The Complete Sleep Guide For Contented Babies & Toddlers

My daughter had been a good sleeper until she turned 6 weeks. Then suddenly it's like someone flipped a switch, and she became a completely different baby. She started to refuse sleeping during the day and instead would cry constantly - sometimes for hours. She also went from sleeping 5-6 hours at night to waking up every 2 hours. We tried everything to try and get her to nap, but nothing worked. She even started crying while eating because she was so tired. She was exhausted, and I was losing my mind. Even the doctor couldn't figure out what had happened. In desperation I started searching online for suggestions and found a message board where a mom had tried this book. I figured it couldn't hurt, so I decided to order it. I started following the routine the very next day, not holding out much hope. Within two days - two days! - my daughter was back to the easygoing baby she had been. The first day was rough as she had to transition to a new schedule, but the next day was easier and by day 3, she was completely different. She's now napping well during the day and sleeping 7-8 hours straight at night (she's two months). She's also falling to sleep without tears and puts herself back to sleep when she wakes up. We don't follow the schedule to the minute because that's almost impossible, but using it as a guideline has made all the difference in the world. Something that I like about this book over other baby guides are the age appropriate schedules the author spells out for both sleeping and feeding. No other book I had read had been that specific, and leaving it up to me to figure out wasn't working well at all. The author also talks about the impact over-feeding can have on a baby - an issue I think my little one was having. One word of warning, though, is that you may find this book hard to use if you're not comfortable letting your baby cry herself to sleep. The schedules and guidelines would still be helpful though. For anyone struggling with baby sleep issues, I highly recommend giving it a try.

This is an excellent read, and resource for those of us, who've been sleep-deprived as a result of having our first, and sometimes second and third child. My husband and I read it, got on the same page, and it didn't take but a couple of weeks to get our baby to fall asleep without having to rock/hold her for hours at a time. It's amazing!

[...] Cry It Out: You read so much about it on the internet, you’d think it’s a thing. Is it? Cry it Out IS a Thing. Sort of. Every day, on internet forums, there will be dozens of discussions of “CIO”, as it’s referred to. Almost without exception, CIO is help up as a sinister element that lurks out there in the world. I’m almost tempted to read CIA. Sometimes I wish I could send a group message to the tens of thousands of mothers (and fathers): STOP IT! But then I have to stop myself and think: Thousands of mothers on the internet refer to CIO, so whether I like it or not, Cry It Out exists. Sort of. Cry It Out did exist. Once upon a time. 1894, to be exact, with the publication of “The Care and Feeding of Children” by Luther Emmett Holt. Here is what Holt had to say on the subject, in its entirety: How is an infant to be managed that cries from temper, habit, or to be indulged? It should simply be allowed to “cry it out.” This often requires an hour, and in extreme cases, two or three hours. A second struggle will seldom last more than ten or fifteen minutes, and a third will rarely be necessary. Such discipline is not to be carried out unless one is sure as to the cause of the habitual crying. Note that Holt places the expression in quotation marks. This suggests to me that the phrase had some currency in the late 19th century. Perhaps CIO was the preferred method? But now read closely: Holt recommended CIO only in the case of an infant who already has a sleep problem that was the result of what we’d call today a bad “sleep association“. I’m speculating as to the meaning of “temper”. Okay, so this is now the 21st century. Does any modern sleep expert recommend Cry It Out as a sleep training method? Again the answer is ‘No. Sort of.”cry it out Meet Gina Ford Gina Ford, the author of over 30 parenting books, is a Scottish-born former maternity nurse. In 1999, she published “The Contented Little Baby Book“. The major distinguishing feature of “CLB”, as it became known, was Ford’s recommendation of strict scheduling, down to chunks of five minutes. Despite scathing criticism, CLB has become a best seller. The closest Ford comes to recommending Cry It Out is her reference to something called “crying down”. Prior to reading Ford, I was unaware of the expression crying down as a troubleshooting method. Perhaps it’s a Scottish phenomenon. I can’t be sure. Here’s what Ford has to say about “crying down”: Crying down can be particularly helpful when feeding problems have been resolved and a baby or toddler has only mild sleep association problems or has difficulty falling asleep because he is over-tired or over-stimulated… Reassurance must be kept to a maximum of one to two minutes. Parents should then wait a further 10– 15 minutes before returning. For this technique to work it is essential that the baby is not picked up and that he is allowed to settle by himself in his cot… Provided a baby has been well fed and is ready to sleep, I believe he should be allowed to settle himself. [Crying down] works not only for over-tired babies but also for babies who fight sleep…It is my belief that, in the long-term, allowing your baby to develop the wrong sleep associations and therefore denying him the sound night’s sleep he needs in order to develop both mentally and physically is a worse option than hearing him cry for a short while. Allowing your baby to learn to go to sleep unassisted is your aim, and it is important to remember that this will prevent much greater upset and more crying if waking in the night is due to your baby not knowing how to go back to sleep after having woken in light sleep (emphasis added). I’ve quoted Ford at some length because I wanted to highlight three things. First, Ford’s similarities to Holt’s advice (already cited) emphasizing that crying to sleep might be necessary only for a baby with a bad sleep association or who was overstimulated (I regard “over-tiredness” and overstimulation as the same thing). Second, Ford emphasizes that neither a hungry baby, nor a baby who is not tired, should be put down to sleep. Finally, Ford places herself firmly in favor of good sleep associations, over most other considerations.cry it out So is there really such a thing as “Cry It Out”? Gina Ford tells us, correctly in my view, that crying down should not be necessary in the first place. Ford identifies the “need” crying down as bad sleep associations and allowing a baby to become overstimulated. She believes both could be avoided if the baby were put on a schedule from the get-go. Ford truly does not want your baby to cry to sleep. I don’t believe anyone want this, including Luther Emmett Holt. In fact, if you read closely, Gina Ford is more of a “combination scheduler” than you might think at first blush. It’s true that she advocates a fairly strict schedule. But notice also that Ford insists that you make sure the baby is well fed. Notice also that she doesn’t recommend putting down a baby that isn’t tired! Just as virtually all 21st century sleep experts, Gina Ford joins the consensus about baby sleep, if perhaps in slightly different form. Like Baby Wise, Ford might say: Provide structure, but follow the baby’s cues. Sears and Spock might say “Follow the baby’s cues, but provide structure”. Either way we end up with a method that recognizes a broader consensus about all of human behavior. We are not just a bunch of genes (the “Nature” part of “Nature vs. Nurture”). But neither are we blank slates, requiring inscription by good parents (the “Nurture” part). We all are born with certain biological traits that are then molded and shaped by our environments. And for virtually all babies ever born, the first and most important “environmental factor” is mom.

Haven't tried any of the methods yet, but I don't care for the three feedings schedule. Our daughter is on the small side and still needs to nurse 8 times a day. I don't care about her waking up to eat at night, I just want her to fall asleep earlier so we'll see if any of the routines work.

Great book! Unfortunately it took me 6 months to read... but that’s because I forgot about it! As soon as I finished and started implementing the ideas, literally in 3 days, it worked!

Very practical book with specific suggestions and reasoning. Useful for people new to scheduling a baby. I find it more useful for babies 6 mo. plus.

We live by this book and our kids sleep great!

Overall the book is worth reading. Gina Ford can be a little harsh/strict in her practices. The lesson to take away from this book is the need for a schedule/routine.

I read the book and tried to follow the advice realizing that it is a satire on the western society 😁

Rien de nouveau. Decue

When our little boy was about 6 weeks old we realised we had a problem with his sleep during the day. He would not nap unless he just fell alseep on one of us. We had somehow fallen into that trap and now if we put Harry in his cot during the day he screamed the house down! We were first time parents and didn't really know much about getting our baby to sleep during the day and it was becoming a problem. When should we put him down for a sleep? How long should he sleep during the day? These were the kind of questions we had. We had a look on amazon at books about babies and sleep and 'The Complete Guide For Contented Babies and Toddlers' seemed to be the one that was going to answer all our questions. We had heard of Gina Ford and were slightly sceptical but we thought we would give it a go. It was a brilliant decision. The book arrived and not only did it help us solve Harry's daytime sleep problems, but it helped us to understand his sleep patterns and needs much better. It is also very iteresting! The book gives you an outline of how much sleep a baby needs and how that sllep should ideally be divided up across the day and night. It also offers reasons for why certain length sleeps should take place and certain times, the importance of a bedtime routine and explains about babies sleep cycles. Once you have taken on all of this information it helps you to structure your baby's sleeping. For many new parents this is something that would be incredibly useful. The book then splits up into 0-6 months, 6 - 12 months 12 - 24 months and then 2 - 3 years and looks at what to expect with sleep at this age, what to aim for, common sleeping problems and case studies. It also deals with sleep associations and sleep training. It recognises the emotional difficulty that sleep training creates and advises certain situations when it would not be a good idea to sleep train. It then outlines 5 different approaches to sleep training and recommends minimum ages or each approach. It is a book that I have referred to time and again since I bought it and imagine it will come in handy over the next couple of years. you do not need to follow Gina Ford's routines to get use out of this book but it does form part of the 'Contented Little Baby' series. I have to say this book then did lead to me buying the 'Contented Little Baby Book' and using Gina's routines and I would throughly recommend all of her books as they are excellent. Please don't be put off because you think you won't like Gina Ford based on what you have heard people saying about her routines. If you are having trouble with your baby's sleeping then this book is fantastic. You never know you might find that Gina Ford appeals to you once you start reading it. That happened to me :) People often comment on how well Harry sleeps and how he can settle himself to sleep no problem and it is because of the advice we got from this book we were able to help him become a sleeper like this!

My son struggles when bedtime comes, and he awakes several times at night. There must be something that I did wrong but I just did t know what to do. Thanks god I read this book. It does help me solve the sleeping problems little by little. Although sometimes my son still wakes up during the night or early waking in the morning, but it's much better than before. If you have the same problem with me, I recommend this book, it is definitely worth reading.

Excellent!