Pediatrician's Top Tips For Sleep Training and Teaching Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night

We all need sleep, and this week, The Doctors Bjorkman, a board-certified pediatrician and board-certified OB/GYN, are diving into the world of sleep training as they review the literature about possible benefits and harms from these methods of helping babies learn to sleep. They also share HOW to actually accomplish this with the 6 Key Things you can do to help your baby learn to sleep through the night!

0:00 - Intro
2:09 - Newborn Sleep
3:08 - Before You Consider Sleep Training
4:53 - What is Sleep Learning/Sleep Training?
5:56 - Does Sleep Training Work?
9:06 - Limitations of Sleep Training Methods
10:16 - Additional Benefits of Sleep Learning
11:17 - (IRL) Emotional Prep
14:17 - Can Sleep Training Harm Your Baby?
17:07 - Negative Effects on Breastfeeding
17:54 - Nighttime Feedings
19:40 - (IRL) Nighttime Breastfeeding/Pumping
21:41 - Weaning Overnight Feeds
23:07 - 6 Key Steps to Sleep Learning
31:51 - (IRL) Our Own Experience with Sleep Learning!

6 KEY STEPS TO SLEEP LEARNING:
1.) Daytime Nutrition
2.) Supportive Sleep Environment
3.) Have a Bedtime Routine
4.) Set Your Baby Down to Sleep
5.) Mid-Night Reassurances
6.) Be Consistent!

Also check out our video to learn about What a Pediatrician Wants You to Know about Baby Led Weaning:    • Pediatrician Explains Baby-Led Weanin...  

Other books/resources we’ve read along the way:

TakingCaraBabies — Cara Dumaplin
Baby Sleep Solution — Suzy Giordano
Cribsheets — Emily Oster
Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems — Ferber
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child —Weissbluth
Happiest Baby on the Block — Harvey Karp, MD
And probably others I’m forgetting but those were the big hitters!!

Studies on sleep training mentioned in the video:

— Mindell JA, Kuhn B, Lewin DS, Meltzer LJ, Sadeh A. Behavioral treatment of bedtime problems and night wakings in infants and young children. Sleep 2006;29(10):1263–76.
— Kerr SM, Jowett SA, Smith LN. Preventing sleep problems in infants: A randomized controlled trial. J Adv Nurs 1996;24(5):938–42.
— Hiscock H, Bayer J, Gold L, Hampton A, Ukoumunne OC, Wake M. Improving infant sleep and maternal mental health: A cluster randomised trial. Arch Dis Child 2007;92(11):952–58.
— Leeson R, Barbour J, Romaniuk D, Warr R. Management of infant sleep problems in a residential unit. Childcare Health Dev 1994;20(2):89–100.
— Eckerberg, B. Treatment of sleep problems in families with young children: Effects of treatment on family well-being. Acta Pædiatrica 2004;93:126–34.
— Gradisar M, Jackson K, Spurrier NJ, et al. Behavioral interventions for infant sleep problems: A randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics 2016;137(6).
— Price AM, Wake M, Ukoumunne OC, Hiscock H. Five-year follow-up of harms and benefits of behavioral infant sleep intervention: Randomized trial. Pediatrics 2012;130(4):643–51.”
— Blunden SL, Thompson KR, Dawson D. Behavioural sleep treatments and night time crying in infants: Challenging the status quo. Sleep Med Rev 2011;15(5):327–34.
— Middlemiss W, Granger DA, Goldberg WA, Nathans L. Asynchrony of mother-infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity following extinction of infant crying responses induced during the transition to sleep. Early Hum Dev 2012;88(4):227–32.
— Kuhn BR, Elliott AJ. Treatment efficacy in behavioral pediatric sleep medicine. J Psychosom Res 2003;54(6):587–97.


Intro Music: A WAY FOR ME - Nicolai Heidlas by Chem Ocampo

Keywords: pregnancy update, the doctors bjorkman, fourth trimester pregnancy, pregnancy vlog, new parents, newborn sleep, parenting tips, safe sleep