Infant Sleep Support

There’s no shortage of advice about baby sleep. The problem is, much of it is contradictory.

Respond every time your baby wakes.
Give them space to settle.
Follow wake windows.
Watch your baby, not the clock.
Never feed to sleep.
Feed to sleep if it works for you.

It can leave you feeling like whatever you do, someone’s telling you you’re doing it wrong.

The reality is, infant sleep is highly individual. Babies differ in how much sleep they need, how easily they settle, how often they wake and how much support they need to get back to sleep. And families differ too - in their parenting preferences, their tolerance for disrupted sleep and what feels comfortable and realistic to them.

Broadly, there are two main approaches to infant sleep. Responsive sleep approaches work with the biological processes that regulate infant sleep and are more guided by your baby’s individual sleep needs, rhythms, and cues. Behavioural sleep approaches tend to use more structured routines and sleep schedules, with strategies designed to help babies learn to fall asleep - and return to sleep - more independently.

Both approaches have potential benefits, and we don’t believe there’s one “right” approach for every baby or every family. What works well for one baby might be a terrible fit for another. We think the best approach is one that takes into account your baby’s age, temperament and sleep needs, as well as what feels comfortable, realistic and sustainable for you as a parent.

Our team has additional training in infant sleep and can help you understand what the science tells us about how infant sleep develops, what’s normal at different ages, and what the research says about both responsive and behavioural approaches to improving sleep.

From there, we can help you work out what makes sense for your baby. That might mean making small changes to routines, sleep timing or settling. For some families, it might mean using a more structured behavioural approach. And for others, the most helpful thing is simply understanding that what their baby is doing is normal and finding ways to make the current stage more manageable.

The aim isn’t perfect sleep. It’s to develop an approach that fits your baby and your family - one that feels manageable to put into practice and helps improve sleep without creating more stress in the process.