English: Sleeping baby boy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sleep Training Technique – Attachment Parenting
Not only has Doctor Sears raised eight of his own children he has been involved in the paediatrics sector for over thirty years. While I find some of his methods rather bizarre I do agree to the principles behind them. I am not in agreement that I practise attachment parenting with my own children but in other ways I do see some similarities.
Attachment parenting is a style of caring for your infant that brings out the best in the baby and the best in the parents. Says Dr Sears
Attachment parenting focuses upon learning from your baby. It is believed that if we spend enough time watching and waiting and learning from our baby, we will soon know exactly what its needs are.
There was me thinking when it cried or wailed it wanted something. Can’t say I ever learned what the hell they wanted? It was a case of thinking when were they last fed?, holding their bum to my nose for me to sniff them or walking around for hours patting their backs.
Dr Sears says that attachment parenting can be a huge benefit to bedtime battles with your baby. If we have routine and have calmed and relaxed our baby during the day, then night time will be easy? Dr Sears also advises we feed on demand and sleep close to our baby too. Not forgetting that it is recommended that we also practise baby wearing.
OK so hold on a minute.
You want me to feed on demand? Well my health visitor advised me to make baby wait that little while longer in between feeds to get them into a better routine. Cameron was feeding every 2 hours from me and I was exhausted. I used to distract him and put off feeding him for as long as he would allow. Within a few days rather than feeding every 2 hours it became every 4 hours and then finally a more acceptable every 6 hours. At a few months old I don’t need to drop everything and run to them, they are not going to starve while I finish the washing up.
The sleep lesson taught in the Sears’ The Baby Book, is “Babies need to be parented to sleep, not just put to sleep.”
Why do I want to sit there and watch and learn the sleep stages my baby goes through? Trust me once my baby is asleep I have a hundred and one things that I need to do. I don’t want to watch them sleep; I just want them to sleep.
Yes I agree a well prepared baby is a better baby to get to sleep and I follow a regular bedtime routine. But I don’t want to climb into my babies bed nor do I want them in my bed. I also don’t agree that we should rock our babies to sleep, quite the opposite I believe we should teach our babies how to fall asleep without us.
… When the time comes, your baby will wean from your bed just like all the other weanings.” Says Doctor Sears
What are your views on Doctor Sears Sleep Training Technique – Attachment Parenting?
About The Real Supermum
it was not my preferred method of parenting, if I was busy and mine were hungry, tough, 5 mins would not harm them, never put them in bed with me- even the one that cried for 10 hrs every night for nearly 4 years, I think this is half the problem with todays kids, they think they come first, second and third and they are the only thing that matters.
This is more my way of parenting. Babies cry because its their only way of communicating! So yet I will go to my baby when she is crying and if sometimes its just for a cuddle then so be it. There tiny human beings depend on us for everything so why shouldn’t we tend to their needs as and when they need it? I don’t see why we have to train our babies to go longer between a feed..we eat when we are hungry so why should we make them wait just so it suits us better? My 2 girls both sleep with me and my baby falls asleep in my arms and I can then easily put her into bed. Shespent 9month growing inside of me,for me to put her down away from me without me comforting her is unnatural and distressing for her too. We are the only mammals who don’t sleep with our young..well some of us anyway. X
i believe in feed on demand, but i no if kaydi is hungry or just simply wants a cuddle, she falls asleep on me then i out her down, she normally goes 3-4hours between feeds. so if after 2hours i offer her some cool boiled water instead.. if she crys in the day and im doing something i dont immediately rush to her i check see if shes ok first then finish what im doing..with reanne i would rush to her every murmur, my mistake was to come when she wouldnt settle on her own at all..night times being the worse. i never had her in bed with me once but i admit i keep kaydi in some mornings after her bottle we fall sleep. yet she goes down in her moses basket fine still. x
We made the mistake of getting our first to sleep. Had to walk around, patting, cuddling etc. Even when she woke in the night we paced the room with her. BIG MISTAKE!
With our second we defiantly didn’t do that. We did the controlled crying. Both are hard at the time but one lasts a lot less than the other and is obviously the easier way in the end x
I have heard of this and i couldn’t understand the appeal in all honesty, I love my children but everyone needs a little space and I couldn’t watch my kids sleep as the second they slept so did I!
i was told and i believe that demand feeding is best, they fed of us 24/7 therefore in reality need feeding when they want it, my first born always slept with me from 4 weeks cos he was poorly, he still gets into my bed once in a while, from 6m to 21m hes slept with me 4 times max, as for my second born the first few days she slept with us cos she wouldnt drink for 18hrs and were told from the mw of a special way to get her to drink so we tried it, unless i fall sleep with her on the bed she sleeps in her cot
I demand fed my lb when he was newborn i dont see nothing wrong with that but i have not and will never have him in my bed its one thing im against, i agree children should learn to sleep without us and go off by themselves.. Recently my.son has whingednwhen we leave the room when he goes to bed but i leave him for five mins and hes gone off, in my head it does him no harm, it makes him learn then i am not going to sit there and wait/watch him fall asleep, saying that people parent there kids differently its what works best for them and if doing it my way or another way works then so be it! X
i demand fed my daughter, i still do now at 16 months, she has down syndrome and cant tell me when shes hungry or needs a drink, she just crys
x
I watched a programme on this the other night and I couldn’t do it no way but good on those who do! It’s really not for me xx
its not really for me my lg is in a routine and she has stuck to it xx
its not for me my 2 av a routine and have stuck to it unless they r poorly x
this isn’t for me at all my little girl is in a routine and as been for like ever i no when she is ill as she comes kinda out of the routine well done to the people that can do this but it just isn’t 1 for me no matter how many children i have xx
Its not really something I ever did, I believed and still do that my bed is my bed.x
i let lo in my bed once and biggest mistake ever
I made the mistake of letting my daughter in my bed when she was little and now she’s 3 and is still in my bed
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Only 1 of my 4 shared with me, don’t know why, maybe it was me? I felt bad he had to grow quickly as when he turned 1 2days later I had his brother so he wasn’t a baby for long… I tried to get him in his own room but it didn’t work until I bought him a new bed, bunk beds with double at bottom… Never looked back since xx