Save Our Sleep by Tizzie Hall or Tizzy Hall Book Review

When looking over some of the other reviews of the book "Save Our Sleep" words like no nonsense, easy to follow and schedules are used but there is a big lack in some key words like:
Pediatric advice
Medical information
Sleep research
Human brain development
Human behaviour
World Health guidelines
SIDS research
Attachment research

Tizzie Hall has written this book like many other authors who have written baby help books without actually having the benefit of having her own baby. (Her son has arrived only relatively recently.)
Tizzie is said to of been a nanny for 15 years.
Tizzie does not have any qualifications listed in her book or web site (though there is said to be some possibly study in marketing psychology but nothing is confirmed.)
Tizzie is from Ireland but now lives in Australia.
Tizzie's book, which was released in 2006 co-insides with the deployment her web site. The web site is basically sales of “stuff” “needed” for baby and a forum, which is to help out with questions and problems that come up with her book.

Why do people buy this book?
Tizzie has written schedules to follow on how to feed and put babies to sleep. (This information goes againts modern Pediatric advice, Medical information, Sleep research, Human brain development and behaviour research, World Health guidelines, and SIDS research to name a few.)
In advertising Tizzie says she does not believe in controlled crying. (The book suggests a mix of Controlled Crying and Cry it out which goes against as above).

Some statements plucked from the book
“…I don’t believe this protesting cry will harm your baby in any way…”
OR
“…I absolutely believe that it would do no emotional or psychological damage to a baby to protest (a.k.a. cry) for six or seven hours if that’s what it takes for the "tantrum" to end…”
While this does in some cases ease the parent/caregivers mind Tizzie is not a Psychologist so these remarks are just as she says "I believe". (This goes aganist recomendtations from the above)

There is no referance to any attachment studies or the affects of different types of attachment nor does she talk about any brain developmental issues that children have with crying themselves to sleep. (This book would not be avalible if Tizzie followed the advice of modern researchers.)

Tizzie does not explain about the stress hormone - cortisol -and the affects on a human body especialy on a human baby as it crys. Nor does she enlighten you that cortisol is dammaging a persons brain for life. (Nor does she talk about the cortisol levels in parents who are letting their babies cry this also has a negative affect on breastfeeding Mothers as well)

Tizzie does not follow World Health Guidelines for breastfeeding (or in my opinion even SIDS recommendations) for sleeping and breastfeeding.

Tizzie begins the Save Our Sleep book talking about the death of her baby brother due to SIDS. For concerned parents this is good because one of the prime fears is the death of a child. So with Tizzie talking about this part of her life the parent may feel at ease for this story tells of her concern and that we would hope she would not recommend anything to anyone which could enhance the chances of SIDS or harm. (This does not seem to be the case.)

Some point if you need help which are not found in this book
* SIDS research specialists recommend co-sleep (by this term co-sleep I mean sleeping with-in arms reach not in the parents bed) and this could be up to the age of 6-12 months or even more for some children (see the sleep lab for the studies but also many other sites will talk about sleeping in the same room.)
* Breastfeeding on cue, they say this has also been known to lower the risks of SIDS
* Breastfeeding on cue (unlike what is suggested in Save our sleep which has feeding schedules to follow) will allow you to "have ample milk" as World Health guidelines WHO suggest (Following Tizzie’s schedules puts the mother at risk of low milk production or no production due to lack of stimulation.)

There are some good points to this book.
* Keep a sleep diary. (The book the No Cry Sleep Solution outlines how this works for the benefits of both parent/caregiver and the baby)
* Explanation of a sleep cycle
Many Mothers who are so over tired do not see how long their child is sleeping for and will often feel that they are waking up every 5 minutes. Once you start seeing the time go by then you can start working on a personal pattern for your own child....this is not a new born I'm talking about.

The Save Our Sleep book is full of ideas and experiences BUT so many people (myself included) who have used this book are so over tired, stressed and stretched that we ill do anything and follow it to the letter becoming more and more stressed when things do one work out…or in some cases they do.
It is the promise of sleep, which keeps you going and the idea that your child is odd, wrong, or being just plan difficult.
BUT what is the price of following a book like this?
As my blog is finding out…its not good.

So if you skip the bits about her strict schedules/routine and find your own (each baby does have one truly), if you skip the bits about feeding to a time table and if you think carefully about what she says about started and feeding solids then yer I suppose the book is ok…but there are others out there which are better.

I hope for her sons sake she has changed her mind I hope on hearing her own flesh and blood cry she feels that pull and maybe we’ll see a rewrite of Save Our Sleep.