If you’ve been reading my articles long enough, you know that I’m really interested in presenting the best, scientifically based information to parents and pediatrician so that they can understand their children’s sleep problems, and hopefully make them better. Unfortunately, much of what we understand about the sleep of children and infants is based on relatively small studies. I couldn’t tell you, in most situations, why one child sleeps well and another really struggles, sometimes even in the same family. Or why teenagers come into my office with insomnia and their parents will say, first thing, that they have never slept well since they were babies.
That’s why I’m so excited about a new study being run out of NYU. The Baby Sleep Study is a large study designed to recruit parents of infants and babies and follow them over time. Specifically they are interested in sleep and feeding, and if problems in these domains predict problems such as autism and developmental problems in later childhood.
Best of all, you can participate if you have a baby or an infant. All you need to do is download an application and participate in their study. The application, Baby Connect (app store affiliate link), is a commonly used application on all platforms; you may use it already. The investigators are especially interested if you have an older child with autism. If they enroll enough families, we may also be able to answer questions about what sleep training techniques work best for different sorts of babies.
I’m a huge fan of tracking sleep if you are having difficulties anyway, and I would have loved this app if it had been available when my boys were infants. Now, you can do so, and share your data on this important project.
So what are you waiting for? Go over to the Baby Sleep Study site now, enroll if you are eligible, and share it with your friends.
