap schedule. Again, with a 6 pm bed time that worked out great. As far as the CIO, I only have 2 hands and I had 3 under 3. They are still excellent sleepers.

This post has been edited by Mom2S&Twins: 24 April 2012 - 03:47 AM

[E's 3]

I used my own modified version at night when my girls were 5.5 months old. They were still waking frequently but barely eating at all when they woke so I knew they didn't "need" to eat. I used it to stop feeding them through the night by the time they were about 6 months old, it didn't stop the night wakings but it did put an end to the night feedings.

[3under2!]

Five hours is considered sleeping through the night at this age. So you are doing great!

[MamaKimberlee]

I read it and tried it, but could never get my twins to wait 4 hours between feeds. Frankly, they don't wait 4 hours between feeds NOW at 5 years old!

[kaluzoo]

Just incase anyone comes by this later and wants a counter opinion...we used this book when our twins were 3.5 months old. They were gassy babies and the advice had been to feed them smaller more frequent meals (they were on a every 3hr schedule before). That hadn't worked at all, but they were starting to sleep longer and longer at night. So, I tried this for a few days just to see (at the advice of many other twin moms) and the babies loved the new schedule. No more gassiness (could have been just timing - i.e. maybe they outgrew it - but change was amazing) and they eat way more eating 4x a day than they did eating 6x/day. I love it as I have tons of time to *play* with them now, vs just bonding over feeding. They both started sleeping through the night within a week without ever crying it out for more than 5 mins. I think the bottom line is that every baby and every parent is different. Figure out what works for you. For us, the techniques in this book worked great - only thing we did not follow was the no afternoon nap rule (at 5.5 months my boys still take a little catnap in the afternoon and sleep 11.5-12 hrs/night regardless).

[daisies]

MarchI, on 23 April 2012 - 11:48 AM, said:

Sorry but babies sleep through the night when they want to. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child does deal with this in a developmentally appropriate manner. I don't agree with the CIO portion of it but the rest of the advice helped my two learn to go to sleep and sleep well on their own.

what i like about HSHHC is it explains what is going on developmentally at each age and allows the parent to make educated decisions that best fit their child and their situation. My DD would be a great sleeper regardless of what i did. DS requires a lot of effort and attention on my part to help him get the sleep he needs. Without HSHHC i would have been lost and he would be one cranky kid. Both started sleeping 8 to 10 hours at night at about 4 months and now sleep 11.5 to 12 hours at night.

This post has been edited by daisies: 25 September 2012 - 09:23 AM