What age can you do baby sleep training?

I often get asked, what age can you do baby sleep training?

I'm going to look first at sleep training vs. prevention of sleep problems. I'm taking you back nearly 3 years to my first ever blog! Wow! I can't believe where the time has gone...

How to prevent sleep problems in your baby

I'm a big fan of preventing sleep problems and doing it early. In the UK we practiced sleep promotion with babies as young as 2-3 weeks of age as long as breast feeding/feeding was established and they were thriving/gaining weight adequately.

baby sleep

In New South Wales here in OZ we have a treatment approach where sleep problems are not prevented and you are sent off to sleep school as a rite of passage. I was actively discouraged from preventing sleep problems in babies in one health network I worked in. I was told instead to fill the form out and fax it off to Tresillian! I kid you not. I was stunned.

In the UK when I was practicing sleep promotion in babies it was so easy to do. Babies rarely cried. It was knowing when and how to settle them. And we never wrapped babies ever and there was very little intervention if any. They just closed their eyes in their bassinets and went to sleep.

baby in cot

Fast forward a few years and OZ and it's all sleep training.

A lot of my clients are now coming to me early with baby no 2 and are even ringing me before their due date to make sure I'm available! I love sleep promotion. It's calm, very little or no crying and we instill healthy sleep habits early on. I love it. And so do the babies. And so do the mums.

Don't wait until things are out of control. It doesn't need to hapen and it's easy and gentle if it's done early. I'd definately do it by 1-2 months, 3 at the latest and definately before 6 months. By then there is crying because of all the learnt behaviour.

The research says that sleep training has an optimum age of 6-12 months to be effective.

I'd like to add sleep promotion onto that and do it before 3 months. You'll be a happier parent and have a happier more content baby if you do.

Call me if you'd like to know more. I love sharing my secrets :-)

Tags: baby sleep Baby sleep problems Baby Sleep Schedule baby sleep training fil_Baby Sleep and Settling Nurture Parenting sleep training Sydney baby whisperer Toddler sleep problems

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Karen really understand Toddler Behaviour

I have been going to Karen since my daughter was 7 weeks old. Even through her toddler years, Karen has been spot on and has helped immensely with toddler behaviour related questions. Karen guided me through potty training issues and how to best navigate them based on my strong willed child.

Nurture Parenting - knowledgeable, supportive and gentle

Karen was understanding, kind and supportive with clear strategies to help improve our toddlers sleep. She explained what was happening and gave us a plan to follow. This is the second child we have used Karen’s methods with and I would recommend Nurture Parenting to any parents wanting to better understand their babies sleep and gently help them to self soothe and sleep better.

After buying Karen’s newborn program and successfully using it on baby 2, i decided to start even earlier with baby 3. I got a little confused on certain things since she’s preemie but Karen helped me go back to my core and center, listened attentively and answered all my questions. She also went beyond that and shared new ideas with me. It was ace. I might book another in a few weeks if needed. For now baby is doing everything by the book

Advice and videos are so clear and succinct

I just wanted to write and say thank you. We started your program almost three weeks ago, and it has dramatically changed our babies sleep for the better. Toby (10 months) went from waking 6+ times each night. We fumbled during each wake, as we offered dummies, bottles, whatever we thought would stop the crying for a moment. The only thing that we achieved, was waking him up even more and frustrating the **** out of him!

The first night of magic presence took 40 minutes, and now he is down within minutes once he is placed in the cot. We have had a few sleep throughs as well.

Your advice and videos are so clear and succinct. We found them so easy to follow. To compare, we looked back on a sleep consultant plan that we paid $300+ for with our firstborn and were stunned at how complicated and convoluted the plan was. No wonder it didn't work!!

I was so nervous about going back to work being so sleep deprived, and I was also concerned about how Toby would cope with the transition to day care. However, I now feel a lot more confident (and well rested!).

All the best and thank you again.

Christina

I'd pay 10 X what I did for this sleep program

never wanted to sleep train, I didn’t think I could personally tolerate listening to my baby cry endlessly. It surprised me how quickly my 7mo picked this up. Night one we removed the dummy and overnight feed cold turkey. We’re on night 11 and bub has been sleeping through almost every night since night 2 (we’re still battling early wakings every now and then). Day naps have also improved remarkably! I’ve also got one of the mums in my mother’s group onto this who is having huge success with her 8mo boy who she fed to sleep previously!

As my title says, I would pay 10x the amount for this program knowing how well it worked! Listening to the crying whilst in the room with bub was hard, but I know my presence was reassurance for her and it is the only reason I went with the program!!

Thanks so much Karen for this program, it’s working beautifully for us and I know it’s setting us up for long term success! I will recommend to anyone who will listen 😂

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I often get asked, what age can you do baby sleep training?

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