Confused about sleep training!!!

[ASomers]

I have a 3 month old baby and I'm doing some research ahead of time about sleep training. I will definitely keep my baby in the our bedroom until 6 months minimum to reduce risk of SIDS but I'm not sure what to do after that. Opinion is so divided about whether or not sleep training should be done at all. Thoughts??

Id say its a totally personal choice. Id leave it until 6/7 months and see if you want to do it

It depends how your baby sleeps! And how you cope with lack of sleep aswell. I wouldnt be in a rush to start

Thanks for the replies. My baby currently sleeps really well, usually only waking once. I'm probably being silly thinking about it now but I'm a worrier and I worry if I'm not doing something I 'should' be doing.

Thats amazing sleep! Sleep isnt linear though, so your baby might continue like that, but they might not.

Give it a few more months and see whats going on before deciding

I knew I didn’t want to leave my babies to cry after an upsetting experience with my first born so for subsequent babies I started sleep training, in the most gentle of senses, at around three months. This involved slowly teaching them to settle independently at the beginning of the night and supporting them through the process with a very slow gradual retreat. I didn’t night wean until much later. With my first I did a quicker version of gradual retreat that took a couple of weeks at 8 months, after a failed attempt at controlled crying. Sleep training doesn’t have to involve leaving baby to cry.

I was getting absolutely no sleep for the first 6 months then eventually put my foot down and tried sleep training and it worked wonders to my disbelief, now me and baby girl (just gone 1) sleep so much better and I probably would've gone crazy if I'd kept going how it was haha, the key is consistency, and I think a bath and book before bed really makes it a lovely experience too and helps the baby wind down and set a routine, just my experience😊

I'm a big advocate of sleep training in certain circumstances, but I think it really be should something that you feel you need to do, not that you feel you should do. I think the gains are worth the upset in a scenario where the family is really struggling due to lack of sleep, but there is upset so I wouldn't do it unless the potential gains are big. I also think it'll be almost impossible to be consistent unless you're really motivated in the way that horrendous sleep deprivation motivates you, so it'll be less likely to work - which, again, means upset without gain.

Definitely only do it if you need to. Some babies sleep really well so don't need it. It's not obligatory!