Peaceful Nights » Sleep Coaching

    Every week I have moms sitting in my consulting rooms to get help for their baby’s sleep. Today was no different, an 11 month old little chap, lets call him Nicholas who was not sleeping longer than 30 minutes at each sleep during the day and at night was waking hourly before 11pm and after 1am woke every 45 minutes. His poor mom is beyond tired and was justifiably desperate. She had heard that she had two options open to her, and was desperately hoping I would have another solution: Get in a sleep trainer who she had heard about, to sleep train her baby Live with the sleep...

  Soothing a new baby can be a real challenge and if you are confronted with an unsettled little one, you will be looking for any tool to help you calm your baby. One of the tools available to us is a dummy or pacifier and although there is a heated debate on our Facebook page on the merits of having or not having a dummy, for many parents it becomes a sanity saver. The reason that many of us swear by dummies (pacifier, binkies and soothers) is that many babies simply sooth best when sucking. This is true from a physiological perspective. Your baby’s mouth has more touch receptors than any...

QUESTION: My 18 month old daughter who will be 19 months on the 23rd of this month is refusing to sleep in her cot and insists on sleeping on our bed. It started a little while ago and was only the night time sleep but now its for her day nap as well. When I put her down in her cot she immediately stands up and screams and cries and gets herself into such a state saying doedoe and pointing to our room that I give in to her and put her on our bed.  Where she gladly goes to sleep on our bed even without us lying there. After leaving her there to fall asleep I then...

QUESTION: I have a 5month old baby boy. He's only on formula at the moment and will be starting solid foods next month. He sleeps well at night only waking up once in the early hours of the morning for a feed. My problem is i need to get him out of the habit of being rocked to sleep, ive started by now putting him down when he is just about to fall asleep. He will not suck a dummy and only somtimes uses his teddy for comfort. How do i teach him to self sooth and fall asleep by himself without the screaming and crying. Please help as im sure once he's learnt that skill we will be a happier...

In a very funny episode of ‘Mad about you’ – a 90’s sitcom, Paul and Jamie have a ‘conversation’ about the merits of letting their baby, Mabel, cry it out. It is the funniest clip but all too real. When we are sleep deprived and at the end of our tether, we will try anything (well almost) to get a good night’s sleep.  But the controversy around controlled crying can be overwhelming. Controlled crying entails leaving a young baby or toddler to cry until it falls asleep in an attempt to ‘extinguish’ night wakings. Those pro controlled crying say...