Articles and Authors

All of the information on this website is research based and written by experts in various fields of child development.  The following is a list of our authors and their articles.

 
Ronald G. Barr, MDCM, FRCP(C), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Ronald G. Barr, MA, MDCM, FRCP(C), developed and tested prevention materials referred to as the Period of PURPLE Crying in collaboration with Marilyn Barr. He is the Canada Research Chair in Community Child Health Research at the University of British Columbia, Professor of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, and Head of Developmental Neurosciences and Child Health at the Child and Family Research Institute at BC Children’s Hospital. Barr is also a Fellow of the Experience-based Brain and Biological Development Programme of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
 
Dr. Barr’s research and clinical work have focused on the needs of infants and young children. Dr. Barr is well-known for his studies on the biological and behavioral determinants of behavior, including pain, behavioral state and crying, cognition and memory, as well as for the outcomes of early clinical manifestations of these behaviors for later development (temperament, reactivity). A primary research interest is the primary prevention of infant abuse and shaken baby syndrome (abusive head trauma). His research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Hospital for Sick Children's Foundation, the Howard Webster Fund, the WT Grant Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
 
Dr. Barr is currently a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He was a Fellow of the Center for the Advanced Study of Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 2000-2001. He was Associate Editor of the journal Child Development, and serves on the editorial boards of more than a dozen pediatric, child development, and anthropology journals. Dr. Barr is a past President of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and past Chair of the Developmental Committee of the Canadian Centre of Excellence Network.
 

Why This Crying Is Normal

Why Does My Baby Cry So Much

Why We Know Your Infant Isn't In Pain

What Is Colic

What Else You Should Know About Crying

Common Features and Principles of Soothing

Common Sense and Well Tried Soothing Methods

Soothing Methods to Avoid

 
Ian St. James-Roberts, PhD, FBPsS, London, England
Ian St James-Roberts is Professor of Child Psychology, based in the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, UK. He holds an honours degree in Psychology and Philosophy and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
 
He has conducted research into children’s emotional and behavioural development and problems with the support of the United Kingdom Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Government Home Office, Youth Justice Board for England & Wales, and business organisations.
 
Ian has published extensively in medical and psychological journals, co-edited two books on infant crying and sleeping problems, and spoken at scientific and professional meetings all over the world. He is on the Association for Infant Mental Health Executive Committee, a recent member of the Editorial Board of Archives of Disease in Childhood, and continues to serve on the Editorial Board of Current Pediatric Reviews and on the review panels of other granting bodies and scientific journals. He has acted as Advisor to BBC/ITV television series: Baby Monthly; Nanny Knows Best; Child of Our Time.
 

What We Know About Normal Infant Sleeping

Preventing Or Managing Infant Sleeping Problems

Treating Sleep Problems Once They Arise  

 
Bregje van Sleuwen, PhD, Ria Blom RN, A. Engelberts, PhD, MD, Monique L’Hoir, PhD, Utrecht, Netherlands
 
Bregje. E. Van Sleuwen, PhD
Dr. Van Sleuwen is a biologist and specializes in health education. She wrote her thesis (2008) on the subject “Infants that cry excessively: the effect of regularity and swaddling”. In cooperation with others she educated healthcare workers, maternity workers and midwives about the practical implications. This resulted in a nationwide structured approach that is being implemented at well-baby clinics in the Netherlands. She educated over 4000 health care workers. She is involved in research concerning excessive crying, shaken baby prevention, cot death and prevention of overweight and obesity.
 
Since 1986 her interest has focused on children with crying and sleeping problems.  By closely observing them she developed the regularity and swaddling interventions, which formed the basis of a randomized trial in Holland.  She wrote a book about this in 2003, titled: “Regelmaat en Inbakeren”, English edition: Crying and Restlessness in Babies.  A Parent’s Guide to Natural Sleeping.  She gives many lectures about these topics. 
 
Monique L’Hoir, PhD
Dr. L'Hoir is a clinical health care psychologist, psychotherapist and senior researcher at TNO Quality of Life in Leiden, Netherlands. She worked for 23 years in the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, University Medical Centre in Utrecht, were she wrote her thesis: Risk and Preventive Factors for Cot Death, which was part of a European study into cot death (ECAS). She helped establish the Dutch Cot Death Foundation and implemented preventive measures for cot death in the Child Health System in the Netherlands. She took part in the guide-lines: Apparent Life Threatening Events (ALTE) of the Dutch Foundation of Pediatrics, the multidisciplinary guide-line “Excessive crying in infants”, “Overweight in children and youth”, and “Childrearing advises”, all in Youth Health Care.    
 
She was co-promoter of Dr. Bregje van Sleuwen, who wrote her thesis on the effects of swaddling in excessive crying infants. Currently she is coordinator of several Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT’s): Prevention of Sleeping Problems and Solving Sleeping Problems in Young Children in Youth Health Care and a RCT into the prevention of obesity in children aged 0-4 years old. Furthermore, she participated in a RCT into an integrated, local, lasting approach into the prevention of obesity, together with German researchers (Gesunde Kinder, Gesunde Kommunen (GKGK). She is coordinator, together with a German researcher, of a study into the prevention of cot death in NordRhein-Westfalen, Germany and into Child Death Reviews in the eastern part of the Netherlands (Euregio). Together with colleagues of the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, she conducted a study into the prevention of Shaken Baby Syndrome, eczema in children, partly in the Asthma Center in Davos (Switserland). Furthermore, she is involved in a study into early detection of critical child rearing situations, together with midwives and maternity nurses. Main topics of her work include: prevention of cot death, ALTE, excessive crying in infants, shaken babies, child rearing, child abuse and overweight/obesity. 
 
Adèle C. Engelberts, PhD, MD
Dr. Engelberts is a general paediatrician in the Maasland Hospital in Sittard, the Netherlands. She has been active in SIDS research for almost 20 years, starting in 1987 with her PhD study that explored the role of prone positioning as a risk factor for SIDS. She is active in The Foundation for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality, in short Cot Death Foundation, since it was established in the Netherlands.
 
Maria A. Blom, RN
Maria A. Blom is a registered nurse and worked in the delivery rooms of an academic hospital in Amsterdam for three years as a qualified obstetric nurse.  Since 1982 she is working in the extramural mother and child health care.
 

Swaddling: The Advantages & the Risks

Swaddling Support Programs

Background on Swaddling Study

Routine for Infants Who Cry Excessively

 
 
Beth Russell, Ph.D., Worcester, MA, USA
Dr. Russell is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Worcester State College. She is among the developmental psychology faculty there, focusing her passion for teaching on the development of children and adolescence. 
 
Russell sits on several editorial boards as well as the advisory board for "Currents in Teaching", an interdisciplinary journal focused on furthering instruction in higher education. Her research focus on infant studies began with the study of infant-parent regulation and continues to center on the relationship between parent and child in the first three years of life.
 
During the last several years Russell has brought her expertise in program evaluation and measurement to the field of child abuse and neglect, and is specifically committed to the study of Shaken Baby Syndrome. Russell has published several academic papers on this subject and continues to present at international conferences and smaller, local venues alike.
 

Parenting Well When Emotions Run High

Myth's About Good Parenting

 
 
 
Ross Parke, Ph.D., Riverside, CA, USA
Dr. Parke is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus and past Director of the Center for Family Studies at the University of California, Riverside.  His interests include fatherhood, the relation between families and peers, ethnic variation in families, and the impact of the new reproductive technologies on families.  He has served as Editor of Developmental Psychology and the Journal of Family Psychology, and as Associate Editor of Child Development. 
 
He was president of the Division of Developmental Psychology of the American Psychological Association and of the Society for Research in Child Development.  He received The G Stanley Hall award from the Division of Developmental Psychology of APA, the Distinguished scientific contribution award from Society for Research and Child Development and the graduate student mentoring award from the graduate division of University of Callifornia, Riverside.  He is the author of several books including Fathers and Fatherhood and co-author of Throwaway Dads (with Armin Brott) and Child Psychology: A contemporary perspective (with E.Mavis Hetherington and Mary Gauvain) which appeared in its 7th edition in 2008.  With Alison Clarke-Stewart, he has just written Social Development which will be published next year.
 

Fatherhood: Challenges and Rewards of Caring for Infants

Are Mothers and Fathers Interchangeable?

Getting Dads More Involved

 
 
 
Marilyn Barr, Founder/Executive Director, NCSBS, Ogden, UT, USA
Marilyn Barr is the founder and executive director for the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome SBS/AHT. She oversaw the development and testing of SBS prevention materials referred to as the Period of PURPLE Crying in collaboration with Dr. Ronald G. Barr. She also serves as the director of the British Columbia Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Program at B.C. Children's Hospital in British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
 
Barr has worked in the field of child abuse prevention since 1978 and has a degree in social work, criminal justice, and communications. She developed one of the first prevention programs on SBS/AHT in the world. Barr has directed 12 national and international conferences on SBS/AHT as well as 15 state and national conferences on child abuse and neglect.
 
She founded the Child Abuse Prevention Center of Utah and served as its chief executive officer from 1981 to 2003. She also founded the Utah Chapter of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse in 1983 and served as president of the board of directors from 1983 to 1987.
 
Barr’s honors and recognition include: the Commissioner's Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service in the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services); the National Victims’ Rights Advocate of the Year (United States Justice Department); National Court Appointed Special Advocates; Child Advocate of the Year Award, San Francisco, California, Freedom Foundation; and National George Washington Honor Medal for excellence in the category of Individual Achievement.
 
Barr is a co-principal investigator on four studies related to the Period of PURPLE Crying and has been published in Pediatrics and the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
 

What is the Period of PURPLE Crying?

Components of the Program and How to Get It