My son is destined to become obese, anxious, wracked with low
self-esteem and beset with emotional problems. At least this article in
Time -- entitled "How Not to Get Baby to Sleep" -- certainly makes it seem that way.
The
story, based on recent research on sleep patterns in infants and
children, says that kids who develop poor slumber habits at an early
age can expect to encounter health and wellness issues later in life,
including the ones I describe above. Part of the problem is that we
parents apparently do all the wrong things when our little ones can't
fall asleep. Among our top offenses: Picking up the baby when he's
crying, bringing him into the family bed or feeding him in the middle
of the night. The key, apparently, is to teach our kids to self-soothe
and find their own paths back to dreamland.
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