Trying to Do What's Best: Maternal Perspectives About Toddler Sleep Health Among an Underresourced Sample of Mothers With Diverse Racial and Ethnic Identities.
Jonika B Hash, Amy J Walker, Teresa M Ward and 2 others
PMID 38429028WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers described toddler sleep as working when routines fit their child, but work schedules, illness, daycare loss and family time threw it off.
They wanted better sleep and answers that fit each family.
Key findings
01Mothers described good toddler sleep as consistent schedules, predictable bedtime routines, and child-specific knowledge of what helps or does not help.
02Mothers said toddler sleep was thrown off by irregular work schedules, returning to work or losing daycare, illness, and competing family time.
03Mothers reported bedtime resistance, nighttime awakenings, wanting children to sleep nearby, uncertainty about solutions, and wishes for better sleep.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study interviewed 16 mothers only, all English-speaking and from the Pacific Northwest, so the themes may not apply to other families. Mothers were selected from a prior home-visiting trial control group and had received a prenatal mental health referral, so they may not represent families outside that service. Mental health supports and current symptom persistence were not assessed, so maternal mood may have shaped reports of child sleep. Only mothers were interviewed, not partners, other caregivers, or other children, so family sleep dynamics are incomplete. A mother's interview was truncated and eight questions were missed, but the partial interview was retained. The study did not test an intervention, so it cannot show that tailored or strengths-based sleep care improves toddler sleep.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not report author conflicts of interest. The publication types list NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these themes as proof that tailored, strengths-based sleep counseling improves toddler sleep. This was a qualitative study of mothers' perspectives and did not test any intervention or outcome.