Dr. Heather’s First Live TV Appearance

Despite awakening at 4 am with bloodshot eyes from an allergy attack (perfect for HDTV, right?) — I was psyched to head down to KITV yesterday morning to talk story with the gang about parenting. So mahalo to Jill Kuramoto for inviting me, and a big aloha to Mahealani Richardson, Moanike’ala Nabarro, and Yasmin Dar more »

“Crying It Out”: Acceptable — or Abuse?

One of the most primitive, innate reactions any mom has is to comfort her crying child. But as we’ve talked about here before, many babies can tolerate — and thrive — with some crying, when their parents thoughtfully decide why and when that might be necessary. That’s why articles like this leave me mystified — more »

BabyGeek: Infant Sleep “Rules” Don’t Work

I’ve been sleep deprived since April 2001, when our oldest was born. Since then, I’ve tried every “trick” in the parenting book. And nothing seems effective at “making” my kids sleep better. They’ve all evolved into being better sleepers over time. That’s why I’m so interested in the line of research discussed in this study. more »

Sleep, Toddlers, and Mental Health (Hopefully, Not Mutually Exclusive)

I’m blogging for mental health today — but not in way you might expect. Mental health isn’t just some esoteric list of psychiatric diagnoses. It starts with simple — but critically important — things. These include the support of loved ones, meaningful work and relationships, and enough resources to have a little fun. On the more »

When Your Toddler Looks Tired — But Won’t Nap

It was 2 pm, and my toddler STILL hadn’t gone down for her nap. Routines were followed, milk was drunk, and the house was quiet (no small feat around here, I assure you). She was rubbing her eyes, complaining — but plowing ahead. Throwing her little arms in the air, she was chanting, “Up! Up!” more »

Her Toddler Quit Sleeping

Reader Allie emailed me a couple of questions about her 15-month-old Jack*. He was an otherwise healthy boy who simply stopped sleeping a few weeks ago. After getting through a nice, regular sleep-time routine — a routine that used to work beautifully — Jack would fuss, play, and scream. Anything to avoid going down to more »

Sweet Sleep Success

It’s hard to believe, but 6 weeks ago I was in agony, being awakened 6 or 7 times a night by a 7-month-old baby who seemed desperate to nurse each and every hour over night. I was at DefCon 7, or 8, or 47, or whatever the highest possible number might be for Maternal Sleep more »

Why Your 9-Month-Old Baby Is So Difficult All Of A Sudden

I had an amazing conversation with one of the world’s foremost infant researchers last week, Dr. Joseph Campos. He’s at Berkeley, where he’s churned out tons of scientifically rigorous studies about the developmental changes in infancy. He’s come up with some transformative ideas about babies, the upshot of one being that crawling causes your baby more »

“Sleep Training” — Some Theoretical Background for Parents

Reader JD was asking me for some specifics on sleep training, and I fought off the urge to give you another list of “How-To’s”. Your baby is much more complicated than a quick “Baby’s Sleep Checklist”, so here are some thoughts to ponder while you are up with your little screamer tonight, courtesy of one more »

How To Cope While Sleep Training Your Baby

We’re doing our own version of Sleep Training around here, since baby #4 has proven to be immensely resistant — and LOUD — in our efforts to help her sleep through even a decent portion of the night. Adorable as she is, she’s the most rotten sleeper I’ve yet produced. Tough Love is in order. more »

The Quotable Parent: Fabulous Fraiberg #6: Why Your Toddler Won’t Sleep

zzzzzz…….Excuse me, I was just dozing off. I haven’t been able to get much sleep over the past, say, 10 years or so (I keep having babies, what can I say) — and the pursuit of sleep, because of unwilling babies and toddlers, has become an obsession for me. Unfortunately, there’s no holy grail, but more »

Dr. Heather’s Pint-Sized Parenting Tip: A Noisy House= A Sleeping Baby?

When our first was born, I was determined to eliminate any possible source of noise inside (and outside) the house in hopes of bettering my baby’s sleep. I neurotically tiptoed around, turned off the phones, waited on chores that made noise, and considered complaining to the County for allowing leaf-blowers in my neighborhood. Guess what? more »

A Toddler Sleep Dilemma Solved

Hi Dr. Heather, I have a sleep question regarding my 11-month-old. Since he was 5 months, he successfully fell asleep in his crib after our nightly routine, and woke 2 or fewer times to nurse. Similarly with naps. We do not use any type of music or white noise when putting him to sleep. We more »

Got a New Baby? How to Survive the Sleep Deprivation

Boy, am I tired. You’d think I’d get used to the lack of sleep by now — this is our fourth child, after all. But the crushing effects of sleep deprivation continue to be the hardest part of parenting, for me. I could change diapers and nurse and even chase toddlers all day long, if more »

More on Potty Training: When Your Preschooler Poops in Her Sleep

Dear Dr. Heather, I have a question for you regarding my daughter, who turned 3 in October. She has been potty trained (pee at least) since August. Here is the problem….she poops in her sleep. She also poops on the potty if she has to go while she is awake. But mostly, she is pooping more »

No More Naptime? What to do When Your Toddler Won’t Nap Anymore

It happens to the best of us. We work so hard to establish nice, regular nap schedules for our babies. Finally, we’ve gotten used to a more predictable nap schedule for our toddler. And boy, do we need it: Running around after a toddler all day is HARD WORK. We need that couple of hours more »

Understanding your baby’s sleep/wake cycle: A recipe for sanity!

Having a new baby throws all semblance of a household schedule into chaos. Your little interloper has demands around the clock, and as YOUR ability to sleep decreases, your feelings of insanity increase! Sleep deprivation is really one of the most difficult parts of being a new parent. You can’t really blame the baby; he’s more »

Did Swine Flu cause Autism in my son?

There’s a lot of confusion out there about illness, the flu, vaccines, medications, and autism. This poor Mom is terrified that her son may have contracted Autism from a bout of Swine Flu. Here’s her email to me: Dear Dr. Heather, Please help. I saw your article on autism, and I am very intrigued and more »

Will my baby ever sleep through the night?

Susanna from I Find Myself a Mother wrote in with some poignant questions about her 7-month-old son, and his persistent LACK OF SLEEP. She read my article on The ABC’s of Baby’s Sleep, which resulted in an interesting back-and-forth with a reader on her site proposing, instead, the Attachment Parenting approach with her son. It more »

Weird Pregnancy Dreams? I Need Yours!

Miriam in Florida emailed me with some fascinating questions about dreams, whether her baby Griffin could be having them at night when he whimpers and cries in his sleep, and about her own dreams, when she was pregnant with him. There’s a great article here if you want to read about infant dreams, and I more »

Next Page »