Elizabeth Sloane has been giving babies the gift of sleep for more than 20 years. With a gentle, loving and soothing nature, her methods are credited with breaking cycles of sleeplessness, emotional exhaustion and frustration for babies and their parents.
Her program truly is a life changing experience. Elizabeth is the co-author of The Gift Of Sleep.
Here, she answers parents’ most asked questions about babies and sleep.
What’s your take on “controlled crying”?
I think when people hear the words ‘controlled crying‘ they imagine leaving little babies to cry it out for hours on end. That’s absolutely something that we do not believe in or advocate. Our baby sleep program – which is for babies over six months of age – is about going into and out of the nursery every few minutes while we teach our baby to self-settle.
We ask parents to stay close so that our little ones know we are on the journey with them. We also always remind parents to go to their infants immediately if they are ever in distress.
Listen: Elizabeth Sloane explains her approach to ‘controlled crying’ on our podcast for new parents, Year One. Post continues after audio.
What are your top three baby sleep tips?
- Remember that babies like quiet, dark and warmth.
- The key is to stay calm, committed and consistent.
- In the end, nobody knows your baby better than you… always trust your gut instinct as a mother.
What’s your single best piece of advice for new mothers?
From the very beginning, put your baby down into their cot or bassinet awake as much as possible. Drowsy but awake. That’s the key to teaching little ones how to drift off to sleep without the need for props like dummies, patting, rocking and feeds.
Did you sleep train your baby?
You can listen to the full episode of Year One, below.
This podcast is made possible by Philips Avent.