Methods: Data were collected from 7889 consecutive users of a free publicly-available app for the iPhone over a 3-month period. Of these, 365 (4.6%) submitted a question to an Ask the Expert section. This study was IRB approved and all users provided consent.
Results: Across the 7889 users, they were primarily mothers (69%) with an average age of 28 years. The designated child of the user was predominantly infants (3-11 months, 68%) followed by toddlers (12-36 months, 20%), and newborns (0-2 months; 12%). There were 365 questions submitted across the 3-month period (4.6% of users), with questions primarily presented by mothers (75.1%). Questions by parents of infants (3-11 months) were most likely submitted (65.3%), followed by toddlers (12-36 months; 23.5%) and newborns (0-2 months; 11.3%), with the average age of the child 11.9 months (SD=22.43). There were equal number of questions submitted by parents of boys (49.6%) and girls (50.4%). The primary concerns of users regarded night wakings (22.7% of all questions submitted), sleep problems (22.2%), and general sleep questions (21.9%). Less frequently, questions related to napping (15.3%), bedtime (13.4%), and sleep safety (4.4%) were submitted. Questions were submitted most frequently between midnight and 6am (37%), followed by between 6pm and midnight (22%).
Conclusions: Overall, an application for sleep issues in young children appears to be quite popular for parents of young children, with almost 8000 users in a short period. Of those users who submitted a question, they were primarily regarding infants and almost half of all questions were about sleep problems. Interestingly, almost one-third of questions were submitted during the middle of the night, and over half between 6pm and 6am, indicating that parents often seek sleep-related advice at times when information is usually not readily available, thus attesting to the need for accessibility of health-related information.