This book gets a bad rap from the attachment parenting types due to the fact that Dr. Weissbluth suggests using “cry it out” methods for infants under certain circumstances. If the whole CIO thing scares you, that’s fine, but don’t let that deter you from reading this book.

On the macro level, this book is valuable for the chapters spent outlining the developmental stages of infant sleep, and their ties to neurological maturity. This information really helped me understand my infant son’s development in this area, and also helped me learn what he was and was not capable of doing (sleepwise) at his age.

On the more detailed level, I found the book valuable for its suggestions of how to handle sleep and the infant. Advice such as the rule of thumb that young infants should only be up for two hours at a time helped me fine tune my son’s schedule, and he went from being unable to nap to sleeping 4 1/2 hours a day over the course of a few weeks.

Because of the quality information in the book, I was actually able to implement most of Dr. Weissbluth’s suggestions and effect a more positive, healthy sleep schedule for my son without having to use CIO at all. Which, coincidentally, is just what Dr. Weissbluth states in his book: that implementing a sleep-centered schedule for your child focused on adequate rest is the easiest way to AVOID having your child cry when it is time to go to bed.

Highly suggested read.