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CNN Live Today
Napping Key to Babies Sleeping Through Night
Aired December 19, 2002 - 10:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get a doctor's take on this. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on the set. Sanjay, what do you think about doing a little doggie CPR there?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it looks just the same as you do it on a human being.
Same concept, the heart is in the right place.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: What I want to know is what the dog thought. You know he had to be thinking, I went to the wrong heaven. Oh, my God. What am I doing here?
KAGAN: Unless they put the little doggie oxygen mask on there.
GUPTA: We don't actually get to practice with dogs during class, but that seemed to work pretty well.
KAGAN: It did.
HARRIS: Would you have done that, doctor? Now, we know about his life-saving techniques. This guy has been put into action here in the CNN Center before. Would you put your mouth over a dog's snout?
GUPTA: ... I probably wouldn't have dragged them back.
KAGAN: Go ahead. He has a dog. He knows what that doggie breath smells like. All right.
We are going to get back to you in a second. Actually, we are going to now introduce your piece. Sit tight, I'll do the heavy work here.
A dream many parents share, having a child who sleeps through the night. A lot of moms and dads wake up, though, to the reality of a tired, cranky tot and sleepless nights. So what's the best way to have a good night? You might want to start, as we did, by paging our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): A baby crying in the night just naturally brings out the parental instincts in most of us. The urge to rush to help a crying child is something that has been bred into us over millions of years of evolution.
But does there ever come a point where it is better ignore a baby's nocturnal wailing and just let the infant cry him or herself back to sleep?
We posed this to question to Kim West, the self-proclaimed "Sleep lady," who advises parents on how best to cope with their sleepless offspring.
KIM WEST, CHILD SLEEP COUNSELOR: I think it's always important when your child cries to go in immediately, to at least -- to make sure the child is OK, not hurt, have their foot stuck in the crib, and then you act accordingly.
GUPTA: Melanie and Andy Berlin's son Benjamin used to wake up crying just about every hour. Melanie says the Sleep Lady developed a strategy that let her be near Benjamin, reach through the crib to provide comfort, yet still allowed him to learn to fall asleep on his own.
MELANIE BERLIN, MOTHER: What Kim had me do is sit in a chair next to his crib, and I would sit there until he stopped crying and he would cry -- the first night he cried for two and a half hours, and I just sat in the chair and pretended I was asleep. And then, the second night it was maybe an hour, and then the third night, it went down to 30 minutes, and then after that, he really didn't wake up.
GUPTA: You would think that if the child had been awake and active all day, he would sleep more soundly at night, but according to Kim West, the opposite is often true.
KIM: The problem is more common to have nap deprivation, which causes night wakening, so nap -- getting the right amount of naps during the day is actually crucial to sleeping well at night.
GUPTA: Your quest for a good night's sleep for your baby and thus for yourself may take great patience and creativity, but the reward is worth the effort.
BERLIN: Some nights where he wouldn't even go to bed maybe until 10:00, or he would go to sleep at 8:30 and he would be waking up within an hour, and we just never got to see each other, and now everything has changed. He's in bed at 7:00. We get to have dinner together. We get to spend time together in the evenings, which is very important.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: Very important for sure. Who should see a sleep counselor, which babies? At least 6 months of age or older, trouble napping during the day and frequently awaking during the night maybe a good candidate. Of course, you have to rule out medical problems first. There are medical problems such as reflux disease sometimes, and sleep apnea which can be a real problem in babies as well -- get those ruled out first, sleep counselor might be a next good step.
KAGAN: Got to be careful. So we are going to have the Sleep Lady on in the next hour.
GUPTA: Sleep Lady, right. She is on the Web site, Sleeplady.com.
KAGAN: That is clever. And you were supposed to have her on before, and the response, her e-mail was just overwhelming, wasn't it, with questions?
GUPTA: A lot of cranky babies...
KAGAN: And cranky parents.
GUPTA: And cranky parents as a result.
KAGAN: So you're here to help.
GUPTA: Yes, your questions.
KAGAN: For you guys, we send in to cnn.com.
GUPTA: That is right.
KAGAN: Very good. OK. So we will see you in the next hour. Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 19, 2002 - 10:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get a doctor's take on this. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on the set. Sanjay, what do you think about doing a little doggie CPR there?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it looks just the same as you do it on a human being.
Same concept, the heart is in the right place.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: What I want to know is what the dog thought. You know he had to be thinking, I went to the wrong heaven. Oh, my God. What am I doing here?
KAGAN: Unless they put the little doggie oxygen mask on there.
GUPTA: We don't actually get to practice with dogs during class, but that seemed to work pretty well.
KAGAN: It did.
HARRIS: Would you have done that, doctor? Now, we know about his life-saving techniques. This guy has been put into action here in the CNN Center before. Would you put your mouth over a dog's snout?
GUPTA: ... I probably wouldn't have dragged them back.
KAGAN: Go ahead. He has a dog. He knows what that doggie breath smells like. All right.
We are going to get back to you in a second. Actually, we are going to now introduce your piece. Sit tight, I'll do the heavy work here.
A dream many parents share, having a child who sleeps through the night. A lot of moms and dads wake up, though, to the reality of a tired, cranky tot and sleepless nights. So what's the best way to have a good night? You might want to start, as we did, by paging our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): A baby crying in the night just naturally brings out the parental instincts in most of us. The urge to rush to help a crying child is something that has been bred into us over millions of years of evolution.
But does there ever come a point where it is better ignore a baby's nocturnal wailing and just let the infant cry him or herself back to sleep?
We posed this to question to Kim West, the self-proclaimed "Sleep lady," who advises parents on how best to cope with their sleepless offspring.
KIM WEST, CHILD SLEEP COUNSELOR: I think it's always important when your child cries to go in immediately, to at least -- to make sure the child is OK, not hurt, have their foot stuck in the crib, and then you act accordingly.
GUPTA: Melanie and Andy Berlin's son Benjamin used to wake up crying just about every hour. Melanie says the Sleep Lady developed a strategy that let her be near Benjamin, reach through the crib to provide comfort, yet still allowed him to learn to fall asleep on his own.
MELANIE BERLIN, MOTHER: What Kim had me do is sit in a chair next to his crib, and I would sit there until he stopped crying and he would cry -- the first night he cried for two and a half hours, and I just sat in the chair and pretended I was asleep. And then, the second night it was maybe an hour, and then the third night, it went down to 30 minutes, and then after that, he really didn't wake up.
GUPTA: You would think that if the child had been awake and active all day, he would sleep more soundly at night, but according to Kim West, the opposite is often true.
KIM: The problem is more common to have nap deprivation, which causes night wakening, so nap -- getting the right amount of naps during the day is actually crucial to sleeping well at night.
GUPTA: Your quest for a good night's sleep for your baby and thus for yourself may take great patience and creativity, but the reward is worth the effort.
BERLIN: Some nights where he wouldn't even go to bed maybe until 10:00, or he would go to sleep at 8:30 and he would be waking up within an hour, and we just never got to see each other, and now everything has changed. He's in bed at 7:00. We get to have dinner together. We get to spend time together in the evenings, which is very important.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: Very important for sure. Who should see a sleep counselor, which babies? At least 6 months of age or older, trouble napping during the day and frequently awaking during the night maybe a good candidate. Of course, you have to rule out medical problems first. There are medical problems such as reflux disease sometimes, and sleep apnea which can be a real problem in babies as well -- get those ruled out first, sleep counselor might be a next good step.
KAGAN: Got to be careful. So we are going to have the Sleep Lady on in the next hour.
GUPTA: Sleep Lady, right. She is on the Web site, Sleeplady.com.
KAGAN: That is clever. And you were supposed to have her on before, and the response, her e-mail was just overwhelming, wasn't it, with questions?
GUPTA: A lot of cranky babies...
KAGAN: And cranky parents.
GUPTA: And cranky parents as a result.
KAGAN: So you're here to help.
GUPTA: Yes, your questions.
KAGAN: For you guys, we send in to cnn.com.
GUPTA: That is right.
KAGAN: Very good. OK. So we will see you in the next hour. Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
