About one half of the kids I see experience difficulty with sleep at some point in their childhood. Most of these sleep issues occur during infancy, some around first or second grade, others in middle school, and finally after the teen years are underway. The reasons for sleep disturbances vary according to the age of the child. Today, I’ll focus on infants and the tackle older kids in another blog.

The majority of babies are born with erratic sleep cycles. Very few babies come home from the hospital and sleep soundly through the night. So it’s very important to prepare new parents to expect that for the first month of their baby’s life, they’re going to be tired. I encourage them to find a parent, friend, aunt, or other family member who is willing to help them out during that first month so that they catch a few hours of sleep during the day.  A short nap during the day makes a huge difference in a mother’s mood.

Contrary to what most parents believe, most babies need to be trained to sleep. Their natural body rhythms cause them to cat nap, wake up, make noise, and then fall back to sleep…