When it comes to getting your baby to sleep, unsolicited advice from friends and family can leave parents feeling frustrated, confused, and overwhelmed. Not to mention feeling pressured to try everyone’s sleep training methods.
But what you think you know about sleep training may not be 100% accurate. Whenever we create routines, habits, and rituals around sleep, we’re sleep training, believe it or not. Here we break down sleep training methods and offer alternatives to those well-meaning sleep training tips we’ve heard so much about.
What is sleep training, and is it a good choice for your baby?
Alternatives to sleep training: Books that can help
It’s easy to get caught up in the vast amount of sleep training tips and advice from friends and family, but ultimately the decision is up to you. These alternatives to sleep training books provide the answers you need to help you make the right decision.
4. How Babies Sleep: The Gentle Science-Based Method to Help Your Baby Sleep
This book by Sofia Axelrod provides caregivers with sleep training tips that fall in line with gentle, attachment parenting.
5. The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night, by Elizabeth Pantley
For some parents and caregivers, hearing their baby cry – especially when it can be avoided – is heart-wrenching. The “gentle removal plan,” outlined in the book, encourages parents to remove a soothing item, whether it’s a bottle, breast, or pacifier, gradually until baby is sleeping independently without it.
