Sleepy-time Stress

Reviewing Sleep Strategies

By Laurie Dove

"(Dr. Ezzo's method) means putting your baby on a schedule," she says. "You feed them every so many hours and start working with them to sleep through the night. Each child is different, but the scheduling helps them and you."

Much like the trainer who could calm troubled horses in Robert Redford's film The Horse Whisperer, Tracy Hogg claims the instinctive ability to soothe any crying baby.

Author of Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate With Your Baby, Hogg is a former nanny for special needs babies. She launched her career as a "baby whisperer" after realizing she had a gift for tuning in to a baby's needs. Now, she is hired by celebrities for weeks at a time, helping parents figure out why their newborn is crying and training the baby to sleep through the night.

Hogg even goes so far as to suggest that a sleep-deprived parent should crawl into a crib with a reluctant child. The goal, Hogg advises, is to teach the baby the crib is a safe place to rest.

Babick, the Chicago mother whose toddler son refused to sleep through the night, decided it was worth a try.

"I saw the 'Baby Whisperer' on some news program, and she mentioned getting into the crib with the baby," Babick says. "I tried it twice. It was ridiculous! I thought I was going to break the crib, and the baby still didn't want to be in there."

Want to see more?

• The Crying Game: Soothing Your Newborn
• Crying Baby, Sleepless Nights: Why Your Baby is Crying and What You Can Do About It
• The First Year: Birth to 3 Months
• Talk about it!