When to self-settle/put down to sleep

[Rachie1986]

Hi everyone,

My ok is 2 weeks old. Currently we let her fall asleep on us then put in Moses basket, pick her up when she cries etc.

The hv the other day commented on it never being too soon to put her in her basket and let her send herself to sleep.. Even if she cries. I thought it does seem rather early!

What do you think? What age did you start this?

Thanks
Rachxx

From day one

I'm no expert but most advice I've read says that you shouldn't try to sleep train very young babies - fine to put them down awake, but don't leave them to cry. I've heard that 3-6 months is a good time to try and teach babies to self settle - we're attempting it with our 20 week old atm - with limited success! I think the answer is just to do what feels right for you and your baby.

All three of mine were put down awake from day one

It's never been a case of them crying it out because they were used to it

I tried to do this from my DDs first week. Sometimes she would drop off from awake, sometimes she wouldn't and would need comforting but by 6-8 weeks she was used to it, and became a very good self-settler. No harm in trying early and getting her used to the idea.

1 week old here. I read Save our Sleep by Tizzie Hall and she said teach them to self settle before they are 2 weeks old. I didn't do it for my first and paid the price so I didn't make the same mistake with my second. She is now 8 months old. She is (touch wood) a very good self settler. She never had to cry for long and you always listen for the pauses. If there is a pause, they are fine. She doesn't often cry now at all when going to sleep. Occasionally at night time when she is going to bed but very rarely. We had to do controlled crying with my son when he was 12 months and that was much harder.

I still don't now (at 14 months!) She used to when she was tiny, then stopped. now if you leave

Oops, didn't realise that had posted! Now if you leave the room before she's asleep she completely loses it. And yes, there are pauses (we've recently tried leaving her for 5 mins) but if she's screaming the rest of the time I struggle to believe she's fine!

She used to self settle for bedtime but not for day sleeps, she lost that at about 6 months.

Next time I will hope that don't grata reflux baby ANSI will try selfsettling earlier, but I also won't stress if it doesn't work. And as for Tizzie Hall says, she has no qualifications in childcare, had no children when she wrote her book, and since she has had her own, has admitted that she doesn't use the SOS routines with them so treat anything she says with a pinch of salt!

My DS (4wks old) sometimes falls asleep if I put him down when he's starting to drift off and sometimes he whinges a little but doesn't actually cry because he's drifting off. I never leave him to cry though, if he cries he gets cuddled then put back down when he's asleep.

DS1 did not self settle until at least 12mo. DS2 self settled from day 1 (apart from when teething or ill). Nothing we did, just different babies different personalities. I don't think it's worth leaving a tiny newborn to cry, even if it 'works'. Crying is communication.