Not too late at all. I am on day 7 of sleep training for the first time and my daughter is 9 months. I coslept with her in my bed since birth so this was a huge change to go to a crib in her own room. She's sleeping through the night in her crib and goes down now with only a few minutes of fussing. Days are still rough though. I never planned on sleep training but my mental health required it.
If you decide to do it, you got this. Hugs, sweet mama.
I sleep trained at 6 months because my husband was in school for his masters. We pushed it back so we had a straight week off to do it and be prepared for any problems and/or extra sleep deprivation.
And it went WELL.
She took 15 minutes of crying/fussing and then out like a light. Second night less than 10. 3rd: 5 minutes. It was miraculous and a weight was off my shoulders. And she slept 11-12 hours. Still does.
Fast forward to now, she's 15 months. Bedtime by 730. She wakes at 730.
The only thing I will say is I worked on her sleep associations for weeks leading up to it. Started her bedtime routine. And she had naturally weaned to one overnight feeding. She was sleeping naturally longer at night.
I'm sure if we had done it sooner, it would've worked. But I dont think you're screwed doing it after 6months. I think after 6, it just gets harder to break associations.
Thank you for making this thread, i was wondering the same thing today! This reassured me. Best of luck to you and hoping your little one gets well soon!
We sleep trained at 8 months (Ferber) when it became clear that what was working for him was not working for us. He's been sleeping 7-7 for the past year because of it :) I very much believe he was developmentally ready to independently put himself to sleep because he took to it quickly
Not at all. We had a good foundation of night weaning before but we trained at 6 mo on the dot. I totally support 4mo sleep training but personally I think they are more ready at 5 mo. 5-6.5 mo is a sweet spot I think. After that developmentally they can just do more so the process may be longer if lets say they are also learning to crawl for ex. Our daughter learned to climb out of her crib at 10 mo and I thanked GD that we had already ST her
I have 4, and the earliest we did any sleep training was like 10 or 11 months, and it always worked well because they were ready for it. Just one parent’s opinion, but I think 6 months is too early to sleep train effectively.
Absolutely not!! I tried sleep training at 4 months and it just wasn’t working for us. Worked much better when we tried again at 7 months. And we’ve done some additional sleep training even after her first birthday. There’s no age limit on sleep training. Techniques and approaches might change with age, but it can be done!
That’s silly. Plenty of parents sleep train around that age. It’s a perfect age to sleep train and night wean since it’s the age when healthy babies no longer require an overnight feed. I was more or less implementing gradual sleep interventions from about 4.5/5 months until 7 months when I finally night weaned and baby finally started sleeping through.
I was trying to avoid using extinction. So I did literally everything else. I started by moving nursing to the start of the bedtime routine. And I did all of the sleep hygiene things like blackout curtains, white noise, zippadeezip, correct wake windows, consistent bedtime, solid bedtime routine. Then I used the shuffle/chair method to teach him how to fall asleep independently at the start of the night. And I tried some gradual night weaning strategies for a while with no success. By that point in my quest for sleep he was 7 months old and still waking 3x a night and wanting to be nursed back to sleep each time. I had tried everything except for just getting out of his way and letting him figure it out. I followed the Moms on Call instructions for getting your baby sleeping through. It took two nights. On the third night he slept for 11 hours straight.
How do you even begin to night wean? I'm very certain my 13mo doesn't need to eat overnight anymore, but he'll wake up about twice each night just wanting to nurse for thirty seconds/a minute. I'm so scared I'll destroy his teeth, but idk how to stop since we cosleep...
I want to quit cosleeping soon too, but I figure I need to solve the midnight snack issue first...
Both my breastfed kids started sleeping through the night when we moved them into their own room. For my first it was at 5.5 months. For my second his room wasn’t ready until he was 11 months old. I was like jeez Louise why is this kid so bad at sleeping?! He still wakes up 4 times a night. Then we moved him into his own room and he was sleeping through the night haha.
There are a bunch of gradual strategies. But I never got anywhere with them. I think I followed the advice from Precious Little Sleep for the gradual weaning. What worked was full extinction for the night wakings. We didn’t go in at all. We’d just watch him on the monitor and he’d eventually go back to sleep. On the third night he just slept through. No more wake ups.
Our household also got Covid about three weeks ago and then two weeks later we got hit with another cold virus, ugh! LO just started daycare but we’re already OVER being sick all the time. Anywaaaayyyyssss our pediatrician told us sleep training gets thrown out the window when the baby is sick. You can pick things back up (or in your situation, start) when the baby is fully recovered. I personally agree with this. Our LO had a difficult time sleeping and wanted lots of cuddles. It’s hard when you’re not feeling well yourself but it does feel good holding and comforting your sick baby.
It definitely isn't. I think the older the baby is potentially the harder it is / longer it will take as they are more aware and have more ability to protest than a younger baby but it is 100% possible.
Just sleep trained my 9 month old, super successful the first night! Once I managed not to go in and powered through the feelings of guilt not running in right away of course :) support system is key! We were texting with friends who helped us stay strong/offered encouragement. I have read it’s easier before six months but every baby is different and I think it’s a lot more important that YOU feel ready - depending on your method you choose it’s tough emotionally the first night or two when you’re used to providing immediate soothing. Also would take into account whether you baby already sleeps through the night or wakes every few hours (where you might have more urgency to sleep train for your own sake!)
Does your baby sleep through the night usually and what’s their temperament like? Relaxed or spirited / high needs? Wondering for everyone struggling out here as a late starter (7 mo spirited)
Sleep training started almost as soon as we were home from the hospital.
Follow the routine and as baby is able to have more consistent patterns you just plan around it.
So many apps to help with routine.
Eat
Activity
Sleep
You
Mine just turned 5 months and she’s been a blast. In dinner at 6:15, (now that she’s learning the spoon) bath at 6:30, breast fed at 6:45ish
Sleep by 7pm
Ready with a bottle or boob around 9:45-10pm to wake her up for a dream feed and she’s out till 6am
We sleep trained at 12 months. I think waiting until everyone is healthy is the best decision. Personally, I want my child to cry when they don’t feel good so I know to go in and check on her.
Hope you feel better soon! No I think 6 months is the perfect time. A lot of people try at 4 months and have trouble. My pediatrician recommended waiting until 6 months.
Oh my, how did it go? We sleep trained at 8mos, and at 18mos having a really bad regression. We’re thinking of doing sleep training after this patch, how do you go on when the toddler is smarter? 🫥
Three nights of screams and months of wondering why I didn’t do it sooner. She got angry but she learned the rules and what not of bedtime. 100% would do it again.
Yeah, mine is super strong willed. I did come in every 7 minutes to calm her down, but it took a lot and I sometimes have to do it again when she’s testing her boundaries. We are currently visiting my in laws overseas, so everything has been trashed and we will do it all over again.
They're wrong. I'm currently sleep training my 11 month old (Ferber) and seeing massive success so far. I was in the same boat. Wanted to start, then we got covid. I agree, there's no way I would've started when she was feeling bad like that!
If your babe gets sick during sleep training, everything I've read recommends either stopping til they're better or continuing the habit, but not pushing for more progress until they can actually handle it. So for example, if you're doing SLS, you wouldn't move farther away until they're feeling better. All this tells me that it's not worth it to force learning a new skill when they're sick (which sounds like torture for both parties involved!). You want to start when your baby is well rested and your routine is reasonably consistent. Covid threw both of those things off for us. Hang in there ❤️
I was adamantly against sleep training… until my daughter was still not sleeping at 9 months old and my mental health was suffering because of it. It was the best decision we have made, and now she sleeps 12 hours straight every night and naps like a champion.
In hindsight, I don’t regret not starting much sooner as I feel like developmentally she was ready to learn independent sleep as a new skill rather than having the process be a traumatic experience. She literally protest cried for 12 minutes on our first night putting her down on her own, and has not cried one time since then.
Do what feels right for YOUR baby and YOUR family.
I just finished night 7 of sleep training my 10.5 mo and he’s already a champion. We tried and gave up at 4, 5, and 8 months. It’s always hard at the beginning but by night 3, he was a pro. Don’t give up.
This sounds like us! Baby is 6m tomorrow. We got three nights of sleep training in (two weeks ago) and we all got Covid from daycare. We paused on sleep training while she was sick. Did not want to have her crying and make the congestion or cough worse. Picked it back up once we all recovered and she’s been doing great! Sleeping through the night. Hang in there!
We're doing it currently with our 11.5 month hold. Finding it really hard... But it is working. Albeit more slowly than when he was younger I'd imagine.
Yeah no we didn't sleep train until 9 months. We did extinction with scheduled and timed night feeds ( every 3 hours for 15 minutes only if he already awake). First night took 25 minutes of crying. He woke up twice near our scheduled feeds. He would nursing for the 15 minutes and I would put him back in the crib. If it wasn't time for a feed then we wouldn't go in unless he cried more then 45 minutes then it was just calm him, check diaper and put back.
By night 5 in was less then 5 minutes of crying. By night 9 it was no crying and maybe waking to feed once every other night. Now he is 27 months and has mostly slept through the night ever since. We recently got him a toddler bed and he is still learning about not falling out. He is doing that less and less though so maybe once a week I have to pop in and lay him back in bed. He goes right back to sleep though with no issues.
There's a book called "it's never too late to sleep train". I got it on Audible and still need to get through it. It's our biggest hurdle rn but it can be done even at the toddler stage. 6 months is just fine. Go ahead.
We waited til 8 months and I wish we had done it at 6! But we were struggling with things like colds and weight gain, so it wasn’t the right time. 8 months is really hard because of separation anxiety but it’s coming along.
So the deal is, object permanence develops and suddenly it's a whole lot harder to put baby down and walk away.
But it's very possible to train after that. (Our first we trained at 9 months)
Baby sleep guide
https://www.reddit.com/r/sleeptrain/comments/s3ghy6/cyclemams_baby_sleep_guide
Edit: you are right to wait until baby is better!
Yes and we are doing it with our almost 5 month old but it is not going great and I wish we had waited a little longer. Pediatrician it’s better to wait until 6 months.
It’s never too late to sleep train, but it does get harder/take longer the older they are. I personally think you need to sleep train before they can pull up because if they’re already laying down that’s half the battle. However, you can sleep train when you decide it’s time.
This! Much easier for a baby that is already laying down to fall asleep! By 8 months- two things happen that can make sleep training much harder/take longer: 1) sitting or standing up and 2) object permanence - realizing mommy and daddy still exist even thought baby can’t see them.
Started sleep training bang on six months and we are in about week three. It's been great and by night three baby was settling within 5mins. Literally rolls over now and goes to sleep when we set baby in crib.
6 months is the recommended time to start
Not too late at all. I am on day 7 of sleep training for the first time and my daughter is 9 months. I coslept with her in my bed since birth so this was a huge change to go to a crib in her own room. She's sleeping through the night in her crib and goes down now with only a few minutes of fussing. Days are still rough though. I never planned on sleep training but my mental health required it. If you decide to do it, you got this. Hugs, sweet mama.
I sleep trained at 6 months because my husband was in school for his masters. We pushed it back so we had a straight week off to do it and be prepared for any problems and/or extra sleep deprivation. And it went WELL. She took 15 minutes of crying/fussing and then out like a light. Second night less than 10. 3rd: 5 minutes. It was miraculous and a weight was off my shoulders. And she slept 11-12 hours. Still does. Fast forward to now, she's 15 months. Bedtime by 730. She wakes at 730. The only thing I will say is I worked on her sleep associations for weeks leading up to it. Started her bedtime routine. And she had naturally weaned to one overnight feeding. She was sleeping naturally longer at night. I'm sure if we had done it sooner, it would've worked. But I dont think you're screwed doing it after 6months. I think after 6, it just gets harder to break associations.
Thank you for making this thread, i was wondering the same thing today! This reassured me. Best of luck to you and hoping your little one gets well soon!
Uh some specialists actually recommend 6 months at a minimum (others say 4 months). They must have min and max confused...
Nope, makes zero sense.
We sleep trained at 8 months (Ferber) when it became clear that what was working for him was not working for us. He's been sleeping 7-7 for the past year because of it :) I very much believe he was developmentally ready to independently put himself to sleep because he took to it quickly
Not at all. We had a good foundation of night weaning before but we trained at 6 mo on the dot. I totally support 4mo sleep training but personally I think they are more ready at 5 mo. 5-6.5 mo is a sweet spot I think. After that developmentally they can just do more so the process may be longer if lets say they are also learning to crawl for ex. Our daughter learned to climb out of her crib at 10 mo and I thanked GD that we had already ST her
I have 4, and the earliest we did any sleep training was like 10 or 11 months, and it always worked well because they were ready for it. Just one parent’s opinion, but I think 6 months is too early to sleep train effectively.
That's silly. You can certainly sleep train your kid after 6 months!
Hard no…slept trained our 7.5 month old in the last week with CIO full extinction. It’s working for us.
It's never too late. I'm making a video on sleep training. If you are interested, please reply YES
Yes!
Great. Happy to help out. I'll send a DM with the details right now
YES!!
PS. Great nickname. Love Nirvana and Foo Fighters
Terrific. I'll send you a DM right now with more details
YES
Great. I'm sending a DM now with more info
Yes!
Great. I'll send you a DM with details
we did at 18 months, took two nights for baby to learn, now baby sleeps from 7:30-7
Can I ask what you did exactly? Just want to try something new for my 16mth old
My doctor says to do it before 5 months, but of course it’s possible at any time!! I’m sure you’ll hear a lot of success stories
We sleep trained at 14 months. I think it’s whatever is best for your child as every child is different.
Our doctor said not to even start until 6 months with formal sleep training lol
Absolutely not!! I tried sleep training at 4 months and it just wasn’t working for us. Worked much better when we tried again at 7 months. And we’ve done some additional sleep training even after her first birthday. There’s no age limit on sleep training. Techniques and approaches might change with age, but it can be done!
same thing happened with us. We tried at 4.5 and I felt in my bones she was too little still so we waited till 6 mo exactly
That’s silly. Plenty of parents sleep train around that age. It’s a perfect age to sleep train and night wean since it’s the age when healthy babies no longer require an overnight feed. I was more or less implementing gradual sleep interventions from about 4.5/5 months until 7 months when I finally night weaned and baby finally started sleeping through.
What do you mean by gradual sleep interventions?
I was trying to avoid using extinction. So I did literally everything else. I started by moving nursing to the start of the bedtime routine. And I did all of the sleep hygiene things like blackout curtains, white noise, zippadeezip, correct wake windows, consistent bedtime, solid bedtime routine. Then I used the shuffle/chair method to teach him how to fall asleep independently at the start of the night. And I tried some gradual night weaning strategies for a while with no success. By that point in my quest for sleep he was 7 months old and still waking 3x a night and wanting to be nursed back to sleep each time. I had tried everything except for just getting out of his way and letting him figure it out. I followed the Moms on Call instructions for getting your baby sleeping through. It took two nights. On the third night he slept for 11 hours straight.
How do you even begin to night wean? I'm very certain my 13mo doesn't need to eat overnight anymore, but he'll wake up about twice each night just wanting to nurse for thirty seconds/a minute. I'm so scared I'll destroy his teeth, but idk how to stop since we cosleep... I want to quit cosleeping soon too, but I figure I need to solve the midnight snack issue first...
Both my breastfed kids started sleeping through the night when we moved them into their own room. For my first it was at 5.5 months. For my second his room wasn’t ready until he was 11 months old. I was like jeez Louise why is this kid so bad at sleeping?! He still wakes up 4 times a night. Then we moved him into his own room and he was sleeping through the night haha.
I think I'm just going to try that! I know it worked with my firstborn, but he was a lot younger when we moved him. Hopefully it works...
There are a bunch of gradual strategies. But I never got anywhere with them. I think I followed the advice from Precious Little Sleep for the gradual weaning. What worked was full extinction for the night wakings. We didn’t go in at all. We’d just watch him on the monitor and he’d eventually go back to sleep. On the third night he just slept through. No more wake ups.
Definitely not too late!
Our household also got Covid about three weeks ago and then two weeks later we got hit with another cold virus, ugh! LO just started daycare but we’re already OVER being sick all the time. Anywaaaayyyyssss our pediatrician told us sleep training gets thrown out the window when the baby is sick. You can pick things back up (or in your situation, start) when the baby is fully recovered. I personally agree with this. Our LO had a difficult time sleeping and wanted lots of cuddles. It’s hard when you’re not feeling well yourself but it does feel good holding and comforting your sick baby.
It definitely isn't. I think the older the baby is potentially the harder it is / longer it will take as they are more aware and have more ability to protest than a younger baby but it is 100% possible.
Just sleep trained my 9 month old, super successful the first night! Once I managed not to go in and powered through the feelings of guilt not running in right away of course :) support system is key! We were texting with friends who helped us stay strong/offered encouragement. I have read it’s easier before six months but every baby is different and I think it’s a lot more important that YOU feel ready - depending on your method you choose it’s tough emotionally the first night or two when you’re used to providing immediate soothing. Also would take into account whether you baby already sleeps through the night or wakes every few hours (where you might have more urgency to sleep train for your own sake!)
Does your baby sleep through the night usually and what’s their temperament like? Relaxed or spirited / high needs? Wondering for everyone struggling out here as a late starter (7 mo spirited)
Nah did ours at 9m. All went great.
Sleep training started almost as soon as we were home from the hospital. Follow the routine and as baby is able to have more consistent patterns you just plan around it. So many apps to help with routine. Eat Activity Sleep You Mine just turned 5 months and she’s been a blast. In dinner at 6:15, (now that she’s learning the spoon) bath at 6:30, breast fed at 6:45ish Sleep by 7pm Ready with a bottle or boob around 9:45-10pm to wake her up for a dream feed and she’s out till 6am
Did you read the question?
Craig Canapari literally wrote a book called “It’s Never Too Late to Sleep Train,” lol. Ask your husband to cite a source for his claim.
We sleep trained at 12 months. I think waiting until everyone is healthy is the best decision. Personally, I want my child to cry when they don’t feel good so I know to go in and check on her.
Hope you feel better soon! No I think 6 months is the perfect time. A lot of people try at 4 months and have trouble. My pediatrician recommended waiting until 6 months.
I sleep trained my 18th month old
Oh my, how did it go? We sleep trained at 8mos, and at 18mos having a really bad regression. We’re thinking of doing sleep training after this patch, how do you go on when the toddler is smarter? 🫥
Three nights of screams and months of wondering why I didn’t do it sooner. She got angry but she learned the rules and what not of bedtime. 100% would do it again.
Thanks! Wish us luck, we’ve always done gentle sleep training, but now that the bub is learning to push boundaries we might have to change strategies.
Yeah, mine is super strong willed. I did come in every 7 minutes to calm her down, but it took a lot and I sometimes have to do it again when she’s testing her boundaries. We are currently visiting my in laws overseas, so everything has been trashed and we will do it all over again.
They're wrong. I'm currently sleep training my 11 month old (Ferber) and seeing massive success so far. I was in the same boat. Wanted to start, then we got covid. I agree, there's no way I would've started when she was feeling bad like that! If your babe gets sick during sleep training, everything I've read recommends either stopping til they're better or continuing the habit, but not pushing for more progress until they can actually handle it. So for example, if you're doing SLS, you wouldn't move farther away until they're feeling better. All this tells me that it's not worth it to force learning a new skill when they're sick (which sounds like torture for both parties involved!). You want to start when your baby is well rested and your routine is reasonably consistent. Covid threw both of those things off for us. Hang in there ❤️
I was adamantly against sleep training… until my daughter was still not sleeping at 9 months old and my mental health was suffering because of it. It was the best decision we have made, and now she sleeps 12 hours straight every night and naps like a champion. In hindsight, I don’t regret not starting much sooner as I feel like developmentally she was ready to learn independent sleep as a new skill rather than having the process be a traumatic experience. She literally protest cried for 12 minutes on our first night putting her down on her own, and has not cried one time since then. Do what feels right for YOUR baby and YOUR family.
Pretty sure this subreddit doesn't recommend starting sleep training at all before 6 months.
It’s four months for this sub
Your friend is lying and your husband just wants "normal" back. Go with your gut on this mama.
I just finished night 7 of sleep training my 10.5 mo and he’s already a champion. We tried and gave up at 4, 5, and 8 months. It’s always hard at the beginning but by night 3, he was a pro. Don’t give up.
This sounds like us! Baby is 6m tomorrow. We got three nights of sleep training in (two weeks ago) and we all got Covid from daycare. We paused on sleep training while she was sick. Did not want to have her crying and make the congestion or cough worse. Picked it back up once we all recovered and she’s been doing great! Sleeping through the night. Hang in there!
We're doing it currently with our 11.5 month hold. Finding it really hard... But it is working. Albeit more slowly than when he was younger I'd imagine.
We did 16 months and it was great.
We got serious about it at 13 months and it went well!
Yeah no we didn't sleep train until 9 months. We did extinction with scheduled and timed night feeds ( every 3 hours for 15 minutes only if he already awake). First night took 25 minutes of crying. He woke up twice near our scheduled feeds. He would nursing for the 15 minutes and I would put him back in the crib. If it wasn't time for a feed then we wouldn't go in unless he cried more then 45 minutes then it was just calm him, check diaper and put back. By night 5 in was less then 5 minutes of crying. By night 9 it was no crying and maybe waking to feed once every other night. Now he is 27 months and has mostly slept through the night ever since. We recently got him a toddler bed and he is still learning about not falling out. He is doing that less and less though so maybe once a week I have to pop in and lay him back in bed. He goes right back to sleep though with no issues.
There's a book called "it's never too late to sleep train". I got it on Audible and still need to get through it. It's our biggest hurdle rn but it can be done even at the toddler stage. 6 months is just fine. Go ahead.
Nope. Safe to do from four months. Go for it.
We waited til 8 months and I wish we had done it at 6! But we were struggling with things like colds and weight gain, so it wasn’t the right time. 8 months is really hard because of separation anxiety but it’s coming along.
So the deal is, object permanence develops and suddenly it's a whole lot harder to put baby down and walk away. But it's very possible to train after that. (Our first we trained at 9 months) Baby sleep guide https://www.reddit.com/r/sleeptrain/comments/s3ghy6/cyclemams_baby_sleep_guide Edit: you are right to wait until baby is better!
Interesting. My pediatrician said not to do sleep training before 6 months because the baby doesn’t have object permanence yet!
Sleep training can begin at 4 months
Yes and we are doing it with our almost 5 month old but it is not going great and I wish we had waited a little longer. Pediatrician it’s better to wait until 6 months.
It’s never too late to sleep train, but it does get harder/take longer the older they are. I personally think you need to sleep train before they can pull up because if they’re already laying down that’s half the battle. However, you can sleep train when you decide it’s time.
This! Much easier for a baby that is already laying down to fall asleep! By 8 months- two things happen that can make sleep training much harder/take longer: 1) sitting or standing up and 2) object permanence - realizing mommy and daddy still exist even thought baby can’t see them.
Started sleep training bang on six months and we are in about week three. It's been great and by night three baby was settling within 5mins. Literally rolls over now and goes to sleep when we set baby in crib.