controlled crying – Sarah Ockwell-Smith

The Real Reasons Why You Cannot Teach Babies to Self Soothe to Sleep

The mainstay of almost all baby sleep training is the idea of teaching ‘self soothing’ or ‘self settling’. This approach believes that if babies are put down ‘drowsy but awake’ and parents do not rush in to feed or rock when they wake, that the baby will learn to settle back to sleep without parental input.

The Epidemic of Baby Sleep Training

The same sleep patterns that have been handled without trouble or ‘expert advice’ for thousands of years have now become a source of big business. It is in the benefit of industry for babies to be seen as having sleep problems.

Ten Reasons to Not Sleep Train Your Baby

Are friends, relatives and professionals telling you that you should sleep train your baby? Warning you of dire consequences if you don’t? Are you considering sleep training because you are exhausted and desperate for a little more sleep? Here are ten reasons why you shouldn’t do it! 1. Sleep Training Misunderstands Normal Baby Sleep Those whoContinue reading “Ten Reasons to Not Sleep Train Your Baby”

Why it’s OK to let your baby or child cry (sometimes).

If you follow attachment or gentle parenting principles, you should never willingly let your child cry, right? Wrong. If you follow attachment or gentle parenting principles, you should never willingly make your child cry, right? Wrong. You can very much be an attachment or gentle parent and both allow your child to cry and (shock horror)Continue reading “Why it’s OK to let your baby or child cry (sometimes).”

The Great Sleep Obsession (The Problem of Modern Day Life versus the Primitive Infant)

Sleep No other word can generate such an emotive response in so many parents of young children. The ‘baby sleep industry’ is worth millions of pounds, a myriad of products from pharmaceutical to musical, mechanical and material adorn the shelves of the high street luring in tired new parents with the promise of peaceful nights.Continue reading “The Great Sleep Obsession (The Problem of Modern Day Life versus the Primitive Infant)”

Parenting Woes – Whose Problem Is It Really?

This post has been whirling around my head for more than a year now and I have debated whether it should stay there many a time, why? Because I know this post is going to be contentious, I can only anticipate the comments it will get and the possibility that I might offend many parentsContinue reading “Parenting Woes – Whose Problem Is It Really?”

The Fourth Trimester – AKA Why Your Newborn Baby is Only Happy in Your Arms

“My baby is only happy in my arms, the minute I put her down she cries” “He sleeps really well but only when he’s laying on my chest, he hates his moses basket” “She cries every time we lay her on her play mat” “He hates going in his pram, he cries the second weContinue reading “The Fourth Trimester – AKA Why Your Newborn Baby is Only Happy in Your Arms”