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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

136 replies

acer12 · 04/09/2013 21:54

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 Hmm 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???

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OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly · 04/09/2013 23:18

HV's can't know about every single thing that every baby might possible do or go through. They wouldn't have time to do their actual jobs if they read everything some Mn'ers seem to think they should be up to speed on.

thebody · 04/09/2013 23:20

I can't bear the labels in every behaviour as its usually the excuse for another so called expert to sell another bloody book to desperate parents.

however a crying baby + lack of sleep is fucking vile and potentially dangerous so it behoves a HCP to have a range if strategies to help parents cope.

however some babies/ toddlers are just far more difficult than others, even siblings. and that's a solid proved through the ages fact.

katiecubs · 04/09/2013 23:22

How ridiculous, are you for real?

There is some sort of sleep regression every other week depending on who you listen to - load of rubbish if you ask me and no science to it. HV should definitely not be spouting such shite.

TheFallenMadonna · 04/09/2013 23:22

My HV was fab. Really fab. I feel the need to say that often on MN...

hardboiledpossum · 04/09/2013 23:24

I think sleep regressions can happen at any age. I used to be a maternity nanny and all of the babies i cared for slept through from 3-6 months. I always found 6-10 months worse for sleep regression as that is when babies often developed separation anxiety.

Original poster
acer12 · 04/09/2013 23:30

thefallen my regular HV is lovely. I actually look forward to seeing her where as my cousins was an asshole!

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Flatasawitchestit · 04/09/2013 23:34

I think its becoming kore widely known, but not maybe by HCP although if it was maybe the advice to start weaning early wouldn't be so widely used by HV & GP.

I was told with my first that it was hunger waking him at 4mo so to wean. I've wiser up now by my 3rd.

Here are some links, although not evidence based they are really useful.

kellymom sleep regression

sleep regression blog post

MmmmWhiteWine · 05/09/2013 00:03

Sleep regression?? Sounds like typical MN shite to me...there always has to be an over-analysed diagnosis for every thing. Sometimes babies sleep, sometimes they don't ....get on with it and stop giving your HV a hard time.

DoJo · 05/09/2013 00:15

I don't think anyone 'doesn't want' it to be true, but unless there is any scientific evidence to suggest that it is actually more than just a period of disturbed sleep which could happen at at point, the there isn't much point in naming it. Are there cures for it? The research backing it up seems non existent, but does the online community discussing it have one?

MrsMook · 05/09/2013 00:28

We're going through it at the moment. Last week baby slept through, this week it's been waking for one or two night feeds. Both of mine seem to fit with the suggested timings on growth spurts/ development leaps. So when it's a crappy week of normal baby behaviour which is tougher than the week before, it's nice to have a little label that tells you it is normal and will resolve itself, and that sleep will be restored soon.

If it stops people being given crap advice on early weaning, topping up with formula, not feeding baby as "they're too big to need it" etc, that's a good thing.

Weasleyismyking · 05/09/2013 00:30

I don't understand why it needs solid scientific evidence before its true. Confused babies go through periods of disturbed sleep at various stages. To recognise the issue as sleep regression/disturbance has to be more helpful than trying to ween early (if it happens to happen at 4months), or filling the baby full of calpol for teething.
Knowing there are a number of things that could be causing the problem, identifying the symptoms and trying out various techniques that suit the individual is advice I would expect from a HCP.
Although saying that I am yet to hear any stories of good advice from hv from my friends. They seem to specialise in scaring and making the parent feel stupid and guilty here. Sad Angry

GrandstandingBlueTit · 05/09/2013 00:55

But it isn't just a period of disturbed sleep that can 'happen at any time'; enough people have experienced it for a pattern to have been noticed, with many commonalities.

Again, some babies go through it. Not all. And dismissing it because your (generic) baby didn't experience it makes you (generic) seem a bit, um, blinkered, shall we say.

Every known concept starts somewhere. If we/society dismissed every 'new' thing before it got any traction, we'd never learn anything. Never understand anything any better.

Again, go ahead and gripe at people giving it a name, but you're not going to stop it.

And what Weasley said.

rattlemehearties · 05/09/2013 06:35

I don't understand why it needs solid scientific evidence before its true - Weasley

Bahaha! Seriously?! Sigh ... you're the kind of person who has led to (for example) homoeopathy being available on the NHS, despite it being unproven bollocks. Having a baby that doesn't sleep well does lead to mystic superstitious thinking but we need evidence to back up our conclusions.

ithasgonetotheopera · 05/09/2013 07:35

PMSL at the 'only evidence-based medicine' from health visitors, all I hear is ill-advised stuff from them! My friend was recently told that eating chocolate would block her body from absorbing any nutrients Hmm. If the four month regression is nonsense then the HV should still know about it so he/she can explain the science behind why they think that.

ovenbun · 05/09/2013 07:50

Ermmm it really isn't a load of bollocks...although not every baby will wake up at 4 months every 90 minutes...there are certain biological changes in glucose metabolism in the brain that effect all babies at around 4 months (a big contribution to why so many are weaned on to solids at this stage). These staged adaptions in the way the brain works happen routinely throughout every babies first 20 months...and are very well studied and evidenced, your health visitor should be aware of the work of Brazleton if noone else. This is a fantastic book which highlights when these changes are occuring and what you can expect www.thewonderweeks.com/

ovenbun · 05/09/2013 07:53

this one is a little less user friendly, but a book any health visitor worth their salt will be aware of, www.amazon.co.uk/Touchpoints-Birth-T-Berry-Brazelton/dp/020162690X

Mosschops30 · 05/09/2013 07:58

We have just done brazelton training Smile

Weasleyismyking · 05/09/2013 08:01

Having a baby that doesn't sleep well does lead to mystic superstitious thinking

Oh is that all it was when DS1 nearly broke me when he was 8 months and suddenly wouldn't sleep. It was just me being superstitious, not him going through an massive developmental stage Hmm
NB DS1 has always been a fantastic sleeper apart from at 8 months and just after he turned 2. When real things were happening to him emotionally.

FirstStopCafe · 05/09/2013 08:23

YANBU. Ds went through the 4 month sleep regression not long ago. A friend told me about it which really helped especially as a few people were insisting he was teething when I knew he wasn't. I was also surprised my hv didn't mention it, but this thread explains why I suppose. I thought it was a much wider acknowledged thing

Original poster
acer12 · 05/09/2013 08:26

Really mosschops ? Yet you find what I was talking about so dubious even when it's do similar in developmental changes in sleep states? Hmm

rattle wow I bet you still think the earth is flat too don't ya Grin

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Original poster
acer12 · 05/09/2013 08:26

so similar

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GrandstandingBlueTit · 05/09/2013 08:28

Right, rattlemehearties, so where is the evidence that babies who start to wake at 4 months must be hungry and therefore moved onto solids, as recommended by many an HV...?

I am just loving the notion that everything recommended by HVs, of all people, is backed up by hard evidence and keen analytical fact. Grin

Original poster
acer12 · 05/09/2013 08:29

firststop nearly every one suggested it was teething to me and even I did in the end, surprisingly dh was the only one that said it wasn't! Quite worrying really as I wonder how many baby's get dosed up with calpol and early webbing like a poster said up thread!

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DoJo · 05/09/2013 08:29

So is there a cure?

Original poster
acer12 · 05/09/2013 08:34

grandstand agreed! I must admit I had bought baby rice and tried her with it, she just spat it out! Dh was the only one saying she was tired . It can go in the friggin big, ill wait for BLW

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