Do I Have To Sleep Train My Baby?

No, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. It’s your kid. What you do have to do is keep your opinions to yourself if someone else is. Sleep training is challenging enough without judgemental, misinformed comments like, “Letting him cry is going to damage his brain.” This is one of the most common remarks ill-informed parents make about sleep training plans that involve crying, like the Ferber or Weissbluth Methods. Thankfully the American Academy of Pediatrics just published the results of a 5 year study on the effects of ‘cry it out’ sleep training. There are other studies showing the positive short term results of sleep training, such as better parental health and less depression. This AAP study was the first to look at the long term effects of the Ferber Method  (gradually increasing periods of waiting while child cries) on 8 month olds who were still getting up at night against another group of 8 month olds who were not using the Ferber Method. What the study showed at the end of the 5 years was that there was no difference in the cortisol levels (stress hormone) of the two groups.

So two arguments can be made from these findings, depending on what point of view you are looking for justification for:

1. Sleep training is not harmful and my child’s brain will not be damaged by it. (Also let’s use some common sense here: no pediatrician in their right mind would recommend sleep training if they thought it was even remotely harmful)

2. There is no point in sleep training because my kid will be fine regardless. True and if you are one of those people who doesn't mind waking up throughout the night for the next year or three, then do whatever works for your family.

   By Hannah Mira, Founder of Bonsoir Bebe Sleep Consulting