Canadian parents often complain they have a hard time getting their babies to sleep and to sleep right through the night. This can disrupt parents’ lives and make them quite miserable. Adults rarely live with their own parents or extended families, and may lack the advice of more experienced family members.
Getting into business
Sleep became an issue for two nurses living in western Canada. They had trouble with their own newborns and discovered the Sleep Sense Program. They found it helped them so much that they decided to get trained and to start a business helping other parents.
The business is called Lullaby Consulting. Alison Hall and her partner, Liz MacDougall offer an initial, free 15-minute consultation and then families can purchase their services which are delivered in person in Regina, Saskatchewan where the business is based, or by phone or Skype.
Parents call ‘quite frustrated’
“A lot of parents will call us and say their baby is still up three, four or five times a night and they’re only taking short, half-hour or 45-minute naps during the day,” says Hall. “And they call us quite frustrated and looking for help.”
After an initial session where the consultants get to know the families and their problems with sleep, they offer a step-by-step, personalized plan to get their baby sleeping better. There is a three-week period during which the parents have support in getting their plan working. “We basically hold their hand through the entire process and we’ve had a 100 per cent rate success rate,” says Hall. “By the end of those three weeks we have very happy, well-rested families.”
‘Babies can put themselves to sleep’
A major problem, says Hall, is that parents put their babies to sleep for them. “One of the biggest things we teach parents is that babies and all humans are very capable of getting themselves to fall asleep on their own. If you put a newborn down drowsy but awake, they would be able to fall asleep on their own. But especially here in Canada we tend to intervene.
‘No props please’
“We use swings and car seats and strollers and we rock them to sleep. And we use all kinds of sleep props to try to get them to sleep,” she adds. It’s okay to occasionally rock or nurse a baby to sleep, says Hall, but for the most part babies need no aids or intervention so they can learn to get to sleep on their own.
Getting rid of the props like bottles or pacifiers is a first priority. Then the consultants work on establishing a routine and getting babies over four months old into bed by 7pm for a good 12-hour sleep. Parents can stay in their baby’s room to comfort them by rubbing their stomachs, if necessary.
Babies and children in Canada most often sleep in rooms separate from their parents and the vast majority of paediatricians vigorously discourage parents from sleeping in the same bed as their infants.
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