How Harvey Karp Turned Baby Sleep into Big Business
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
With our second, she slept, er, like a baby from day one. At eighteen months she’d say, “night night”, and walk to her bedroom.
There’s a lot of learning on the job, which surely played into our first child’s sleep issues. Having an extended family nearby seems like it could help immensely.
Biggest things for us were learning to anticipate when the baby would be getting tired and wind down before she became overtired. That and a much earlier bedtime than most people seem to do (4:30 - 6:30 depending on naps and wake up time).
Our first, we didn't sleep for like 16 months. It was horrific.
Our second has been great (with a few stretches of waking up (to be expected)). Last week he crawled up the stairs and said "i go sleep" and asked to be put in his crib and laid down and went to sleep immediately. I was just sort of shocked ....
Also take a shot at getting them to bed earlier as maybe he's overtired (overtired baby = not gonna sleep).
But everyone's mileage varies as there is no magic solution.
'Electronically' created white noise is indeed extremely effective to calm down a fussy or crying infant. It also often works instantly, making it certainly a welcome and powerful tool in the arsenal of the sleep deprived parent.
That said, I found its instant effectiveness to be somewhat concerning, as it almost seems to flip a 'brain switch' in your baby - quite different from the longer and more laborious procedure of shushing it to sleep the old fashioned way (which likely works on the same principle, but involves lower volume, more frequency variation and, last but not least, actual parent-infant interaction). Bit of a no free lunch situation.
Driven by concerned temptation, I did some digging, but ultimately couldn't find any large scale studies on the safety of exposure to white noise in human infants - there is one study in the rat model though that suggest delayed auditory cortex development in baby rats that were exposed to white noise 24/7. (http://www.hhmi.org/news/white-noise-delays-auditory-organiz...) - which btw is exactly what sensorimotor contigency theory would predict. (http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/Synthese/MyinFinal.html)
While I don't think the majority of SNOO users will operate the device this way, I would imagine the effectiveness and convenience of the device may mean that there are quite a few babies who will spend a lot of time in the SNOO, approaching long term exposure to white noise.
I am not suggesting that this will cause long term problems to the infant's auditory development as is the case in the animal model, but it is something to be mindful of.
Sure, it provides reactive swaddling and white noise, which is helpful, but it eliminates a few important stimuli for potentially most of the day.
They encourage this to be used for nighttime, but a lot of reviews I have read talk about it's daytime use too. Too much time in this thing isn't good for the baby.
1. It discourages human interaction. If the baby cries, the machine swaddles it. If the baby is awake and idle, the machine will keep it content.
2. It blocks out view of the world. The mesh sides are dense and rise up high enough that a person unfamiliar with the device might be surprised to find a baby lying within. From the baby's POV, all they see is mesh walls, the ceiling, and whatever faces appear above them.
Honestly, replacing those tight mesh sides with something easier to see through would make a huge difference for the quality of this product. Also daytime timers forcing parents away from using it as a day nurse as well as a night nurse.
I think one of the most unfortunate parts about parenting is that you don't want to give a baby the amount of attention it requests, but that babies really do need that level of human attention in their most formative years.
Infants can't even significantly move their necks, let alone see color for several months. Once they can roll over competently without the risk of SIDS, that's when you move them from the bassinet to a crib. The whole point of the bassinet is to prevent them from moving around.
When people are using this during the day, it's usually just so they can take a quick shower or something without worrying about the baby. Having a mobile over the bassinet should be more than enough sensory stimulation for the 20 min or whatever.
There is an interesting digression to be had about amblyopia and the difference between optic nerve presence and use here if you are into talking about it.
You could stick to opining on subjects that you know something about.
This sounds like an advertisement but it’s not. I just plan on using it someday because of the great success my friends have had.
> The diabolical genius of the baby advice industry
>Every baffled new parent goes searching for answers in baby manuals. But what they really offer is the reassuring fantasy that life’s most difficult questions have one right answer
Even SNOO's own marketing material suggests waking your baby to feed in the middle of the night.
Or, when you state any stereotypical “knowledge” you’ve discerned from reading online comments as a fact.
The US does have a swaddling tradition, but it's a different kind of swaddling than other countries. We've swaddled kids to put them to sleep for decades if not centuries, but we don't hang up our kids on the wall so that we can work the fields or whatever.
Tightly wrapped, physically sensing a guarding presence. Who wouldn't sleep well.
I'd like to add: Genetics isn't as easy as we software people think.
I have definitely heard about the sibling thing as well from families I know, but in the opposite direction. First kid is very chill and easy going, parents think they are perfect parents. Second kid is fussy and more difficult and parents realize they weren’t necessarily natural experts at parenting.