Dr. Robert Needlman
Specialist in pediatric behavior and development.
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 Ask Dr. Needlman
Problems 'Ferberizing' Infant | | | QUESTION | | | Dear Dr. Needlman,
When my daughter was almost four months old, I Ferberized her with success. After about six weeks of going to sleep on her own and sleeping until about 5:00 am, she suddenly started crying every night at bedtime and throughout the night. We tried re-training, but she cried for weeks, up to half an hour each night. Is this normal? Do you have any advice on how I might proceed? She's now almost seven months.— Bookgirl in NY, NY | | | ANSWER |
March 8, 2001 | | | Dear Bookgirl,
When parents talk about "Ferberizing they are referring to a very popular book called Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber, a pediatric sleep specialist.
In the book Ferber explains how some children develop a habit of crying at bedtime and during the night because they have learned to associate a particular sequence of events with the transition from waking to sleeping. Unless that sequence is repeated, the child can't get to sleep. When that sequence involves being held, talked to, or rocked by Mommy or Daddy, the child will cry until Mommy or Daddy appears.
To prevent this problem parents are advised to put their infants down for naps and at night while they are drowsy but not fully asleep. The infants then have a chance to learn how to soothe themselves to sleep. When they wake in the middle of the night, which all infants do as a normal part of the sleep cycle, they will be able to fall back to sleep on their own.
It's not unusual for a child who is sleeping through the night to start waking up. Often a minor illness, a variation in schedule, or just a development change is enough to disrupt a child's sleep rhythms. Sometimes parents have to repeat the process of helping their child learn to sleep soundly several times. In addition, this process is easier for some children than for others. When a child has a sleeping problem, the whole family suffers. Everyone is more tired and irritable than they should be.
The correct solution to night waking varies from family to family. In all cases, the goal is to help a young child learn to self-soothe and to give up the habit of having a parent nearby in order to fall asleep.
One thing to avoid is repeated half-hearted attempts to let a child cry it out. In such cases the child cries for several minutes but eventually (perhaps only one out of three or four times) a parent shows up and comforts the child. This sequence of events trains the child to cry for longer and longer periods of time and makes the transition away from night crying much harder than it needs to be.
I wonder if one reason your child has kept her sleeping problem for as long as she has might be this sort of trained night crying. The sooner you can act to change the sequence of events, the better.
In my experience, this is often much easier said than done. It might be helpful to find an understanding physician, nurse practitioner, pediatric psychologist, or social worker to help guide you and your husband through the process.
For more on sleep problems and what you can do about trained night criers, see our Sleep: Specific Problems program in the Behavior and Development section.— by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. |
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