Study objectives: To identify the book sources of parenting advice about child sleep and then characterize those sources with respect to their authorship and the content of advice about cosleeping and cry-it-out sleep training.
Setting: Availability in the United States market.
Sample: Forty currently available parenting advice books about sleep were identified.
Intervention: N/A.
Measurement and results: Most books were accessible regarding price and reading grade level. Most authors either had a medical background or no professional credentials. With regard to cosleeping, 28% of books endorsed it, 32% took no position, and 40% opposed it. Those that endorsed cosleeping generally recommended long-term bed sharing, but a few suggested room sharing only during the first few months after birth. With regard to crying it out, 61% of books endorsed it, 8% took no position, and 31% opposed it. Most of those that endorsed crying it out recommended scheduled checking, but a few suggested a cold-turkey method. More than half of the books presented advice that explicitly supported either cosleeping or crying it out and rejected the other.
Conclusions: A medical perspective on sleep predominates in parenting advice in this area. That perspective is typically opposed to cosleeping and supportive of sleep training. However, a substantial minority present an opposite position.