Let’s Go Strolling is hosting our first sleep seminar today at our Oakland store location.  Sleep (and twins) expert Karen Pollak (www.babies2sleep.com) came to our store and told a mesmerized room some of her biggest sleep foundation tips that parents need to make sure are in place before they sleep train.

Here’s a short summary of some of our favorite – non-obvious tips.   If you’re interested in hearing more details – contact us for our next sleep seminar details or contact Karen Pollak directly for a sleep consultation. Karen says if you don’t have the foundation elements in place, sleep training won’t work either.   Keep in mind these tips are for babies 6+ months or older and not geared towards newborns.

1) Your baby needs 2-2.5 oz / lb of baby weight’s worth of milk everyday to sleep well at night. (max 32 oz) This is in ADDITION to solid foods. Solid food should supplement this and not replace this for babies up to 1 year old.  ”If your babies tank isn’t full, they’ll keep running out of gas in the middle of the night – not good”

2)You should not be feeding your child more than every 3-4 hours.  They won’t be hungry and won’t have a good feeding.  Similarly for bottle-fed babies, make sure you are using a old enough nipple stage (2, 3+) so they are getting the milk fast enough before they get bored bottle time.

3) Make sure the room is dark. “At least 8 on a scale of 1-10.” Even for naps.  This helps their Circadian sleep rhythms.

4) Get them attached to a lovey. The Lovey should be something you hold on you when you are cuddling, feeding, comforting your baby. Whatever they are attached to of yours or theirs, it can be your ac/dc t-shirt, make sure they have it when they are going to sleep.

5)Swaddling – don’t stop swaddling before 6 months if your baby sleeps better with it.

6)Use white noise, whether it is the SleepSounds CD, or just a white noise machine.

7)Babies bedtime should be between 6-8pm. Ideally 12 hours from waking. Between 2.5 hours-3 hours after their last nap.

8- You are fighting cortisol production, so you want to only do very calming things before bedtime. No fun roughhousing, no stimulating activities even baths if they get too amped up.Get your baby to bed now and get some rest! 

We’ve all been paying attention to the recent financial news.  It can feel dismal.  Between the unemployment rates, tightening credit markets, and overall pessimism, closing retail businesses should not be a shock.  I was totally surprised though when I learned that Baby Universe, as well as the Right Start (owners of BabyStyle and TinyRide) have filed for bankruptcy.They are not the only ones, though.  In December, BabyCenter.com announced they would be closing the retail store section of their website and the parent company of eToys.com, one of the early Internet specialty stores is also in bankruptcy and looking for a buyer.  Even several popular local baby and children’s stores in my area are closing  - a couple after serving our community for years. This means there are definitely deals to be had but also a buyer beware!  Once you are dealing with a company that no longer exists, you have little recourse if anything goes wrong with your purchase down the road.  While you can deal directly with the manufacturer, for many new parents this is a time consuming and confusing route. Additionally, if you’ve lost your receipt or proof of purchase and the store you purchased from no longer exists, you might have a hard time proving your service issue should be fully covered.P.S. If you were wondering – we plan to be around for the long haul