Michael Roizen, MD: You are listening to you the Owner's Manual
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None of those have conflicts with our great guest today, Chrissy Lower.
She's a licensed therapist And the founder of the Peaceful Sleeper,
author of the book that's coming out called The Peaceful Sleeper.
You can pre-order it if it's not out yet on Amazon.
And because it has to do with sleep for babies and their future.
it has nothing that I know anything about, since my wife
who's a pediatrician, handled that for our kids and our grandkids.
and since one of them was a peaceful sleeper And the other
wasn't, and I'm going to tell Chrissy a tail out of school.
So when our son was.
late in high school, in his junior year in high school, he would shimmy down outside
of his second floor window We had an alarm on And we were living at the University
of Chicago, on uh, 56th and Woodlawn, and he would go to Harper's Court and between
12 midnight and 3:00 AM play chess.
With the old guys in the Harper Court, and his grandmother, my mother-in-law
caught him one day sneaking back in So, It was because he couldn't obviously shimmy.
The two floors to get back to his bedroom.
so he was an imperfect sleeper, whereas our daughter was a
relatively and continues to be a relatively Perfect sleeper.
So tell us, how did you get the idea for the Perfect Sleeper since you've
already helped over 400,000 families and been featured on Good Morning America.
Better Homes and Garden and Newsweek.
And I should tell you, when I had a number one New York Times, my
mother-in-law didn't believe it was worth anything till we were
featured in Better Home and Gardens.
So So tell us about how you got the idea of doing this thing with children.
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Yes.
Well, that's amazing.
I love your story about your son sneaking out to play chess.
I, I'm so curious if he had consequences or if you were like, you know what?
Good job.
Michael Roizen, MD: we just forat him from doing it again.
He didn't have consequences,
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: That's amazing.
Michael Roizen, MD: but, What do you do with someone who's sneaking out
to do something that's worthwhile?
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Yeah, exactly.
How do you, how do you parent that?
My kids aren't yet at that age, so I'll be calling you in a couple years.
Michael Roizen, MD: Well, the good news is we didn't have cell phones yet in that
era, so we didn't have to battle that.
And we should say before you go on, the website is the peaceful sleeper.com.
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Yes, exactly the peaceful sleeper.com.
Thank you for having me on.
So as you said, I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.
I've been practicing for 15 years.
And really, I got my start in this world in a clinical setting, realizing that my
therapy clients that were the most stuck, that weren't making the breakthroughs
that we would want to see in therapy.
The common denominator across all of these clients was that
they weren't sleeping well.
So then I got trained in advanced behavioral sleep medicine, started
incorporating sleep into my therapy practice as a way to boost mental health,
And then I had babies and realized that the number one determinant of postpartum
mental health difficulty is poor sleep.
Because sleep is absolutely imperative for our optimal
physical and mental functioning.
And so realizing if I can help babies sleep, then moms will sleep.
And if babies and moms are sleeping, then the family system can thrive.
Michael Roizen, MD: I always used to say.
the University of Chicago has a bus service that continues all night long,
goes around the campus, literally 24 7, and I always used to think if,
the kids can't sleep, I'm going to put a car seat in the bus because
whatever gives them motion And in a car seat seems to get them to sleep.
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Yes.
Michael Roizen, MD: Tell me what what's the secret for
perfect sleep for the child?
How do you start with that?
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Yeah, so in the newborn stage, their sleep
architecture is not yet fully developed.
Their brain is brand new.
So in those first four months, we are doing everything that we can
to support their optimal sleep.
And then after four months, we are looking at teaching some independent sleep skills.
So the secret I would say, of newborn sleep is our four pillars
of a solid newborn sleep foundation.
So that's number one.
Optimizing their feeding.
We want babies to take in as much as they can at each meal so that they can
go longer in between meals, get as many calories during the day so that they
can have longer stretches at night.
That's your number one first.
Easiest thing, easiest.
The second thing that we wanna do is optimize timing.
The biggest mistake that new parents make is keeping their babies awake too long
before naps, which actually makes them be harder to get to sleep for nap time and
increases middle of the night awakenings.
Michael Roizen, MD: So one is optimizing feeding.
Two is.
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Optimizing timing.
Michael Roizen, MD: Optimizing timing.
So tell me a little more about optimizing timing before we go on to number three.
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: optimizing timing for a newborn, we're looking at about
60 to 90 minutes of awake time, And then we want naps to be lasting at least
an hour, so your baby might need some help getting those good long naps and.
If you can recognize their sleepy cues and help them fall asleep before
they get overtired, it's gonna be way easier to keep them calm, get them to
sleep, and take a good restorative nap.
Number three is calming strategies.
So again, our baby's neurology is brand, brand new.
So during the day we want to do everything that we can to keep our
babies calm, happy, and content, and when they're ready to go to sleep,
be able to calm them efficiently.
One of my.
Claims to fame.
One of my favorite professional moments, I was on Good Morning America.
We were live, and I rocked a baby to sleep in 34 seconds and it was so amazing.
But that also goes to show that it was mastering the timing,
mastering the soothing strategies.
When they come together, we can get babies to sleep remarkably efficiently.
Michael Roizen, MD: so the rocking is key, and that's what the bus would do.
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Exactly.
So calming strategies.
Dr.
Harvey Karp has his five S's for soothing, that's swinging, swaddle, shushing.
Now, of course now I'm on the spot.
I'm gonna forget all of them sucking the pacifier and side position.
And then I've added on to more an eyebrow stroke.
So you gently kind of move your finger across their eyebrows, down their nose,
get their eyes to close, And then they lull to sleep And then pat on their bum.
When babies are in the womb, their bum is right up next to your heart.
So they get that rhythmic thumping all day, every day, So, It feels
so incredibly calming to them.
So if you stuck on those seven calming strategies, you'll get
babies to sleep really quickly.
Michael Roizen, MD: And number four, so optimizing, feeding, optimizing, timing.
Optimizing, if you will, soothing.
And what's the fourth?
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: treating sources of discomfort.
Lots of babies also have, you know, a brand new digestive system.
So figuring out if baby is uncomfortable, if they've got gas
reflux, lip tie, tongue tie, something physiologically that's getting in
the way of them being comfortable.
We want to make sure that we treat and rule that out so that.
We have a comfortable baby that we're getting to sleep instead of going uphill
trying to overcome their discomfort, not knowing that that's what's at play.
Michael Roizen, MD: Perfect.
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Yeah.
Michael Roizen, MD: That's the perfect sleeper.
You should get the book.
it's a great gift for, pregnant moms and expectant moms.
maybe grandmas who are taking care of babies.
the Peaceful Sleeper is the name of the book.
and of course our expert.
Is Chrissy and I'm going to spell her name, L-A-W-L-E-R,
the peaceful sleeper.com,
the peaceful sleeper.com.
Remember the four strategies?
I don't think I'm ever gonna forget them.
Thank you very much, Chrissy.
And again, we're brought to you by Life's First Naturals, the makers
of true biotics, ovarian colostrum.
And Die Rescue And for young jevity.com.
I have no conflicts with Chrissy since I know nothing about baby sleep.
And I am really delighted that we could bring you the Peaceful Sleeper.
since we have another grandchild on the way, maybe I can help with sleep.
I doubt
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: I'm sure you can.
Michael Roizen, MD: but in any case.
Thank you for, helping all of us.
and I will pass, the book on to my, daughter, who is taking care
of a one and a half year old.
And, I'm not allowed to tell you another one on the way.
Thank you very much.
Chrissy Lawler, LMFT: Oh, thank you.
Michael Roizen, MD: We will be back next week This has been 1266 B.
Tune in for the A segments, the latest medical news of the week And what it
means to you, and starting at 1268 A.
We have a special five part series on the supplements and small
molecules to keep you younger.
What's the data?
Thanks again, Chrissy.
and especially, thank you, our listeners.
You're the reason we do this.