Sleep Consultation FAQ

Infant sleep is a developmental process that is influenced by human milk. That’s why my sleep consultations include a lactation consultation and developmental assessment. Your milk has hormones and other substances in it that fluctuate at different times to help your infant sleep, be alert, and develop a circadian rhythm.

It is normal to experience changes in both feeding and sleeping when your baby goes through different developmental stages. Common sleep “solutions” often don’t address the interplay of sleep and feeding. For example, your 3-5 month old might be waking frequently at night to nurse because they are distracted and more interested in being social during the day than nursing. They make up for it at night.

Even in the event that there is no feeding issue, a lactation assessment is necessary with every sleep consultation because I will need to take feeding into consideration when developing a sleep plan with you. This will help protect your milk supply and insure the baby is having their needs met.

I offer you and your baby something better!

Sleep Training Isn’t Developmentally Appropriate

Sleep scientists agree that sleep training is not developmentally appropriate before 6 months of age, and some believe even longer than this. Sleep training before it is developmentally appropriate can possibly have a negative impact on infant brain development, hard-wiring how your child responds to stress.

I do not advise methods that involve crying and increased infant stress for older babies either because even their brains are still developing.

Babies Don’t Self-Soothe

Sleep trained babies may be conditioned not to cry, rather than learn to “self-soothe.” Babies can’t actually self-soothe. In fact, the part of the brain involved with emotional self-regulation doesn’t fully mature until the teen years. There are studies that have shown that sleep trained babies still wake up at night, they just don’t cry. They likely have shut down because crying doesn’t get them what they need. In fact, one study has shown that while stress hormone levels go down in mothers at night after they sleep train, they remain high in sleep trained babies, even though they are no longer crying at night. A different study that made lots of headlines, claimed the sleep trained infants they examined didn’t have increased levels of stress hormones. However, that study didn’t actually look at the infant’s hormones during the sleep training or soon after.

Sleep Training Doesn’t Improve Your Sleep as Much as You Think

Another reason why I don’t sleep train is that studies have shown that infants who are left to fall asleep on their own don’t sleep longer or awaken less than babies who are comforted to sleep. They actually only slept about 6 minutes longer, hardly worth the trauma. Other studies show that even though sleep training can seem to work in the short term, it doesn’t last in many infants, who will still have “regressions.”

Sleep Training Can Reduce Your Milk Supply

Sleep training also means your infant is not getting night feeds, which are important so that they can have the energy for all the rapid growth and development they are doing. An overwhelming number of families that I have seen who had a low milk supply stopped feeding their infants at night, having believed this would not impact their milk supply. Waking at night to eat is normal up to at least a year of age. Furthermore, human milk has substances in it that help regulate infant sleep, and parents who breastfeed/chestfeed report better sleep.

There are Alternatives!

Despite frequent awakenings being normal, if you are exhausted and struggling, you need support! Alternative solutions to sleep training are available! Together we will create a plan that deals with sleep disruptions so that you can have a better experience with sleep. I can’t promise you a fast turnaround like sleep trainers do. Some of my methods will take time, but it will be worth it!

Customized

My sleep consultations are designed to improve your sleep, but let’s get something out of the way first: There is no magic solution that will allow you to sleep all night every night when you have an infant. Although sleep training can sometimes be accomplished quickly, it doesn’t last for most babies, who will continue to have “regressions.” Often sleep training impacts your milk supply too, creating a different kind of problem. So, despite the promises, not even sleep training will give you perfect sleep. What I offer you is improved sleep.

Sleep Education

First, I educate clients on what normal infant sleep looks like. Not normal as in what most folks are doing these days, but normal as in how human infants and their parents have slept over the thousands of years we have evolved. That actually looks quite different from what most Europeans and Americans practice and assume is normal. This will help you to understand which practices help fill infant sleep and development needs, and which don’t.

Sleep Improvement Strategies

Next, we will go over what your specific concerns are. Each baby, each family, and each situation is different, so my approach will be customized. We will determine your infant’s temperament and developmental stage to help me understand their needs. We will also go over how to tell why your baby is fussy or crying and will determine what settles them. We will then talk about how to get them to fall asleep in a way that is developmentally appropriate, safe, and easier for you.

Determining What the Issues Are

Strategies for helping you improve your sleep include looking at why your baby might be extra fussy at a particular time of day, why they might be waking up every hour in the middle of the night, why they might resist bedtime, wake up too early, or not get back to sleep overnight. Are they overtired? Overstimulated? Is it is feeding issue? Is it related to their current developmental stage (Are they having trouble transitioning between sleep stages, hungry at night because they are eating less during the day, teething, etc…)? Do they need help regulating? etc…

Solutions

Solutions might include adjusting nap times or lengths, adjusting bedtimes, addressing their stimulation needs, fixing the feeding issue, making adjustments to address the developmental need, creating responsive routines (not rigid schedules), or making a plan for helping them to regulate their body and emotions. Is your baby waking up as soon as you put them down? I have strategies that will help them stay asleep. As a lactation consultant, I can address feeding issues that impact sleep. I also have a very effective way to help your baby smoothly make changes, like changing where they sleep or changing settling methods.

Sleep Hygiene for Parents

Finally, we will make a sleep hygiene plan for you, the parent. This plan will help reduce your anxiety, help you to develop good sleep habits and routines, and give you ways to get back to sleep after you have awakened.

I have a doctorate in medical anthropology and have extensively studied infant sleep research. Anthropologists have done some incredible research into infant sleep, especially in terms of how it intersects with breastfeeding/body-feeding. My own Ph.D. research project was focused on lactation. Through this and my lactation consulting business, I was struck by how exhausted new parents were and how often sleep issues and feeding issues went together. I had to engage in the research on sleep and feeding in order to make sense of what I was seeing. I started helping my lactation clients with sleep issues as well. I then realized I had valuable information and skills that were not being shared by sleep consultants/coaches/trainers.

The sleep consultant field is unregulated and anyone can call themselves one, even if they don’t have an understanding of sleep science. They usually have no lactation certification and offer up solutions that can impact your milk supply. Even most pediatricians have little to no training in lactation or sleep and may give you advice that can impact your milk supply. I am unique in my approach because I am trained to do developmental assessments on your baby and I am also an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) so I can do feeding assessments as well. Also, as an anthropologist, I understand that human infants evolved over thousands of years with certain universal eating and sleeping practices that addressed their developmental needs. Unfortunately, many of our current sleep beliefs and practices go against an infant’s developmental needs. You will get far more out of a consultation with me than you will get from any other consultant.

Medical anthropologists consider both the biological and the socio-cultural aspects of health. My methodologies are always grounded in sleep and lactation science, cross-cultural research, and consider your particular needs. Much of what parents, sleep consultants, and medical practitioners believe is “normal” in terms of infant sleep is actually based on Euro-American cultural beliefs and practices, not science. As a medical anthropologist, I know the difference.

Our ancestors would have thought about and practiced infant sleep in very different ways. That’s important because many of the practices that are recommended don’t recognize the interplay between breastfeeding/chestfeeding, sleep, and infant development and go against the ways we have always been able to assure that infants have their needs met. There can be health implications when our biological and developmental needs and our sleep practices are at odds - both yours and your baby’s.

I focus my efforts on this time period with lactating parents because it is where I feel I can be most helpful. Also, I believe that helping parents from the start will mean they have a smoother sleep journey down the road.

As someone who has done academic research, I value evidence based practices. Sleep scientists believe that sleep training prior to 6 months of age and possibly longer is developmentally inappropriate.

As an IBCLC, I understand how sleep and breastfeeding/body-feeding are entwined. I started seeing how this played out with lactating parents that I was helping and realized that I had something to offer that other sleep consultants/coaches/trainers can’t.

Even if you don’t have a feeding issue, I can help, but sleep and feeding are always related and this will figure into the plan we create for you.