On this trip we
first spent a
few sun filled
weeks checking out the beaches and swimming pools of Cancun, Cozumel and then Playa Del Carmen in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula before taking the bus and ferry
over to Belize to hang out with some friends.
Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that teaching parents to use graduated extinction (i.e., parent
checks on and comforts their infant at increasing time intervals but leaves the room before the infant falls asleep) or adult fading (i.e., a parent places a camp bed or chair next to their infant's cot, pats their infant to sleep for the
first few nights, then gradually moves their camp bed or chair out of the infant's bedroom
over a period of
weeks) reduces both infant sleep problems and maternal depression symptoms.5 In toddlers, provision of a bedtime routine by parents has also been shown to reduce sleep problems.6