What is “camping out” in sleep training? As babies grow up, parents often wonder how to help them learn to fall asleep independently. One method, known as “camping out,” is a gradual approach to helping your baby learn to fall asleep independently. This is a great method to consider [...]
How do I help my toddler stay in bed without calling for me? Is your toddler calling for you after lights out? It’s hard for many children to tune out and go to sleep. A sleep-friendly room needs to be boring – calm, quiet, and dark. In other words, nothing too exciting or distracting going on. [...]
What are the top 4 sleep training myths? 1) If you sleep train, you have to let your baby cry it out There are many ways to approach helping a baby learn to sleep through the night, and the specific techniques we recommend depend on the age of the child and parent or family preferences. There are [...]
How do I get the television (and other electronics!) out of my child’s room without causing a week-long meltdown? In general, toddlers who have electronics in their room and use them right before bedtime get less sleep and have more sleep problems than ones who don’t. It may appear that the [...]
What is Ferber sleep training? The Ferber method is a type of modified (or graduated) extinction approach to sleep training. In the case of bedtime, extinction (unmodified) is simply a fancy way of saying “ignoring a specific behavior (like crying) until it stops.” It does not mean ignoring [...]
What should I know about toddler sleep? 1. It is normal for toddlers (and everyone else!) to wake several times during the night. 2. Most toddlers (over 80 %) stop taking naps between the ages of 3 and 4 years, but some will still need a nap at age 5 years and a few may even need a nap at age 6 [...]
When should I consider putting a small mattress on the floor for my toddler? If your child is falling asleep in your bed (the primary adult caregiver’s bed) and needs to have physical contact with you to do so, using a small mattress on the floor next to your bed can be a great first step in [...]
Why does my baby cry? Babies cry for many reasons. Many parents believe that crying always signals distress. Unfortunately, we cannot guess or know exactly what an infant feels when he wakes up during the night. However, we do know that crying is a very powerful form of early communication. Infants [...]
What is a sleep regression? There has been a great deal of talk about “sleep regressions.” What is a sleep regression? A sleep regression is reported to occur when a baby who was sleeping well (or relatively well) all of a sudden has a sleep issue, whether that issue is falling asleep at [...]
When do babies sleep through the night? Most babies are ready and able to start sleeping for long stretches, up to 8 to 10 hours, by 3 to 6 months of age. In the first few months, newborns can only sleep for a few hours at a stretch as they need to be fed at least every 2 to 3 hours. And often much [...]