It’s germ season, and babies, toddlers, and young kids get sick a lot! In this episode, I’m talking with pediatrician Dr. J about supporting sleep when your little is sick. We chat about:

• What to expect from sleep when your little is sick
• How to make them more comfortable 
• Red flags that you need medical support
• Tips for preventing illness in the germy months 

Sick littles and sleep is hard, and the only way through is to support everyone through it. I hope these tips help you next time your family is sick.

About Dr. J

Dr. Jalan Burton, or Dr. J, as she loves to be called, is a pediatrician, public health champion, professional coach, wife, and mother of three. Equipped with 7 years of professional coaching and consulting experience, 15 years of medical education and pediatrics experience, and over 20 years of peer health education experience, Dr. J is passionate about family wellness, healthcare worker wellness, and community building. She is the founder and CEO of Healthy Home Pediatrics and Harmony in Practice. 

Dr. J is a proud graduate of the University of Virginia, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and The George Washington University School of Medicine. 

Dr. J's clinical philosophy is built around the belief that when families are truly supported they thrive. Dr. J’s professional coaching philosophy centers on the belief that when healthcare workers build businesses that are joyful, profitable, scalable, and sustainable, we enrich the lives of our communities and generations to come. 

Connect with Dr. J

Website: https://www.healthyhomepediatrics.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/healthyhomepeds

Facebook: www.facebook.com/healthyhomepediatrics

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Switching sleep spaces can be stressful for both parents and babies. Whether you are moving your little from their bassinet to their crib, crib to big kid bed, bedsharing to floor bed, it can be a big transition. In this episode I’m sharing ways to make the transition easier for everyone. I talk you through building familiarity with the new sleep space, helping them feel safe and connected to you in that sleep space, and tips for supporting them through the transition. Some strategies work at all ages, and other ones I break down by age. 

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Parent preference is a really normal thing, and it’s a common struggle around sleep. Sometimes it’s developmental and sometimes it comes from doing what works for so long that we just don’t have experience doing something else anymore. In this episode, I’m sharing some tips around parent preference and how to gently encourage balancing things out. I share some tips for supporting the relationship away from sleep, ways to get them involved with you around sleep with both parents present, and some ideas for how to work towards supporting sleep with that parent on their own. This is a process that takes time, support, and patience, but it can definitely be worth the effort. 

Resources related to this episode

Check out my related blog post on helping your partner be more confident in supporting sleep when there’s parent preference: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/blog/2022/6/21/how-to-help-your-partner-be-more-involved-at-bedtime

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Habit stacking is a common strategy I use with many families when they want to make a change with sleep or have more flexibility. In this episode I’m sharing:

• What is habit stacking (or layering sleep associations)?
• When and how to use habit stacking when supporting your baby or toddler through a sleep change.
• Examples of sleep soothing tools to stack.
• And some tips for ways I see the strategy not work in implementation. 

If you’ve been wondering how you can increase flexibility in how you support your little to sleep or support them through a change, I hope this episode gives you some ideas. 

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Sleep predictability is a common struggle for many families. And the important thing to note is that not all babies are going to have the same level of predictability in their sleep patterns. In this episode I’m talking you through the things we can’t control and the things we can control that contribute to how predictable our child’s sleep is. Everything from age development, and temperament to how we set up our days can influence sleep predictability. 

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

For most babies and toddlers, there naps have an impact on their nighttime sleep quality. So what happens when your child is in daycare, and you aren’t in control of their naps? This is a common situation for many of the families I support. In this episode I’m talking you through some daycare nap troubleshooting. I discuss:

• The most common daycare nap challenges
• Daycare has limits
• Every environment is different
• Ask questions
• Give clear suggestions while respecting limitations
• Connect daycare sleep to what you are seeing at home 

While there are some things we can’t control when it comes to naps at daycare, there are often some things we can troubleshoot. It’s a balance. 

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Are you a morning or evening person? What about your baby or toddler? We all have tendencies in our circadian rhythm, and this episode dives into those tendencies or chronotypes. I talk about the general trends in chronotypes, some impacts of modern living environment on our circadian rhythm, and 

How our circadian rhythm shifts across the lifespan. I also talk about the mismatches that can happen between parent and baby chronotypes, and how that can complicate supporting everyone’s sleep. 

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Black out curtains are a popular tool for helping people of all ages get better sleep. In this episode I’m talking you through when to use black out curtains and some of the unintended impacts I see with my clients. I discuss:

• Why to use them. 
• When to and when not to use them.
• Some ways they can mess with sleep rhythms. 

Do you find black out curtains helpful for your little one? I’d love to hear. 

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Are you regularly nap trapped? Whether you know your little routinely needs contact naps to get good sleep or you just find yourself caught in a phase where it’s happening a lot, being nap trapped by a contact nap can be frustrating. In this episode I’m sharing tips around making the best of contact naps. I talk about: 

• Being realistic about contact naps
• Taking care of your own needs before you think the nap will happen
• Setting yourself up for productivity or relaxation 
• Not putting everything off until nap time

It’s possible to multitask and reclaim nap time for yourself, even when you are contact napping your little. 

Resources related to this episode

Check out my popular contact nap blog: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/blog/2021/7/9/lets-talk-contact-naps 

And a previous podcast episodes on contact naps: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/podcast/2024/6/27/are-contact-naps-ok

Connect with Kim 

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

Learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Welcome to the last of the summer from the archives series! We’re revisiting some much loved podcast episodes from the early months of the podcast. These are episode that are great to revisit at different points in your parenting journey. 

The majority of parents will bedshare at some point, some regularly and some occasionally. Yet we live in a culture that actively discourages bedsharing. Many parents struggle to find helpful bedsharing information or are too anxious to even ask. That’s why this conversation on bedsharing tips and tricks is so important!

Bedsharing is a wonderful parenting tool, but also one that comes with so many questions, decisions, and challenges in modern western culture. In this episode I’m joined by Tiffany from Cosleepy to talk about bedsharing tips and tricks. Our conversation ranges from worries and anxiety over choosing to bedshare to tips around comfort while bedsharing. Plus, we talk about some of the grey areas and tricky choices that come with the messiness of day to day bedsharing. We could have kept this conversation going for forever, and I hope you enjoy the tips and insights we discuss. 

About Tiffany

Tiffany Belanger attended UCLA and adventured in the film and television industry prior to parenthood. In 2020 she founded Cosleepy, a cosleeping one-stop shop to help modern parents keep their babies safe and close at night.

Tiffany has completed training on normal infant sleep through Durham University and keeps up-to-date on emerging research. She's a frequent guest on podcasts and blogs, and she was interviewed in New York Magazine's viral article Are We All Secretly Co-sleeping?

She lives (and cosleeps) with her husband and two little boys in northern California.

Connect with Tiffany 

https://cosleepy.com

https://instagram.com/cosleepy

Resources related to this episode 

My safe bedsharing episode: 

https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/podcast/2023/10/6/how-to-bedshare-safely

My bedsharing safety and FAQ blog post:

https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/blog/2022/1/6/bedsharing-guide-benefits-safety-and-faqs-for-cosleeping-and-bedsharing-families

Connect with Kim 

Grab a free sleep myth busting guide and learn more about working with Kim: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

Instagram: instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc
Facebook:  facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc