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Welcome back to The Mom-entum Podcast! I’m your host, Tanya Valentine.

Today, we’re diving into a topic every parent knows too well: sleep—or the lack of it! If you’ve ever struggled with getting your kids to fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up rested, you’re going to love this episode. I’m joined by the incredible Dr. Funke Afolabi Brown, a pediatric sleep physician and author of Beyond Tired. She’s here to share practical tips and science-backed strategies to help your family establish healthy sleep habits.

We’ll explore the critical role of circadian rhythms, how to set external cues like consistent bedtimes and calming routines, and why creating the perfect sleep environment can make all the difference. Dr. Brown even breaks it all down into a simple acronym—C.R.E.A.T.E.—to help you transform your child’s sleep experience.

We’ll also talk about common sleep challenges, from bedtime fears and nap transitions to night waking and when it’s time to seek professional help. Plus, Dr. Brown offers creative solutions to help kids overcome their fear of the dark, manage sleep-related anxiety, and develop independent sleep skills.

If your family’s sleep struggles have left you feeling frustrated and exhausted, this episode is packed with tools, insights, and encouragement to help you give your kids—and yourself—the gift of better sleep. See without further ado, let’s dive into my conversation with Dr. Funke Afolabi Brown.

Tanya: Welcome to the show. Dr. Funke, Afolabi-Brown.

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Tanya: Thank you so much for coming on today.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to have this conversation.

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Tanya: I am so excited ever says, Yeah, I've been looking forward to this for a long time, because I I need to learn from you? So can you start by introducing yourself to the audience.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah, no, absolutely. So I'm a sleep physician. And I have my own practice. I'm also a speaker and an author. And really everything is centered around helping

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: folks sleep better, especially families.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: because, you know, when we sleep better we do better. You know, both us and our kids.

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Tanya: Yeah. Yeah.

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Tanya: And being of in recent years, there's been a growing awareness of how crucial sleep is to our overall health. But knowing it's important and actually getting enough of it are 2 totally different things, especially when you have kids who

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Tanya: struggle to sleep. They take forever to fall asleep, or they're waking up

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Tanya: multiple times a night, or they're entering up in your bed, and it can just be so frustrating and feel hopeless

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Tanya: at times. So what can families do to get more restful sleep together?

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: I think it's all gonna boil down to routines.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: That is it because many times one of the things I find out is that especially when families are tired.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: you may not be able to follow through with those routines. That's 1. Or as kids get older, it feels like, Oh, well, maybe it's not as important.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So the thing about sleep is your ability to sleep is dependent on many things. One of those things we know is our Circadian rhythm. So that's 1 thing right, and it is what it is with that. But when you

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: set up external cues to help enhance the function of your Circadian rhythm or your internal clock, it only makes things better. One of those external cues is consistent bedtimes, and wake up times as well as having a relaxing bedtime routine. Not just for your baby, not just for your toddler, but for your older kids and for you as a parent.

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Tanya: Okay, so what do some of those queues look like?

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: All right. So I'm going to share an acronym that I use, which kind of makes it very sort of easy to apply. And you could start tonight. That acronym is create C, as in

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: cat, REAT E, so create healthy sleep habits. So number one is consistency. So that's C.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: You want to have a consistent sleep time. You want to have a consistent wake up time, because that enforces those internal rhythms to know when to anticipate sleep.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: That's number one. Number 2 is that you? The R, that's the second part. So R is routine. So routines are just literally rituals that you engage in, which can enhance your sleep. So things like, you know, having a bath reading a book, you know.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: cuddly prayers, meditation, all of those things serve as routines that can help you with sleep, and you can. You can tailor those routines to suit your child's age and and things like that, and then another one is

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: E, so it's CRE is the environment. So you want an environment that is cool, that is dark and is noise free, because all those things will improve the success of your of your sleep. So your room should be probably anywhere between 68, and 72 degrees as much as possible, or at least cooler than the rest of the house.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then you want it to be dark. So darkness actually promotes the sleep hormone melatonin, and helps you with better sleep. So that's helpful. And then noise is something that can disrupt sleep, so you can either have a white noise machine, or at least make sure that external noises are not affecting your. You know your sleep. So that's the environment.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: And then A is assigned the bed for sleep or sleep in bed. Many times the bed becomes where we do everything else and sleep right? So we may be eating in bed, watching TV in bed working, doing homework, all of that stuff. We shouldn't be doing that. We really want to make sure that the bed is for sleep, and you're sleeping in bed.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: T is technology. So you want to try to tackle technology as much as possible. So what does that look like? It looks like 30 to 60 min before bed that you limit time spent, you know, on technology. So this may look like, you know, waiting.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: you know, really having this a situation where you can wind down.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then the last E stands for eliminate. So what are things that may be going on in your environment that may be making it hard for you to sleep. So if you are doing things like, you know, drinking caffeine.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: taking alcohol, eating really heavy, spicy meals. All those things can impact sleep. So those are really the major things I would say to be aware of.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So CREA, TE.

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Tanya: Okay, what about sugar, too?

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Exactly

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: so EI would say that E. When it comes to you're really looking at what are things I'm doing that may be affecting your sleep. So if you're drinking a lot of sugary drinks, if you're eating super late, if you're consuming social media and all those things that you know will impact your sleep. You really want to try to tackle those things.

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Tanya: Okay, okay?

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Tanya: And then what do we do when our children like mine

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Tanya: seem to have a real, a very real fear of the dark, and being alone in their bedroom in the dark like

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Tanya: cause we use nightlights. But that doesn't. It doesn't help

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Tanya: so what do you say about that don't know about that.

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Tanya: This.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: It's a very common thing, especially with younger kids. There are many reasons why, you know, they become more imaginative in their thinking as they get older it might be related to things they're watching before bed. So I would say, one of those common things is, even cartoons now are sometimes so graphic. Some of that digital piece is one thing I always tell families to just keep an eye on.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then the other thing is

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: really helping them get used to the dark, and we use different processes. One of the processes we use is called desensitization.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Look like is this. You may, for instance, then, different options. You may stay with your child in the room, and just maybe read a book

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: in the dark with maybe a flashlight. So it becomes experience like, let's have a let's let's camp out in the room so you can have a blanket and then a flashlight. Another thing you could do is what we call scavenger hunt.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: so you could put like little things

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: in the room, and then they have to go look for it in the dark. So the door is open. You put you start off very close to the door right? So maybe you put a piece of toy under a chair where they can easily run in and come back out.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Affirming them. Yay, good job, and then you continue to hide it deeper and deeper until they're so lost in playing that game that they're not even aware that they're in the dark. And you're combining this with so much affirmation. Look, you're doing it, there's no light, and you were able to. So you're really helping them build that confidence. And so those 2 strategies, I feel they work

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: very well, you know, if you have a dimmer, you could use a dimmer for the light. So you're gradually turning it, you know it gets darker and darker overnight. Different strategies. Of course, if you notice your child is not just scared of the dark, but has a lot of anxiety even during the day of being alone, and things like that. You may want to have that checked out, and just make sure that, you know there's nothing else going on.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Tanya: I love these ideas that the scavenger hunt idea is a really good one. And I'm going to use that with my kids.

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Tanya: Thank you so much for that.

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Tanya: And then what do we do when our children take a very long time to fall asleep like what's going on here?

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So many things it could be that they

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: it could be fear again. Such as what we call sleep related anxiety where kids may just have a hard time

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: shutting their minds off. It could be an underlying sleep disorder like restless leg syndrome, where they're just really uncomfortable, and they have a hard time settling down. You know. It could be things that are going on during the day, that's, you know, affecting their sleep. They may have anxiety. Some kids with Adhd have issues with falling asleep. Another thing I would make sure you're paying attention to is, are they taking naps during the day? Because if they're taking naps, then they're not going to feel.

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Tanya: See.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: And so they're going to be in bed for a while and have a hard time sleeping, so that timing piece is also something that matters.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Tanya: So yeah, and that just makes me think of like.

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Tanya: I know, it's you're probably going to say it's different for everybody. But how do you know, then, when it's time to drop the nap altogether and like around, what age is this like, for instance, my daughter is 2 right now I feel like she still really needs a nap like she'll fall asleep on her own in the car. That's usually where she's taking her naps, because I'm driving my older 2, you know, back and forth to school. So she's in the back of the car in her car seat, falling asleep.

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Tanya: so yeah, like, around, what age do you drop the nap or like, is is this the queue when they're just? They're not wanting to go to sleep at night like, okay, it's time to drop the nap.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Great question. So within the first, st

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: you know, 3 to 5 years of nap of life, they do need naps.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: so they just do. By the time they are approaching 3, you know, over 3, 4, and 5

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: number one. The naps are, of course, less frequent, usually by 2. Your daughter, you know, should just take about one nice nap in the during the day right before then. She's probably taking 2 naps when she was a baby. She's probably taking 3 or 4.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So by 2, you know, you really should be taking one nap during the day. And so that's fine. Usually by the time they start to get to preschool and school, you know. That's when they start to, maybe fight naps. And so there's different ways by which you can do this. I have some families whose kids are still napping all the way to 5 years old, and I have some families whose

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: children stop taking naps are about 3 or 3 and a half, and that's completely fine. A few things you're paying attention to. What are they like by bedtime, are they not? Are they able to stay awake till you know 6, or 6, 30, or 7 Pm. Or are they kind of falling asleep in random places? Are they super irritable by 5 Pm. You know those may be cues to you that okay, I think they still might need a little nap.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: And so on. But if they're older and they're like really fighting the naps

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: it might be a sign that they're ready to drop it now.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Between those 1st between that 3 to 5 year range, even if they're no longer interested in taking a nap, I still recommend that you give them an opportunity to have quiet time.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: so they may not nap, but they need to have time within in their room, nice and dark and quiet to just be.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: I think, and we call it rest time. So it doesn't. You don't have to nap, because otherwise by 4 Pm. 5 Pm. They are cranky, they are irritable, but really having that downtime, I think, helps. If your child is no longer interested in napping.

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Tanya: Okay, okay?

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Tanya: And then what's going on for the child who wakes up frequently throughout the night.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah, great great question. There are many reasons. Again. So.

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Tanya: Oh, sure!

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Notice. Yeah. So the most common, I would say, is behavioral.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: And this is where

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: the child is waking up most times because they need something to be able to fall back asleep.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So one of the questions I always ask families is, How is the child? How's your child falling asleep? So if they are falling asleep to a parent in the room, a parent holding them, a parent laying with them.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then you cannot use some, you know. Stealth. Spider-man moves to get out of the room. Once they fall asleep.

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Tanya: That's me!

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Then they're gonna wake up and be like, wait, something is missing, and I need that something to reconnect my sleep cycles.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So then they're going to cry out or come to you. And then you repeat the cycle over and over, because they just don't know how to do it. So what you're going to help them do is figure out how to get them to sleep independently, so I don't necessarily say, bother with the nighttime weekends. Bother! Try to focus your energy on bedtime, try to teach them to sort of self, regulate

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and fall asleep on their own, and so that will look different for different people. Some people do more like the sort of sleep training kind of like the classic method, which I'm not. A fan of. Some people will do things like, you know. I'm going to sit in a chair. You stay in your bed.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then I'm going to gradually over a few days, move out of the room. So kind of move the chair kind of scoop the chair out of the room. Some people do a check-in method where you go, and then you come back in and check in intermittently. So there are many ways, but the goal is that your child is going from fully awake

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: to fully asleep at bedtime, and so if they do that once they start to learn to do that within a few days by the night wakings would decrease, because now they wake up and they're like, Oh, okay. I went to sleep by myself, so I can continue sleeping by myself.

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Tanya: Okay, and what about? When we try to do this? We put them in their bed, and we're sitting in the chair and they're screaming.

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Tanya: crying in their, and they're in their crib.

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Tanya: Yeah, and they're screaming, crying.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Great point. So I love the fact that one you still have. You still have them in the crib until 3, I usually say, keep them in the crib for as long as possible.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Now, this is where it all depends on what you you feel comfortable with.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: This is a skill, this your child may never figure this stuff out before. So it's almost like

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: they're walking or they're trying to walk. They're going to trip and fall a little bit. But you're probably going to say, Okay, you're okay. You got this, and you're going to set them up again because we want them to learn this skill. So what I recommend is trying to stay. Calm yourself.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: comforting.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: It's okay whether you have a mantra. You just repeat.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then, you know, just to reassure them. Of course you're making sure they're not hungry. They're not, you know. They don't have a wet diaper. They're not ill or anything like that. Then, you know, you could do that that's 1. If you feel like, okay, this is torture, because this child does not understand.

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Tanya: Yeah.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Them to sleep independently. You may need to do the check-in method. And what is that

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: with the check-in method? You have a beautiful bedtime routine. You put your baby in the crib.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then you walk out, and then you decide how much you can handle. Of course you need to know that there's nothing you're going to do in teaching your child to sleep independently where they will not protest. They will protest because they.

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Tanya: Yeah.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Fully right, but you know you're setting them up for sleep. Success. So I think understanding that piece to start is so important. And so with the checking method, you can decide. Okay, I can only

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: have my child fuss for 1 min.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then, after 1 min, you go into the room. You provide some reassurance. Try to avoid picking them up.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then you say all again.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then maybe wait 2 min.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then you go back in, and you keep checking in until they eventually fall asleep.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: It will take some days. It's not. It's not a rich, quick scheme. It will take probably sometimes 5 to 7 days, and you may notice there's an increase in

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: you know, protest.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then it starts to decrease. It's very dramatic when it happens like I've had families who are like

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: my child was forcing for like 30 min. I felt like

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: caving in, but I didn't, and the second day my child was forcing for 40 min, but I stood my ground, and then by the 3rd day my child was asleep in 15 min, and by the 4th day my child was asleep in 10 min, and then, you know, my child was falling asleep. As I'm walking out the door

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: they start to make those associations the key. Though I would say this, no matter what method your help, you're teaching your child to sleep.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: The key is consistency. Because I would say, if you know you cannot commit to being consistent, don't do it

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: because it's not fair, because he.

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Tanya: Yeah.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: She doesn't. They don't understand. Well, why is Mom coming in and check going out, coming in and going out? Why is she not staying with me.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then maybe she cries for 10 min and you go and rescue. Then she'll be like, the keys that I cry. Okay. So now I'm gonna cry for 15, and it becomes like this slot machine.

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Tanya: Yeah.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: I know what I'm gonna get. And so that really is very, it's unfair, because now it's it's like they don't understand it. And then we're not.

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Tanya: Right.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So I will say if you don't feel this is something, and no, you do not have to. This is where I always tell people. You do not have to change anything. If it doesn't work for you find what works for. You

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: find maybe accountability, whatever it is, and then stick to it, stick to being consistent with it.

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Tanya: Yeah.

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Tanya: oh, that feels so good. Yeah, consistency. And I like that. You said, if you can't commit because it really is falls on us.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah, doesn't it? Yeah.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: I think because I do. You know, I've done a lot of the research on seeing how poor sleep can lead to so many negative issues in kids.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: You're giving them a gift. You're not being mean, you're not. I mean, you filled up their love tank all day. Long. Sleeping is an individual sport.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So you have to go in with that approach like

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: I'm not. I'm not leaving you. I love you so much that I'm gonna.

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Tanya: Thank you.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Brain rest. Well, because if I keep rocking you and doing all those things, and now you're waking up all night long, I'm not giving your brain. I'm not allowing you get your brain rest, that you need to thrive. So when we flip that narrative

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: just the same way, we will not put our kids in a car seat, and when they protest and they're like, I don't want the car seat, I'm like, Oh.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: that's fine. Then.

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Tanya: True.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: That that's.

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Tanya: That's a really good point. Yeah. And that's a nice mindset shift, too. And maybe like even a mantra that we can use when it's like really hard to listen to the screaming and crying like I'm giving them a gift.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah, yeah.

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Tanya: So

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Tanya: my next question was, what do you have to say about the use of sleep? Aids like Melatonin, or some other supplements that they have on the market like we use sometimes, not

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Tanya: all the time. But when we're like in desperate need, we just feel like they need sleep. They need a little help. We'll use the Zarby's sleep gummies.

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Tanya: But what do you have to say about these.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: I would say, intermittent, very intermittent use is, okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah, the point where you're needing it consistently. You gotta say, why, what's going on? So I'm big on root cause, like, where is this coming from? Right?

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: 0 thing.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Okay, then, let's try to tackle that

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Is it a phase shift with their circadian rhythm. We've got to fix it.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Is it another medical sleep disorder. So I think those things are important. So with Melatonin, your brain produces abundance, melatonin to help with sleep. So I would say when we use it. Sometimes, you know, again very intermittently. You may use it for brief short sleep issues. But it's a hormone. It's not a supplement. It's marketed as a supplement, but it's a hormone.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: I think we should use it with caution. The other thing is that many times it is not regulated. It's not FDA regulated.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Honestly, we don't know what we're giving. And so if you're going to even use Melatonin, you really want to make sure you're using a very good brand. I think Zarpys is a good brand one, a brand that you can look at the bottle. The way you can tell is there's something called the USP.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Certified.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and that means the brand has gone through some more rigorous testing. It's still not, FDA approved, but it's more rigorous than just any generic brand that you find on the counter. So I think those are important. And again trying to figure out why is so key.

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Tanya: Okay, so use intermittent or use with caution. Figure out why this is going on. Try to find, figure out the root cause. And then, if you are in desperate, if you need to, when you feel you need to use it, just make sure it's it, says USP certified

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Tanya: so that, you know it's been regulated somewhat.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: And then speak with your speak with your child's doctor, too, you know.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: That's so important.

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Tanya: Okay,

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Tanya: And then,

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Tanya: what do you have? So how do we know? Speaking of talking to the doctor, how do we know when to get help, like, what are some warning signs that our child's lack of sleep could be related to some medical issue that would require diagnostic testing or treatment.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah, if they're getting, if you're getting, maybe adequate sleep. And they're still tired

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: if they're having persistent wake-ups, even though you've done like some of this basic things we talked about in terms of teaching them to sleep if they're having daytime sleepiness.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then, if they have things like snoring, restless sleep, pauses and breathing

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: excessive daytime sleepiness. All of those things

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: you definitely want to make sure you get it checked. Now.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: if they start to have movements like movement disorders where they're restless or

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: sleep talking. That's now, or sleepwalking that seems very hard to control

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: sleep terrors where it's happening almost every night.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Those are signs that you definitely want to get checked because that could be a sign of

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: different sleep disorders.

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Tanya: Okay, so would we 1st go to like our primary, like our pediatrician or

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Tanya: cut. Come to someone directly like you like, do we need a referral to see a sleep physician.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So typically, I would say, always go 1st to your pediatrician, because, you know, there may be so. It may be an ear infection, it may be.

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Tanya: Oh, yeah.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Maybe some basic things. So you want to rule that out. And then after that, you can be referred to see a sleep physician like me.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: for some practices. You do need a referral for

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: some you don't. So it all depends on what state you're in and which type of sleep. Specialist you you're seeing.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah.

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Tanya: Okay, all right. And then what would it look like if someone wanted to work with you?

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: So different ways. If typically what we do is an initial

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: hour, long evaluation. Because again, it's sleep is so connected to so many other issues. So we do that 1st based on that evaluation, we can then decide like one of those things I talked about. Is there a medical issue?

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: If it's a medical issue, what type of medical issue is it? Sleep, apnea? If it's sleep, apnea, then we talk about doing a sleep study where we're really observing your child's breathing during sleep? If it's, is it a nutritional deficiency, of course, for many of our kiddos they might be picky eaters and nutrition can affect sleep a lot. So in that case we may.

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Tanya: Chilly.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah, in that case we may talk around either supplementation or checking some blood levels just to make sure that all the things are there, the vitamin levels and everything is enough. If it's not, then we talk about supplementation. So that's also very important. If it's a behavioral issue. Well, we're now going through a very comprehensive and personalized behavioral sleep plan, where you know some of the general stuff I told you we're now really tailoring it

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: to your needs, your child's needs, and your parenting style and things like that, and then we work very closely with other providers. So if you have

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: a child who's you know we work with your child's pediatrician. If your child is in school, and we want them to know, like these are things we want to do. I've had families. Say, can you please call my child's school to tell them I don't want them putting them down for a nap anymore. Right? Sometimes kids the nap. If they've outgrown the nap

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: then. And they're having sleep issues at night, we may say, Okay, you know, we need to back off on the naps on. Really, we're talking with the schools. We're talking if they have an Iep. So it's a really holistic plan that we're creating. And then from there we follow up periodically with check-ins and things like that. To make sure all is well.

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Tanya: Okay? And are people coming into an office, or are they working virtually with you, or do you do both.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Great question. We do both because I'm licensed in many states. I'm licensed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and Tennessee, and I think New York is coming up so we can. We can. We can see patients virtually, but we can also see patients in person.

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Tanya: Okay.

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Tanya: And then where can the listeners go to find you and your work.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Yeah. So the website, the best place is our website is the restful sleep place.com.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and on there the tons of tools, tons of resources that you can just grab for free. There's a link to my Youtube channel on there on social media. I am on

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Instagram at restful sleep and D, and then

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: and then my book is also on Amazon.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: It's beyond tired.

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Tanya: Physicians can love that title.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: To solving your child's sleep problems for good. Because, yeah, most parents are beyond tired. Their kids are beyond tired. And so really, it's a very comprehensive guide. For sleep issues in in children, but also I have in their chapters for the family, and things like that.

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Tanya: Okay, awesome. Oh, this has been great. I took so many notes. Thank you so much. This has been so helpful for me, and I'm sure anybody else listening. They're gonna take away a lot of

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Tanya: helpful tools and tips from you in today's episode. So thank you so much for your time and sharing all of your knowledge with us today. I really appreciate you.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: Thank you so much for having me.

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Tanya: All right. Take care! Happy holidays.

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Funke Afolabi-Brown, MD: You too.