There's been a lot of "noise" about whether white noise machines cause changes in the brain that lead to communication/language delays and learning disabilities. Let's break down what we know, and what we don't know.
What is Normal Infant Sleep from an Anthropological Perspective
If you want to geek out on infant sleep, or simply need a boost of confidence that how you are responding to your baby is reasonable, it may be worth the watch. (It's 40 minutes but even the first 10 minutes is a great encouragement for those of you wondering why it feels like you are "doing something wrong" with your baby's sleep even if you are trying to do everything "right").
Do I need to sleep train my baby to prevent mental health problems?
Recent research by Dr. Isabel Morales-Munoz and colleagues looked at a link between poor infant sleep and the development of certain mental health disorders in adolescence. It has online parent boards a-buzz with assumptions that this means sleep training is good for our babies to protect them against mental illness.
Let’s take a closer look at the research and see:
What does the research actually show?
What doesn’t it show?
What does that mean for parents of “poor sleepers” who are worried? and, the key question I want to answer today:
DOES THIS MEAN YOU SHOULD SLEEP TRAIN YOUR BABY?