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Home > Portable Practical Pediatrics > Straight Talk About Sleep in Infancy-Updated (Pedcast)


	Podcast:		Portable Practical Pediatrics
	Episode:		Straight Talk About Sleep in Infancy-Updated (Pedcast)
	Category:		Kids & family
	Duration:		00:00:00
	Publish Date:		2017-09-03 21:48:42
	Description:		Introduction Welcome, I am your host, Dr. Paul Smolen. At the time of this recording, it will have been my honor to practice general pediatrics for the past 35 years. Today we are going to talk about an extremely important topic for you and your child….how to get a good nights sleep for both you and your infant. You remember that whole concept before you had kids-- you lay down and are not disturbed for 8-12 hours and you sleep. Ah, bliss. A day doesn’t go by without me talking to a family with a significant sleep problem regarding their children. Like the family I spoke with recently. Lovely people with a gorgeous child who I was seeing for his six-month checkup. Let’s call him Johnny. I asked the standard questions about Johnny's sleep and I got that look. Mom is up with him at least 3 times a night breastfeeding and rocking. She seemed exhausted and maybe starting to get resentful of her child’s constant demands at night. She is a working mom and totally exhausted all the time. This situation is not good for this mom or Johnny, so in today's pedcast, I'm going to tell you what advise I gave Johnny's family and I am going to give you some simple tools to teach your children how to become good independent sleepers. Don't miss this important episode of Portable Practical Pediatrics. Musical Introduction Straight Talk about sleep in Infancy 2.0 The 2.0 version of this post is actually a revision of my original pedcast called Straight Talk About Sleep in Infancy and I have a few years of experience with parents listening and implementing my original podcast. Most parents have found it useful and easy to follow, but some missed the major point on their first listen. So, if you remember nothing else from this pedcast, remember this critical point-- Successful sleep training is ideally done between 4 to 6 months and involves creating a situation where your baby can put themselves to sleep by getting into their own "comfortable position of sleep" after a brief sleep ritual. And when I say brief I mean brief that does not involve feeding, rocking, singing, or allowing your child to get drowsy in any place other than their crib or bassinet. Once your baby finds their own unique "comfortable position" and can find it on their own, they will quickly know what to do when they need to sleep. I recommend that you listen to this podcast twice just to make sure you have a clear understanding of the routine I suggest before you institute any changes. I want you to be successful the first go round! Sleep Physiology 101 Before we get into my advice for this particular family, lets digress and take a little detour down "Science lane" and review a little about sleep physiology. You must understand how your children sleep in order for you to know how to make it all work for your family. Fact: We spend a third of our entire time on earth sleeping and many of us don’t have the foggiest idea of how it works. There are basically two types of sleep--REM or rapid eye movement sleep, also known as “active sleep” and NonREM sleep or deep, slow brainwave sleep. With a good night’s sleep, we cycle all night between these two types of sleep states which means that no one sleeps all night long in deep sleep without waking up periodically, even babies. Prolonged sleep is an active process of fluctuating between deep sleep and active dreamy sleep. Most people have at least 3 sleep cycles a night. So here is a major concept for you to understand--your baby doesn’t fall asleep just once at night but many times. Older infants and children must, I repeat must, be able put themselves back into deep sleep repeatedly at night, without the help of their parents, in order to “sleep through the night” without the help of their parents. Transitioning from the infant Sleep Pattern to the Child Sleep Pattern Babies come into the world wired for the infant pattern of sleep--by that I mean mom holds them, they suck and get drowsy,
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