Sleep training

I've recently become a mum and am struggling with which approach to take with getting my daughter to sleep both at nap times and night times. She struggles to fall asleep without being on mum and I'm not sure whether to let her have as much time with me as she needs, or try and train her to sleep on her own.

I can see there are clearly two schools of thought, the 'let the baby cry' methods and the 'attachment parenting' where I let her soothe on me as much as she needs.

Just wondering what methods have worked for other mums so I can start to form my ideals on how to encourage my little one to sleep.

Thanks in advance.

Hey Amy - congratulations!!! Ive got 8 kids and they have all been different, they usually have their own way of dealing with sleep, my latest one has just recently started to drift off to sleep on his own after his last feed so i'm happy and let him take the lead, the others have been abit of both so dont worry and just let your baby lead - thats the easist way i think.  Make sure you take care of yourself too, hugs karen xxx

Thanks for that Karen. Esme has decided she sleeps in a sling in the day but is very happy to sleep for 6 or 7 hours in her moses basket at night. Letting your child show you how to parent is definitely the way forward!

Hi Amy, 

I was given a swaddle pod at my baby shower, and I have found it to be a godsend. At first it seemed a little odd to be basically 'straight jacketing' my child, but he settles down straight away with it and it stops him waking himself by flinging his little arms around and seems to offer him a lot of comfort (similar to me holding him). 

Just type swaddle into mothercare to have a look. I really don't agree with letting a baby 'cry it out' I did that with my first child (young mum, no clue, took advice from health visitor) and it made me very unhappy!)

Hi,

Swaddling did help my little girl too. Although she's now almost 8 months and will not entertain the idea! I'm now totally happy with just letting her sleep how she wants and I will never EVER let her cry it out. If people are considering it who are reading this, please do some research first so called experts like Gina Ford are doing our relationships with our children no favours what-so-ever.

Hi there,

I found this articel really interesting. I have two kids, one boy one girl. Although I breastfed my kids have both slept through from around 3 months old. It makes such a difference as you need all the sleep you can get to tackle what they throw at you during the day.

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