How did sleep training come about?
18. With the industrial revolution in the 19th century, experts advised mothers not to hold crying babies at all times, to separate rooms at an early age, etc. He started to make recommendations. This situation is II. It increased with World War II because women are not only an individual responsible for child care, but also a great consumer candidate (Elkind, 2011).
Sleep is one of the most challenging issues for parents. Because while the parent does not wake up at night, the baby has night wakings that we consider normal and healthy. Our normal and babies' normal do not mean the same thing. That's why we sometimes think that our baby has problems with his sleep.
Or our baby actually wakes up more frequently than normal and healthy wake-ups or has short daytime sleeps, and 'Sleep Training' is offered as a miracle to exhausted, tired and sleepless mothers. What is promised is sound sleep throughout the night. Sleep training can indeed produce results in a short time, but is what the baby has learned to actually sleep? We will discuss this. But on the contrary, the baby may overreact to behavioral sleep training.
The good news is that behavioral sleep training is not the only way you can give your baby healthy sleep.
CRY IT OUT METHOD
This method was developed by Dr. It was introduced by Marc Weissbluth. He advises families to leave the baby alone in the room for 1 hour during the day and no hours at night, and not to go in under any circumstances.
FERBER METHOD
Dr. It was discovered by Richard Ferber. In this method, the baby is left to cry again. However, Ferber recommends the 'controlled crying' method. The baby is left alone in the room, the baby is entered for certain minutes, but the baby is not held and the parent goes out again even if he does not calm down.
TRACY HOGG - LAY AND LIFT
Tracy Hogg is a baby nurse. In the lay-and-lift method he invented, the baby is placed in the crib when he calms down and is picked up when he cries. Even if you do it 50-60 times, this will continue until the baby falls asleep. In this method, the baby is never left to cry alone. In this respect, it is a softer method than others.
KIM WEST-CHAIR DISTANCE METHOD
In this method, the basis is to sit next to the baby's bed and move away in a controlled manner. For the first three days, the chair stands next to the crib. If the baby cries a lot, the parent calms him down and puts him back in place. Then, day by day, the chair is gradually moved further away from the crib, and on the 7th day, the chair stands outside the room.
RISKS IN SLEEP TRAINING
Those who advocate and implement sleep training methods claim that they 'make babies love sleep'. They claim that they teach sleep. However, sleep cannot be considered separately from regulation. It is not possible for a baby to neurologically/physiologically/biologically self-soothe (regulation) until the age of five. A baby who receives sleep training does not miraculously gain this ability; what he learns is simpler: 'No one is coming to my help'.
You may have seen that in the sleep training methods we have mentioned, the baby's needs are not taken into account and his signals are not listened to. However, listening to the baby's signals and calming him whenever he needs it is very vital and important for the first periods of his life. It is necessary to meet the need to calm down now in order to gain self-regulation skills later.
On the other hand, what are your long-term goals as parents? What kind of person do you want him to be? You want your child to trust you, to establish close relationships with your child, to be a self-confident individual, and to learn empathy, right? However, in these methods, what do you teach your baby by not making eye contact with him before sleep, by wearing a dull expression and not going to him even if he cries, or by calming your baby down immediately and leaving the room?
If you turn sleep time into a war, maybe you will win. But the loser is your baby. Moreover, he loses not only at bedtime, but also in the future.
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