Sleep training: Elizabeth Pantley

The No-Cry sleep solution

American parenting educator and author Elizabeth Pantley devised her sleep plan because she felt there was a gap between two schools of thought on the subject: one advocating leaving your baby to cry and the other saying that parents should just tough it out and live with sleepless nights.

Her book, The No-Cry Sleep Solution, works on the premise that your baby should never have to cry when she is being sleep trained and promises “gentle ways to help your baby sleep through the night”.

The method is based on a personalised 10-step plan, centred around an individual baby’s sleep patterns. It also deals with different approaches such as where your baby sleeps (co-sleeping, in a cot in your room, in her own room, and so on), how she feeds (breastfeeding or bottle), whether or not she uses a dummy, bottle or breast to fall asleep and which other “crutches” she might use before naps or at bedtime.

The plan advocates a gradual process involving analysis and assessment of your baby’s sleep patterns during the day and at night and offers specific sleep solutions to fit your own parenting style. Parents are asked to fill in a log, charting night-time wakings, feeds, day naps, length of sleeps and awake times. The special “pull-off” technique, which gradually helps babies to fall asleep on their own, is a unique feature of the plan.

Elizabeth also busts the myth that sleeping through the night means sleeping all night. Biologically, she explains, a baby who sleeps for five consecutive hours has, in fact, “slept through”.

If you don’t want your baby to cry – or wish to wean her off needing a dummy, bottle or breast to fall asleep – the No-Cry Sleep Solution offers a practical solution.

Visit www.pantley.com for more information before you embark on the programme.