To think that the health visitor should have known what 4 month sleep regression is?

[acer12]

I didn't know what it even was but when I posted on MN about my DD2 not sleeping, it was suggested by some fabulous ladies and it was a bloody revelation, I literately had a tick list of symptoms. She was waking every 90 mins through night and only cap napping during day and I was hallucinating! Googled advice and fixed the problems. Learning self settling, more sleep, swaddling...ect and it worked!

Went to get baby weighed, my usual lovely HV wasn't there and the HV that I spoke to about it was really about it and lectured me on the dangers of swaddling.

No one else seems to know either?! Mil was trying to force calpol down her convinced it was teething (luckily DH fended her off) as she was cranky ALL the time but she was just shattered!

is this widely known???

Is there 15 month regression? My ds definitely has that at the moment!

Suspect the 'testosterone surge in 4 year old boys' is a similar thing, a need to label something but actually just, y'know, kids being kids!

mosschops why shouldn't they?

I thought the role of a HV was to look after both mother and child. To be able to offer support, advice and guidance.....

My usual HV isn't sceptical or judgey , that's really the last thing a new mother needs...

A HV role is to deliver support, guidance and promote health and wellbeing, not to bandy around a phenomenon that may or may not exist.
Advice is given from evidence based research which is across the board in nursing, you can't just give advice based on a google link, Spanish paper done on 18 babies or mumsnet.

What 20quid said.

I actually think its quite worrying that all these things are getting names. Sure most of it is babies being babies. But I can't help worry that normalising every set of symptoms/problems and calling it "a thing" could stop people seeking help/medical attention when it's needed.

But maybe I over think it a bit.

Four yes but having "heard of something" doesn't mean they have to encourage and support parents in their management of it.

Also note the way the OP mentioned "symptoms" of it.

well if you haven't heard of it then it must be true or affective then mosschops

Im a teacher on maternity and I never stop learning or reading up on new sources and material. I would never close my mind to any thing. but maybe you know every thing there ever is to know. You sound like a very caring HV.

I'm glad I took advice and looked it up and acted on it, it saved a lot of crying, restless sleeping, two stressed out parents, no trip to the doctors. Smiles and sleeps all round in this house!

If you Google sleep regression there seems to be one every month I have an 11 month old and we didn't have a 4 month sleep regression. We did have a few weeks "blip" at six months but that coincided with introducing solids. I think YABU FWIW.

Things have always been labelled. When DS was a baby (so 12 years ago), I was assured he had "3 month colic" - and his grandparents were obsessed with getting his wind up...

I remember reading something in New Scientist at that time about development-linked episodes of emotional instability (or something like that!) and how that was likely to be a cause of the "3 month colic" phenomenon in many infants, rather than a gastro intestinal thing. And I actually found it quite a relief. I think the whole point is that it is normal baby stuff, if it is developmental, which is what pointythings' link says. And for the poster who asked if it's 3 and 5 month as well, well, yes. Up to 10 times in 20 months apparently.

I think it's interesting anyway...

neo how nice to point out a typo ( very mean girls) I'm tired, fat sausage fingers on ipad. People got the gist.....

Madonna 12 years ago is not "always" and whilst there has always been a trend towards discovering new parenting techniques, it really has hit an all time level of silly right about now.

I had no idea what it was until I looked at MN much later then looked back and thought of course!
HV never mentioned anything at all, suggested weaning which I didn't proceed with.
Is it really a MN thing?

Not all babies go through a sleep regression at 4 months, but surely that isn't reason enough to dismiss it entirely.

DS didn't go through it (if I recall correctly; the whole first year was a haze), but my God, DD sure did and it nearly crippled me. I read up on it and found info about it in a variety of different places, including on here.

The other thing about the 4-month sleep regression is that, obviously, it causes babies to wake continually at night. Some take this to mean that they're hungry and not getting sufficient nutrients from milk, and so start weaning onto solids earlier than might be best for the baby.

Sorting out their sleep is often more beneficial for the baby (and the mother) than moving them onto solids to 'solve' the problem, when it isn't necessarily the right solution.

I'd be highly sceptical of any HV who had never even heard of the 4-month sleep regression.

It's not "the" anything! Adding a "the" to it only lends credibility to it which isn't due.

neomaxi especially with parenting and looking after children new changes ideas will all ways come about, people want the best for there children. If people didn't try new things, research or try new methods we would still be back in the days where it was fine to smoke with a child on your hip!

Just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean its bullshit. Having an understanding of what maybe going on helped me take steps to try sort an issue out. It worked for me and were happy.

Hmm, no. But 3 month colic has been around longer than 12 years. As have growing pains. And teething as a catch all.

And in fact, the paper linked to doesn't talk about parenting techniques. It talks about development. Which is exactly the point that the "it's just being a baby" posters are making.

In fact my response to the article I read wasn't to follow a new regime, but rather to relax and see it as normal rather than something that had to be sorted out. Although I do appreciate that this is different to the OP.

No-one in RL I spoke to ever heard of it, talk about eye-rolls all around when I mentioned it (after having found holy grail answers here on MN like OP!).

OH GOD it was so terrible in our house, and it was exactly the way others were describing it. I do think that whatever it was it was a developmental thing and it was just a matter of riding it through. On internet fora it seems to mostly be a thing with breastfed babies? Not sure.

OP I'm impressed that you found ways to 'solve' it quickly! Only time helped with DD, nothing else.

acer generally that's true of medical studies...not so much with parenting. I've done just fine with my Mother and MIL's advice.

flumpy I was thinking it was weaning too! But after resting properly she is happy and fulfilled on milk.

Wy are you so desperate for it not have any 'credibility', NeoMaxi?!

As I say, it's not something every baby goes through. It's still a known phenomena that some babies go through.

Rail all you want against people giving it a name, but you're not going to stop people going through it from identifying it, seeking advice and help, and naming it.

neo my MIL and GM tried to make us give capol and start weening dd, saying she was teething and hungry. It wasn't either. Was told to not let her sleep for a few hours before she went to bed,try rusk in her bottle! now she has an hour nap at 4-5 and is in bed chatting herself to sleep at 6.45 till 3am then 6.30 which im over the moon about.

thefallen I had to try sort it out as I was that tired I put foundation on my tooth brush...bad times!

ive never heard of it either,mine just kind of slept,and sometimes they woke up too,i just got on with it!dont bother with all the self soothing and swaddling and cots etc so thats probably why though.