Sleep training/ sleep consultants - worth it?

[IssyFleur]

My 7 month old daughter has been sleeping fairly badly for a while now. On a good night she'll wake up maybe 3 or 4 times and on a bad one it can be once every 30-60 mins. She struggles to self settle so will feed or need comforting and it becomes increasingly more challenging to set her back down in her crib as the night goes on.

I've started considering speaking to a sleep consultant and know that amongst their aims would be more self settling and less overnight feeding/ comforting which will inevitably lead to some tears. I'm not sure if I feel ready for all that but also know better sleep would benefit us all.

I guess I'm wondering what experiences other people have in this area. Is sleep training/ consultancy really worth it? Do these sleep issues just naturally work themselves out as babies get older? I'm really conflicted on what to do.

In my opinion it's a very personal choice akin to feeding, however I would beware of anyone that speaks in 'absolutes', ie if you do X, then you will definitely get Y outcome, or if you do X you will ruin your babies sleep FOREVER. This is just false and it's a marketing tool for their sleep course. Baby will sleep eventually. You will not be feeding to sleep at 5 years old.
In my experience you will find a lot of people who essentially are just selling variations of controlled crying, and that information you can find for free online.
"Self settling" is not the magic ingredient to better sleep either and does not guarantee no overnight wakes despite what sleep trainers will tell you.
You may be better off investigating if there's anything physiological that is impairing sleep, or perhaps something in the sleep environment.

Thanks! That's what I'm worried about. I can see how some tweaks etc. might help but I also wonder if it's just a normal part of being a baby, especially one that is just learning about crawling, babbling and separation anxiety. But in the same breath, also exhausted!