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Valuable information but hard to get through I bought this book while pregnant and read much of it during my now 10-month-old son's first months. I found it to be terribly difficult to wade through largely because the writing style is weak. I sense that Dr. Weissbluth, in his more recent edition, took the advice to "clarify his style" (based on critiques) to mean that he should boldface certain suggestions and make lists of bullet points. However, it's not boldface and lists that make things easier to follow, but the actual writing. I'm afraid this book would only be easy to follow if it were rewritten by someone else. He is clearly a bright man with a scientific mind, but his writing style is not well organized and consequently, the book is unnecessarily hard to get through. It is much easier to follow the less informative book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley, who actually is an author first and foremost but is not a scientist. Weissbluth has the mind of a scientist who probably pulled "C"s in writing classes. His style might not bother some, but if you're looking to skim through and quickly grasp what he's saying, you're in for a disappointment. That said, much of the information contained in the book is incredibly useful. I have bought and read several other sleep books, and this one is more scientific and gives more concrete information than the others. For instance, it breaks down babies' bio-rhythms for different ages. If you have a 10-month-old, like I do, you can determine not only the best duration and number of naps, but the actual times the naps should occur. It's terrific advice, because (especially for those with younger babies), you will find as baby ages that they get more "into" their playtime and less likely to show signs of fatigue. Thus if you know around when they should nap and what's appropriate for their age range, you can be sure and start to calm them down and get them to try and nap around the appropriate times. Many of the readers in other reviews have found this book advocates a "cry it out" approach, which many parents, including me, find hard to stomach. However, I don't agree this book is a "cry it out" book. On the contrary, I think this book suggests several possible approaches and doesn't advocate any one approach except in circumstance with extremely colicky and post-colicky babies. In cases where nothing else is working, Dr. Weissbluth says cry-it-out or "extinction" is the best way. Part of the problem is that the book's writing style is unclear, so it's really hard to discern exactly what the author's approach is. A very important element of the book is that it claims many babies will continue to wake through the night until the age of nine months, and that none of the advice given really is intended for babies of under four months. For those babies younger than four months, the book explains likely patterns and colicky behavior but does not suggest crying it out. Now that my baby is ten months, I find the book terrifically helpful reference. If the baby misses a nap, for instance, I reference the book to see that you then keep the baby up a little longer so they make their next nap, starting that nap earlier, or take a little earlier bedtime. Whenever I have followed the book's schedule advice, it has worked (except during times of illness). One final note on the writing style. In addition to the book's long, redundant sentences with dangling modifiers, unclear verbs and so on, there is a tendency to call children by nasty names. "Brat", "brattiness", "spoiled" - all of these are words which I find to be absolutely abhorrent in connection with babies. The use of these terms to me connotes a fundamental disrespect for children which I cannot tolerate. There are several techniques which I also find abhorrent - one comes to mind where Weissbluth recommends putting a timer (literally) under your baby's pillow and setting it every time you go in the room to comfort the child so that it goes off to let you and them know when it's time to go. Please, even a child knows when he's being put "on the clock". If my husband, another relative or friend did that to me I'd think it was terribly disrespectful. What about simply telling the child you're going back to bed instead of relying on a ticking clock to do your job? This and the use of the mean-spirited words gives me the sense that Weissbluth is a little cold-hearted in his view of children. I don't like the idea of basing decisions about child-rearing on parental convenience (though of course parents have needs too, and as Dr. Spock said years ago, "Parents are people too.") However, I am giving the book four stars because I think that his information and age appropriate guidelines are so useful that it is worth wading through his poor writing and some negativity or hostility about children simply for this reason. Rather than reading the book all at once, which might make your brain explode with the effort of wading through his prose, read the parts that apply to your child's age right when you need them.