Goodness me, is there anything more difficult to write about than a book about sleep related to babies? As this is a topic fraught with conflict, I have chosen to rate this book and review it from the perspective that you, the reader, are wanting to train your child to sleep, and that there will thus be certain choices that go along with that (allowing your baby to cry, topping newborns up with formula amongst others) that you would entertain as part of your sleep training journey. If you are not of this persuasion then you are not going to rate this book highly.
If you are looking for solutions to get more sleep whether your baby is very young or you have a child up to five years old, then Sleep Solutions might offer some real guidance to getting your desired result.
I’m liking
Rachel Waddilove is a very experienced child carer, being a mother/grandmother and a maternity nurse. She has a host of ‘celebs’ laying claim to her sleep training methods and the way they have assisted in their own journies with their children. She is clearly a passionate woman, and she is a bit ‘oldschool’ which has it’s charm – she is very direct, not entirely PC, and quite clear in her belief in her own approach. In some ways I found all of this a little bit refreshing. The book is conversational in tone and extremely presecriptive. If you’re a sleep deprived parent at the end of yourself – and really needing a lot of guidance for how to go about sleep training without having to research or think about it too much, then this is the type of book you might be after.
For those who choose sleep training by controlled crying as the right thing in their household, I think it can be hard to access the information to really apply one theory and see it through – so this book can help you.
Things that made me go hmmmm
Being very prescriptive about a newborn in all their vulnerable loveliness and their need to be close to another beating heart is something I find difficult. Rachel cautions against babywearing whilst baby sleeps, feeding ‘too often’, and advocates sleep training from a few weeks old. She then goes on to say things like, if your baby isn’t sleeping through, top it up with some formula. Seemingly she misses the connection between demand feeding and having enough milk… but I digress. Rachel remains confident that a baby from a few weeks old is trainable and will be able to sleep for several hours at a time. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
If you’ve moved past that newborn stage I think this book is more useful. Say, you want to wean from night feeds but are just not sure what sort of routine is best for a toddler without incorporating breast milk. This book goes into some detail about such routines and I believe this sort of guidance is sought after.
The conclusion
With troubleshooting guides and a helpful layout from newborn to five year olds, this is a fairly comprehensive title and it is written compassionately while still being direct. I like parts of her approach, but I have raised my eyebrows a number of times in reading this book. My advice would be: sort out in your mind what camp you are in – if you want to sleep train and want to be told exactly how to do it, and are ready for some tears in the process (possibly yours as well as your child’s!) then this book could be useful for your family.
