Sleep problems in young children - experts push no-cry training for babies and bed sharing to get mother and child the rest they need
- After sleepless nights of their own and six years of research, two mothers who founded a Facebook support group for parents have turned their ideas into a book
- The authors promote bed sharing with baby, a controversial practice, to aid sleep by strengthening the mother-child bond and enabling or enhancing breastfeeding
Cradling my five-month-old son Rohit on my lap, I pat him to sleep. My husband, Ram, is reading the newspaper. I dart him cold looks as the paper rustles.
“Can you not turn the pages please?” I whisper. His quizzical look while turning another page annoys me. My eyes point to our son. Without warning, I sneeze. Rohit wakes up crying. Ram and I laugh at the irony.
This decades-old memory came to me as I was reading Sleeping Like A Baby, just published by Penguin.
Journalist Neha Bhatt and specialist in infant and child sleep Himani Dalmia wrote this book to help address sleep problems in children from birth to five years. It is the culmination of six years of research – and sleepless nights with their babies.
Sleep helps children to do better in every aspect of life. “It’s what allows them to grow, explore, play, make connections, build relationships, feel creative and express themselves while making them feel like a joyful part of a colourful world,” they write.