Best conditions for baby sleep

Learn about: Best conditions for baby sleep from Jill Spivack, LCSW,...
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Best conditions for baby sleep

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So when you're thinking about whether to have your baby around noise or to keep it very quiet in the environment, I think there's a couple things to consider. When a baby is a newborn, they're coming out of the womb being day-night reversed. And so we need to keep them around noise and light for the first three months or so during the day and so they know it's daytime, I'm supposed to be awake more often than at night when we whisper and feed them in semi-darkness and change their diapers so that we can reverse that day-night problem. Once we've reversed the day-night problem and your child is much more alert, around 3 - 4 months old, and curious and distractable, that's when we suggest that you have a nice, dark sleep environment, unless they're in the car sleeping or on the go, and that you use, if you need, a little white noise to prevent big sister screaming down the hallway or Rover barking at the mailman, or whatever it is; that you use that white noise at a low level to prevent your child from waking when they're very alert and engaged.

Learn about: Best conditions for baby sleep from Jill Spivack, LCSW,...

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Jill Spivack, LCSW

Sleep Expert

Jill Spivack, LCSW, completed her graduate studies at the University of Southern California. She developed an expertise in parenting while working as a psychotherapist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Early Childhood Department. Jill, a mother of two children, went on to develop a sub-specialty in pediatric sleep disorders while working in New York City at a parenting center after experiencing sleep problems with her first child. In 1999, upon returning to Los Angeles, Jill co-founded the pediatric sleep firm Childsleep.

Recognizing that today's parents were lacking the essential support, education, and sense of community they sought to do their best, Jill was inspired to co-found Sleepy Planet.  Offering a wide variety of services, Sleepy Planet helps parents of babies, toddlers, and young children with behavioral sleep problems through private consultations, and provides parent education, psychotherapy, and professional presentations on a wide variety of topics, including the transition to parenthood, child development and behavior, sibling rivalry, marital issues, and how to balance work and family. In addition, Jill holds weekly groups for new and second-time mothers to allow parents to share experiences and emotions, ask questions, and support one another through the journey of parenthood. 

Jill is also the co-creator of The Sleepeasy Solution, a book and DVD that show parents how to break difficult sleep habits without breaking their hearts in the process.  She has been featured in a variety of media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, The Los Angeles Times, Parenting, Variety and has appeared numerous times on The Today Show. She is also a co-consultant for Pajanimals, a new television project with the Jim Henson Company airing on PBS Kids Sproutthat features four adorable puppets who model for preschoolers, the skills they need to manage the various emotions and issues that they confront in early childhood. 

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