No. Sleep "training" has a bad reputation as leaving your child alone in a room to cry forever. I don't know about you, but that doesn't feel right to me. I like to think of it more as sleep "empowering," where we empower your little one to sleep indepently by giving them the tools to do so and the reassurance that they are safe. There are many wonderful and gentle sleep training methods to help slowly teach your child to sleep indepently. That being said, there will most likely be some crying as a form of protest. Crying is how our little ones communicate before they can speak, but that doesn't mean they're crying out of fear or pain. In most sleep training cases they are crying out of protest being in their sleep environment. Once they get used to being in their crib or bed and are well rested again, the crying will quickly cease. I work closely with you to select a sleep training method that's best for your child - one you're comfortable with for your family - and provide you with the tools to implement that method with success.

The internet is a wealth of information and you can find anything you're looking for on it. However, it's often a cause of information overload, and can be hard to dicern which information is acurate. When I was sleep deprived and trying to get my son to sleep, I scoured the internet and social media for help. I found a ton of information, but much of it was conflicting, didn't apply to our situation, and I had no idea how to implement what did seem to apply. Nevertheless troubleshoot anything that wasn't discussed in what I found online. As a certified pediatric sleep consultant, I send you one, streamlined and concise plan to implement with your little one. I provide you with information and methods specific to your family and situation, and backed by extensive research. In addition I provide you with one-on-one follow-up support to ensure your little one's sleep success. Want to learn more? Contact me!

Every child is different, but many families see improvement with night sleep in 2-3 nights, while naps typically take 2-4 weeks to come together.

Once you purchase a sleep package, I will ask you to complete an in-depth intake form so I can fully understand your little one's current sleep situation. Using the information you provide on the intake, I create a customized and highly detailed sleep plan specifically to meet your child's and family's needs. After I provide your personalized sleep plan to you we will have a training call to review the plan together and establish the next steps to help you implement the plan. You will then have 1-2 weeks of follow-up email support from me once you've implemented the plan. My goal is to provide you with all the support you need to make your little one's sleep training experience a success.

According to Riley Children's Health at Indiana University Health, "mounting research suggests that the practice of letting a baby cry for short intervals while learning to put herself to sleep is not inherently harmful —and does not seem to cause long term emotional problems for the baby or disrupt the parent-child bond." Additionally, a recent study published in the journal of Pediatrics evaluated 43 sets of parents and babies placed into three different groups, one group didn't follow a sleep training method, the second group used a delayed bedtime approach to find the right bedtime for their child, and the third group followed a graduated extinction sleep training method that allowed letting the baby cry for short intervals between checking on baby, then increasing those intervals between checks. Researchers measured stress levels of these babies by analyzing their saliva for the stress hormone, cortisol. "The babies in the sleep training groups showed slightly lower cortisol levels than the babies who had no sleep training. This suggests that in the bedtime fading group and the graduated extinction group, the babies had less stress and anxiety. What’s more, the babies that did follow a sleep training method feel asleep more quickly and woke up less frequently in the middle of the night." But what about later in life? Have I damaged their emotional health by letting them cry? What about creating a secure attachment with my child? "The study authors found that after a year, there was no difference among the groups in the children’s emotional and behavioral health or in the parent-child attachment." I find this so encouraging and it's part of why I do what I do! There are many misconceptions in how to sleep train, and one method does not work for all children, which is why it's so important to work with a certified pediatric sleep consultant, like myself. Leaving your child alone in their room to cry for hours is never recommended, is not safe and could cause severe stress for your baby and you. I work closely with each family to determine the method most appropriate for their child's temperament and coach them through how to safely implement the method with as little crying as possible. Source: https://www.rileychildrens.org/connections/does-sleep-training-your-baby-cause-long-term-harm