Holistic Sleep Coaching: Gentle Alternatives to Sleep Training for Health and Childcare Professionals

Infants are probably sleeping no differently now than they were 1000 years ago. However, parenting has changed. We are dealing with the paradox of parenting information overload, coupled with time-poverty. Parents know more than ever about the importance of love, attachment and security to young children. They may know about good nutrition, stress management, toxins, skin to skin, breastfeeding, one-to-one time, emotion coaching and organic food. Parents are bombarded with appliances that are supposed to make their lives easier, and yet end up confused about what is really necessary. At the same time, modern parents are leading busy, expensive lives, and have jobs that they love or need. And within all this, their babies are still sleeping the same as they always have. Some sleep experts are quick to suggest quick fixes to lengthen infant sleep, but there is growing concern that techniques such as extinction may have negative outcomes for infants as well as being stressful for parents. Holistic sleep coaching is a multi-dimensional approach that looks at the big picture and recognises that babies’ needs are not just physical but psychological, emotional and relational. Holistic Sleep Coaching provides an evidence-based overview of how to optimise sleep without leaving babies and children to cry for health and child care professionals. Praise for Holistic Sleep Coaching "Lyndsey Hookway’s Holistic Sleep Coaching is the book parent-child health professionals have been waiting for regarding infants’, children’s, and parents’ sleep! The comprehensive content is comprised of an exhaustive review of the sleep literature, but it is written in a reader-friendly discussion format. (References are cited in text with the complete reference list in APA alphabetical style at the…