Teaching Your Baby to Self Soothe

So if it’s got nothing to do with hunger, how can you help them sleep through the night?

The solution to the issue, not the “hack” or quick fix, but the actual remedy, is teaching your baby to fall asleep independently.

That might seem like a tall order for a 6-month-old, but I assure you, they’re fully capable of learning this invaluable skill. It’s natural, and they typically take to it faster than you would expect.

Lots of babies will babble to themselves for a bit, rub their feet together, suck on their fingers, or some combination of all three. Almost every client I’ve worked with has had some new (and often amusing) trick that their baby has adopted as a sleep strategy. Let them discover these strategies on their own, and then let them practice them a little. It’s a skill, and skills take time to master.

Now, I’m not saying that you should leave a crying baby to sort themselves out without any comfort or attention. You should feel free to attend to them, and let them know you’re nearby and available, but don’t rock, nurse, or cuddle them until they fall asleep.

Let them find a way to do it on their own. That way, when they wake in the night, they’ll have the skills they need to settle back down on their own.