Are sleep consultants worth it?
We're getting close to our wit's end with our 2-year-old and his sleep habits (or lack thereof). He's been fighting sleep since day one, seems to actively dislike it, and doesn't typically reach the minimum amount of the recommended range for his age (e.g., he should be getting 11-14 hours/day now but only gets 9-10).
We do all the "best practices" that we've found from reputable sources, and have tried everything we can think of. We've asked the pediatrician and she doesn't seem alarmed, which is good, but a lack of advice from her doesn't help me and his mother become less zombie-esque.
Should we try a sleep consultant? Are they worth it? If so, do you have any recommendations?
Dec 10, 2020
Parent Replies
My response to reading your post is YES!! It sounds like both your son and you and your partner are all three unhappy with the current situation, so consider this a quality of life improvement for the whole family. The amount of sleep he's getting aside, it's not good for anyone for sleep to be battle or an unpleasant part of the day. We used Maria at https://www.not-a-peep.com/ and she was wonderful and I would recommend her. Just having someone to answer your questions and give you a plan to follow for your specific situation is so helpful. Her plan for us was very detailed with all the "what if this happens" contingencies provided for, and she was easily available to answer questions and give us feedback as we followed it. It was worth every penny; my partner says it was one of our best decisions.
Hi. We hired a sleep consultant for a similar situation (but for both our 2 AND 4 year old). They were historically decent sleepers but both had major regressions, took forever to fall asleep, needed us in the room, etc etc. We worked with https://ingridbabysleepwhisperer.com/ because she had the most reasonable rates and I think it was helpful. It was a lot of review of things we had already tried or knew we should try but she helped coach us through a very specific plan and held us accountable for being very very consistent. The biggest change she had us make was putting them to bed WAY earlier than before. I thought it would never work but it was the most helpful thing (6:30 bed time instead of 8:30-9). It took a full month of very regimented consistency (with improvement almost immediately) and has helped a ton months later now that we aren't quite as regimented. We looked into other sleep consultants with prices much much higher and we could not justify that cost. Good luck!
as a parent to two, i want to encourage you to go for it! i'd suggest finding one that works with your philosophy and invest in your sanity and self-care. after my first, i regretted not doing it. i thought i could read through books and blogs to save the money. boy, did i regret that. all of those restful nights are priceless!
i ended up not needing one of my second (kids are different!) but i gave myself the ok to do so should it be needed/desired. be kind to yourself ! :)
We also, in a desperate state, finally reached out to a sleep consultant and my only regret was not doing it earlier!
A to Z sleep solutions was the company’s e worked with, Amanda Brewer was the consultant, and it CHANGED MY LIFE!! Teaching a child how to sleep was for us a challenging, emotional, demanding and dynamic thing, and getting a kind professional to guide us through how to do it successfully made the difference. Good luck and get help! It’s so worth it! :)
Fwiw my son always slept less than recommended and still does at ten. He sleeps nine hours and so do I. Frustrating!! But he is healthy and well rested with good energy (way too much!) If your kid seems ok, don’t worry about the ranges. Every kid is different.
We waited until 3 1/2 to try a sleep consultant and when we finally did, I wished we done it sooner because it was enormously helpful. We were like you- followed best practices from reputable sources, our pediatrician was not worried/not helpful, but we were just SO tired. We used Eileen Henry from Compassionate Sleep Solutions based on a friend's enthusiastic recommendation. She consults remotely from Colorado and does a free consult so you can see if you think she is a good fit. I highly recommend her! Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions.
I've used babysleepscience.com. They have great info on their blogs and I've done personal phone consultations for each kid. I think the phone calls were around $150 per call but they also did follow up via email. It wasn't necessarily easy or quick to fix the problem but I felt like they gave me a game plan I was comfortable executing. Better sleep is totally worth it!
My kid is now almost 4 but even at 2 she did not sleep more than 9-10 hours. I noticed that if she skips the noon nap (usually 2 hours) then she would go to bed at 7 and can easily sleep until 8 or 9. It was not difficult to keep her awake. But if I saw her tired I normally hot her to bed for noon nap. You can try that. I was the same way when I was a kid. Sometimes it is what it is and n kik thing you can do about it.
I know nothing about sleep therapist but there are books and websites you can read and educate yourself about sleep.
Hi there,
I highly recommended Sleep Wise Consulting. I worked with Darrah Torres and had great success with my 15 month old.