When Sleep Training Doesn’t Work

I am often approached by parents who have tried “everything” and their little one still isn’t sleeping. Or, they may have even engaged P2B and it “didn’t work”.

So I thought I would cover some of the reasons why it sometimes doesn’t work.

1. Parents have unrealistic expectations. Little ones are unpredictable and like adults have good, bad and great days. We need to be flexible. A bad day, doesn’t mean it’s not working.

2. Parents compare. Don’t compare what your little one is doing to anyone’s else’s baby. Write your own story…. they all get there.

3. Parents were not ready to implement the changes. Sleep training is HARD. REALLY HARD! If it was easy then we would all have sleeping little ones. Which leads me to point #4

4. Parents try too many options. CONSISTENCY is the key to successful sleep training. There is unfortunately no other way. So when it gets tough, some parents resort back to their old settling technique (which wasn’t working) or they try another settle, then another settle and another. When you sleep train you need to stick to ONE settling technique for at least 2 weeks.

5. Parents need to find a technique that works for them. There is never a one size fits all settle technique. So what worked for your baby #1 or friend may not work for this little one.

6. Points 2 to 5 cross over at many levels but will always come back to the same outcome… CONSISTENCY!

7. Parents don’t have the right sleep windows / awake time.

If you are struggling with sleep training, take a break. You didn’t get here overnight and it won’t be fixed overnight. It takes TIME.

Have a break for a few weeks and revisit what you felt worked and what didn’t.

THEN implement a new plan BUT:

1. Don’t start again until you are ready and 100% committed; and

2. Don’t start until you are ready to be CONSISTENT

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