What’s a good age to start sleep-training?

[babayagga]

I have read that if you wait till after 6 months, it gets much harder. BUT:

DD is going through the four-month sleep regression, which has hit her hard, and

Isn’t it easier for them to soothe themselves to sleep once they can roll over both ways independently? Mine can’t yet.

Confused and tired! What would you suggest?

Sleep training is not something I’m comfortable with, but from what I’ve read, most sleep training methods don’t recommend starting before 6 months.
I know the 4 month regression is a killer but I promise it will pass

Im going for 5 to 5.5 months. As soon as sleep regression is over. I'm in exactly the same situation and ds still only goes to sleep on me. He can wake up about 10 times after i put him down so bed time takes about 2 and a half hours.

Never for me. Most things I have read suggest at least a year.

We did it at 6 months

6 months minimum. Not sure who says its best to do so before? That’s too young

It’s Babycentre that says 3-4 months is a good time to start. But some sites suggest 6 months, as you say.

I did at 6.5 months. Controlled crying. Changed my life within 24 hours

My HV suggested 7 months was ideal with DD, and it worked for us, so we tried 7 months with DS and it was perfect.

Id tried pick up put down and gradual retreat at 5 months. Epic fail

Never. It’s not something I’d be comfortable doing.

The advice for 6 months plus relates to controlled crying. Some don't advise CC until 12 months now.

Gradual retreat is also recommended when older so they have an idea of what you are doing.

Pick up, put down can be started from 3-4 months, but is not recommended after 7 months. I did it at 5.5 months with a sleep consultant.

It's personal choice - use your instinct as her Mum to decide when you feel is best and pick an age appropriate method you are comfortable with. I sleep trained because the lack of sleep was detrimental to my daughter and the difference in her mood and personality was visible within a week of her sleeping better. I can say without hesitation that it was what she needed at the time.

I used the sleep lady Linda Russell when ds was 5 months. He had a reaction to his milk (nutramigen) and was up 15 times a night. I was at wits end. Ds was also so unhappy with so little sleep. Once we got the milk sorted we started sleep training. It was along the lines of sitting beside him until asleep and moving chair further away every few nights until outside the door and then just popping head back in through the door. But by then he was self settling well we have had to train again on two occasions - once was illness around 9 months and we are training just now as he is suffering from separation anxiety with settling into nursery. Although it's tough going for the time you are training I would do it in a heartbeat again because it makes life so much easier on all the times in between. We have our evenings to ourselves and more importantly ds is well rested and in good spirits unless unwell

It's not something I'd ever do but definitely not before 12 months. IME babies learn to self soothe in their own time. Leaving a baby to cry themselves to sleep feels so wrong, surely we feel that way because it's not natural?

It’s about how you look at it, IMO.

The total time crying for the approx 2 days it took my daughter to learn to self settle (and remember that being in the cot wasn’t a scary thing) has already been outdone by the length of time of crying that she would have had in the 10 days since from constantly waking up at night and needing reassurance and from being ratty and teary during the day from lack of sleep.

People get very emotive when it comes to sleep training OP, but no one person here knows what YOUR baby and YOUR situation is, and how sleep issues may be affecting that. So if YOU feel that sleep training in some form is the right thing for you and your family, then do it.

I think there may be a bit of confusion here over what ‘sleep-training’ actually means... Leaving a baby to cry it out is just one method, but there are many others! Sleep-training means teaching your baby to self-soothe. So I assume those who say they would never be comfortable with it mean CIO