This is Episode 2 of a 5 part sleep/sleep-training series).

On this episode Im discussing my views on sleep and sleep-training. I discuss how as a generation we are overthinking sleep in general compared to our parent’s generation and thus sometimes lose sleep over it.

00;00;06;03 – 00;00;37;04

Dr. Mona

Hey, everyone, welcome to the PedsDocTalk podcast. I’m your host, Doctor Mona, where each week I hope to educate and inspire you in your journey through parenthood with information on your most common concerns as a parent and interviews with fellow parents and experts in the field. My hope is you leave each week feeling more educated, confident and empowered in the decisions you make for your child.

 

00;00;37;06 – 00;00;56;21

Dr. Mona

Hello and welcome to episode 17. I have five episodes for the sleep series and this is one of them, so please make sure you download all of them and listen to it over the, you know, next week or year, however long it takes you. But all episodes are important when you’re kind of coming up with a plan on promoting sleep for your child.

 

00;00;56;23 – 00;01;15;11

Dr. Mona

And yes, I am a general pediatrician. I’m a mom and I do promote sleep training. And what that means is helping your child learn the skills to sleep on their own if they have not learned it already by a certain age. Now, I know some people listening may never ever want to do sleep training and that is totally fine.

 

00;01;15;18 – 00;01;36;11

Dr. Mona

But you’re going to kind of hear my thoughts on why I promote it. It doesn’t mean that everyone has to do it, but I hope that when you hear why I do it, why I promote it, you can understand where where I’m coming from. Now, all the methods I talk about, our methods that I stand by. You can also listen to episode 20, where I interview other mothers who’ve done different strategies, some of which is, the strategies I include in this episode.

 

00;01;36;16 – 00;01;58;23

Dr. Mona

But it’s important to understand when you listen that if you hear a method that may not work for you, listen to all the other methods and kind of keep an open mind on all of the methods, because they are all ones that I’ve seen work. Right. So I want you guys to have an open mind, because sometimes you don’t know of a method or you never knew someone was doing it a certain way, and you’re trying to stick to one method that’s just not working for you or your child.

 

00;01;58;27 – 00;02;21;04

Dr. Mona

When another one, which may seem like something you may never have thought of doing, can work better. Okay, so like I said this, this episode is going over an introduction on sleep training. Some strategies I have for those kids who are not yet climbing out of their beds and are mobile coming out of the room, basically this age, and I’m also going to be talking about at the end how we sleep train.

 

00;02;21;04 – 00;02;41;03

Dr. Mona

Ryan. Okay, so episode 18 is going to go over older children, right? Like two and a half, three, like if children have been transitioned to a bed and are coming out of the room, older kids that can kind of understand, you know, past three, like reward systems, things like that. I’ll go over then episode 18 as well.

 

00;02;41;03 – 00;03;03;04

Dr. Mona

Some common concerns I hear, like regression, illnesses, naps, things like that. So overall, why I was so passionate about starting the series was I do feel as a generation we are losing sleep over our kids sleep. And that was the title of this episode, if you think about it, for our parents generation. So us, if you ask your mom, okay, well, what did you do for my sleep?

 

00;03;03;04 – 00;03;21;23

Dr. Mona

I’ll say, which I did. I asked my mom, she’s like, you just slept. We just did it and we just figured you out. If you needed something, we went in, but otherwise you just slept. And that is the common thing that I hear, right? We as a generation have made such a big deal about sleep training when it really is not something that needs to be a big deal.

 

00;03;22;00 – 00;03;37;06

Dr. Mona

You basically have to choose what method works for you, what is important to you, and run with that, right? So again, like all the messaging, all the methods I talk about are methods that I stand by because I’ve seen them work. So even if you don’t love one of them, hear me out when I talk about each of them.

 

00;03;37;06 – 00;04;03;14

Dr. Mona

Okay, so if you have not already, please listen to episode four and six of my podcast, especially if you are a expecting parent or a first time parent with a kid under three months. Why is those episodes talk about laying a foundation for the first three months of life, where you may not even need to sleep train much, because if you can focus on the first three months and you’re like, what do you mean?

 

00;04;03;14 – 00;04;24;26

Dr. Mona

Like, I’m so tired. If you can focus on some things in the first three months, you can have a better quote unquote sleeper, that you may not have to actually do full on sleep training with that child because you’ll set up good skills of self settling, from an early age. Now, remember that in the first three months, babies are not going to be doing, you know, full on crying out.

 

00;04;24;27 – 00;04;46;17

Dr. Mona

I’ll talk about other methods that can come like towards the end of that and of that time frame, but you are going to hear some, methods and tips that I have in that episode to kind of create a foundation for healthy sleep, right? So that when you get to the age, when you decide to do some sleep training, whether it involves crying or not, and I’ll go into methods that do both, you’ll have a good foundation for that.

 

00;04;46;19 – 00;05;08;15

Dr. Mona

And you are here today. Maybe you came from my Instagram at Pete’s Dog Talk, or maybe you just found my podcast. You are here to hear my perspective, right? You are here because either you are confused and you don’t know what to do. What to do if sleep training is safe, or if sleep training is okay for your baby and you know you want to hear about my opinion, and I need to be clear that this is my opinion.

 

00;05;08;21 – 00;05;28;26

Dr. Mona

This is what I’ve seen work, and I really ask that you respect the differences. If you don’t feel the same way. Because I am sitting here telling you that I also respect anyone who is against sleep training. And I would. I would ask for that same respect back. But I know you’re here to ask, you know what methods are safe, quote unquote safe is cry it out.

 

00;05;28;26 – 00;05;57;18

Dr. Mona

Okay. What about some studies in episode 16 that I released today? I speak to a developmental psychologist. We talk about cortisol research and secure attachment, and we talk about that as well as the Romanian orphan orphan story, study or situation, which is a lot of the reason why there’s anti cri rhetoric is people who are anti cry for sleep training have latched on to those research studies when there really is flaws in those research studies.

 

00;05;57;18 – 00;06;13;17

Dr. Mona

Okay. So we talk about that in the other episode in that if you do end up choosing one of the crimes methods that I talk about, I want you to know that it’s not detrimental in any way, and it’s something I fully support. Now, if you don’t like it, if you don’t, it doesn’t sit well with you, then perfectly fine.

 

00;06;13;17 – 00;06;28;06

Dr. Mona

But if you do choose a crime at that, I want you to know that your kid is going to end up fine. And how do I know that? It’s from experience? A lot of it. A lot of my information coming is from what I’ve seen in the office and some evidence. Obviously there are not a lot of research.

 

00;06;28;09 – 00;06;55;03

Dr. Mona

Big, big patient population research studies in regards to sleep training there one there was one out of Australia, but there definitely needs to be more, I think I’m sure that will come out in the next few years, but a lot of the information you’re going to be hearing today is stuff that I see based on the evidence, and also more so on experience, that I have in my office and with patients and not even just my patients, but other pediatricians, patients and things I hear in the community.

 

00;06;55;05 – 00;07;16;29

Dr. Mona

So the rules of the episode are no judgment, right? You’re choosing what works best for you. Don’t bash other mothers and their choices, because in the end, how someone chooses to sleep, train their child has no effect on you and your life, right? So pick what works best for you. So I don’t understand the well you’re damaging and you’re doing this wrong, or you should have done this.

 

00;07;17;02 – 00;07;45;00

Dr. Mona

It really is a choice that every parent has to make. Okay? If your child has any weight gain issues, reflux, breathing concerns, chronic medical issues, you really should be clearing sleep training with your pediatrician. I encourage you asking your pediatricians advice on when can I start the training process right. Get their opinion. I get it that there are a lot of opinions out there, but your pediatrician will make sure that hey, okay, I am okay with your child not getting fit at night.

 

00;07;45;05 – 00;08;05;20

Dr. Mona

I am okay with this, that or the other. So it’s important to ask your pediatrician because again, every pediatrician may have a different style, but may have they’re the ones looking at your kid. So it’s really important to take their opinion, and also understand their opinion before you decide what’s best for your kid. And like I said, this is all from experience, right?

 

00;08;06;03 – 00;08;28;22

Dr. Mona

They’re not there’s not a lot of research studies about sleep training, and there will continue to be I know it, but right now this is a lot of just experience. What I see work what I see don’t work. So this is what I’m putting into this episode, right? The biggest thing is when you do choose, method, whatever method that may be, you have to be consistent, right?

 

00;08;28;27 – 00;08;46;14

Dr. Mona

Everyone has to be on the same page. So if you and your partner are wishy washy on which method to choose, decide if this is something you guys want. Decide if you would like to create these sort of sleep habits. At whatever age you decide and if you’re not ready, please don’t feel the pressure to do it.

 

00;08;46;24 – 00;09;07;03

Dr. Mona

I want you as a caretaker to be comfortable with the decision and timing for sleep training. Right. So that’s a big key here, because just say you’re feeling pressure like, well, your daughter or son should be sleeping through the night. You should sleep, train them. But you like the fact that the child’s waking up. You enjoy the, you know, the whatever situation you’re doing and you feel like it’s not the right time.

 

00;09;07;10 – 00;09;27;02

Dr. Mona

Don’t feel pressure. Don’t you know your kid the best? I’m just giving strategies and some thought processes to get you through these. You know, obviously sleep, sleep concerns and sleep training, questions that people have. You just have to do what’s best for you. Okay? And I have to be clear on this again. Parents who sleep, train, sleep, train their kids are amazing.

 

00;09;27;02 – 00;09;49;24

Dr. Mona

Parents and parents who do not sleep train. Their kids are also amazing parents, right? I just find that that kids who are sleep trained and when I mean sleep trained, I’m talking about an ability to sleep through the night, quote unquote. Remember, not all of us sleep through the night, right? No one does. We wake up, we toss and turn.

 

00;09;49;24 – 00;10;11;26

Dr. Mona

We go back to bed. Even if you don’t really remember it, we all do this. None of us are sleeping consistently through the night. We all wake up between sleep cycles. Right? But what I want is that by the time a child is one, you consider the sleep. Because in your toddler years, if you have good sleep, sleep can help you be a better eater.

 

00;10;11;26 – 00;10;29;10

Dr. Mona

Sleep can help with your behavior. And all those three things are interconnected, right? A better sleeper can be a better eater. A better eater can be a better sleeper. Better sleepers and better eaters have less tantrums. So that is why I do promote sleep training before the age of one. And the timing can be whenever you guys want.

 

00;10;29;17 – 00;10;47;29

Dr. Mona

And again, if you choose not to, that’s fine, but I hope you hear me out as to how it can have an impact on behavior. And definitely listen to episode 20 where I interview mothers because you’ll hear us talk a lot about that, that it really helped the child’s behavior and temperament overall when they’re just getting a good night’s sleep.

 

00;10;48;02 – 00;11;08;06

Dr. Mona

And remember, there is no right or wrong. This is why you hear all the things that you do well, don’t do this and do this. And maybe, you know, you if you did this and that’s a problem. This is my opinion, like I said. And you can disagree, but really just have an open mind because as you listen to this episode, I really need you to understand that all of these methods have been methods.

 

00;11;08;06 – 00;11;28;09

Dr. Mona

I see work, and I do want to promote this sort of inclusivity when it comes to how people choose to approach sleep with their kid. So kind of going into that, one of those things as to why I support it. So learning to self settle and fall asleep independently is a fundamental skill we all need to know as adults, right?

 

00;11;28;11 – 00;11;50;17

Dr. Mona

And babies can be taught this as well. So the debate about walls to young, how could you do that? I don’t look at sleep training as a negative at all. I look at it as a positive thing that we are teaching a skill, and when you get to the end, I’ll talk about how we approached it for Ryan and when we approached it, with sleep training and some, you know, tips that I have based on my personal experience.

 

00;11;50;19 – 00;12;09;22

Dr. Mona

It is an amazing thing to see your child be able to do that even in the infancy phase. So I know there are some people that think that it’s too young. You know, children should be with their parents and they can’t cry and they can’t do this. But I really want to reassure you that when you see your child learn how to self settle, it’s a very fascinating thing.

 

00;12;09;27 – 00;12;28;00

Dr. Mona

They will still need you, okay? They will still need mom and whoever else is their dad or whoever it may be, but that’s in the day, right? You are setting a routine for night that he nighttime is for sleep. And I am proud of you. And I know that you can do this. And that’s kind of my mentality when I approach sleep training.

 

00;12;28;00 – 00;12;49;24

Dr. Mona

Okay. And so, you know, like I said, naysayers may say it’s a little too early, but this is really, truly about teaching them that you are capable of falling asleep. You are capable of self settling yourself. If you wake up in between sleep cycles that you didn’t need anything from me, you are totally able to, you know, achieve this sort of sleep.

 

00;12;49;26 – 00;13;08;25

Dr. Mona

And it’s nothing about abandoning, right? There’s a sort of stigma that, oh, sleep training means that you’re abandoning them when they cry out, they need you 100%. If you leave your child crying for 24 or 30 hours and, you know, just never attend to their needs at all, you know, at all, they’re daytime, you’re just neglecting them. That’s different.

 

00;13;09;02 – 00;13;24;17

Dr. Mona

This is a boundary that we’re setting with sleep and just a time frame that we’re teaching them. Hey, this is sleep time. I’m going to teach you this awesome skill about how to sleep through the night. And you are going to be amazing at it. So that’s how I look at it, right? I do not look at it as abandoning.

 

00;13;24;24 – 00;13;42;20

Dr. Mona

And if you feel that way, maybe you should stop listening. Because when you find out how I sleep, train Ryan and call me and abandon her, I don’t think we can really be, you know, be cordial because it is a completely, completely benign thing to allow your child to self-soothe and teach them these skills from a young age.

 

00;13;42;22 – 00;14;13;28

Dr. Mona

And like I said earlier, a well-rested toddler can set you up for less meltdowns meltdowns in the toddler years. It does not mean that if you have a child sleeping through the night, that your child will be an angel because toddlers are going to have moods and tantrums, but you’re going to see a difference. I’m going to be perfectly clear when I have an 18 month old that comes into my office just from the first five minutes in the room of just talking to the family, the how the child’s demeanor is, I can tell if the child is getting sleep overnight and you’re like, how do you know?

 

00;14;14;04 – 00;14;38;10

Dr. Mona

I can tell you all the time, it’s what I see, okay, I don’t need a lot of information to know if a child is sleeping through the night at 18 months, okay? It has a huge, huge impact. And for any of you listening, which I hope some people are listening who maybe have done some sleep training or whatever it is I know you’re nodding your head in agreement because anyone who’s done it will tell you that it does add a huge benefit.

 

00;14;38;17 – 00;14;59;07

Dr. Mona

And there are some situations, even, that I have, that mothers of an older child didn’t do it. And for the younger child, they’re like, okay, forget this, I need to sleep train because it’s an important skill, like I said, and they see the differences. Now, we all know that nature, everyone’s nature, is different. So some kids can just by nature be have more tantrums and just be, you know, more clingy and that’s fine.

 

00;14;59;10 – 00;15;32;12

Dr. Mona

But there is a sleep component that is there and sleep training can provide this vital, vital sleep that is important as we approach the toddler years. And another reason why I promote sleep training is that it really does establish a routine. So imagine if you have me and you if we sleep through the night, which when I say sleep through the night, I mean sleep and not get up and go get food or go, go to the kitchen, but sleep where we may toss and turn that is still sleeping through the night, by the way, because we all get up, in between cycles and just toss and go back to sleep without any sort

 

00;15;32;12 – 00;15;49;19

Dr. Mona

of external, help. But if we do that in sleep, your routine in the day is also good, right? You are establishing a routine by getting night sleep. So when I find that parents approach the night sleep first, what I see is that the daytime gets a little bit better and it’s not going to be the next week.

 

00;15;49;19 – 00;16;07;28

Dr. Mona

The next two weeks, it’s going to be over time. But like you’ve may have heard, nighttime sleep is accomplished before daytime. You can be a great daytime sleeper, but if you’re not sleeping through the night, you’re not going to have consistency. So sleep training provides a routine, a routine that kids and toddlers can live off and thrive off of, right?

 

00;16;08;05 – 00;16;29;08

Dr. Mona

I know if you don’t have a routine for your toddler, you’re like, okay, I guarantee if you don’t have a, routine for your toddler, it’s going to be very difficult. And what I mean by routine is a resemblance of a flexible schedule. But nighttime sleep can help you create that routine in the daytime as well. And then going just to the medical reasons why I like sleep.

 

00;16;29;10 – 00;16;50;18

Dr. Mona

A well-rested person can be more healthy in terms of sleep. Has a regenerative property, right? If we sleep, it’s good for our immune system. It’s good for our mind, it’s good for development. And when I mean sleep, I’m talking not waking up. 1011 times a night and not being able to just go back down. It is it provides this sort of health resource in a way.

 

00;16;50;24 – 00;17;07;20

Dr. Mona

And so that’s why I like it. By the by the time the child one or definitely by the time the child’s three four years old. Right. Because if we’re getting into that three year, four year, five year range, I really want that child to get this fundamental skill so that they can be a good sleeper for the rest of their life, right?

 

00;17;07;22 – 00;17;22;17

Dr. Mona

And look, I am a very good sleeper. I talk to my mom, she’s like, yeah, you just did it. Like, you know, you’re a great sleeper. She doesn’t. And they don’t know about cried out and things like that. But it is very, very important to set up a good sleep foundation definitely in the first five years, if you don’t want it in the first year.

 

00;17;22;22 – 00;17;45;12

Dr. Mona

And there are many parents that will say that they let their child do some more sleep training later at 4 or 5, and that’s phenomenal. But I’m trying to reach the majority of the population that I find that struggles with sleep in the vital, vital years where development is happening, the immune system is developing that. I just want to really have an impact on the early years to promote good sleep habits.

 

00;17;45;14 – 00;18;09;07

Dr. Mona

And last and most importantly, sleep is important for caretakers. It has a huge impact on mental health for mothers, fathers, whatever. Caretaker. And I know you if you’re struggling with sleep right now, you probably feel that way. There are mothers who may say, oh, I love it. I love the co-sleeping, I like it great. But if you are exhausted and feeling like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do?

 

00;18;09;10 – 00;18;30;05

Dr. Mona

I need you to know that there are solutions and options for you to do, which include approaching sleep or sleep training. And this is key to me. And we keep forgetting about ourselves when we parent. This isn’t selfish. This isn’t anything more than us knowing that, hey, a kid is capable of doing this sort of skill and it will benefit me as well, right?

 

00;18;30;05 – 00;18;59;08

Dr. Mona

So don’t look at it as like, I’m only doing this for me. It’s also something a kid can do also. So that’s why I promote it. So it is my belief that all children can be sleep trained, but not in the same method and not at the same time. Okay, so please be clear on that. So when parents, when you hear someone say, oh, your four month olds not sleeping through the night, I don’t want you to feel bad because some kids can’t get that training down at that age.

 

00;18;59;10 – 00;19;19;03

Dr. Mona

Some kids do. So when you listen to the different methods, you’re going to have to kind of look at, okay, what is my child doing? What’s their temperament? Do I feel comfortable with this method? But understand that every child can be sleep trained by the age of one, but not every one of them can be sleep trained in the same method or at the same time.

 

00;19;19;03 – 00;19;37;07

Dr. Mona

Okay, so please remember that when you’re feeling bad or good about what’s going on here. So before we talk about the method, I need to go over briefly about safe sleep. So it’s really important that if you do training for your child that you are doing safe sleep practices. What this means is that the child should be on their back in a crib.

 

00;19;38;01 – 00;19;55;29

Dr. Mona

No bumper stuffed animals, nothing in the crib except baby. You can put a sleep sack on the baby, but obviously it should just be, where their arms are not tied in. Right? You don’t want an arm that’s tied in. If you’re going to be doing sleep training. So you want their arms to be free in the sleep sack, you know, like, obviously they have sleeves.

 

00;19;56;19 – 00;20;14;19

Dr. Mona

And I’ll get more into sleep sacks a little bit later. We didn’t use one, but I’ll explain why I didn’t. But that’s fine. But no. No blankets, no stuffed animals, no bumpers. Dress the baby. Cool. What that means is you don’t need to pack on the layers. And there’s no temperature that I’m telling you to put your thermostat at.

 

00;20;14;21 – 00;20;33;29

Dr. Mona

You know, literature or books. If you read some mommy books, they’ll say, oh, 68, 70, 74 degrees. But truly, it’s a huge range. We kind of, you know, look at, okay, is Ryan comfortable in the temperature? We keep the temperature in our in his room at 71. And he’s comfortable without a, sleep sack. And he’s in a footie pajama.

 

00;20;34;01 – 00;20;51;23

Dr. Mona

So footie pajamas are fine. Now, if you’re feeling cold in a room, maybe your baby will be feeling cold too. You can start to do some testing where you kind of check the back of their neck, and if their neck is ice cold, and if their or their neck is super sweaty when they’re sleeping, you may need to adjust the temperature or, you know, add or remove layers accordingly, right?

 

00;20;51;23 – 00;21;18;06

Dr. Mona

If it’s too cold, adding a layer. If it’s too if they’re too hot, removing one. So use your baby as a guide because there’s really no number that I’m requiring you to do. Avoid secondhand smoke. These are all things that can increase said. So if you are a smoker, I really encourage you to quit. Because if you’re doing any sort of sleep training, there may be moments where you’re leaving the room, you’re leaving them unattended for, you know, depending on the method, some may be small periods of time, so may be longer.

 

00;21;18;10 – 00;21;34;14

Dr. Mona

So I really need you guys to focus on the safe sleep okay. Safe environment. So if you have an older child you want to make sure that you’re mounting all the furniture in the room. So anything that they can climb on, because if you have an older kid and you’re doing some training with some of the methods, you don’t want them climbing on their furniture, you don’t want them throwing things.

 

00;21;34;14 – 00;21;52;27

Dr. Mona

So really keep them the room very bare. Make sure there are no exposed power cords, wires, cords of blinds and, electrical outlets. Choking hazards even within the crib reach of a kid who’s starting to climb up, and pull to stand. Right. Because you don’t want them grabbing any of that. This is important. Even if you’re not doing any sleep training.

 

00;21;52;27 – 00;22;13;24

Dr. Mona

Okay? So please remember the safety that you approach before you do any sort of training at all. And even if you’re not and you can look at my sleep highlight and safety highlight on my Instagram account for more, because I do give some visuals on safety for sleep, okay? And darkness. People have always asked about darkness. I do like a dark environment.

 

00;22;13;24 – 00;22;32;14

Dr. Mona

I think it does help. It helps the melatonin production. It helps the circadian rhythm. So yeah, it doesn’t need to be pitch black per se for every kid. But I do encourage some darkness and I, I would invest in some, you know, even some cheap, blackout curtains. It does help set the mood a little bit. Right. And when you hear about how we sleep train Ryan, it can really help.

 

00;22;32;14 – 00;22;55;02

Dr. Mona

Just kind of, relax the mood a little bit. Especially for nap times as well. Some babies don’t need it. Some babies don’t need sound machine. Some babies don’t need pacifiers. Some babies don’t need sleep sacks. Some don’t need some models. It really is a matter of figuring out your baby. And in the episodes four and six of my podcast, if you if you’re a new parent or expecting a baby, I talk about kind of the things to consider.

 

00;22;55;12 – 00;23;17;16

Dr. Mona

There are some people that think that, oh, every baby needs the this sort of strategy of swaddle and pacifier and sufficiency. Not every baby needs it. And it’s important to kind of recognize that. And I I’m a big believer that we have to read our kids in terms of what soothing tips work best for them. So in the first three months, your job is to learn about your kid, and that way you can learn about their temperament.

 

00;23;17;16 – 00;23;34;09

Dr. Mona

You can learn about what works so that when you get into the post three months, you can kind of learn a method that works for you and your baby’s temperament and what they’re kind of capable of. Okay, and in terms of sleep sacks, I was going to mention, we didn’t use a sleep sack. They are safe to use.

 

00;23;34;09 – 00;23;56;11

Dr. Mona

There are many, I don’t know, many pediatricians who parents who use them, mainly because we just you don’t really need them for healthy sleep. And I know there’s probably a big debate. I know many sleepers that sleep well without it. And when we decided to sleep train Ryan, we wanted to train him in an environment where he would thrive as a sleeper for years to come.

 

00;23;56;11 – 00;24;18;00

Dr. Mona

Right? So we didn’t want to use a sack, we didn’t want to use anything else. And I’ll get into more of that later. So the big question when do I start? Okay, so I usually discuss sleep training at the four and six month visit. But I do talk about sleep in general. Again, not training per se at the, you know, at the one month and two month visit with families.

 

00;24;18;00 – 00;24;38;03

Dr. Mona

And what I’m talking about at the one month and two month is what what sort of stretches are they getting, you know, between feeds at night, what are they doing at night time versus day? And please again, listen to my other episodes in regards to, you know, you just had a baby. Now what in terms of the newborn phase, because there are some things that can set a good foundation, like I said.

 

00;24;38;05 – 00;25;00;12

Dr. Mona

So I talk about it. The four and six month I have seen babies successfully be sleep trained two months plus, including my own son. So I’ll talk about at the end. But I don’t outwardly talk about sleep training methods at two months unless the family talks to me about it. I used to work at a practice which did promote sleep training at two months.

 

00;25;00;12 – 00;25;32;00

Dr. Mona

If a family wanted to do it, and I saw it be very successful and it was very successful for my son, but I don’t promote it for everyone because of comfortability. Obviously, some pediatricians still do think it’s a little early. I don’t if there’s certain things that I’m seeing. For example, if a two month old is already stretching feeds ten eight hours, which I have seen my son did that eight hours, then maybe we can get to do a sleep training that early, but for most babies it could be a little early, obviously, if they’re feeding repetitively overnight.

 

00;25;32;15 – 00;25;52;09

Dr. Mona

So you have to kind of consider that maybe two months is early, but I do think three, four months is actually a really nice sweet spot. Definitely six months. So I bring it up at the four month, I bring it up at the six month. And I do encourage it by the nine month visit, right? Like I said earlier, it can really help that sort of approaching toddler years.

 

00;25;52;12 – 00;26;11;09

Dr. Mona

But I talk about it every visit. But most of my families do perform some degree of sleep training. Some don’t even need to because their babies are excellent sleepers, before the age of one. So like I said, four months to one. So if these tips don’t help you that I’m going to go over, I really remember that.

 

00;26;11;09 – 00;26;32;17

Dr. Mona

This is just my opinion. This is all this is stuff I see. Most of my families do not hire consultants. Most of my families do not get packages or courses because you can do it without it. But don’t feel like if you are struggling that you have to do it alone. And if you feel like your pediatrician or you know anyone you know is not giving you the advice you need, go ahead and purchase those consultants.

 

00;26;32;17 – 00;26;51;09

Dr. Mona

Purchase those courses. But I really want to empower you in this episode that you could approach this on your own if you needed it, and if you need that extra help, right. If you need that extra, extra bit of motivation and planning, then those are when those courses and those are when the sleep consultants become very useful. So I do do it like them.

 

00;26;51;09 – 00;27;08;05

Dr. Mona

I think that’s a great thing that people are there to help with families that may need it. But I do feel like many families can do this without any sort of help. You just need a plan, you just need to commit, and you just need to be ready on when you choose to do this and what method you choose, okay?

 

00;27;08;07 – 00;27;22;07

Dr. Mona

And like I said, these are all tips that I have seen. I have a very good book. One of the books that I like about sleep is called Precious Little Sleep. There are some tips in there that I really like. You know, there are some things that she says that I, you know, she talks about not dropping feeds.

 

00;27;22;07 – 00;27;41;14

Dr. Mona

I do feel that babies can drop feeds. And so there’s different opinions there. But I want you to listen to all my opinions. And you, you take the method that works best for you. Okay. So talking about feeds, there is a debate on whether feeds should be dropped or not. And I’m going to be using four months as the age.

 

00;27;41;14 – 00;28;01;16

Dr. Mona

Okay. Not earlier than that because four months plus is the, sweet spot. So yes, it is my opinion that kids babies can go without feedings at the age of four months if they are growing on their growth curve. And that’s why your pediatrician will talk to you about methods like the Ferber method, which don’t involve any sort of feeds overnight.

 

00;28;01;23 – 00;28;24;01

Dr. Mona

I know what you’re thinking. You’re like, wow, but my baby’s hungry. How could I not feed them how this kind of works? And I’m going to I’m going to conceptually tell you, and I hope you understand where I’m coming from. Babies and me, all of us could be hungry overnight 100%. But we know as adults that when you don’t feed overnight or drink overnight, you’ll you regulate your feedings in the middle of the day, right?

 

00;28;24;01 – 00;28;38;19

Dr. Mona

You’re going to get the feeds and you’re going to be fine in the in the daytime you regulate that. So if you don’t give a baby a feeding in the middle of the night, you are not depriving them. You’re not making them basically say, I, I’m abandoning you or anything like that. You’re basically teaching them how to sleep.

 

00;28;38;26 – 00;28;58;29

Dr. Mona

And in the daytime, the days to follow, the weeks to follow, they will regulated themselves. This is my opinion, okay? I know some people say, oh my gosh, you have to give them more. That’s so bad. I need you to understand that I see this commonly that four months plus. So if a baby’s growing on their growth curve, your pediatrician may say, hey, cut out feeds.

 

00;28;59;01 – 00;29;20;20

Dr. Mona

So listen to your doctor. And I know people are there’s a lot of sleep people who are against doctors and pediatricians. But I see it work, which is why I’m talking about it now. If it’s a method you don’t want to do, cutting out feeds and there are methods that I’ll go over. But that’s what I’m saying, is that you have to decide what’s best for you, listen to the opinion of your pediatrician first, and then if it doesn’t sit well with you because it just makes you feel bad, then go with it.

 

00;29;20;20 – 00;29;41;00

Dr. Mona

But I don’t want you to judge your pediatrician or say that, well, you’re a bad person for telling you to cut out feeds because kids can go overnight without many. Kids can go overnight without feeding right? A two month old can. Some two month old can go out, go overnight without feedings. So at four months, is that safe spot that we’re okay if a baby’s thriving, to say that, hey, they can go without feedings overnight.

 

00;29;41;17 – 00;29;57;20

Dr. Mona

But if it’s not something you want to do because it makes you feel uncomfortable, you just doesn’t sit well with you. Please don’t feel pressured to cut the feedings, okay? And again, I’ll go over the methods for that. So I am talking about the methods first. And then I’m going to go into methods that involve less crying.

 

00;29;57;20 – 00;30;23;21

Dr. Mona

I don’t like using the word gentle. I mistakenly use that word a lot, especially in the episode with other mothers gentler, meaning less crying because using crying methods is still a gentle, loving way of being a mother. I used to cry method, and for any of you following my Instagram, I’m a very loving mother. Ryan loves me and my husband a lot, so I don’t want you to think that a crying method is a form of a non gentle method, if that makes sense.

 

00;30;24;17 – 00;30;43;20

Dr. Mona

Because it’s not, it’s perfectly fine. So I like to I want to use for the sake of this conversation, I’m going to use a cry method less cry, okay cry and less cry or cry and gradual okay. So the first method is a complete cry it out. And this method is the most controversial method for most people on social media.

 

00;30;43;26 – 00;31;01;23

Dr. Mona

But I need to explain this method because it is a method that may work for your child and I. Again, my job is to give you the information. Your job is to figure out what works best for you and your family and your child. So the complete cried out is a method where you do your bedtime routine. Please remember you’re always going to be doing a bedtime routine.

 

00;31;01;26 – 00;31;21;01

Dr. Mona

You’re giving them all the cuddles. You’re giving them everything, and you put them to sleep in their crib on their back. Safe sleep protocol and you give them a kiss goodnight. You obviously, you know, can rub their chest and then you walk out the door and you don’t intervene for 10 to 12 hours. This is a complete cry it out.

 

00;31;21;04 – 00;31;39;07

Dr. Mona

This actually, this actually is a method that I’ve seen work. This is actually the method we did for Ryan. So I’ll speak about it later. And it’s a method that I just figured was comfortable for us because I knew Ryan’s temperament. He wasn’t waking up a lot in the middle of the night. He was already stretching feedings. He is a pretty chill baby, so I chose this method for us.

 

00;31;39;07 – 00;31;59;25

Dr. Mona

So this method may work for you if you have a child who is already showing signs of being a self settler, right? Who is stretching their, you know, feedings already, this may be the method that works best for you. But remember, there are other methods. I still want you to pay attention to the other methods right? So I talk about this.

 

00;31;59;27 – 00;32;16;23

Dr. Mona

I talk about this on the episode with, the mom episode on episode 20, because I do speak to another mom who did the same sort of, strategy we did remember that with this method, it can involve a lot of crying, and the crying is not detrimental. And I know for those of you listening, are like, how do you know?

 

00;32;16;29 – 00;32;36;06

Dr. Mona

I know because I did it with Ryan and he’s amazing. And I know because I know a lot of families who’ve done it and who found success with it. The reason I’m bringing this method up is that some babies just do not respond well to Ferber, some that babies do not respond well to the gradual weaning. So some babies need this method.

 

00;32;36;07 – 00;32;51;19

Dr. Mona

They are a little more independent in nature. So if you’re around and doing graduate extinction like a Ferber method, which I’ll get into, they may not take to it. So I’m speaking about this because I think it’s important that it’s in the back of your mind if it’s not the method you choose. First 100% agree with you, that’s fine.

 

00;32;51;22 – 00;33;12;08

Dr. Mona

But think about it, because if something’s not working, I want you to have all the methods so that you know what may work for you. Now, how much crying is too long? That is truly up to you. Okay, I, I I’m not going to give numbers. I’m sure you’ve heard horror stories of like two hours. Three hours. I will say that if a kid is crying more and again, this is arbitrary number.

 

00;33;12;12 – 00;33;25;13

Dr. Mona

If your child is crying more than an hour and 15 minutes, hour and a half, we may be getting into it being too long, but it’s not too long to cause scarring of any kind. The child’s going to be fine, but it just may be too long. That may be this method may not be the one for them, right?

 

00;33;25;19 – 00;33;45;16

Dr. Mona

This is arbitrary numbers. There’s no data to support how much crying is okay, but how? I know that the crying is okay is because I’ve seen the crying happen, and I’ve seen these kids grow up to be fine. And none of us are sitting around as 2030 year old talking about how our parents sleep trained us. We don’t even remember or know if they used a crying method or not.

 

00;33;45;19 – 00;34;04;07

Dr. Mona

It really has to do, you know, with the whole picture of things, right? So when there’s anti-Christ sentiment, I get a little, you know, like, oh man, what? What are we talking about here? Because it’s a multitude of how we love our children, right? Doing sleep training and doing a crime method is a loving parent, right? You are creating a boundary.

 

00;34;04;07 – 00;34;19;22

Dr. Mona

You’re allowing them this sort of ability to self-soothe, right? So it’s not a negative thing. It’s something that we are giving them a chance to do and they are capable of doing it. So that is why I kind of come up with this arbitrary number of what you’re comfortable with, and also what you think your child is capable of handling.

 

00;34;19;22 – 00;34;35;13

Dr. Mona

But if you feel like it’s too much for you, it’s okay to stop and try another method. Okay, the Ferber being another cry method. So this method, can take anywhere from 3 to 5 days to accomplish, but you have to commit if this is the method you choose. If it’s not the method you choose, it’s fine.

 

00;34;35;20 – 00;34;54;18

Dr. Mona

So if you are doing this method in the night number three, you go in and, you know, change the method, that’s fine. But then maybe you have to reset the whole thing and approach with a different strategy. Right? With this method you are not reducing feeds, you’re basically cutting out feeds altogether. Okay. So remember what I said about if they’re hungry.

 

00;34;54;20 – 00;35;22;20

Dr. Mona

So if the baby’s been gaining weight they can go without out the feedings. Right? They regulate themselves during the day. Contrary to I know this is a lot of opinion, but you don’t have to feed them overnight. Now, again, this is one method I’m going to go over other methods that involve some feeding overnight. Okay. But this is a cry method that involves giving them a kiss goodnight, showing them love, showing them affection, laying them down and walking out the door and not coming back for 10 to 12 hours.

 

00;35;22;29 – 00;35;42;18

Dr. Mona

10 to 12 hours. Right. And like I said, this method probably will work more if a family’s comfortable with it. If for any reason the the child’s temperament can allow it, I don’t think it’s really going to work a lot for a child who is waking up often or who is more needing that sort of, you know, feedback.

 

00;35;43;03 – 00;36;01;25

Dr. Mona

So please remember that this may be also a method that you may go to as a last resort if you’ve tried other, more gradual methods or the Ferber. So that’s why I’m telling you, please don’t judge it because it is something that I’ve seen work and it’s worked. It worked well personally, and I’ve also seen it work, with many patients.

 

00;36;01;27 – 00;36;23;21

Dr. Mona

So the next one is the more common method that I usually talk about. Okay. And this is the method that is the Ferber method. And I’m sure you’ve heard about this. It’s a method that’s graduated extinction, which you’re increasing the minutes of time before you go in. So this is the one I usually recommend because most families may not be comfortable with the complete crying out, even though again, it’s not harmful in my opinion.

 

00;36;24;05 – 00;36;43;05

Dr. Mona

But I would encourage you to maybe think about this one. This one is the research studies out of Australia, that came out. This is the biggest research study for extinct graduate extinction sleep training. Talked about the Ferber type training. Okay. So this is the one that of all the research we know that is researched to show that it is fine and has good outcomes.

 

00;36;43;05 – 00;37;01;00

Dr. Mona

Right. Obviously the complete cried out there’s no research outcomes. I am just personally going by experience and what I see. So I have to be I have to put a huge disclaimer on that. But again, you’re going to choose what’s best for you. So with this one, you are still putting them down. And remember the timing is 7 to 7, 10 to 12 hours.

 

00;37;01;00 – 00;37;18;29

Dr. Mona

But I would do 7 to 7. Same thing with the method prior. So you put them down in their crib. They talk a lot about this drowsy but awake. If you can get them to that point, that’s great. But it really is okay to start it from the time if they’re not completely drowsy because they may not get drowsy till ten.

 

00;37;18;29 – 00;37;38;14

Dr. Mona

If you’re trying to do sleep training, does that make sense? So you’re training them with the timing phase. So you put them down at seven. Then when they start crying with Ferber, you start to time it on your watch. And please remember that when your baby’s crying, five minutes can seem like three hours. So you leave the room right after you do a whole lovely bedtime routine.

 

00;37;38;15 – 00;37;53;28

Dr. Mona

You read to them, cuddle with them, put them down, pat their chest. This is what we do every night. And then we walk. You know, you walk out the door when he. When baby cries, you let them cry for five minutes and time it. Okay. You walk into the room, you you just talk to them. You don’t pick them up.

 

00;37;53;28 – 00;38;15;14

Dr. Mona

You do. You can. You know, you don’t play with them. You don’t do anything. You don’t feed them with Ferber and you basically just talk for a minute. Once that minute is over, you leave the room again, right? You let them cry for seven minutes, right after. If they still are crying after seven minutes, you go back in one minute of consoling in terms of talking, right?

 

00;38;15;16 – 00;38;32;05

Dr. Mona

The next time they cry, nine minutes. Right? So you’re increasing the amount of crying before you physically go back in. So you will eventually reach a point where you’re not going to be going up on that time because you’ll finally fall asleep. So this is a method that I really like. You know, it’s again my preferred method.

 

00;38;32;05 – 00;38;50;20

Dr. Mona

It’s the method, my go to method. The other cried out method is if a family is like, look, what do you think? Can I do it? Then I say, okay, well, here’s what you have to think about. But this is a method that a lot of you’re going to hear a lot of pediatricians talk about night number two, you basically can start where at the minute you left off.

 

00;38;50;20 – 00;39;11;12

Dr. Mona

So usually what I recommend is do you know five just be sort of 557, nine, 11. Right. The increments can be whatever you choose. Honestly, Ferber has its own, but you can do five minute increments. You can do ten minutes. So let’s use for an example, five, ten, 15, 20 minutes. So you can do that. Night number two, you start at the next level.

 

00;39;11;12 – 00;39;24;29

Dr. Mona

So just say night number one, you start at five minutes. Night number two, you start at 10 minutes or 7 minutes. Whatever increments you wanted to choose. And so and then you go up from there and then you’re going to find that this one can also take 3 to 4 days. Some kids it can take a little longer.

 

00;39;25;14 – 00;39;43;26

Dr. Mona

I find and don’t feel disappoint if it does take a little bit longer. My usual advice is if one method you choose is taking longer than two weeks, it’s time to reevaluate and think maybe this is not working. Maybe we need to delay it because the baby’s not ready. Or maybe we need to try another method, okay?

 

00;39;43;26 – 00;40;04;13

Dr. Mona

Because like I said, it’s really hard. You may never know what the best timing is and when the best, method is for your baby and you have to choose what feels best for you. So these two methods involved crying, right? And when I say crying, the other ones do involve some crying. But these ones are the more you know, that may be more crying than the others.

 

00;40;04;13 – 00;40;20;20

Dr. Mona

Okay. And I need to really be clear that these are methods that I’ve seen work. These are methods that I do not at all think are detrimental in any way. And so if you don’t agree with it, please respect the fact that I do know personally, my son and many children who’ve done these methods. Right. But again, you have to choose what’s best for you.

 

00;40;20;20 – 00;40;34;24

Dr. Mona

But I want you to hear these methods because if you do one of the other more gradual methods, I want you to think about these two in case the gradual doesn’t work for your child. And you do want to, you know, have some sleep training for them to kind of get get that with another method that I mentioned.

 

00;40;35;01 – 00;40;53;18

Dr. Mona

So now I’m going to go over some gradual methods. And what I mean by gradual methods is this the Ferber and the cried out that I mentioned, you’re basically not doing anything right besides consoling in the Ferber and the other cried out, you’re not doing anything. So if their pacifier falls out, you’re not doing anything. If they’re you’re not weaning feedings, you’re not doing any of that.

 

00;40;53;18 – 00;41;17;04

Dr. Mona

Right. That is one camp of sleep training I’m teaching you guys now about the other campus sleep training, because the purpose of this episode is to educate you on the all the options that I see, right. Please decide what works best for you. But I’m going to be talking about gradually reducing associations of someone who may be used to the pacifier, toddlers, nursing feedings, things like this.

 

00;41;17;04 – 00;41;35;24

Dr. Mona

Right. So these are more gradual methods, and the gradual methods may involve some crying. Again they may. You’re not going to leave them as long as you would with other methods that involve that I mentioned earlier. But these are methods that I want you guys to think about if you would prefer a more gradual method. Now, I’m not sponsoring this in any way, but one of my favorite books, like I said, is Precious Little Sleep.

 

00;41;36;08 – 00;42;02;10

Dr. Mona

It’s a book about sleep in general, and she does talk about, gradual methods as well. She talks about, you know, Ferber, things like that. So definitely a good resource if you want it. But in terms of gradual disassociation, right. What do we mean by disassociation? So if your baby wakes up in the middle of the night and was used to you rocking them to sleep, right, that’s the only way that they fall asleep.

 

00;42;02;13 – 00;42;19;06

Dr. Mona

And in the middle of the night, they wake up and they’re in a crib and they don’t know where they are. They may be used to you rocking them to sleep, to put them back down. If you fed them right before they go to bed, and then they wake up in the middle of the night in the crib, they may need that feeding to go back down, right.

 

00;42;19;06 – 00;42;33;25

Dr. Mona

So what we mean by sleep associations is that they have created an association with this is the object, or this is the activity that’s going to make me go to sleep. And again, this is not a negative thing, but at some point we want to break that habit so that they can learn to self settle on their own.

 

00;42;34;00 – 00;42;55;13

Dr. Mona

Is the opinion right. So how does this look like? You decide when you want to reduce the associations, right? Or remove that. And remember like I said, it’s a choice of when you do it and how you do it. So if you do the other methods or the other methods, you’re not doing anything with this, right. You’re literally just in a way, cold turkey removing any sort of association.

 

00;42;55;29 – 00;43;10;07

Dr. Mona

You can always blend a lot of these methods if you like. You don’t have to stick to complete Ferber. You can do a modified Ferber where you do some pacifier, whatever you’d like. But you want to think about all this and also the other methods when you come up with a plan that works for you and your family.

 

00;43;10;07 – 00;43;28;29

Dr. Mona

So let’s talk first about, pacifiers. Right. So if you choose not to do a Ferber method, which basically is no intervention of any kind, you are just doing, you know, comforting at graduated intervals with the pacifier. So if you want to kind of slowly disassociate the pacifier, right. They’re used to the pacifier and they won’t go down without it.

 

00;43;29;01 – 00;43;47;18

Dr. Mona

I want you to first try letting them go down with it in their mouth, which is what you guys are normally doing. If you do, it comes out and don’t insert it right away, right? Monitor it, see how much time you’re willing to kind of give them. I would encourage you to give five minutes because you may be surprised.

 

00;43;47;21 – 00;44;03;18

Dr. Mona

I think a lot of the message with sleep in regards to kids is that they can surprise you. We think that, oh, they can’t do it. I need to be there. And then you let them cry for a little bit and then they surprise you and you’re like, whoa, okay, how that happened? So give them five minutes or whatever comfortable time period.

 

00;44;03;19 – 00;44;22;11

Dr. Mona

You know, you are okay with, but definitely give them a moment. And that’s kind of allowing them a little bit of fuss. So option two would be you have them in with the pacifier. You you put them down. They’re super drowsy. Right. And let them get really, really, really drowsy with the pacifier and almost to the point where they’re falling asleep.

 

00;44;22;13 – 00;44;43;22

Dr. Mona

And then when you lay them down, you remove the pacifier when they’re in their crib. Right? Because then when they’re in the crib, what you’re going to see is that they they’re now recognizing that, okay, this is my sleep space. You remove the pacifier and you’re kind of almost reaffirming that you’re in your sleep space. You don’t have the pacifier and you’re going to be okay.

 

00;44;43;25 – 00;45;03;16

Dr. Mona

You may need to allow a little bit of time as well for this method. Right? Meaning a little bit of fussing if they do fuss. But you’re essentially, again trying to reduce the association with the pacifier, right? This method is an option. Like I said, if you want to gradually reduce that pacifier association, you can do the Ferber you can do, for crying out if you’d like.

 

00;45;04;03 – 00;45;21;23

Dr. Mona

But it’s up to you what you feel comfortable with, right? Again, the message of this episode is that whatever you choose, your child is going to turn out fine. Okay? Regardless of what you may hear, I firmly stand behind that, and I wouldn’t support any of the methods I mentioned. If that if they weren’t, if they weren’t good for babies and raised amazing children.

 

00;45;21;23 – 00;45;43;03

Dr. Mona

Okay, so now if you have a cuddler, right? And for Cutler’s most babies are cuddles, right? Some like to cuddle more, some have gotten way used to the cuddling. So then when now you take it away, they’re like, what the heck is going on, right? But let’s be clear all loving parents want to cuddle their kids, and some children really, really feel like they’ve created the association with it and need it.

 

00;45;43;09 – 00;46;05;23

Dr. Mona

Some kids are a little more independent in nature and may be fine without it, right? So the first thing what I mean by cuddles is someone who’s used to sleeping on mom for overnight. Right? And now it’s time to, you know, have them learn to sleep on their own. Because what’s happening is if they’re used to being rocked down by you, and then all of a sudden you’re not there to do the complete rock down and fall asleep on you.

 

00;46;05;23 – 00;46;22;29

Dr. Mona

And they’re in a crib. When they wake up throughout the night, they’re going to feel like they need the rocking to go back down right. So an example of this that you could do cuddles if you think about it, they are just used to that closeness. Right. And so now we’re trying to gradually get them down where they don’t.

 

00;46;22;29 – 00;46;41;01

Dr. Mona

They don’t physically need the closeness anymore like the physical closeness. So you can switch to a swaddle if they’re younger. If you, if they’re older and they’re rolling over the swaddle cannot be, you know, enclosed on their arms. It has to be allowing their arms to be free. You can use sleep sacks or, you can just not do any of that and just use your hand.

 

00;46;41;03 – 00;46;59;24

Dr. Mona

So if you do a swaddle, an example would be putting them in a swaddle now and you can rock them still, but you put them, you wrap them up in the swaddle and put them down. You can put your hand on their chest because again, that’s the physical touch that they just got really used to in order to, go back down so you can put their hand, you can put the hand on their chest and just gently kind of stroke it, right.

 

00;47;00;11 – 00;47;27;04

Dr. Mona

Stroke their stroke their chest, and you’re basically there for them. And you can do that for as long as you feel like you want to. And again, I don’t give no plans for a lot of these methods, mainly because you’re reading your kid too, for a lot of these gradual methods. Right. I’m sure if you talk to some sleep consultants and stuff like that, they’ll give you actual plans, but I’m almost kind of you’ll hear it in a episode I did with the With the Mothers on episode 20, almost coming up with the plan yourself.

 

00;47;27;04 – 00;47;42;19

Dr. Mona

Okay, what and how long are you comfortable with. Right. And the reason I give that to you for the gradual methods is because you kind of know your baby, and you know what? You’re going to be comfortable with, right? Like, is your baby’s temperament a little more chill that maybe you can get away with more, you know, more time?

 

00;47;43;05 – 00;48;03;03

Dr. Mona

Are they more frantic? What are you comfortable with? Right. So you pat them and every time they’re sleeping and every time you do this, you’re reducing the time that you are spending patting them. So just say you’re starting with 20 minutes of padding. The next time they cry, you know, you’re putting them down. You pat them for ten minutes.

 

00;48;03;07 – 00;48;20;29

Dr. Mona

So you’re kind of reducing in increments that you feel fit, so that you can get them kind of down with less and less time. It’s really up to you what sort of rocking you want. I so I did again you’ll you’ll hear it later. But I did a cried out and Ferber method. But I still rock Ryan to sleep doing it.

 

00;48;20;29 – 00;48;39;00

Dr. Mona

And I was able to build both together. Right. Because I enjoy the rocking. I enjoy sitting with him and reading to him and talking, you know, talking with him. And then I lay him down and I get once I put him down, it’s his time to self settle himself after we do a routine. But I’m not rocking him to sleep.

 

00;48;39;00 – 00;48;58;12

Dr. Mona

Per se. I’m just doing it for the closeness because I love that. And he has the skill now to self settle himself. So that’s why I kind of go towards the Ferber method more, because you can still do all this sort of feeding and, and all that, all the stuff that we love to do. But you incorporate some of those self self settling skills.

 

00;48;58;28 – 00;49;20;29

Dr. Mona

Besides the gradual method. So this is a little different than Ferber, the, the removing dissociation of the, you know, reducing time because with Ferber you let them cry and then you go in and then, you know, you talk to them and you increase the amount that they cry. In this method, you’re basically standing with them for 20 minutes, even, you know, hand on the chest until they kind of fall asleep.

 

00;49;20;29 – 00;49;39;27

Dr. Mona

Right. If max 20 minutes. And then the next time you do max ten minutes. So you’re actually there from the beginning, rather than leaving the room waiting for them to cry. So this may involve less crying if that makes sense. Right? And with this, you can also move away from the baby, right? So initially you’re kind of next to their bed.

 

00;49;39;27 – 00;49;57;08

Dr. Mona

You’re patting them the next night. You do less patting than, you know, a few nights later. Once they you once you’ve done well with that, then you move away from the crib, right? And you’re just sitting there because again, your presence, if your presence is what they need, you do that for a few nights. Lay on the floor next time, whatever you like.

 

00;49;57;11 – 00;50;14;15

Dr. Mona

And then the next few nights you do next to the door, and then the next few nights you move out of the room again. It’s a gradual removal of your physical presence in a way that you, feel comfortable doing right. The you want to basically, you’re getting to the point where you can be present but not engaging, right?

 

00;50;14;15 – 00;50;29;16

Dr. Mona

So like I said, you’re just sitting there and just waiting for them. This can take a long time, as you can imagine. I wanted to talk about this method again, because I think it’s important you hear about all the methods, because if this method is the one you choose, I really want you to be systematic of how you do it.

 

00;50;29;18 – 00;50;52;05

Dr. Mona

And if it doesn’t work for you, think about the other options, right? Some families do a far cry method and then it doesn’t work for their kid or later in life they have to do this method right. So really, I want you two guys to remember this. These sort of gradual methods may be, good for kids who, you know, maybe in the toddler years, if you’re not really comfortable doing the climb method because they’re shrieking so loud.

 

00;50;52;20 – 00;51;08;27

Dr. Mona

These methods can be very helpful in that, in that standpoint. Or again, like, you just feel like their temperament won’t be able to handle, the cry methods or you won’t be able to handle the cry method. So I really wanted to kind of go over this because, again, it may take a long time, but it may be the method that your child may need.

 

00;51;09;00 – 00;51;27;00

Dr. Mona

So now I’m going to talk about nursing and feeding associations. And this is the kid that, you know, you tell us that okay, well, I have to feed them and then they go to sleep. But then in the middle of the night, every time they wake up, they need to feed or just like a, you know, five minute breastfeeding session or, you know, just a snack and then that’s the only way they’ll go down.

 

00;51;27;00 – 00;51;45;06

Dr. Mona

So, you know, if that’s what you want, I, I’m very happy. But if you want to break that association, you obviously have to understand that that child has created an association with the feeding. Right. So your first option is moving the nighttime feeding, meaning the the feeding that happens right before we lay them down, moving that about 20 minutes before you lay them down.

 

00;51;45;06 – 00;52;03;05

Dr. Mona

Right. Why is that? If you’re feeding them to bed then they learn the association that okay, I fed sleep fed sleep. So if you break it up and do feeding and then you do a book, or then you do a bath and then you do a book, you’re increasing that time frame that they may be able to remove the association.

 

00;52;03;05 – 00;52;22;02

Dr. Mona

And then they’ll understand more that the bat time and the book time is more so that they’re getting into, time for bed. Right. So that is one method that you can start to do that. You start to, change around the timing that you do the feeding for the feeding. That’s right before bedtime. And then you’re just shushing and, you know, calming them.

 

00;52;22;02 – 00;52;37;18

Dr. Mona

If they need it again, they may they may cry a little bit, just because they’re not used to it. But you have to kind of figure out what you’re most comfortable with right now. You could do it, like I said, where I, for example, feed Ryan right before we feed him. I read him a book and then he goes to bed.

 

00;52;37;18 – 00;52;58;19

Dr. Mona

Right. So because I did the Ferber, I didn’t have to worry about. Okay, well, associations, because we trained him in a different kind of viewpoint on sleep training. Right. But if you’re into these methods where it’s the gradual, you know, disassociation, what you could do with feeding also is gradually reduce the feedings. Right? So, give you the example of a breastfeeding baby.

 

00;52;58;19 – 00;53;17;23

Dr. Mona

Right. So breast feeding baby is getting, fed 20 minutes at 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.. So when you feel ready and again talk to your doctor. But most doctors will say after four months you can stop the feeds. You can decide if you want to do Ferber and go cold turkey, or you can do this method. And again, there’s a lot of opinions because there is truly no right or wrong.

 

00;53;17;23 – 00;53;37;20

Dr. Mona

It’s almost what you feel comfortable doing. So at 9 p.m. you are feeding the baby 20 minutes. Then now you do 18 minutes and then you work on that feeding and then you do 16 minutes. Once they’ve done well at eight for 18 months, you know, at 18 minutes, then you do 14 minutes for a few nights, and then you do 12 minutes and you kind of decide to move to the next phase, meaning the next number of minutes.

 

00;53;37;27 – 00;53;58;25

Dr. Mona

When you see that they’ve been doing good and they’re able to fall asleep. Right. This can take a long time because then you have to focus on the 2 a.m. feeding, right. And bring that down. You really want to look at the actual feedings that are happening, right? The actual food intake that’s meaningful on 20 minute breastfeeding sessions, the snacks, the one minute snacks, the two minute snacks.

 

00;53;58;25 – 00;54;22;03

Dr. Mona

That could just be that they have the the food, the feeding association. And that’s when I would recommend doing a little bit of Ferber, seeing if you can get them by, with other methods, like if you want to introduce a pacifier, whatever it may be, but you may not be able to do, you know, reduction if you’re only feeding for two minutes because they’re using that as a need to go back to sleep because they have a feeding association.

 

00;54;22;06 – 00;54;38;12

Dr. Mona

So if you’re doing formula, same thing. If you’re doing six ounces, you start with six. And then for a few nights until you see the master you do five. You can go down to four. You can go down to two. And then you finally take them off. Right. The gradual method is a method that some kids need, okay.

 

00;54;38;18 – 00;55;01;25

Dr. Mona

And they don’t like the the cold turkey Ferber method. And again, the reason why I think it’s important for me to tell you all the methods is because you really, really have to understand what your child may need. It may be different from what another family is doing, and sometimes you may not know what they quote unquote need until you try a method and it doesn’t work.

 

00;55;02;03 – 00;55;21;13

Dr. Mona

Right. So with all of these methods, you have to ask yourself, okay, what are my goals? Do I want to do this? Is this something that I want, or am I just doing it because someone else is telling me to do it? And what are you comfortable with? Right. What is going to make you, quote unquote, sleep better at night?

 

00;55;21;15 – 00;55;38;17

Dr. Mona

So if you’re finding one approach because you read about, you know, Ferber or you read about gradually, you’re like, I don’t know, it just seems like it’s going to take, you know, it’s going to take longer or I don’t like the crying or whatever it may be. I need you to make that decision. And this episode is empowering you with some choices to make the decision that’s best for your family, right?

 

00;55;38;17 – 00;55;55;14

Dr. Mona

Which is why I said at the beginning, don’t you know, don’t judge any of the methods, because all of them can work. You just have to decide with you and your partner and any caretakers what you think is best for your family. So I find that the again, the happy spot of sleep training and again is four months to a year.

 

00;55;56;09 – 00;56;12;03

Dr. Mona

Not that it’s impossible after you get the age of one, but it does get harder. And for those of you who may be sleep training, you’re like, oh my gosh, it’s hard. Anytime. I agree it is. But when they get older into the toddler years, there’s going to be way more crying, way more yelling. And then they start yelling mommy or daddy or whoever’s in the house, right?

 

00;56;12;05 – 00;56;29;03

Dr. Mona

So that is also another reason why I think it’s nice to get it before the age of one, not only just for the toddler years and setting up good sleep habits and routine, but also because it can get a little more difficult now with the 1 to 2, you can do Ferber right? Because there may be some separation anxiety.

 

00;56;29;03 – 00;56;45;21

Dr. Mona

So they they’ll miss you, right? So maybe start off with some Ferber but again decide what method works for you. Some kids won’t take to the Ferber and they’ll want something more gradual. And some will actually not like the gradual method and want you the heck out of the room. And you’re like, what does that mean? You’ll hear about it on episode 20.

 

00;56;45;21 – 00;57;07;21

Dr. Mona

It’s a long episode, but I talked to many different moms about the methods they chose and why they chose it, and you’ll kind of hear real life applications of this, right? That some methods just may not work. And in some cases the child is more agitated with you being around. And I know that sounds nuts, but Ryan was very similar, that he was totally fine with doing it on his own, that if I was in the room, he got a little more agitated.

 

00;57;07;21 – 00;57;26;24

Dr. Mona

Right? So it’s really important to kind of think of the various different methods. What makes you most comfortable, what makes your partner if you have one more comfortable right. Have the conversations together before you decide on a method right? Do your research, listen to this podcast, but also listen to all the other methods that I was not able to cover.

 

00;57;26;28 – 00;57;54;24

Dr. Mona

So you can come up with the plan for your own. Right now, I do want to talk about how we sleep trained. Ryan and I am going to go into a little bit of detail that you probably kind of heard already in the episode, and the method that I chose may not be what you chose. I want to be very clear and put a huge disclaimer on this that what I chose to do for Ryan, I’m sharing because I have a big following on my social media and everyone has been asking, but I do not expect you to choose this method.

 

00;57;54;28 – 00;58;12;01

Dr. Mona

So although I chose a crime method for my son, it does not mean that I’m sitting here demanding all of you to use one, right? Because like I said this whole episode, it may not work for all children. We may get, you know, have a second child and we may try to do crime methods and it may not stick.

 

00;58;12;07 – 00;58;30;23

Dr. Mona

So I am very aware of that, which is why I like to promote different methods, because I think it’s important for people to understand that it may be different from parent to parent, kid to kid, and also sibling to sibling. So how do we do it? Well, the first 12 weeks of his life, obviously after the birth trauma and we got home was survival mode.

 

00;58;30;28 – 00;58;56;17

Dr. Mona

But around the age of one month, we really started to do a lot of work with routine. And what that means is in episode four, I just had a baby. Now what? I need you to listen to it. But we tried to set up a rhythm at around one month. We tried earlier, but it’s a little difficult and I need you to listen to that episode so you can hear the strategies that I felt really, really helped us set up a good foundation for healthy sleep later, because we did the things we did.

 

00;58;56;17 – 00;59;21;28

Dr. Mona

I really feel combining his temperament and what we did, that we set him up for good sleep hygiene, and that we didn’t have to do so much training per se. He was already approaching seven weeks and being a decent sleeper in the sense that he was already stretching about 7 to 8 hours, in between feedings. So when we decided to sleep train, we decided, okay, what are we going to do it?

 

00;59;21;28 – 00;59;39;12

Dr. Mona

And I, I have experience working, obviously, like I said, at a practice that did do sleep training at two months. So, you know, before we had Ryan, I was like, I don’t know. We’ll see. And he came and you know, we’re like, why don’t we try it? And I made the decision because he was already stretching his feeds and I, you know, saw many families have success with sleep training that early.

 

00;59;39;16 – 00;59;57;06

Dr. Mona

So I made the decision. Now this is not a decision that every pediatrician is going to be on board. Many sleep consultants may be like, whoa, whoa, whoa. But I’m just letting you know what I did. And also what I’ve seen a lot of families do. And it is a method that I’ve seen happen at an early age, especially for those children that are already stretching.

 

00;59;57;06 – 01;00;25;25

Dr. Mona

Right, because they almost don’t even need training per se, because they’ve already stretched their feedings and they have some basis, some basis of self settling. Now, remember, we’re not talking about a self-soothing self settling. Every baby and child wants to be, you know, have soothing, right? They will. They love their parents. So when we talk about self settling, it’s a skill that I’m teaching Ryan, that when you wake up and shift in between your sleep cycles, you are able and capable of putting yourself back down, right?

 

01;00;25;27 – 01;00;43;16

Dr. Mona

That you are able to self settle, right, that you’re going to settle down and you’re going to be fine. And that’s the skill that I went in with this. Right. So what we did at two months is we eliminated our swaddle and he was in a amazing, you know, not sponsored, but an old swaddle, which we loved because he had an exaggerated moro.

 

01;00;43;20 – 01;01;05;02

Dr. Mona

But when we decided to swaddle him our mentality was I would like to train him in the environment that I want him to sleep in for the majority of his life, right? And obviously the crib. So I made sure everything was safe, which it always was, but safe sleep. We decided no swaddle and we did the the full cry method, which is basically I did a bedtime routine 45 minutes before I laid him down.

 

01;01;05;02 – 01;01;25;10

Dr. Mona

And I still, to this day, six months later, do a full bedtime routine, which involves a bath, involves his bottle, his medicine, and then we read him a book. I talk to him, I cuddle with him, I rock him with my little portable rocking chair. And then I put him in the crib. So I put him in at 7 p.m., did my whole routine prior, right.

 

01;01;25;10 – 01;01;44;18

Dr. Mona

And we had done this routine a month prior to actually doing the training. And I really encourage again, to listen to episode four because I talk about those those primers that can help with sleep. So he knew when bad time was coming, that it was almost time for sleep. So it really helped. And I can’t stress that enough that all those strategies that we implemented, I think, really help for on sleep.

 

01;01;44;18 – 01;02;04;12

Dr. Mona

So he wasn’t as angry when we had to finally, quote unquote sleep train him. So how did that look like? 7 p.m. I laid him down. He the night number one. He cried for 20 minutes. And it wasn’t a fuss cry. It was a shrieking cry that went from shrieks to small cries to shrieks. It was hard.

 

01;02;04;12 – 01;02;23;25

Dr. Mona

I knew he could do it. And then finally he settled himself. Night number two. And then he slept till seven in the morning. Night number two. It was ten minutes and I was like, okay, night number three, two minutes and he fell asleep really fast and not even crying. He was more like, And then, weirdly, he woke up at four in the morning for 40 minutes.

 

01;02;23;25 – 01;02;38;15

Dr. Mona

And that was the hardest night because one, it was later in the night and I’m like, what happened? You were fine. So at that point, you know, I was like, I told my husband the next morning because we were sleeping separately, because I wanted Ryan to be trained in his crib, which was separate from our room, obviously.

 

01;02;38;21 – 01;02;53;09

Dr. Mona

And I just chose to sleep with him because my husband was still working and I was on mat leave, and I didn’t want my husband to, you know, wake up. And I just still wanted to be with Ryan physically. So I slept in the room. I did have to leave the room at four in the morning and sleep in the couch.

 

01;02;53;19 – 01;03;16;00

Dr. Mona

Just because obviously the crying. And I watched him on the monitor. And I think that’s what people forget, is that people who do cry methods, like, I personally, when he’s crying, I am not this, you know, I don’t just not watch him. I actually look at him on the monitor. Some people don’t watch and I still would not blame them at all, but I felt like I wanted to see what he was doing was is, you know, it’s like, okay, like, did he get stuck somewhere or is he okay?

 

01;03;16;08 – 01;03;30;04

Dr. Mona

And I just watched him and then I would kind of fall back asleep. And if he was still crying, I’d wake back up and I would look and see if he was okay. And then he settled down it. So that was three nights. And then the next nights he basically started to show two minutes falling asleep, two minutes falling asleep.

 

01;03;30;07 – 01;03;51;12

Dr. Mona

And he had that rhythm about 7 to 7, maybe six 45in the morning for about two months. Okay. Really didn’t go through any regression for two months. And then four months hit and he started to go through a regression because he started to roll over. And my next episode, 18, I talk about the term regressions, but I’m going to call it a regression for the sake of this episode.

 

01;03;51;14 – 01;04;07;28

Dr. Mona

And when he had that happen, we obviously he was more, more he had more separation anxiety by this age. By four months, he started having really strong separation anxiety. So we were like, okay, what do we do? So we started with the Ferber method, right? Because I was like, look, I don’t know if he’ll be able to do the full cry because now he’s a little more aware.

 

01;04;08;05 – 01;04;25;20

Dr. Mona

So we did the Ferber and after two nights it just wasn’t working. He was so angry that we were basically like, I would go in there and he would scream even more and scream and scream. I would leave and he would quiet down. It was almost like when I was physically in there for him, it was more of a problem.

 

01;04;25;20 – 01;04;40;05

Dr. Mona

And then when I would leave, he would stop. So I decided, let me talk to my husband and we came up. We’re like, why don’t we try the crime method again where we don’t intervene? And he actually would start settling himself. And we never, at that age, at four months, never had him cry for more than 20 minutes.

 

01;04;40;07 – 01;05;00;08

Dr. Mona

Now I know I hear stories of people crying for a long time. I said in earlier in this episode, I really wanted you to choose what you’re comfortable with, but we found that he just didn’t cry for a long period, and so it worked. You know, we felt comfortable and we felt like it worked for us. But it was something really, really awesome to see that once he figured it out.

 

01;05;00;08 – 01;05;15;22

Dr. Mona

Now he’s, you know, he rolls over on his belly and once they start to roll over onto their belly, that’s okay. Right? If you can’t put them on their belly. But if they roll themselves there, you can talk to your pediatrician, but it’s fine if they roll themselves there as long as you have safe sleep practices. Right. So he got used to the belly.

 

01;05;15;22 – 01;05;39;18

Dr. Mona

He obviously rolls over now and doesn’t do this sort of charade. So this was now you know, he at four months and now he’s a five and a half months. And now it’s basically a 1 to 5 minute settling session not shrieking. It’s like And then he’ll put himself down and then I’m still doing my routine prior because that’s what I like to do to prime him for sleep.

 

01;05;39;18 – 01;05;53;25

Dr. Mona

Right. And it’s amazing to see. And I again I know anyone who’s listening who’s done any methods especially if they’ve done cry methods. You’re going to feel like, wow. Like I’m so I’m so proud of him. So I even to this day look at his monitor when he’s going to bed and I just look to see what he’s doing again.

 

01;05;53;29 – 01;06;09;06

Dr. Mona

Did he get his leg stuck in the crib because we don’t use bumpers? I want it completely safe. Is he okay? What’s he doing? And then throughout the night, because I’m a loving mother and I’m kind of neurotic, I go and look. I look at him, right? Which, like any mother who does sleep training, is their love, their children.

 

01;06;09;06 – 01;06;27;18

Dr. Mona

And they just want to see that they’re okay. But I am fascinated by how well he did with it. And I’m also fascinated with how well all children do when you do some sleep training. So yes, I’m a big proponent of it. Right. But I understand that this is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I want you to respect my viewpoint as I respect yours.

 

01;06;27;18 – 01;06;45;00

Dr. Mona

Right. If this method of Cry method or, you know, whatever, if you’re like, I wouldn’t ever do a cry method, okay? I would never do gradual. That’s stupid. I need you to remember that every method is a good method, and you have to choose what’s good for yourself. Okay, I’ll speak more about naps in episode 18 as long as well as other issues.

 

01;06;45;02 – 01;07;02;29

Dr. Mona

So my final rules do it only when you are ready, okay? Don’t feel pressured because your friend had a baby sleeping through the night at three months or four months that you need to do it too. I need you to be really ready and clear it with your pediatrician, okay? Just say look. Okay. Clear it with them. Sleep training will only work if all caretakers are on board.

 

01;07;02;29 – 01;07;21;08

Dr. Mona

Okay? Especially night for nighttime, for sure. And then I’ll talk about daytime. If you have nannies or grandma helping, because everyone needs to be on the same plan for the child to understand what the what the rules are. Kind of with sleep, right? Sleep training does require commitment. It requires a plan, and it just requires a strong heart.

 

01;07;21;08 – 01;07;50;29

Dr. Mona

Knowing that you are not doing something that is unsafe, right? That you’re doing something that is a skill, that something that is a good thing, that is not a negative to teach a child how to self settle. Okay. And that is my opinion through and through. If you don’t want to do it again, I’m fine. But please understand that there are benefits to it for maternal mental health, paternal mental health, and also just overall, you know, routine and toddler life and just sleep is so, so amazing for everyone.

 

01;07;51;01 – 01;08;12;17

Dr. Mona

So commit the cardinal rule is you just have to commit because it’s called sleep training for a reason. IT training any type of training needs time, needs repetition and needs dedication, right? So choose a time you can do it, not prior to big travel plans. You got to be consistent. And for every method I want you to really remember what your goals are and give it a chance, right?

 

01;08;12;17 – 01;08;29;15

Dr. Mona

Don’t lose faith. Your baby will learn how to sleep. It may not be with the method you initially choose. You may have to switch things around. You may have to push it back, right? Like just say you sleep, train your baby at four months and they do well. Six months come along and you’re like, wow, they’re not taking to the gradual methods anymore.

 

01;08;29;20 – 01;08;47;09

Dr. Mona

Think about the other methods. Think about what you can do differently this time, because I find that every baby is so different that you may not always get the same sort of success with the same method at at different times of their life right now. The other thing is, a little or a lot of crying during sleep training is okay.

 

01;08;47;09 – 01;09;07;29

Dr. Mona

There is a whole lot of negative talk about sleep training, especially crying methods that leaving your baby to cry will cause this lifelong scarring. This really cannot be further from the truth. Okay, you are not depriving your child of love and compassion. I look at it and again, this is my viewpoint. I look at the sleep training and especially the crime methods, because I know there’s a lot of anti-crime rhetoric.

 

01;09;08;06 – 01;09;21;03

Dr. Mona

I look at it as a thing I’m teaching Ryan. Right. I don’t look at it as a negative. And you can have the viewpoint you want, but when I look at it as that positive light, I’m looking at him doing something amazing. And now I look at him and I’m like, I turned to my husband and he’s like, wow.

 

01;09;21;10 – 01;09;38;13

Dr. Mona

He fell asleep in two minutes. I’m like, yeah. And he’s like, whoa! And my husband’s like, I’m so grateful that you have all this, you know, insight as to all this stuff. And I know, I don’t know nearly as much as sleep, sleep consultants and people who do this for a living. But I see successes with the methods that I mentioned, and I saw success in the method we chose for Ryan.

 

01;09;38;13 – 01;09;57;14

Dr. Mona

Right. You are simply setting boundaries with sleep. You’re you’re setting skills for sleep and self settling, right? This is the first important boundary we create as parents. I find that, you know, I’ll talk a lot about it, but I, you know, a sleeper eater and an independent thinker is what I my motto is sleep comes first setting up good sleep habits.

 

01;09;57;14 – 01;10;13;23

Dr. Mona

And then we start to introduce food and creating good habits with food. And then we focus on behavior. It’s the triad to me of parenting. And if you can focus on the sleep first, it can really, really impact the eating right. Because you’re on a routine and you don’t have as much of a are going to picky eater, when you have a routine.

 

01;10;13;23 – 01;10;33;02

Dr. Mona

And also it can help your behavior. So look at it as a positive whichever method you choose, right? Allowing them to self-soothe and sometimes cry is not a callous thing. Okay, I know our generation there’s a lot of anti cry rhetoric, but I would not be supporting this if it’s not something I saw work and if something that I see work for my son.

 

01;10;33;04 – 01;10;48;05

Dr. Mona

But please look at all the methods right through the process. Always remind yourself of your goals and it’s okay to remind your child of their of the goals too, right? Even if they’re a baby, you can tell them, I love you sweetie. I know you can do it. I did the same thing. I would tell Ryan, I’m so proud of you.

 

01;10;48;05 – 01;11;08;12

Dr. Mona

Mommy loves you because I do, right? I love this is coming out of a place of love that I know he’s super awesome and he’s been through so much and that he can do this, right. So it doesn’t. It comes from a place of love. Whatever method you choose, right. And episode 20, you’re going to hear six amazing mothers talk about six different ways that they approach sleep.

 

01;11;08;19 – 01;11;31;26

Dr. Mona

And all of them are loving, loving mothers because at the end of the day, we just have to choose the right method at the right time for our child to teach them to sleep so that we don’t lose sleep over how they sleep. I hope this episode was helpful. Please listen to episode 16, 18, 19, and 20. You can download them and listen to them at your leisure.

 

01;11;32;11 – 01;11;48;24

Dr. Mona

When you are up at night or whatever you are. But I really encourage you to be open minded about these and remember that don’t get some type casted into one different method, because you may find that another method may work for you. Thank you guys. As always, please, you know, share this on social media if you found it helpful.

 

01;11;49;15 – 01;11;56;20

Dr. Mona

Write a review and please engage on my Instagram at PedsDocTalk and follow me there if you’re not already. Love you guys and talk to you soon!