At six weeks of age (46 weeks from conception) the brain matures in a very predictable fashion. Weissbluth explained there are three components of facilitating self-soothing putting your baby down when they are drowsy but awake, getting other people involved in baby care (“many hands on”), and offering many naps throughout the day.

On the other side of the spectrum, for babies who are less fussy and who cry less can start learning self-soothing skills right from the start, at birth.ĭr. For all fussy babies, it is helpful to start working towards self-soothing skills at six weeks of age (from the due date). Other babies might get more (unnecessary) attention at night, which disrupts their sleep. For example, if a baby cries more, they will have a harder time with self-soothing. Understanding this infant characteristic may help guide parents on their soothing strategies. Some babies naturally seem to cry more than others. The good news is that parents can prevent this and the not as good news is that parents can also contribute to this. Weissbluth says sleep deprivation is “painful and sad”. Weissbluth’s book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” was published in December 2015.ĭr. The information about new research updates our knowledge even since the fourth edition of Dr. Weissbluth’s discussion with our audience, which ranged in age from two months to eighty-two years old, included age-old advice about sleep for the entire family, as well as new research. The common state of “subjective blindness”, or the failure to appreciate our own sleep deprivation, interferes with noticing overtired signs in our children. Weissbluth reported that the more tired you are, the harder it is to fix a difficult situation. After a discussion of how many uncomfortable physical and emotional symptoms result from being overtired, Dr. Marc Weissbluth’s first question to the audience at the Northwestern Children’s Practice’s evening discussion was, “ How many of you have ever been or are currently sleep deprived?' Not surprisingly, everyone's hands went up.

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