The Sleep Sense Show

If you're raising kids with a partner, it's a pretty safe bet that there's going to be the occasional argument between the two of you, and sometimes, like it or not, they happen in front of the kids. We tend to beat ourselves up when we argue in front of our kids, but the truth is they can learn some important lessons from seeing their parents argue, so long as it's done in a productive and respectful way. In today's show, I've got some suggestions to help you maintain civility and regard for your partner when you argue, and keep you mindful of the example you're setting for your little ones when it happens in front of them.

It's a very rare child who's willing to eat anything you put in front of them. Most kids crave sweets and white carbs, and occasionally protein in the form of chicken nuggets or fish sticks. Not exactly foods your pediatrician would call, "healthy." Getting young children to eat their vegetables can result in some frustrating battles, but you can't just feed them their favorite foods all the time. So what's a parent to do? In today's episode, I have some tips to help you ease the tensions around dinnertime, encourage your kids to try new foods, and a few suggestions for how to prepare nutritious options so your kids will actually enjoy them.

Every mother knows that raising kids is a full time job. Not "full time" in the business sense of 9-5, Monday to Friday, but full time in the literal sense. You never clock out, you never get a vacation, and you never retire. Which is a big part of the reason those of us who choose to pursue a career on top of being moms can often find ourselves feeling overwhelmed by feeling of guilt and inadequacy. My guest on today's show, Jessica Turner, author of the bestselling book, The Fringe Hours and founder of the popular lifestyle blog, The Mom Creative, has a new book on the way. Stretched Too Thin is a compassionate, encouraging guide to help moms lose the guilt, ease their stress, and embrace their roles as working mothers. You can find Jessica's blog on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and per-order her new book here.

As many of you will probably know if you've listened to my podcast before, my first child started off as a terrible sleeper.  And like any parent in my position, I did a ton of research to try and figure out what the problem was. For some reason, no matter how many people I heard talking about the importance of bedtime routines, I always dismissed them as being inconsequential. But I'm a firm believer now, and today I'll be discussing why bedtime routines are so important for getting your baby sleeping through the night, and what you can do to improve your little one's routine to ensure they're primed and ready for a long, restful snooze.

Audrey Hepburn once said, “The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it's all that matters.”  That's great advice, but it's a little sparse on the "how-to" side. We would all love to be happy, but it's not always easy, especially when you're shouldering the responsibilities of a parent. Which is why I'm so excited to be speaking with my guest on the show today. K.J. Dell'Antonia is the author of How to Be a Happier Parent. A practical, thoroughly researched guide to bringing more joy into our everyday lives, not by doing more (please, no) but by doing things differently. This mother of four and former editor of The New York Times’ Motherlode blog has some straightforward, effective advice for finding the joy in the otherwise chaotic experience of raising a family. Her book, How to Be a Happier Parent, is available from Penguin Random House Publishing or wherever you find great books.

As much as kids look forward to summer vacation, I have a feeling that parents look forward to school starting again even more. (Even though we may not be allowed to show it quite so openly.) But back-to-school can bring along one substantial challenge for both parents and their kids. During those two months of vacation, we tend to get pretty lenient about bedtime, and when kids suddenly start working on a schedule again, their sleep can get thrown wildly off track. In today's episode, I'll discuss why early bedtimes are so vital to your child's health and success during the school year, as well as some tips to help get them back on schedule before school starts, so they can face that first day well-rested and ready to learn.

As parents, the idea that our kids don't like to be apart from us is not just understandable, the feeling is full-on mutual. The bond between us and our children cannot be overstated. As they get older, some kids naturally start to explore their emerging independence with enthusiasm. Others, not so much. So when it comes time for the first day of pre-school, daycare, or even an afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's house, many kids will resist with an intensity that can be downright heartbreaking for both them and their parents. Today, I've got some tips to help you reassure your child that your leaving isn't permanent, ease their anxiety around new people, and help them approach unfamiliar situations with excitement and enthusiasm.

When your baby cries in the night, it usually means they want something in order to help them get back to sleep. Whether it's because they're too hot, too cold, have a wet diaper, or for some other reason can be difficult to tell. For most parents, the first thing they try is a feed. Babies love to eat and it's the most common reason for newborns and infants to wake up in the night. Of course, that's not always the solution, and feeding your baby to sleep every time they wake up can cause an association that will leave them unable to fall asleep unless they're offered a nighttime snack. In today's episode, I'll help you spot the telltale signs of hunger and give you some tips for getting baby back to sleep on those occasions when they're just looking for comfort instead of food.

Sooner or later, your toddler is going to outgrow their crib, and while the switch to a big-kid bed is an exciting milestone, it usually brings on some challenges. Toddlers tend to test their boundaries when they experience the newfound freedom of a regular bed, and you can typically expect a few late-night visits, sleep regressions, and early morning wake ups while they're getting used to their new sleeping arrangements. Today, I have some suggestions that will help you decide on the right time to make the switch, as well as some common mistakes parents make when we're preparing our little ones for the transition.

Starting your baby on solid foods is a fun and exciting milestone, and one you should definitely have your camera ready for! But like everything in parenting, there is a lot of uncertainty about when and how to get started. In today's episode, I'll be talking a little bit about how to recognize when your baby is ready to start eating solid food, and a whole lot about how to go about it. Having struggled with my own son's finicky eating habits, I've learned from experience (as well as a few expert nutritionists) about the relationship that babies and toddlers form with food. So today I have some great tips to help you start them off on the right foot, encourage them to try new, healthy foods, and eliminate the battles over when and what they eat.

I think we can all agree that no sound on this earth is more distressing to a parent than that of their crying baby. And in their early years, nothing prompts a meltdown from your little one quite like the sight of you leaving the room. Separation anxiety is so common among babies that you would probably be more likely to worry if your little one didn't cry a little when you left them alone. The truth is, teaching your baby to trust in your inevitable return when you leave the room is probably harder on you, the parent, than it is on your baby. So today, I'm going to help you understand what's going on in your little one's head when they see you walking out the door at bedtime, or leave them with their Grandma for an afternoon, as well as a few tips to help ease the stress on both of you as you progress through this stage.

As parents, we all strive to do the best we can when it comes to raising our kids. But actions taken with the best intentions can have negative effects, and we may not realize the impact they have until the damage is already done. Today, I'm going to talk a bit about some of the more unhelpful behaviors I've observed in my time as a sleep consultant (as well as some of my own!) and talk a bit about why we're likely to engage in them, why they're not doing what they're intended to do, and what we can use in their place to be the best parents we can be.

I can't tell you how many times I've spoken with parents who were desperate to get their child sleeping through the night, but when it came to actually getting started, they felt like it "just wasn't the right time." Don't get me wrong, they had good reasons for saying so. Baby was teething, baby was just getting over an illness, baby was about to switch to a big-kid bed, and so on. The truth is, there are some situations where I think it's best to put off sleep training for a brief period, but waiting for the "perfect" moment is going to leave you and your little ones exhausted for a long time to come.  

There's a commonly held belief among the devotees of attachment parenting that sleep training isn't compatible with their parenting style. That's not surprising, since one of the founders of the attachment parenting movement, Dr. Bill Sears, amended the core principles of his system to include "Beware of baby trainers." But having worked with parents who subscribe to this approach, I have found that there's plenty of room for compromise. You can stick to every fundamental rule of the attachment parenting model and still teach your baby the skills they need to sleep through the night.  

Tell me if this sounds familiar... You've put baby to bed, they seem to be sleeping peacefully, but when you open the door a crack to check on them, they've pushed themselves into a corner of their crib into what appears to be the most uncomfortable sleeping position imaginable. If your baby doesn't sleep well, or has trouble getting back to sleep after they've woken up, this presents a serious dilemma. Do you go in, try to readjust them, and risk them waking up? Do you leave them in that uncomfortable-looking position and hope that they'll figure it out on their own? It sounds a little trivial, but for anyone who's faced this situation before, you know that it's actually a pretty concerning predicament, and I've got some tips to help you through it in today's episode.

Ben Franklin once said that the only guarantees in life were death and taxes. I think that must have been before he had kids, because he forgot to mention parenting advice. Information comes at you fast and plentifully after your first baby arrives, and although it's always given with the best intentions, some of it is, to be blunt, incorrect. In today's episode of The Sleep Sense Show, I'm looking at five of the most common myths surrounding your baby's sleep. I can't say for sure where they come from, but I can point out the flaws in their reasoning and give you the facts about some of these common misconceptions.

A lot of people new mothers (and old mothers alike) think that breastfeeding and sleeping through the night are mutually exclusive. For all of you breastfeeding mothers out there, I'm happy to report that this is simply not the case. While it's true that breast milk is digested faster than formula, breastfed babies are still capable of sleeping for more than a few hours at a time, and past the six-month mark, they're just as capable of sleeping through the night as their formula-fed counterparts. I'll explain why and give you some hints to help your get little one sleeping soundly and avoid developing a feed/sleep dependency on today's episode.

Don't you just love that blissful moment in the late morning or early afternoon when you put your baby down for their nap? Watching them drift into a restful, rejuvenating daytime sleep is one of the most maternal sensations I know. Which makes it so much more aggravating when they wake up 20 minutes later and refuse to go back to sleep. Then they're cranky for the rest of the day, overtired at bedtime, and the next 24 hours leave you pulling your hair out in frustration. Sound familiar? Don't worry. On today's episode of The Sleep Sense Show, I have 4 easy-to-implement strategies for extending the length of your baby's daytime sleep, and I'll explain why a solid nap during the day can be the most important factor in getting your little one sleeping through the night. What are you waiting for? Nap time is fast approaching and you can start using these methods as of right now!

Toddlers are very curious creatures, as I'm sure anyone who has one already knows, and they are constantly testing to see where the boundaries lie regarding their behavior. Although it may not seem like it, toddlers absolutely crave structure and rules. They test the limits all the time, but they don't actually want to see anything change. But those tests are often accompanied by tears, shrieking, and meltdowns. So how can you enforce the rules while avoiding the temper tantrums? Well, not to sound like an internet ad, but I have one simple trick that, although it may not "solve" your toddler's outbursts when they don't get their way, will certainly help to minimize them. You can hear all about it in this week's episode of "The Sleep Sense Show."

I'm super excited today to have Dr. Keira Barr on the show to tell us all about the role sleep plays in the health and well-being of our skin. As you probably already know, our skin is our largest organ, but you may be surprised at the information it provides into our overall health. You may also be interested (I know I was!) to learn how sleep and our skin are interconnected, and how the benefits of a good night's sleep can show up in a very real and noticeable way, all over your body. You can find Dr. Barr's website at www.chooseresilience.com and you can pick up a copy of her book, The Skin Whisperer: A Dermatologist Reveals How to Look Younger, Radiate Beauty and Live the Life You Crave on Amazon.