When your baby doesn't sleep like one...here are practical tips for living with newborns, dealing with colic, having a family bed, early riser tactics, helping alley fears, creating toddler bedtime rituals that work and more.

No one technique will work for every child (unfortunately!). To find the combination of comforts, or that one tip that will work for YOUR child, means trying many. Here you will find a wonderful selection of choices that are appropriate at various ages and stages that should work for your child. Bedtime, naptime, bad dreams, colic, crying or that inevitable "I want a glass of water" bugaboo are all discussed here.

This is the best of what has worked for parents and providers, combined with the advice of today's pediatric experts.

excerpted from the book:

PREVENTING BAD DREAMS

• Make a Dream Jar and decorate it appropriately. With your child, think of every lovely dream one could have. Write each one on a slip of paper and take one out of the jar everynight at bedtime.

• Spray a bit of cologne on your child's pillow to induce "sweet dreams."

• Keep a wind-up toy radio or music box next to the bed for a child to use if awoken by a bad dream.

• Give your child a pleasant image to concentrate on while falling asleep—a white bunny hopping through the snow, for example.

• Let your child be in Super Hero pajamas for a feeling of extra security.

                                  ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

When my daughter has a bad dream, I usually rock her and try to get
her to tell me about it. When she is ready to go back to bed, I turn
her pillow over because the bad dream is on 'that side.' This little
thing seems to help her get back to sleep more easily.
—Susan Cooper, Frankin, MA

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••