Eva (00:04):
Hey there, you’re listening to the My Sleeping Baby podcast, which is all about baby and child sleep. I’m so excited to teach you how you can get your little ones sleeping so that you can sleep too and enjoy parenthood to its fullest. I’m Eva Klein, your resident’s sleep expert, mom of three, founder of the Sleep Bible online coaching program, and lover of all things sleep and motherhood. If you’re looking for tangible solutions for your little one sleep woes or you simply want to learn more, this podcast is for you. For more information, check out mysleepingbaby.com and you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook @mysleepingbaby, and you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook at My Sleeping Baby.
(00:48)
Alright, welcome back to the show. So today I want to talk about an alternative to traditional sleep training because regular normal sleep training is not for every parent. Sometimes you just might not be ready to make all these big changes to your little one's sleep habits. Perhaps your little one's cries are just way too overwhelming for you to listen to right now. Or maybe you have a baby, a newborn isn't old enough for sleep training just yet, or maybe you were blessed with an amazing sleeper who just doesn't need sleep training. So if you happen to fall into any of these categories, this might be where you might try padding your baby to sleep, which is also known as the shush pat method. This is a well-known approach that was created by an author named Tracy Hogg as an alternative to traditional sleep training. So today I'm going to elaborate on what the shush path method is, how you can execute it and whether or not it is an effective gentle sleep training method.
(01:55)
So firstly, let's talk about why padding a baby can help them fall asleep. Well, there's numerous answers to this, but in a nutshell, it's a well-known fact that gentle rhythmic padding is highly effective at putting babies to sleep because of its ability to activate that calming reflex that your newborns have and it creates a sense of security and comfort for your baby. This is especially the case if you have a very fussy baby, and there's several reasons why this technique works so well. So first of all, it mimics that womb like environment that is going to be inherently calming to your newborn baby. You see in the womb, babies are experiencing a constant rhythmic sensation because of the mother's heartbeat, because of blood flow and because mom is always moving, going up, going down. And so this rhythmic padding replicates that very familiar sensation and it reminds the baby of that comforting environment that they were used to before birth.
(02:58)
And so this type of physical contact is inherently soothing and calming for your baby. And then when you have a baby who is calm and settled, this rhythmic padding can also help mitigate and prevent your newborn's startle reflex from waking them up because the padding provides this sense of containment and comfort. And so when your baby feels more secure and less prone to sudden night wakings, so when your baby feels more secure, you're going to see much less of those jerky arm movements. So overall, I can tell you for a fact that most babies, especially those newborns really love to be padded. But let's move on to the next question, which is how do you utilize padding to help your baby fall asleep? So the shush pat method is actually very simple. Here's how it works. You place your baby into their crib or bassinet awake and you turn him to his side away from you so that he's not distracted by your presence. You begin patting him gently but firmly on the center of his back or bum while simultaneously shushing in his ear. So
(04:16)
And so the padding, you're padding your baby while shushing in that steady rhythmic motion. And so when your baby relaxes and falls asleep when you're doing this, you then want to turn him onto his back and continue to shush him while placing a heavy hand on his chest. Because for safety reasons, we always want to make sure that your baby is sleeping on their back in the crib or bassinet. You do not want to be leaving him on his side to sleep. Now if your baby becomes upset while you are trying to pat him to sleep, you would then pick him up, put him over your shoulder and continue with that rhythmic padding and shushing while he's over your shoulder like that. And so you want him to then calm down and relax. And so when that happens, you would then transfer him back into the crib or bassinet and continue with that padding that I had just mentioned to try to get him to relax and fall asleep in the crib again.
(05:12)
Now I want to emphasize that the shush pat method is much easier to implement when you have a young baby in optimal sleep environment with optimal sleep attire. So that means that your baby is properly swaddled in a very dark room with a white noise machine on and ideally using a pacifier so that this way they are calm, relaxed, and all they are different calming reflexes are being properly addressed. Now, once your baby has learned to fall asleep in their crib or bassinet while you are padding them, you are going to want to eventually begin to wean them off of that padding because remember, being padded to sleep is still technically a sleep crutch. It might not be as strong of a crutch or an association as nursing to sleep or rocking to sleep is, but it still means that your little one is getting help falling asleep.
(06:09)
Now, thankfully, it's actually fairly straightforward to wean your little one off of that padding. All you would need to do is simply reduce the amount of padding that you offer your baby over time. So I would suggest starting off by padding her until she is almost asleep, but maybe leave your hand on her back for comfort. And then afterwards you sneak out the door and you hope that she can do the rest of the work falling asleep on her own. And then as the nights go on, you would decrease the length of time that you spend padding and touching her so that she is able to do more and more of the work falling asleep on her own. Now this is something that you could definitely try doing with your newborn, but when your newborn graduates that newborn stage and gets to that three and a half to four month mark, it's definitely something that I would suggest that you explore given that your little one is old enough to learn how to fall asleep totally by themselves.
(07:08)
Now let me address the million dollar question. Does the shush pat method actually work? And the short answer is kind of, so here's the deal. Having a baby to sleep is a great way to begin teaching your newborn how to fall asleep in their crib or bassinet without feeding or rocking them because newborns are too young for any form of traditional sleep training. The shush pat method is this very gentle age appropriate alternative to begin to teach your newborn how to self-soothe. That being said, I do need to emphasize three very important points about the shush pat method. Number one, this approach does not work well for all babies. In fact, I would say that there's a lot of babies out there that don't respond well to being padded to sleep when it's not a good fit. They end up getting more frustrated, causing more crying, which obviously defeats the purpose of this approach to begin with.
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Now, the second really important point to remember is that padding a baby to sleep is still a sleep crutch. Remember, when you're padding your little one to sleep, you are technically helping them fall asleep. And yet it might be one of the better props to be using because you're still getting your little one to fall asleep in their crib or in their bassinet, which is much better than being fed to sleep, for example, falling asleep in your arms and then being transferred to their crib or bassinet completely asleep. But it's still a crutch nonetheless because your baby relies on something to fall asleep that he can't recreate on his own. And so this is why generally speaking, I don't recommend using the shush pat method for older babies and toddlers because your baby is still relying on that padding to fall asleep. And there is nothing technically stopping your baby from waking up repeatedly throughout the night needing you to put themselves back to sleep.
(09:08)
So I would hate for you to be jumping from the fire into the frying pan where you have weaned your baby off of nursing to sleep, replaced it with getting padded to sleep, but they're still waking up just as many times. I would only ever advise that you use the shush pat method for an older baby or a toddler if it's used as a transition step before beginning a traditional sleep training method. So for some families, beginning sleep training off the bat just seems very cold Turkey and very abrupt to them. And I get it, especially if let's say you've had your little one in your bed co-sleeping, nursing on demand, it can seem like a very big jump to just put your baby into the crib awake even if you're using a gradual method where you're still next to them. And so what I always tell these parents is to explore the possibility of what I like to call a step zero of your sleep training method.
(10:09)
So step one obviously involves putting them into their crib awake and teaching them to fall asleep by themselves. But step zero might be putting your baby or toddler in the crib awake and then patting them all the way to sleep. But again, remember that step zero is not something that's going to work for all babies. This advice is assuming that your baby responds well to being padded to sleep to begin with. If your little one cries more with the shush pat method than with a traditional sleep training approach, then you might as well just skip to a regular sleep training technique to begin with that's going to get you results quicker, which ultimately decreases the amount of crying that you get from your little one. And the third really important factor here that I want to emphasize is that you always need a bigger sleep plan.
(11:00)
When you are implementing a sleep training method of any kind, padding your little one to sleep is not going to get you good results if it's not implemented as part of that bigger plan addressing all the other puzzle pieces that need to be in place. So that involves ensuring your little one's sleep environment is optimal, understanding your baby's sleepy cues and hunger cues and ensuring that they are napping during the day and eating during the day when they need to be. Introducing a proper daytime routine with age appropriate wake times, prioritizing daytime nutrition and allowing those full feeds to happen as well as implementing a relaxing and consistent bedtime routine that cues your little one to prepare for sleep. Don't ignore these steps otherwise it can be much harder for your baby to learn how to fall asleep by themselves without tons of support. And by the way, if your little one is at least three and a half to four months of age and you need help creating a customized sleep plan for your little one, but you have absolutely no idea where to start, check out my free sleep masterclass called How to Get Your Little One Consistently Sleeping through the Night So you can feel like a normal functioning human again, even if you feel like you have tried everything.
(12:16)
And so in this class, I am going to show you how you can get your baby toddler or preschooler sleeping and napping like a champ. So the link to that free masterclass is in the show notes. Just click on it, register, and you can go and watch that class now and get started. Now, if your little one is still a newborn, I do recommend giving this shush pat method a try for your little one. And the reason for that is because your little one is still a newborn. They are not old enough yet to be sleep trained. Newborn sleep can be very tricky to tackle. And what's great about padding your little one to sleep instead of let's say rocking them to sleep in your arms, is that you're teaching them how to fall asleep in their crit or in their bassinet in the space that they're going to be sleeping in to begin with.
(13:08)
This makes it so much easier for your baby to learn to put themselves back to sleep at the end of a sleep cycle because their sleep environment has not changed. What it also means is that you're eliminating that very common challenge involved with attempting to transfer your sleeping baby to the bassinet and keep them asleep. It can probably feel like you're holding this atomic bomb that is going to explode at any given minute with one wrong move. And even if you do manage to transfer your sleeping baby to the bassinet, there is nothing stopping them from waking up immediately upon being transferred, recognizing that their sleep environment has changed, forcing you to start that process all over again. Now, I want to address one last common question, and that is, when can babies learn to finally fall asleep on their own without padding? And my answer might surprise some of you.
(14:07)
So I know I had mentioned before that by the four month mark, that's when you can begin traditional sleep training. That being said, some newborn babies can learn how to fall asleep on their own without help. And my jj, my youngest baby, was one of those babies who at two months of age was putting himself to sleep completely on his own. Now, I want to emphasize he was not born a unicorn baby capable of doing this effortlessly fresh out of the womb that was not happening. He needed help falling asleep just like any other newborn. But because he had me as a mother, and I had been doing this for a number of years already, by the time he was born, I was able to gently and gradually teach him how to fall asleep without any sleep props. And the end result was that he was sleeping eight hour stretches consistently from the time he was six weeks of age and onward.
(15:04)
And yes, in case you are wondering, he was exclusively breastfed. In fact, JJ was such a great sleeper that when I started talking about his amazing sleep at such a young age, I not surprisingly had so much demand from other moms of newborns who wanted a good night's sleep as well. And so I created an affordable and accessible newborn sleep program that teaches you everything you need to know about maximizing sleep in that newborn stage that works among many other things. I cover various options to teach your newborn baby how to self settle so that you can get yourself longer stretches of sleep early on and avoid bigger sleep problems down the road. You see, my goal with this program is for you to maximize your sleep and maximize your baby's sleep so that you can really love the newborn stage to its fullest. So if you're expecting a new baby or you've got a newborn at home and you are looking to improve your little one's sleep habits from day one, my newborn sleep program, getting a headstart, get great sleep with a newborn is definitely for you.
(16:11)
So to summarize, the shush pat method is a great alternative sleep training strategy. For those of you who are either not ready to be sleep training or you have a newborn who is not old enough for sleep training, many newborn babies are so calmed by being padded all the way to sleep, and it's a great step zero for those of you who are about to begin sleep training with your older ones, but want to ease your little one into sleep training. Remember that it's not the right fit for every baby that it can end up causing more crying in the grand scheme of things, in which case it is not a good fit. That defeats the purpose, and when your little one gets older, you are going to want to wean them off of the padding, given that the padding is technically a sleep crutch by itself. I hope that this was helpful and that you all have a wonderful day. Take care everyone.
(17:07)
Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a friend who can benefit from it. I also love hearing from my listener, so feel free to DM me on Instagram at my sleeping baby or send me an email at eva@mysleepingbaby.com. Until next time, have a wonderful restful nights.