I’m a pediatrician at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital in New Haven, CT, specializing in the care of children with breathing and sleep problems. I’m also a husband, dad, dog dad, mediocre paddleboarder, and even more mediocre runner.
I live outside New Haven with my wife and our two boys. Once my first son was born, I learned the vital lesson that there is often a gulf between textbook “perfect” parenting, and what actually works in the real world.
How this website came to be
It wasn’t long after I began my practice that I started to get phone calls and emails from friends, friends of friends, family members and their friends, and my wife’s cousin’s mailman. They all had questions and needed advice. Why does their kid get up at night? Do those tonsils really need to come out?
My academic background was in breathing issues like asthma and sleep apnea. I quickly realized I would need to get up to speed on behavioral issues as well. I spoke to mentors, read books and articles, and assembled everything I could into detailed handouts for parents. I then realized that it was going to be easier to share this information online, as it was easier to share a link. I made a connection with Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, one of the first pediatrician bloggers writing online, and wrote my first post for her back in 2012 on toddler night wakings. With her encouragement, I soon started this website.
There are few pediatric sleep specialists nationally, which makes it hard for people in need of help with sleep issues to access care. There are relatively few web-based resources as well. At this site, you can find help: not direct clinical care, but advice which will hopefully point you in the right direction. My goal is to provide simple, evidence-based information to families and physicians.
In 2019, I published It’s Never Too Late to Sleep Train: The Low Stress Way to High-Quality Sleep for Babies, Kids, and Parents, which is my guide to fast, effective, simple sleep training from birth through school age. I’m really proud of it.
Here are the topics I’m most passionate about:
- Normal sleep in children
- Treating sleep problems
- Helping teens sleep better
- Validating parent’s decisions about their children’s sleep.
My most recent project is starting The Sleep Edit Podcast.
Academic biography
I graduated cum laude from Yale with a degree in English, and attended medical school at the University of Connecticut. I did my residency in Pediatrics and my fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and stayed on there as an attending physician in the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine from 2007. I also boarded in Sleep Medicine after doing my sleep medicine rotations at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brown University. In 2013, I returned to my old college stomping grounds at Yale, where I am an attending physician in Pediatric Pulmonology, and Director of the Pediatric Sleep Center. Here, I have built a comprehensive sleep program for children, the first of its kind in Connecticut. We have three sleep laboratories, many sleep physicians, and now have a sleep psychologist helping us with behavioral issues.
I’m boarded in Pediatrics, Pediatric Pulmonology, and Sleep Medicine.
Here is my very official and fancy faculty page at Yale.
Here is my Google Scholar page.
In the media
Articles in Print or Online:
- I was thrilled to have It’s Never Too Late To Sleep Train included in a list of “10 Books That Answer 10 Parenting Questions” on Better.net.
- Quoted in Is your child sleep deprived? Here’s how it can affect their development on NBC News
- Wrote an article for New York Times Parenting: Your Kids Refuse to Nap? There’s Hope.
- Bedtime Was Hard Enough. Then Came The Quarantine. New York Times, April 15, 2020.
- Wrote Some Babies Sleep Better in Car Seats and Swings, but Are They Safe?, New York Times, 4/17/2020.
- Quoted in “Parents Are Relying on Melatonin to Help Their Kids Sleep. Should They?” in the New York Times May 18, 2020.
- Quoted in “Is Your Kid Just Refusing Bedtime, Or Is It Insomnia?” in Romper, November 12, 2020
- Quoted in “Break the Cycle of Insomnia” in the New York Times November, 15, 2020.
- Wrote an article, “How to Prepare Babies and Kids for the End of Daylight Saving Time” in The New York Times, 10/27/21.
- Quoted in, “Daylight-Saving Time Ends Sunday. Yes, You Can Win the Transition” in The Wall Street Journal, 11/12/21
- Quoted in “Teenagers need more sleep, and permanent Daylight Savings Time won’t help” in The Washington Post, 3/22/22
- Quoted in “You might be using melatonin all wrong. Here’s what you should know” in The Washington Post, 3/25/22.
- Quoted in, “Why little kids sleep is so wild”, in The New York Times, 5/11/22.
- Quoted in, “Sleep Regression: What they are, why they happen, and survival trips, “ Romper 2/14/23
- Quoted in “Overcoming sleep disorders” in the Boston Globe 2012.
- My book was featured in 10 Books That Answer Ten Pressing Parenting Questions in Better Magazine.
Podcast appearances:
- Balance 365 Life episode 365: Parents, Kids and Sleep: A How-To Guide for Families. I had a wide ranging conversation with the three women who run this podcast and provide great, positive information about health, weight, and body image.
- The Dad Podcast episode 311: Talking Sleep with Dr. Jay and Dr. Craig Canapari of the Yale Sleep Center. This was a fun one– I got to chat with two stand up comedians Justin Worsham and Dr. Jay Sutay. Fun fact– when I was a med student I spend one afternoon a week with Dr. Jay for four years– he taught me a lot about how to be good kid doc.
- Kids Sleep, Parents Sleep – We All Need to Sleep! with Craig Canapari, MD Lucas Rockwood, a yoga teacher and entrepreneur, interviewed me about sleep and health, and what you can and can’t control about your child’s sleep.
- REDEFINING SLEEP TRAINING (IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT CRY IT OUT) I was honored to kick off the second season of Sleep Junkies, one of my favorite podcasts on sleep.
- Strollercoaster: Can we get some sleep? One of my favorite podcasts that I have been on, and my favorite parenting podcast.
Do you want to make an appointment with me?
I am licensed in New York and Connecticut. I currently see patients in Old Saybrook, New Haven, and Trumbull Connecticut. Additionally I see children residing in CT or NY via telehealth. To book an appointment, either book an appointment via Yale Medicine online or call 1-877-YALEMDS (925-3637).
Do you want to collaborate?
If you would like to contact me about speaking engagements or collaboration, please contact me below. Note that I will not respond to individual requests for medical advice.