Cry Baby: evaluation of an online program for parents.

During the first few months of life, parent reported infant sleep and crying problems are common (20-40% and 20% of infants, respectively; Bayer et al, 2007; Wake et al, 2007), as well as costly to treat (Hiscock et al 2007). Six randomised controlled trials have shown that providing parents with information on normal infant sleep and crying, and strategies to encourage good sleep habits, can improve infant sleep as well as reduce maternal postnatal depression symptoms (Hiscock et al , in preparation). While there is evidence that such strategies are of significant benefit to families and are well accepted by families, dissemination of this information to all families with newborns will be challenging. Our research team, in consultation with other health care professionals, has developed Cry Baby – an interactive online program that draws on prior research findings to provide parents with evidence based strategies for how to cope with infant sleep and crying problems. The aim of this research is to: (1) trail two different recruitment processes for providing the Cry Baby program in order to determine the best way to ensure it effectively reaches the families who would benefit; (2) collect data on how families engage with the resource (i.e., when they access it, what they access, how useful they find it) to better refine the program; (3) collect data on whether email support increases program participation, and; (4) collect preliminary data on outcome measures. Parents will be recruited from two settings: (1) the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) service at the 2 week visit, and; (2) through advertisements on the Raising Children Network (RCN) website. Parents will be randomly assigned to either receive the Cry Baby program with email support from the research team, or to receive the Cry Baby program without additional email support. Data collected from this pilot study will indicate: (1) whether recruitment via online advertising (RCN) or via known health professional (MCH) result in a sample of participants more reflective of the general community (household income, education, socioeconomic status, language); (2) whether providing weekly email support results in parents (a) logging in to the program more often, (b) completing a greater proportion of the program, and (c) increased retention to the program; and (3) whether parents find the program useful/helpful.