How to Help Your Baby to Sleep Without Rocking

Posted on August 17, 2022
by Sylvia Zsido

Confused about all the conflicting parenting advice out there about how to help your child go to sleep? In this article, Janet Lansbury gives advice to a struggling parent who has been having major sleep issues with her 11 month year old son. She gives the mother important steps to take so as to help her son become a more independent sleeper. Hopefully her expertise in this field will help you have some more restful evenings!

How to Help Your Baby to Sleep Without Rocking

Hi Janet,

I am an ardent follower of your blog and always look forward to your posts! My name is Mandy and I am a stay-at-home-mom to an 11 month old son who is extremely intelligent and aware. He is able to play by himself for long periods of time and is generally a very happy little man. Unfortunately, we have had some major sleep issues since he was 3 or 4 months old. He typically needs 3 – 4 naps per day, each nap only lasting about 1/2 an hour, and about 12 hours of sleep per night. But, the only way to get him to sleep is by rocking him to sleep (it can take anywhere from 15 -90 minutes each time), and he wakes up at least 3 times per night. He loves to be held and if I hold him he sleeps much better. My question is this: how can I help him become a better sleeper? Should I let him cry it out (even though last time we tried he ended up crying for over 4 hours)? I have tried everything, what should I do next?

Thanks so much for your help and insight!

Sincerely,

Mandy

Article written by: Sylvia Zsido

https://www.MothersLifestyle.com

I have been a professional nanny working with children of all ages for over 15 years. My work has taken me all over the globe and I have had many amazing adventures with the families that I have worked with, all of which has taught me a great deal about how to make parenting less stressful.

I helped create Mothers Lifestyle in order to share parenting tips and secrets that I learned along the way, as well as to provide life-saving tools and advice from the world’s leading experts that I rely on every day in my professional life.