Controlled crying," a long-used tactic for teaching fussy babies to fall asleep on their own, may also ease the mother's depression.
Australian researchers found that teaching mothers controlled-crying techniques reduced their babies' sleep problems over 2 months.
Parents leave their baby alone for increasing periods of time so that the baby learns to fall asleep without a parent rocking or feeding them off to sleep.
Parents take the controlled-crying process at their own pace, but typically, a parent will leave the baby for 2 minutes, build to 4, then 6 and so on. When parents return to the baby's room, she noted, the visit should be "boring" -- meaning, for example, no lights and no taking the baby out of the crib.
Parents were taught that
The main intervention was controlled crying, whereby parents responded to their infant's cry at increasing time intervals, allowing the infant to fall asleep by itself.
The technique is not for young infants, who normally wake for feedings overnight. It is also normal for most babies to take about 10 minutes to settle in to sleep.
The study included infants aged 6 months to 1 year who had sleep problems such as waking nearly every night, waking more than three times a night and needing a parent with them to fall asleep. The 155 mothers in the study were screened for depression using a standard measure.
Some of the mothers learned the controlled-crying method and were given information on infant sleep behavior and managing sleep problems. Others received only information on normal infant sleep patterns.
After 2 months, mothers who learned controlled crying reported fewer or less severe sleeping problems with their babies, the report indicates. And women with depression symptoms at the start of the study also improved.
According to the researchers, the intervention they used -- which involved three private consultations with mothers, 2 weeks apart -- is inexpensive and less disruptive to families compared with other ways to treat postnatal depression.
Infant sleep problems and postnatal depression are common. In Australia 40% of parents report a problem with their infant's sleep in the second six months of life.
British Medical Journal May 4, 2002;324:1062-1065 (Full Text Article)
This information can be a major life saver for a weathered mother. If you know of any that are struggling with this issue, please send this information to them.
Some important points to emphasize. As the study suggests, young infants do need to wake through the night to feed. The time at which they can sleep all night long without feeding is not hard fast, but many experts I know believe this can be done at about 1-2 months old.
I think waiting till 6 months to start this process may be unnecessary.
The other central issue, of course, is that both the infant and mom should be on fish oils which will help both of them with sleeping and any tendencies towards depression.