The Pittsburgh Post has a column up with some advice for a mom-to-be with a question about how a baby should sleep - in silence, or with regular household noise? The expert’s take is there’s no wrong answer, it’s a question of household style, but he or she seems to lean towards noise over silence (smart, because how easy is it to maintain a silent environment?).

Some considerations offered:

• If your baby is going to be in daycare, he’ll need to be able to nap while other children make noise.
• If you have another baby, ditto for nighttime sleep.
• If your baby can sleep through noise, you’ll have more freedom in your activities during naptime.
• You could choose a “happy medium” and have the baby sleep in his room with the door closed, but not obsess about having regular activity take place in the rest of the house.

As for me, I’m a white noise fan, ever since that night when I first tried a “womb sounds” CD and my one-week-old miraculously slept for three hours in a row. That particular CD was a little creepy for the rest of the household - the dog seemed disturbed, and the cat started throwing up on my bed nightly - so when it became damaged and started skipping randomly (which nearly gave me a heart attack) I bought a CD of static. That didn’t go over well with my husband; he is pretty indulgent, but paying money for static was not something he could countenance. So I returned the CD and found an AM station that had just the right smooth white noise…until one night, at 3AM when some pirate station exploded into existence and Led Zeppelin’s The Ocean burst onto the airwaves. Loudly. My son practically jolted a foot into the air, and my heart raced for an hour.

So I went back to commercial products and found a good ocean waves CD, which I used for my second baby also. (This took some trial and error, as one CD had annoying seagulls on it, and another started out with a wave crash that was much too jarring, which erupted into the room every hour as the CD looped around, which meant I had to program myself to wake up every hour to catch the loop and lower the volume temporarily…anyway, I found a better CD without the loop-crash or bird issues.)

We stopped using white noise at some natural point - I can’t remember when. But my boys still do sleep better with some buffer - on hot nights when I have the fans running in their room, they tend to rouse less often. Perhaps I “ruined” them and they’ll be making enemies of their college roommates as they insist on running static in their dorm rooms at night. We’ll see. But to a new mom, sleep is so very precious - and stringing a few hours together so miraculous - that I really can’t regret lulling my boys with noise.

Posted by MommaSteph

Vitamin D: A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that many otherwise healthy children and adolescents have low levels of vitamin D, which is vital for bone health. Vitamin D is also important for immune function, and low levels may leave one at risk for cancer and other diseases. Dietary vitamin D is found in fortified milk, but some daily exposure to sunshine is the best way to boost levels.

Smokers to Pay for Kids’ Insurance? Debate is underway in Congress on how to pay for the plan to offer health insurance to the nation’s uninsured children, and it is likely that an additional tobacco tax will be part of the plan to fund the program. Democrats are looking for an additional $50 billion to pay for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program over the next five years. Advocates for tobacco companies call another tax increase unfair, but the American Medical Association argues that higher taxes on cigarettes lead to fewer cancer and heart disease patients, as well as reducing the number of youth smokers.

Napping = Unhealthy? Research presented at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies concludes that for young children, napping may impair healthy night sleep and thus cognitive performance. The researchers measured how well 27 preschoolers could solve puzzles requiring planning and organizational skills. Those who took longer naps performed less well. The nappers also tended to sleep poorly at night and struggled to get up in the mornings.

Hear, hear: Whale Rider actress Keisha Castle-Hughes talks about young motherhood in the New Zealand edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly, and on the public uproar her pregnancy inspired: “Absolutely everyone in the country had something to say about it. I thought, ‘At the end of the day, I am going to be the one looking after this baby in the middle of the night and it doesn’t affect you.’ ”

Please wash: A new study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases finds that few patrons of petting zoos follow simply hygiene procedures to protect themselves and their families from disease. Specifically, on average only 30% of people leaving petting zoos washed their hands, which is concerning because hand-to-mouth transmission is the most likely route of becoming infected with illness from handling animals.

Sleep and academic performance: No big surprise, perhaps, but a new study has found that children with symptoms of sleep disorders tend to receive poorer grades in math, reading and writing than their peers. This study looked at 218 second and third graders who completed a brief sleep screening tool.

More on sleep: Research to be presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies finds that premature infants and toddlers who were preemies are more likely to suffer from a sleep-related breathing disorder, characterized by snoring, that can have long-term effects on cognitive development. However, at the same meeting researchers will present findings that breastfeeding may protect against the disorder, or mitigate its severity.

It’s a girl: Access Hollywood host Nancy O’Dell and her husband welcomed a baby girl, Ashby Grace, yesterday. The little one weighed in at 7 lbs, 9 oz. Ashby is named for Ms. O’Dell’s late grandfather.

Flu Prevention: Hawaii is to become the first state to offer free flu vaccines to all elementary and middle school students. The CDC and Hawaii’s largest insurance provider are financing the $2.5 million campaign. The shots will be voluntary and will require a signed permission slip.

Tired = Fat? Yet another study has found a correlation between lack of adequate sleep and overweight. An Australian team of researchers notes that on average, 10 to 15-year-olds get to bed at 10:15pm, which is 1/2 an hour later than the average bedtime for the same age group in 1985. The researchers believe that sleep deprivation increases appetite by affecting the levels of the hormones leptin and grehlin.

Do you remember that Far Side cartoon where cows are grazing in a field, and one of them says, “Hey, wait a minute! This is grass! We’ve been eating grass!” We had a moment like that in my house last night. I could almost hear the lightbulb go on over my three-year-old’s head. About ten minutes after we had put him down for the night, he suddenly realized that 1. there are no bars around his bed, 2. he is perfectly capable of working the doorknob to his bedroom, and 3. the gate at the top of the staircase is now down, pending repairs. What was to keep him in bed, in his room, or upstairs? Me? I was struggling with his one-year-old brother in my room. Older brother tiptoed into the hall and peeked at me. I told him, firmly, to go back to bed. He mentally calculated that he could probably get downstairs before I could disentangle myself from the toddler, and was off.

If this keeps up, we may be opting for the “free pass” program.

I just read about the pass program in a column over at Slate. (The column starts out, by the way, noting that research suggests that parents of poor-sleeping kids tend to have physical and mental health issues…YA THINK?!) Anyway, here’s how the pass program works: When you put your child down for bed, you give him a pass. He can use it to leave bed for a drink of water, a hug, etc. Once that is accomplished, he turns the pass in for the night. After that, mom and dad must ignore further requests for attention.

This method was tested by researchers out of the University of Nevada and the University of Nebraska. They found 19 normally-developing children, aged three to six, who strongly resisted bedtime. Half of the parents were taught to use the “free pass” system, the other half were left high and dry.

After just four days, the kids in the experimental group showed substantial improvement by crying and calling out less often, making fewer flight attempts, and quieting down much faster. Their parents reported that they were very satisfied with the results - only 7 percent said the strategy made them uncomfortable, and none thought that their child experienced discomfort. Follow-up studies after three months showed sustained gains.

The author of the column cautions that this was a small study. Your results may vary. Mine, too. I’ll let you know.

Posted by MommaSteph.

Caffeine and Pregnancy: The NYT fields a question about a link between caffeine consumption and miscarriage. The lowdown? The risk applies to high caffeine intake - the equivalent of five cups of coffee a day. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, moderate intake - around 1.5 cups of coffee per day - is safe. (Thanks, Jeff, for the link!)

Snoring and Children: New research published in the journal Pediatric Pulmonology finds that infants who are first born, who were exposed to maternal tobacco use in the first year of life, or who had eczema or asthma by age five were more likely to have issues with snoring. This puts snoring, the researchers note, within the spectrum of allergic diseases. While childhood snoring may look and sound similar to adult snoring, it appears to have different causes and implications.

If you could have your own bedroom, would you do it? More and more women (and I bet more and more moms among them) say yes today than at any other time since the Victorian age.

My first thought was, “But…I’m married. Shouldn’t I be sleeping next to my husband?” Then I thought of the constant snoring, the jarringly different sleep schedules we keep (he rolls into bed around 3 - works 2nd shift - and I get up around 7 for the day), etc. and I started to grin, envisioning my own private sanctuary. I could decorate it my way, sleep on a mattress I liked (ours is too soft, but he can’t sleep on anything harder), and have a place to retreat to in those rare quiet moments between toddler cries and “Honey, have you seen my…?”

Separate bedrooms could be especially nice for parents. Think about how great it would be if, when your new baby woke, only one of you had to wake up to tend him, instead of the other partner being jostled awake when you leave and when you return. The co-sleeping, breastfeeding mother could give her husband a full night’s rest while still keeping her baby with her all night long. (Or, the co-sleeping couple could take turns sleeping with the baby, assuming a bottle of expressed milk or formula was available to the father. Just think of all that extra sleep you could get on your night(s) off!)

But what about sex? Wouldn’t it feel rather frigid to not even sleep next to your partner? Not necessarily. One couple’s take:

The Peppers also say separate bedrooms have added spice to their relationship. “It’s more exciting,” Lana Pepper said, “when you can say: ‘Your room or mine?’ ”

I think that could put a lot of the romance back into the physical side of a relationship, which is especially important once kids are in the picture and time together - just the two of you - is at an all-time low. Your DH would actually have to approach you about it, instead of just rolling over in the middle of the night and grunting, “You wanna?” Could be fun!

The article does note that many men are not as keen on the idea as women, and that there’s still a bit of a stigma attached to the idea of a married couple sleeping in separate bedrooms. People may wonder if the relationship is troubled, when really it might be better than it has been in years, because both people are getting the rest they need, in their own personally crafted space.

Ok, now I’m jealous.

Posted by Sunshining.

Anyone who knows me knows that toddler sleep is a subject very near and dear to my heart. Sleep and my daughter have not been the best of friends until the past two months or so, and I feared that it would never change. Now, though, she’s sleeping all night, every night, and napping better during the day - and she goes down without tears or screaming.

What changed? Well, I ended up putting some advice to good use, and a lot of it sounded like the tips in this article. Here they are, with my commentary added, in hopes that these hints might save someone else from wondering if their toddler will ever learn to sleep.

1. Wind down toward bedtime earlier in the evening. It sounds so simple, but toddlers don’t go from 60mph to zero in the span of fifteen minutes. If you can help your kid unwind and get into a quieter, more relaxed mood before you’re ready to put him to bed, chances are that he will be more prepared to go to bed when you do head that way. Our routine starts slowing down around suppertime, followed by a nice, relaxing bath.

2. Pick a routine, and stick to it. Consistency is at least as important as the actual routine itself, in my experience. My toddler knows that after her bath, we will read and eventually brush her teeth, and then she can pet the cat and tell her night-night, etc. I am amazed at how much more readily she accepts bedtime now that she knows exactly what to expect. No more shrieking “No no no!” when I say it’s bedtime - she even asks for “ni-night” sometimes!

3. Be consistent with bedtime - literally! Put your child to bed within a few minutes of the same time every night, and eventually her inner clock will start to associate this time of the day with bedtime and sleep. That’s not easy at first, particularly if your kid has been fighting you ’til 10pm or even later, but in the end, it takes the stress of bedtime down a notch for you, too, because you aren’t playing the “Is she tired enough yet to try it?” game.

4. Make his bed a great place to be. If you have thin walls or noisy neighbors, a lullaby CD playing softly in the background might help set a good atmosphere for sleep, and it blocks out unwanted noisy distractions. Use only a dim nightlight if you feel the need for one, and make sure streetlights (or sunlight, at naptime) aren’t streaming through the curtains. Also, if your toddler is like mine, footie pjs are a lifesaver because that blanket is NOT going to stay put, and the last thing you want to do is enter the room twice a night - or more - to replace a kicked-off blanket.

5. A full tummy helps. We give milk just before bed, but you could offer whatever - though it should be as close to sugar-free as possible, and not too exciting, as the article points out. Otherwise, your toddler has a full tummy and a sugar rush. Whoops. Sending her to bed with a full, happy tummy will scratch off one more potential reason for night wakings.

6. Hold on to naptime. Most kids aren’t ready to stop napping before age 3, and some nap right on up to - and into! - kindergarten. I didn’t believe the “sleep begets sleep” wisdom I’d heard, until my daughter started boycotting naptime. She was so overtired by the time supper rolled around that it was all I could do to keep her awake to eat - but then she shrieked and tossed and turned when I tried to put her to bed. Ugh! By not helping her nap and not forcing the issue, I was shooting myself in the foot. Now she takes at least one nap per day, and actually sleeps better at night because of it.

7. Thumbs up to playtime and the great outdoors. Kids who don’t get enough exercise and fresh air don’t sleep as well as their wild-outside counterparts. Try to take your toddler outside every day (weather permitting), and even if you don’t manage that, incorporate a lot of all-out playtime into their day - running, jumping, dancing, etc. - but don’t wait until the evening, as exercise before bed can make anyone (even us, moms, so beware) too hyped up to sleep.

8. Consider lying down with your toddler until she falls asleep. I don’t personally agree with this, but it does help some children to drift off more easily. The concern I have, which the article addresses, is that if they go down with you beside them and then wake up and you’re not there (if you’re not co-sleeping, anyway), all hell breaks loose. It’s worth a try, though, and what doesn’t work for me might very well be the answer to someone else’s sleep woes.

9. Be prepared for night wakings. Nobody sleeps completely through the night every night, truth be told. Your toddler is going to wake up at some point without you there, and he will probably be more disturbed by this if you were with him (rocking, nursing, whatever) when he fell asleep. Putting your child down awake is a very important step to creating an independent sleeper. We learned that we can still rock our daughter and have cuddle time, but we should stop and put her down before she was completely asleep, because as soon as her sleeping body hit the bed and she realized we weren’t holding her, she’d scream bloody murder and the cycle would begin all over again.

10. Small steps lead to big success. Plan to ease from what you’ve been doing into what you want bedtime to be like for your toddler. One version of this: Begin (after your bedtime routine) by holding your child until he falls asleep — not lying down, which puts you in danger of falling asleep. Use the time to meditate, if you can, or think of something delightful that you can look forward to. The next phase is to touch, but not hold, your child. Then, begin to sit next to your child while he falls asleep, without touching him. Finally, sit further and further away (with a good book and a flashlight if he can handle the light), until you’re outside the bedroom door.

Nobody can hand you a magical cure for bedtime issues. It takes trial and error, and probably a handful of rough nights along the way, but helping your child learn to fall asleep on his or her own is worth the effort. Even after you have a good thing going, don’t be surprised if you have a few random nights that feel as though you’re going one step forward and two steps back. Even good sleepers have off nights.

I never thought I would be in any position to even think of giving sleep advice, but many of the tips above worked for us, and I can’t deny the results. My daughter has been asleep since 8:15, and I didn’t have to rock her to that point, stealthily slide her into bed, sneak away, and then repeat a half-dozen times to get her there. I can’t tell you how good it feels to know that she’s getting the rest she needs, and neither of us stress over bedtime.

Posted by Sunshining.

Perhaps quite a bit.

Researchers out of the University of Virginia have been studying the affect sleep disorders can have on child development and find that disturbed sleep can be as much of a hazard to IQ as lead paint is.

For seven years the researchers have been studying sleep disturbances in children who have enlarged tonsils and adenoids. They have found that of these children, those who snore frequently scored significantly lower on vocabulary tests than those who snored less frequently.

“Vocabulary scores are known to be the best single predictor of a child’s IQ and the strongest predictor of academic success,” explains Dr. Paul M. Suratt, a pulmonologist who directs the UVa Sleep Laboratory.

Children with disturbed sleep do not spend as much time in deep sleep as is necessary for healthy development. These kids tend to snore, snort, gasp, and toss and turn a lot at night. During the day they can be irritable and hyperactive and have trouble concentrating. The amount of total bed time and a child’s race are also risk factors for sleep-related cognitive problems:

“One of our most recent studies found that kids who snore nightly and spend less time in bed score significantly lower on cognitive tests than children who snore less frequently and spend longer times bed,” Dr. Suratt explains. “We’ve also found that obstructive sleep disordered breathing (OSBD) occurs more often in African American children and, therefore, places them at greater risk of cognitive impairment.”

If your child snores or otherwise seems to have trouble getting enough sleep, there’s even more reason to talk to your pediatrician.

Posted by MommaSteph.

Spring forward. Fall back.

Yes, the changing of the clocks came early this year, and we can expect it to last an extra week, with November 4 being the date to change them back.

The reason: To help cut greenhouse gases and help with energy conservation.

I know I am still dragging my butt, and my kids are definitely struggling a bit. So how can we make the transition easier?

The best way is exposure to sunlight. Specifically, morning sunlight. According to Dr. Jose Loredo, the director of the sleep medicine center at the University of CA:

The best way to advance your clock is being exposed to sunlight in the morning. Bright sunlight, not inside but outdoors without sunglasses, for an hour to two hours a day will advance your internal clock by an hour.

Hmm… I would love to have an hour to sit by myself, but since I don’t see this happening any time soon, what else can be done? According to the academy, here are some suggestions:

• Begin to re-jig your sleeping routine a few days before the time change by hitting the sack an hour earlier.
• Re-adjust your mealtime schedule by eating dinner an hour earlier.
• Be careful when operating machinery or driving on the day of the time change.
• Avoid naps, especially close to bedtime.
• Avoid turning to caffeine to wake you up in the morning and alcohol at night to help you sleep.
• Maintain a lighter schedule on the Monday after the time change. Try and minimize driving and avoid strenuous activities.
• Eat properly, drink lots of water and remain physically active.
• Wake your children an hour earlier on the day of the time change and don’t let them sleep in.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz….

Posted by Mally