You should start sleep training

As a sleep deprived mother, sleep training may sound like a lifeline. You may be tempted by experts who offer a good night’s sleep. They will make it sound like it’s an easy fix with no bad consequences.

Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The problem with sleeping through the night

Let’s start with the fact that night waking is normal. You will be able to build and keep up milk production if you continue to nurse at night.

Moreover, sleep training programs assume that babies can be taught how to sleep. They also claim that as long as babies’ physical needs are met it’s ok. And suggest, that you can overlook your baby’s emotional needs and hunger needs for the greater good.

According to various studies, cry-it-out, controlled crying and any variation of extinction method is damaging in the long run.

Methods, whether prolonged or controlled, are based on “training” the baby to accept there’s no point in crying. Protesting takes a lot of energy. When babies are abandoned they shut down periodically to save energy and in the long term accept to give up.

Furthermore, as an adult you can be soothed by words, babies need physical reassurance not words.

What’s the harm?

The stress of being separated from a beloved caretaker can really hurt in a physical way. Contrary to expert claims, babies who are “trained” are not self-soothing. Research shows that the babies’ cortisol stays high, even though they’re not crying. In other words, they go in survival defense mode but stop asking for help.

Is it really worth it?

Actually, training methods are not that successful. The success rates that you will often hear only accounts parents who go thru with the training. So, they won’t include the ones that give up.

Almost a third of parents drop out of typical sleep training study.

Lastly; they won’t mention the fact that the training is repeated. Which means you will have to go through the training every time he gets sick, teeths or simply go on a holiday.