Just like so many families, we believed sleep training was what “good” parents did to help their baby sleep better. Even though it felt wrong from the get-go, we pushed our feelings aside and did the “hard work” of sleep training. First we tried a “gentle” method, and were then urged by the sleep consultant we had hired to move on to something “more effective”. The result was leaving our 6 month old to cry until she threw up, and then cry some more. That was the last night we ever let any of our children cry themselves to sleep.
She is now 6 years old, and I still regret every moment of the poorest parenting decision we have ever made. I try not to be too hard on us, since we were led to believe this was the only option. Just like so many other families, we were told that we either had to teach our baby to self soothe, or come to terms with never sleeping again.
This is, frankly, absolute BS perpetuated by conventional sleep trainers who bank on a parents’ sheer exhaustion to use preset formulas that go entirely against a parent’s natural instincts and against a child’s attachment needs.
You don’t have to feel like we did, and you don’t have to cry it out or wait it out. There is a middle ground, and I can help.
If you’ve ever felt pressure to sleep train, but knew that deep down it wasn’t right for you or your family, please reach out. We can come up with an approach that feels right for your parenting style, and work together to address your child’s unique needs.
