Is Weissbluth worth reading?

Angela814 · July 2011

Or is he straight CIO?

Right now I have "Sleepless in America", the new addition of Ferber, and the NCSS on hold from the library. I know Weissbluth advocates CIO, but does his book provide any good information about sleep in general. I'm wondering if I should also check out his book or if it's not worth the bother.

kcisthebombdotcom · July 2011

I bought it on a recommendation before I even knew the book was about elimination method CIO, but yeah I was lost by the time he was telling a story of a patient who he recommended CIO to their 8 week old baby. Not for me.

I think there are plenty of other no-cry sleep books that you can get helpful sleep info from.

LouiseB2001 · July 2011

Nope, it made me feel like a bad mother. I just wanted to put it in the blender.

Steph_NJ · July 2011

LouiseB2001:
Nope, it made me feel like a bad mother. I just wanted to put it in the blender.

This, exactly!! He kept saying how important it is for babies to sleep a lot (they'll never sleep well, won't learn well in school, etc) but never offered any advice on how to get your baby to sleep other than CIO, which we won't do. Didn't offer me any solutions, just stress.

cndmexbaby · July 2011

When I first opened it, I was disgusted to read that he said to let your baby cry as long as it takes in the middle of the night.

BUT I did read other parts and actually learned a lot. The early bedtime thing is talked about in all the books and I didn't know that was disagreed with here. But we moved her bedtime up before I read the book.

The thing I learned that has helped is biological naps. For the last two days I followed the 9am biological morning nap and the 1-2pm afternoon biological nap and it has been working like a charm. She took her longest nap ever this afternoon.

He also thinks it is natural and beautiful (I think he used the word beautiful) to nurse your baby to sleep and that it doesn't necessarily cause sleep problems. I learned some other good things too but can't remember off the top of my head. However, the CIO parts sucked.

pixieprincss · July 2011

I thought it was worth a read, but I usually enjoy reading books I disagree with to

1) to help me refine my opinion on why we do things the way we do. Several times, I wanted to throw the book across the room and it made me very mad and/or sad but most importantly, it made me feel great about the choices we make for LO.

2) to understand what my friends who make different choices are going through. Usually I just listen politely and quietly, but I still like knowing the different theories to speak intelligently about them when it is appropriate to share differing views. It is always so irritating to me when people bash Babywise and it is clear they've never read it or when people bash AP and it clear they only know extreme examples from the media. Speaking out of hype rather than knowledge just shuts down conversaions. Haing read many books, when I do speak up and share why we do things the way we do, I can articulate both sides of the theory and then explain why we've picked what we do.

All of that fluff aside, LOL--in terms of solving an acute sleep issue, and in the midst of being a busy, tired mom--I'd probably just go to No Cry Sleep Solution.

LucyPevensie · July 2011

I thought it was horribly boring - and - it sucked. The super early bedtime thing had me SO freaked out for a long while - as both DH and I work later than most folks and some nights aren't home until 7 or later (I don't go in until 1-ish and only work 4 days a week so am lucky in that regard.) But a 6pm bedtime? There was NO WAY that was ever going to work.

Then - at some point - I realized he was full of shiit and my kid can go to bed later and get up later - and it's totally, totally FINE. And whatever works for you and your family is totally fine. And his boring book was crap. And we never did CIO - and - we still cosleep. Works great for us. My kid got up at 10am today.

hst · July 2011

It's extremely disorganized and hard to follow. I bought it on recommendation, had no idea what to expect, it made me panic that I wouldn't remember all of the terribly important information. Then I realized it was just one contradiction after another. However I didn't take from it that you should CIO, mostly that all babies are different, but NEED sleep.

It really is not well written, and it's too long.

webMistress0609 · July 2011

cndmexbaby:
BUT I did read other parts and actually learned a lot. The early bedtime thing is talked about in all the books and I didn't know that was disagreed with here. But we moved her bedtime up before I read the book.

I don't think it's an anti-early bedtime thing, it's just that pp were stating that doesn't work for their LO or their family. Ari is one of those kids who needs an early bedtime, and gets up by 7:00 at the latest no matter what. Some LOs aren't like that, so I think the pp were more anti - one size fits all advice.

cndmexbaby · July 2011

webMistress0609:
cndmexbaby:
BUT I did read other parts and actually learned a lot. The early bedtime thing is talked about in all the books and I didn't know that was disagreed with here. But we moved her bedtime up before I read the book.

I don't think it's an anti-early bedtime thing, it's just that pp were stating that doesn't work for their LO or their family. Ari is one of those kids who needs an early bedtime, and gets up by 7:00 at the latest no matter what. Some LOs aren't like that, so I think the pp were more anti - one size fits all advice.

Well I think that it is pretty safe to say that most babies need an early bedtime. Research backs that up a lot. I don't think authors need to say "some exceptions" every time they make a point. I think it is common sense. Plus a late bedtime might work for a baby but once they start school - no way. I can say as a teacher that the kids who went to bed late always had problems. There is a lot of research about that too. So I don't think it is anything to criticize, just know that it is working right now but he is right in encouraging an early bedtime.

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