For parents, these sleep interruptions endanger work performance and daily sanity. Forty percent of children under age five keep their parents up at night, and one out of three babies is colicky.
Doctors or grandparents may advise to "just let them cry." But tender-hearted, frustrated parents know that's a lot easier said than done.
Thankfully, help has arrived and it's only a heartbeat away. Terry Woodford, a former hit record producer, has created music therapy tapes that are becoming a "must have" for exhausted parents of fussy newborns and children up to six years old.
Woodford's music therapy can be found on a series of tapes called "Heartbeat Lullabies," made by Baby-Go-To-Sleep. There are three audio cassettes in the series and they all feature the comforting sound of a real human heartbeat as the drums or rhythm of specially arranged traditional lullabies.
So far, over 8,000 hospitals and special care centers-in addition to almost a million parents-have used the tapes and found they work.
"We obtained a `Heart-beat Lullaby' tape from our pediatrician after trying every conceivable way to get our daughter to follow a normal sleeping pattern," says a mother from Glendale Heights, IL. "If the tape had not worked, our last resort would have been a mild sedative. Thanks to the Heartbeat Lullaby tape, we all sleep much better now."
Pediatric and neonatal nurses swear by the recordings which can often be used in serious cases as an alternative to drug sedation.
For example, excessive crying can be dangerous for premature babies on life support, because crying inhibits their healing and growth. The calming effect of the Heartbeat Lullaby tapes on the babies is quite fast and visible. Plus, when rest and sleep speed healing and allow the baby to go home sooner, medical bills are reduced.
Charlotte Freiberger, clinical nurse specialist in intensive care at Audubon Regional Medical Center in Louisville says, "With the Tape, the babies require less oxygen, their heart rate goes down, there's not much more proof we need than that. It works!"
"Our hospital gives new parents the Tape to take home, but they are also available at JCPenney's infants department."
For more information and a free pamphlet on how to get your child to sleep through the night, call Baby-Go-To-Sleep at 1-800-537-7748. (NAPSI)
