"Sleep experts and others routinely say that parents have to start early to establish "good sleep habits" to prevent big, scary problems later. Feeding to sleep, rocking to sleep, and holding to sleep are all considered "bad habits" that they say the baby will "get used to" or grow to depend on in the long term. Most sources of sleep advice recommend starting formal sleep training by 3 or 4 months."
"Let me first emphasize that sleep training methods are effective and work quickly and easily for many families. If you did some sleep training in the early months and it worked for you, that's great. What I'm focused on here is the urgency that sleep advice lays on sleep training and the compulsory tone of it all-that everyone has to start practically from birth, and if they don't, very bad things will happen."
"I was curious what the research said about all of this. In truth, I began this work nearly 30 years ago, and in all that time, nothing has really changed in the sleep advice world. I've read the bestselling books on sleep and looked carefully at the research they cited. I've also analyzed what the infant sleep research field considers as evidence for the effectiveness and appropriateness of starting sleep training efforts in babies under 6 months. What I've found may surprise you."
Almost no studies examine crying-based sleep training methods for infants younger than six months. When early sleep-skill interventions are studied, measured benefits tend to be small and fade within months. Popular guidance frequently recommends beginning formal sleep training at 3–4 months, with some sources advocating starting as early as 8 weeks and using unresponsive methods. No credible evidence demonstrates that waiting past early infancy makes later sleep training more difficult. Many families do achieve rapid improvements with sleep training, but the urgency promoted by early-start messaging is not supported by the available infant-focused evidence.
Read at Psychology Today
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