Night-time wakings in your baby? Thinking about "crying it out"? Trying the Ferber method? Think again! ...Dr. Rotenberg
Coddle or let the kid cry? New research awakens the sleep-training debate !
There is perhaps no parenting decision that tugs on the heartstrings as strongly as whether to let a baby cry him- or herself to sleep.
At one end of the spectrum are parents who use some form of “cry-it-out” method to teach their baby to sleep through the night. The method is characterized by periods of letting a baby cry – from a few minutes to more than an hour – without picking him or her up. At the other end are the “no-cry” types who consider letting a baby cry for any length of time to be cruel and unusual punishment.
“ "I don’t want to diss sleep-training programs per se, but the way we construed emotional availability is that an emotionally available parent is not a parent who is going to abandon a child at night and let the child cry it out.””
Stuck in the middle are a lot of exhausted parents hoping to make the right choice – especially since sleep deprivation in infants has been linked to behavioural and cognitive problems, not to mention its effects on mom and dad.
New research on infant sleep appears to deal a blow to those in the cry-it-out camp. Penn State researcher Douglas Teti examined the role of emotional availability on infant sleep and found that regardless of a family’s night-time routine, infants with parents who were responsive and warm had fewer night wakings and an easier time drifting off. In his study, which involved infrared cameras placed in families’ bedrooms and nurseries, a lapse of more than a minute resulted in a lower emotional availability score.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/coddle-or-let-the-kid-cry-new-research-awakens-the-sleep-training-debate/article1674049/
Link to the abstract ...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20545404
J Fam Psychol. 2010 Jun;24(3):307-15.
Maternal emotional availability at bedtime predicts infant sleep quality.
Teti DM, Kim BR, Mayer G, Countermine M.
Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, S-211 Henderson Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA. dmt16@psu.edu
Abstract
In the present study, linkages were examined between parental behaviors (maternal practices) at bedtime, emotional availability of mothering at bedtime, and infant sleep quality in a cross-sectional sample of families with infants between 1 and 24 months of age. Observations of maternal behaviors and maternal emotional availability were conducted independently by 2 sets of trained observers who were blind to data being coded by the other. With infant age statistically controlled, specific maternal behaviors at bedtime were unrelated to infant sleep disruptions at bedtime and during the night. By contrast, emotional availability of mothering at bedtime was significantly and inversely related to infant sleep disruption, and, although these links were stronger for younger infants, they were significant for older infants as well. Maternal emotional availability was also inversely linked with mothers' ratings of whether their infants had sleep difficulties. These findings demonstrate that parents' emotional availability at bedtimes may be as important, if not more important, than bedtime practices in predicting infant sleep quality. Results support the theoretical premise that parents' emotional availability to children in sleep contexts promotes feelings of safety and security and, as a result, better-regulated child sleep.
PMID: 20545404 [PubMed - in process]
Coddle or let the kid cry? New research awakens the sleep-training debate !
There is perhaps no parenting decision that tugs on the heartstrings as strongly as whether to let a baby cry him- or herself to sleep.
At one end of the spectrum are parents who use some form of “cry-it-out” method to teach their baby to sleep through the night. The method is characterized by periods of letting a baby cry – from a few minutes to more than an hour – without picking him or her up. At the other end are the “no-cry” types who consider letting a baby cry for any length of time to be cruel and unusual punishment.
“ "I don’t want to diss sleep-training programs per se, but the way we construed emotional availability is that an emotionally available parent is not a parent who is going to abandon a child at night and let the child cry it out.””
Stuck in the middle are a lot of exhausted parents hoping to make the right choice – especially since sleep deprivation in infants has been linked to behavioural and cognitive problems, not to mention its effects on mom and dad.
New research on infant sleep appears to deal a blow to those in the cry-it-out camp. Penn State researcher Douglas Teti examined the role of emotional availability on infant sleep and found that regardless of a family’s night-time routine, infants with parents who were responsive and warm had fewer night wakings and an easier time drifting off. In his study, which involved infrared cameras placed in families’ bedrooms and nurseries, a lapse of more than a minute resulted in a lower emotional availability score.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/coddle-or-let-the-kid-cry-new-research-awakens-the-sleep-training-debate/article1674049/
Link to the abstract ...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20545404
J Fam Psychol. 2010 Jun;24(3):307-15.
Maternal emotional availability at bedtime predicts infant sleep quality.
Teti DM, Kim BR, Mayer G, Countermine M.
Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, S-211 Henderson Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA. dmt16@psu.edu
Abstract
In the present study, linkages were examined between parental behaviors (maternal practices) at bedtime, emotional availability of mothering at bedtime, and infant sleep quality in a cross-sectional sample of families with infants between 1 and 24 months of age. Observations of maternal behaviors and maternal emotional availability were conducted independently by 2 sets of trained observers who were blind to data being coded by the other. With infant age statistically controlled, specific maternal behaviors at bedtime were unrelated to infant sleep disruptions at bedtime and during the night. By contrast, emotional availability of mothering at bedtime was significantly and inversely related to infant sleep disruption, and, although these links were stronger for younger infants, they were significant for older infants as well. Maternal emotional availability was also inversely linked with mothers' ratings of whether their infants had sleep difficulties. These findings demonstrate that parents' emotional availability at bedtimes may be as important, if not more important, than bedtime practices in predicting infant sleep quality. Results support the theoretical premise that parents' emotional availability to children in sleep contexts promotes feelings of safety and security and, as a result, better-regulated child sleep.
PMID: 20545404 [PubMed - in process]
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