Meg Zweiback

Sept 2007

Re: Sleep specialist for 22-month-old
I've had two recent and great experiences with Meg Zweiback. She understands children and parents and I felt like she gave us appropriate, sensitive and reasonable recs to help our toddler improve her sleep. It was well worth the money and I felt like I ended up learning about my toddler in the process because of the way Meg asks questions and explains her suggestions. It also helped me to know that she has been doing this for a long time. She was welcoming and calm and seems to really know her stuff. Couldn't recommend her more highly! Anon

April 2006

Re: 18-month-old has been biting for six months
call meg zweiback at 836-1450. right now. stop reading and call. you will not regret it. anon

August 2005

Re: Sleep specialist for 15 month old
We went to see Meg Zweiback (836-1450) when he was maybe 8 months old because he had to be held for a large part of the night to sleep at all, would wake as often as 20 times, never slept longer than a couple hours at a stretch. We met with her twice (and had daily phone consults in between our meetings) and he got to be a much better sleeper.

Our schedule got really out of wack for 3 weeks and the baby regressed pretty seriously. When he was 11 months old we took him back to Meg and she gave us different advice that also worked. (Initially we tried doing the same thing we did the first time around but it wasn't working. When we went back, she told us he was at a different stage developmentally so we needed to do something different.) Now he is back on track and is sleeping even better than before. He usually wakes up once around 3 or 4 to eat and otherwise sleeps about 8-6:30.

It only took 2-3 nights the first time to get him sleeping well. The second time it took a little more than a week. The process was painful (lots of crying) but well worth it for all of us.

Good luck.

March 2005

Re: Need some one-on-one advice on my parenting
I have also spoken with Meg Zweiback on the phone about my troubles with a very demanding and difficult baby and she was just great, so soothing and sensible. I know that people love her for her sleep and toilet training advice, but she is also a very experienced parenting coach. GO

Nov 2004

Has anyone used Meg Zwieback recently for their older child's sleep (lack of) issues? If so, did you find her approach tailored to your family situation/parenting methods? My 5 year old is completely off the old sleep rhythm of his fisrt 4 years (straight through for 10-12 hours - no kidding). We've tried different approaches over the past year, including taking care of his sleep apnea. I'm not ready to do a medical sleep study just yet because it seems his sleep cycle/rhythm just needs to get back on track. Thanks in advance! TJ

We saw Meg about 6 months ago for help with our then 5-6 month old baby. I liked Meg a lot and felt her advice was well worth the money- I believe she charged $125. per 1 hour session. Although her advice was similar to what I had read in the Weissbluth (sp?) book, ''Happy Baby, Healthy Sleep Habits'', Meg helped us with a plan based on the specifics of our family- two working parents, older child in same room, nanny, etc. Our son responded well to the structure and Meg was available for phone and email consults for fine tuning along the way.

Basically, Meg's advice was to first, keep a log on our son's sleep and eating habits. Then we had to determine whether he was waking at night (every 3-4 hours) due to hunger or habit. If hungry, Meg said to feed!- this was determined by the number of hours in between feeds based on his age, weight, and feeding patterns, in addition to our family's needs (a sleep deprived mom with post partum depression). Then we established soothing rituals to prepare him for sleep and put him down awake -if he fell asleep nursing, no big deal. If he cried, we would wait a determined period of time and then go in and comfort him. Meg worked with our comfort level to establish all of these criteria- she did not give us a one size fits all formula.

Of course, teething, stress, and develpomental changes demand flexibility. There have been a few bumpy nights along the way, but most nights our son sleeps from about 7:30pm, wakes to nurse at 4-5am, then sleeps again until 7am.

Hope this helps. grateful for Meg's help

June 2004

Re: Is this normal sibling jealousy? (4yo and baby)
My daughter who was three at time my son was born exhibited very similar behavior. We went to see Meg Zweiback who helped come up with parenting strategies to deal with my daughter's anger and need for boundaries. We saw her for 2 or 3 months and it really helped. It turns out that my daughter was really angry with us, not her little brother. She is now 4 and still has occasional issues with hurting her brother, but now that we effectively deal with it, it is not a family crisis. I hightly recommend Meg. Look her up in the book. She works out of her Oakland home.
Lisa

May 2003

Re: Using a Child Pyschologist Re Potty Training?

Meg Zweiback is the local expert on these matters. We've consulted her about a similar issue and found her to be really really good. Give her a call. I think you can find her in the phone book, in Oakland.
Anonymous

Although I can't speak to your exact situation, I would like to wholeheartedly recommend that you call Meg Zweiback. My husband and I recently worked with her to help us with our 2-year-old daughter's sleep issues... and got MIRACLULOUS results. I know that she also works with families on potty training issues, which is why I suggest you call her. I swear that getting her help was one of the smartest things I have done as a parent. Her number is (510) 836-1450.
Sarah

Meg Zweiback is the one for you. She's made a business of giving advice to parents and she's great. She's into short-term advice and is very balanced and non-judgmental. I believe her special skill is potty training.
Recommend Meg

2001

Re: Need help for son who can't sleep through the night
We engaged Meg Zweiback both when my son was a wakeful baby and for dealing with "big boy bed" freedom. She is great -- analyzes the issue and provides a "prescription" that worked well for us in both cases. I strongly recommend her. Her number is 836-1450. Kathleen