Baby sleep training methods

Getting your baby to sleep can be one of the most frustrating and exhausting tasks of parenthood. Most mums and dads look forward to the night they can lay their baby down and get some uninterrupted sleep for themselves.

If you need more advice about a baby's sleep problems and getting them into a routine, speak to your GP, midwife or health visitor.

Some parents also try baby sleep training. Below are some of the most popular sleep training methods.

The Ferber sleep method

One of the best-known, and discussed, baby sleep training techniques is the Ferber sleep method, Dr. Richard Ferber is director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital Boston.

On day one, using the Ferber sleep method, put your baby to bed while she is still awake but tired and ready to sleep. Then leave her room. She will probably not fall asleep on her own and will cry. Wait five minutes, and then re-enter your baby's room. Try to console your baby, but do not pick her up or stay for more than a short time - about 2 or 3 minutes.

The second time the baby cries, wait a little longer - 10 minutes - before re-entering the room to console her. Again, do not pick her up or stay more than a short time.

The third time the baby cries, wait 15 minutes before going into the room and offering the basic comfort used the first two times.

Repeat the process as long as needed on the first night, waiting 15 minutes between intervals. Eventually, the baby will fall asleep on her own during one of those time periods. If she wakes up during the night after falling asleep, begin the schedule again, starting with the minimum wait time for that day and working up to the maximum wait time.

On the second night, use the same procedure but start at 10 minutes for the first time interval. Then progress to 15 and then 20 minutes. For every night after, extend the intervals by five minutes. In time, the baby will learn to fall asleep on her own.

Parents wishing to try the Ferber sleep method should be well-rested before they start sleep training. That's because in the early days especially, they will be spending a lot of time over the course of the night listening for their baby's cries, checking their watches, and entering and exiting their baby's room. Dr Ferber would say that most babies are sleeping through the night or only waking once by 3 months old and then definitely sleeping through the night by 5 months.

It's easy to become frustrated getting your baby to sleep, particularly if progress isn't immediate. But avoid picking your baby up or, if she is used to sleeping in her own room, taking her to your room because that will undo any progress made up to that point.

What is weaning and when to start weaning

 What is weaning?

Weaning is the gradual introduction of solid foods into the diet of your baby.

At the end of the process your baby will be eating most of the same healthy foods as the rest of the family - as long as it is chopped-up or mashed.

When should I start weaning?

The question of when to start weaning is the subject of frequent debate among health professionals and parents.

The official advice - endorsed by the Department of Health and others - is that infants should start to be weaned at six months.

Signs to look for that your baby is ready to start the weaning process are:

They can stay in a sitting position and hold their head steady
They can co-ordinate their eyes, hands and mouth so that they can look at the food, pick it up and put it in their mouth, all by themselves
They can swallow food. Babies who are not ready will push their food back out, so they get more round their face than they do in their mouths
A larger appetite and teething are often mistaken for signs that your baby is ready to be weaned.

Why should I start weaning at six months?

For around the first six months of life babies needs nothing more than breast milk or formula milk, which provide all the nutrients and vitamins that they need.

Health experts agree six months (26 weeks) is the ideal time to start introducing your baby to solid foods. Before this, your baby's digestive system is still developing and weaning too early may increase the risk of allergies and infections.

At, or around, six months a baby's body starts to run out of some key nutrients, such as iron. It is therefore important that when babies are introduced to cow's milk around their first birthday, they are getting these nutrients through a variety of solid foods.

Basics of your Baby Talk

For your little one to get the most benefits:

Talk with her often. Talkative parents tend to have talkative children.
Get some alone time with your infant. Baby talk is most beneficial when it's one-on-one between parent and child, with no other adults or children around.
When your baby tries to talk back to you, don't interrupt or look away. She needs to know you care about listening to her.
Look your child in the eyes. She'll respond better to speech when she's looking right at you.
Limit how much TV she sees and hears. Too much can stunt language growth. Besides, you’re more fun than the voice on the screen, right?
Throw in some grown-up speak, too. Your baby needs to hear how words sound in everyday conversation.
As your child develops and matures, so should the way you talk to her.

How To Help Your Baby Sleep Independently?

 Every baby's sleep needs are different. Newborns can sleep 10 to 18 hours a day. From 4 months to about 1 year of age, they'll sleep 9 to 12 hours at night, with a couple added naps during the day. But remember, most babies will sleep only about 5 to 6 hours at a time to start. Still, even a 5-hour interval will give you some rest.


After your baby is about 4 months old, running into the nursery at every whimper can set a pattern that's hard to break.

"You really want to start having your child fall asleep independently so that they're not dependent on rocking, nursing, going in the stroller," Mindell advises. "Then when they wake up in the middle of the night, they can fall asleep on their own."

12 Great Newborn Mom Tips

 1. Don't Hush-A-Bye-Baby

You don't have to be quiet while the baby is sleeping. The womb is loud, and newborns are used to the noise. When ours first came home, we watched television and I would vacuum, wash dishes and talk on the phone around her while she slept. She got used to sleeping with noise, and I could get stuff done. I am still able to vacuum in her room while she sleeps (she is 14 months), and she is peaceful and well rested when she wakes up.

2. Soothe Your Wailing Newborn

When my baby cries, I comfort her by patting her back in a heartbeat-like rhythm. That helps her burp more quickly, and it also helps her relax if she's crying from insecurity. If this doesn’t work, I also try one or all of Dr. Harvey Karp's five calming moves: swaddling, shushing, holding her on her side, swinging her or letting her suck. Sometimes it takes all six!

3. Help Get Your Baby to Latch

If you are having latch-on issues while breastfeeding your baby, you can use breast shields to help the process. This was a wonderful tip that I learned from my lactation consultant. I had to use the shields for an entire month before my baby would latch onto my own nipple without them. Had it not been for the breast shields, I would not have been able to continue nursing my baby.

4. Get Prepped

At 3 weeks, babies’ days and nights become more predictable, and you can focus on yourself in addition to your newborn. One way to do that is by reducing your stress level - and having everything ready for your hungry baby and yourself is one way to do that. Start by prepping for the next feeding as soon as the previous one is over. For example, after an 11 p.m. feeding, get ready for the 2 a.m. one by prepping whatever you need for feeding and putting out fresh drinking water for yourself so you don’t have anything to think about in the middle of the night. During the day, take advantage of the baby’s naps to work out, shower or catch up on e-mail, or take a nap too.

5. Keeping Your Baby Awake During Feedings

When our baby was eating slowly and sleepily, my husband and I would massage her cheek to stimulate her to eat faster. A gentle stroke with a fingertip on her cheek was all it took, and on those long sleepless nights, this simple trick was a godsend! Our friends have found it works great with their infants too. When babies eat efficiently until they're full before going to sleep, they sleep for longer between feedings. And that means you’re both likely to be calmer!

6. Help Your Baby Bond with Dad

Make sure your baby has ample time alone with Daddy. His touch and voice are different than yours, and this will begin a bonding process and give you a break. Plus, it gets the baby used to being with someone other than you. The first few times can be hard. Make sure your baby is fed and well rested, as this will give you at least one or two hours before you're needed again. Then leave Dad and the baby alone. If you stay nearby, make sure the baby can’t see or hear you, and resist the urge to go into the room and "fix" things if she starts crying. Your baby cries with you and you experiment to find out what's wrong. Dads need time to do this too - in their own way. By allowing this time, your child will learn there is more than one way to receive comfort, which will help immensely when you leave your baby with a sitter or another family member for the first time. You could have your partner bathe her, put her to bed or just read or talk to her.

7. Crib Comfort

When my daughter was 3 weeks, she liked to sleep only on me. Every time I put her in her bassinet after she fell asleep on me, she would wake up. I realized she probably liked the warmth. So I started wrapping a blanket around a heating pad and letting it warm up her bed while I fed her. After she was done and had fallen asleep, I removed the heating pad and slipped the baby between the folds of the warm blanket. She would snuggle right in. Prewarming a blanket in the dryer also works.

8. Sleep Trick

When our baby was around 3 weeks old, she would cry and fuss because she was having a hard time falling asleep. One day, we started rubbing her nose, and it worked. In fact, it worked every time. We would start at the top and stroke it straight down to the tip, over and over. Her eyes would grow heavy and eventually close. She is now 4 months old and it still works.

9. Let Your Baby Lead The Way

Being a first-time parent can be stressful - especially when everyone wants to put in their two cents and what they're telling you doesn't feel right. As soon as I came home with my baby, my friends and relatives started giving me advice (more like demands) on how to raise her - they wanted me to do everything on schedule. It was nerve-racking, but I learned to ignore it and remember that this is my child. I couldn't bear the thought of hearing him cry in hunger because it hadn’t been three hours since his last feeding. If you let your baby - not someone else - tell you when he is hungry or tired, you will find that he (and you!) will be much happier and healthier.

10. Baby's First Baths

After the baby's umbilical cord stump falls off (generally by week 3), you’ll finally be able to give her a real bath. To keep the baby warmer, more comfortable and less likely to cry, place a warm washcloth over her tummy during the bath. It makes all the difference between a happy water baby and a miserable one. Also, if your house is on the colder side, turn up the heat a little before the bath so the cold air won't be as much of a shock after the bath. These tips made all the difference for my little girl - she loves bath time.

11. Another Reason Babies Cry

People always say that babies cry because they want food, their diaper needs to be changed, they're bored, etc., but they always leave out that the baby might be cranky because he's tired. Our son used to go nuts during his first month, and we tried everything to calm him. It turned out that what he really needed was less stimulation and more sleep. Sometimes babies really need less - not more - from you.

12. Layer Your Baby's Crib

When a baby has a diaper blowout or upset tummy in the middle of the night, it can be hard on both mom and baby to have to completely unmake the crib or bassinet and change all the sheets - and all the fussing makes it that much harder to get the baby back to sleep. So I put two layers of sheets and waterproof mattress covers on the crib mattress at a time (mattress cover, sheet, mattress cover, sheet). That way, we can just pull off the top two layers, change her and put her back in bed. No fumbling for clean bedclothes - and no 2 a.m. laundry detail!