Infant Sleep–Have You Slept Lately?

Few aspects of my 25 years in pediatric practice have been as gratifying as time spent teaching parents of 2-month-olds the principles of sleep. Exhausted parents who think 5 hours of sleep is close to “all night” are delighted to learn that, with little effort or mental anguish, they can teach their babies to sleep for 9 to 12 hours, uninterrupted, by 4 to 5 months of age.

This method evolved from interest and need. I first read Richard Ferber's then-new book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problem in 1984, a few years after starting practice but before I had children. His method of allowing infants to cry for progressively longer periods over successive nights was quite effective but was criticized by some for …