I’m going to be honest: this is an article that I’ve been dreading writing.

Why? As a pediatrician, I should be thrilled by the chance to help parents and their children sleep better. But I also know that sleep poses an almost universal problem, a struggle for millions of babies and parents, very few of whom find satisfying answers in the dozens of baby sleep books that are out there.

So, you know, no pressure or anything!

One problem is that good sleep can often seem like something that’s totally out of your hands. One of my mentors, a wise pediatrician named Dr. David Nelson, once told me “so much of sleep has to do with the temperament of the baby.” Feisty kids tend to be feisty sleepers, mellow kids are mellow sleepers, and most babies are somewhere in between.

But does that mean that it’s just the luck of the draw—that if you’re up all night long with a rough sleeper, there’s nothing you can do but simply accept your fate?

Luckily, there is plenty that you can do as a parent to either prep your baby early on for good sleep habits, or to help guide your baby to a comfortable place if sleeping has already become an issue.

You can find the text version of this podcast episode at www.drstevesilvestro.com/sleep