Children's sleep issues

For many parents sleep becomes their favourite activity and the one that’s most frequently denied them. While some babies get the hang of sleeping from an indecently early age, others continue waking up until they’re school age. Parents are not hopeless bystanders in their children’s sleep patterns, however, and most of us could at least encourage our babies to sleep better.

But sleep is an emotive issue, often causing rows between couples who are already frazzled by not getting enough sleep. Some parents fear that letting their child sleep away from them may increase the risk of cot death. And for the single parent it may be too exhausting to try to train your toddler into acquiring good habits when you can’t keep your own eyes open long enough to find her cot.

Expert advice on babies and sleeping is as subject to fashion as anything else. While our grandparents left our parents to cry for hours at the bottom of the garden ‘to exercise their lungs’, our generation is more inclined to be directed by our babies and to feed and cuddle on demand.

Lately there has been a move towards returning to establishing routines, with Gina Ford’s (a maternity nurse’s) book The Contented Little Baby Book (Vermillion £7.99). This is a prescriptive book that tells you what routine is suitable for what age. Some mothers find it brilliant - never taking their baby out at night and gearing every early evening towards getting their child to bed. Most who followed it to the letter seem to boast good sleepers as a result. This passion for routine won't suit everyone, however. Many parents find the regimes too inflexible to be realistic but if you're looking for someone to tell you what to do when with your newborn then there's no doubt Gina Ford does that. And plenty of parents have found her a life-saver.