In my article called What did Sleep Coaching my baby looked like for me? I tell you about the reason I decided to Sleep Coach and how I ended up choosing a method that did wonders for my family and for me.
I know from experience that when it comes to researching Sleep training methods, it can seem like a bottomless pit, which is why I have decided to list here the main points about the different sleep training methods out there, and hopefully save you a few (or a lot) of hours of wandering through the internet to find out that there are only 3 main sleep training techniques, even if it may seem there are a thousand different ones.
So first things firsts, there are 3 main methods:
- Extinction
- Gradual Extinction
- Parental Fading
Extinction
Extinction method is pretty straight forward, basically laying down your child in his crib wide awake and aware that he is going to bed after a calm and soothing bedtime routine. Once you place your baby in his crib, you may exit the room and are not allowed to return, regardless of the amount of crying.
Supposedly you will have your baby sleeping by himself in 3 to 5 nights, the first night will be the one with the most amount of crying and it will decrease every night until finally your baby can sleep by himself.
There are a lot of studies that avail this method but regardless of whether the method works or not, leaving a baby to cry by himself is not something most parents feel comfortable doing, so if you are within that category, I invite you to keep reading on the different methods you can try and that can also work, even if at a slower rate. Remember now we are trading time for less tears!
Gradual Extinction
Most methods fall under this category, the most popular being ‘Ferberizing’, a method created by Dr. Richard Ferber and while other people might call it differently, they are just basically twitching the method around and changing the name.
In this method you’ll start the same way as in the previous method with a soothing routine, you place your baby in his bed wide awake and then may exit the room, you will be allowed back in the room to perform ‘timed checks’, how often you go in as well as how you respond every time you go back, will depend on the specific method you chose.
This technique can really work if parents follow though and just to be clear, the timed checks are more about controlling the parents rather than controlling the babies, there is no ‘magic number’ that we know of and there will be many factors that will come to play when it comes to success, such as the temperament of the parents, the temperament of the baby and mostly, the consistency with which parents apply the method
So if you think that going inside the room after your baby has been crying non stop for 15 min and then only be allowed to hold him for 1 min before putting him back in his crib and then exit the room again and let him keep cry until your next time check allows it, is not for you, then by all means please keep reading since there is still one more method out there for you to try.
Parental fading
Like with the other methods we will start with a soothing bed routine, you will put your baby in his crib wide and aware but instead of going out, you will stay in the room and provide verbal and physical reassurance until your baby falls asleep, then again the way you respond to your baby will defer from method to method.
Gentle Sleep Coaching is modeled after parental fading and tweaked in such a way that we reduce the assistance every night that goes by, which allows the baby to adapt to the new changes and learn this new skill in a more gradual way.
It is all about finding the right balance between comforting your child and allowing him to settle on his own.
I find that parental fading and more specifically Gentle Sleep Coaching is what adheres the most to my philosophy and my parenting style, but it doesn’t mean that any of the above methods is better than the other or that one of them will harm your child (there have been many studies done throughout the years to prove against that), however if you want to have success when sleep training, then the better question to ask is: Which method do I feel more comfortable with? then prepare a plan and stick consistently to it.
If you, like me, find it that Gentle Sleep Coaching is the way to go, then don’t hesitate to send me a message, together we can create a personalized plan for you and your baby that you feel comfortable sticking to.
