Sleep consultants - worth it?

[zigzagzig]

My 15 month old is capable of sleeping through the night but rarely does. I usually end up sleeping in his room from 1am or so. I'm fed up of reading books and websites and want someone to learn about my life and just tell me what to do.

The thing is I breastfeed to sleep, often cosleep, and I wouldn't want DH to have to take over any of the night wakings from me. I'm also not keen to encourage my little one to eat more during the day when he's not keen to, as I feel quite strongly about him listening to his own hunger cues. I wouldn't be ready to change any of those things. And I'm not going to cry it out. So I'm not sure anyone could really help me.

The only reason I'm considering it is that a friend who talked to one told me they were recommended giving porridge and banana for dinner and I've found this really helps. Maybe a sleep consultant would know loads of cool tips like this?

Also, how do you find a good consultant?

Following as I suspect we need one but like you won't cry it out. But will try anything else x

We're actually just about to employ a sleep consultant so I'll report back! However, you are really limiting the options of how they can help you - which is totally your prerogative, of course, but I think you're going to have to be very clear about that before you hire someone because if you're not willing to consider stopping feeding to sleep or cutting night feeds for a 15 month old I do think quite a lot of even the gentler end are going to struggle to help you

We tried, spent good money & failed spectacularly. I would say most books/online stuff will tell you what you need to know anyways - unless the consultant is going to come in person to execute their strategy.

In any case, any small progress was set back every time the baby fell ill & needed co-sleeping to be fed or monitored or just sheer exhaustion of the whole family.

At the right age it all worked out, but I lost sleep for years. Hope you work something out sooner than I did.