Marc Weissbluth is an American pediatrician who has written several books on infant sleep. He is a sleep disorders specialist at the

Children's Memorial Hospital Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, formerly Children's Memorial Hospital and commonly known as Lurie Children's, is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's hospital located in Chicago, Illinois. The hospital has ...

in Chicago.

Education and early research

Weissbluth was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

and graduated from

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other b ...

in California. He received his B.A. from Stanford University with Department of Biology Science Honors in 1965. Weissbluth graduated from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University i ...

School of Medicine A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MB ...

and was Chief Resident at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Career

From 1973 to 1978 Weissbluth practiced solo general pediatrics in Chicago’s Chinatown. In 1978, he joined the full-time faculty at

Children’s Memorial Hospital Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, formerly Children's Memorial Hospital and commonly known as Lurie Children's, is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's hospital located in Chicago, Illinois. The hospital has ...

, and did research on sleep in children in the

Sleep Disorders A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of an individual's sleep patterns. Some sleep disorders are severe enough to interfere with normal physical, mental, social and emotional functioning. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests ...

Clinic that he founded. In 1983, he returned to private practice and founded The Northwestern Children's Practice. He conducted research in children’s sleep and discovered associations between

infant colic Baby colic, also known as infantile colic, is defined as episodes of crying for more than three hours a day, for more than three days a week, for three weeks in an otherwise healthy child. Often crying occurs in the evening. It typically does no ...

and infant sleep and separately, between temperament in children and children’s sleep. His research also showed that moving the bedtime earlier significantly reduces the frequency of night awakenings in a child. In the Sleep Disorders Clinic, he developed a program consisting of several separate elements to help parents solve their child’s sleep problems. He called this program "sleep training", a term he introduced in ''Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child''. Subsequently, this term has been popularized as shorthand for a specific sleep solution called ‘extinction’.

Publications

* ''Crybabies'' * ''Sweet Baby: How to Soothe Your Newborn'' * ''Your Fussy Baby'' * ''Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child'' * ''Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissbluth, Marc American pediatricians Washington University School of Medicine alumni Living people Northwestern University faculty Year of birth missing (living people) American family and parenting writers Washington University in St. Louis alumni 20th-century American writers