Unfortunately, we don’t get any practice swings or dress rehearsals when becoming a parent. Your first run-through is the final performance! This then naturally increases our dedication to solving problems before they spring up.
What to feed baby, that’s often a contentious subject on its own, and we often find ourselves with a sudden fascination in poo and nappies which we didn’t have before.
Sleeping and crying are the other two focuses. As a baby sleep consultant, nurse and mother, I can assure you I’ve done a lot of research on both.
Will my baby cry?
The biggest question that parents have when they start sleep training is, “Will my baby cry?”
This really isn’t the question they want the answer to, because babies cry all the time. In fact, if a baby didn’t cry, it would be cause for concern.
What they’re really asking when they pose this question is, “How much will my baby cry, and will I be able to provide comfort when they do?”
Misleading Information
Why is this the major concern with new parents? Naturally nobody likes to hear their baby cry. Unfortunately, parents nowadays are able to access a wealth of misinformation that claims if you don’t respond immediately when your baby cries, you could actually be harming them.
This wasn’t always such a contentious issue. Up until Doctor William Sears came out with his Attachment Parenting theory in 1993, parents were reasonably comfortable with the idea that leaving a child to cry for a period of time when they woke in the night was safe, if maybe a little unpleasant.
But once The Baby Book was published, a generation of new parents began to cling to the idea that it was not just ineffective, but was causing brain damage. Sears cited studies to back up his claim, but those studies looked at babies who were suffering from colic and a condition known as persistent crying, which is very different from allowing a child some crying time through sleep training.
So the argument has raged on for nearly 25 years now. Attachment parenting advocates accusing sleep training advocates of wilfully neglecting their babies for their own convenience.
The research
It’s surprising that the paediatric and scientific community haven’t done more to prove or disprove this assertion, given the magnitude of the consequences. After all, if we’re causing our babies brain damage by allowing them to cry, even for a short period, wouldn’t every parent in the world alter their approach to prevent it?
One reason Doctor Sears’ claims didn’t provoke an immediate and widespread investigation was because they were hugely misleading. The Yale researchers who conducted one of the studies his research pulled from responded to his use of their work by saying, “Our paper is not referring to routine, brief stressful experiences, but to abuse and extensive neglect. It is a mis-citation of our work to support a non-scientifically justified idea.”
Another went so far as to actually note in the study’s own conclusion that, “Our findings provide evidence that the quality of maternal behaviour appears to be unrelated to this effect.” So the mother’s response or lack of it to the condition of persistent crying was inconsequential.
How do we know it’s not harmful?
So that’s the argument against the original suggestion that started this whole movement, but its supporters will invariably ask, “Where’s your evidence to the contrary? How do you know it’s not harmful?”
Back in 2012, Dr. Anna Price, a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Children’s Hospital’s Centre for Community Child Health in Melbourne, Australia, conducted an extensive study . It followed a group of two hundred and twenty six children. The study measured mental health, sleep, stress regulation, child-parent relationship, maternal health and parenting styles.
Five years later, she followed up with the families to see the if the one third of the children whose parents had employed some method of sleep training had experienced any of the terrifying side effects that Doctor Sears had warned of. The result… they had not. In fact, to quote the study, “There was no evidence of differences between intervention and control families for any outcome. Behavioural sleep techniques have no marked long-lasting effects.”
But critics continue to try to shoot holes in the evidence. “The sample size was too small,” is a common complaint, no matter what the size of the study might be. “We need further study,” is another, assuming that further study supports their position, which, as of yet, it hasn’t.
In March of last year, when Paediatrics published another peer-reviewed study . It showed sleep training to be both effective and safe, it didn’t change the mind of Doctor Sears or his followers.
Look at the positives
For those new parents who have been bombarded with misinformation and hearsay regarding the safety and efficacy of sleep training, it’s yet another assurance that you can feel confident getting your child to sleep through the night. This is important, safe, and beneficial to your entire family.
There’s one thing that everyone can agree on. The fact that a good night’s sleep is beneficial for mother and baby alike.
So the answer is yes, sleep training is safe.
Sleep itself is glorious, rejuvenating, and beneficial to you, your baby, and your entire family. Focusing on your child’s sleep habits is something you can feel good about. In short, your baby and yourself can both sleep soundly, knowing you’ve made the right choice.