Are you a new parent worrying about whether your baby is sleeping enough or how long they should nap for? A new book by our world-leading baby sleep expert the pressure to control babies’ sleep patterns to fit in with parents’ lives is getting worse. The influx of baby sleep coaches, sleep monitors and apps is adding to this. Helen argues that this mismatch is incorrectly described as ‘baby sleep problems’ with parents trying to find ways to fix them. Young babies rarely have sleep problems, but parents will often think they do if they are not ‘sleeping through the night’ soon enough or their baby’s sleep doesn’t match their ideal schedule. Tips in the book include letting your baby snooze in a light room during the day rather than close the curtains. This avoids babies having mini night-time sleeps during the day which can disrupt their sleep at night If I pick up my baby too often, will I spoil them?”, “Someone online said that the way I’m using a dummy for my baby is not good. Are they right?” and “Should I leave my baby to cry it out at night sleep training where parents let babies cry when they wake up at night to encourage them to self-soothe. She argues that this stems from previous generations’ advice that parents had to show babies they were in charge and get them into a routine of sleeping.
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Thursday, June 26, 2025