How do I prepare for sleep training?

How do I prepare for sleep training?

Gary Feldman (Medical Director, Stramski Disorders Center, Miller Children's Hospital ) gives expert video advice on: How do I prepare for sleep training?

There are a couple of really important points to get right for families before they embark on this sleep training. The first thing is that they have to identify that there is a sleep problem. Now, I guess that's a given; that's why people are all questioning this issue. It's really important to identify that there is a sleep problem and get out of the denial phase, because the behavioural modification is tough, but very successful. In order to have a successful outcome, your whole approach and strategy has got to be really good and consistent. You've got to admit that there's an issue here that we have to deal with. Now, when I'm assisting families we will discuss this; we will identify that this is a sleep-onset association problem, it's a behavioural problem, and I'll try and de-mystify it first for the families and say, “Look, your child's not broken. There's nothing wrong with their brain, they don't have any organic disorder; they're not retarded. It's just that they have a bad habit. This bad habit is driving you, as parents, crazy, right?” If they say “Yes,” then I'm really kind of sampling them to see whether they give me permission to go on. It's very important to get the parents on board, and I use the parents because if you have a two-parent family, they have got to be in agreement. It's very important to get them on board and get them to buy in to the next phase, because when you start talking about this, the behaviour modification, it requires a lot of work and a lot of resolve. Unless you have the resolve, you're guaranteed to fail. Guaranteed to fail.