Sleep Training v's Sleep Consultancy

I feel that it matters we explore the difference between Sleep Training and Sleep Consultancy (as defined me, Nadia Edwards, Baby & Toddler Sleep Coach in Scotland, Fife). Why? well for one, most people think they are the same thing and that all professionals who support families to achieve better sleep use sleep training techniques.  This isn’t always the case, or is depending what you class as ‘training’ for example some argue that rocking a baby to sleep is sleep training, training baby to fall asleep in a particular way. 

While sleep training techniques may be suggested by a professional, it isn’t often the methods that most think of such as Cry-It-Out or Controlled Crying or similar variations of these while you leave your baby alone to cry to sleep. 

A Sleep Consultant may suggest a gentle, age and developmentally appropriate form of sleep training, but it is often only one tool in the overall package of care and support and on its own wouldn’t result is much sleep success long term.

So I want to explore in more detail what exactly is Sleep Training? How is that different from Sleep Consultancy, do you need to have any professional licences or qualifications to become one and what to expect when you work with one

What is Sleep Training?
There were 60,000,000 Results when I googled ‘Definition of Sleep Training’

The most commonly understood definition appears to be:

the process of training young children to fall asleep on their own, typically by means of techniques in which the child is left to cry without being comforted, either for gradually increasing periods of time or until they fall asleep.

What I define as Sleep Training (and what most, if not all of the debate about Sleep Training is linked to - I listed the top 3)

1. Cry-It-Out (total extinction or unmodified sleep training) this is when babies and toddlers are put to bed  then left to go to sleep even if they are crying, the parent or care-giver doesn’t go back into the room until ‘morning’ I NEVER recommend this.  
2. Controlled Crying (graduated or modified extinction) variations of this are, controlled conforming, spaced soothing, rapid return.  This is typically when parents put baby to bed and leave the room for a period of time even if the baby is crying and return to offer some form of comfort but leave again and each time they leave they increase the time, so 1 min, 2 min, 3 min and so on until the baby falls asleep.  There is a lot of controversy around this method, I don't typically use it and certainly would be cautious for young babies under 6 months however I absolutely stand with parents who know and understand their child best and decide this is a good method for them and if this works within a short time (say 3 days) great, if not it is probably wise to use a different method.  
3. Gradual Retreat. other variations are, disappearing chair, nudging or shuffle, this can be gentle or harsh depending on how you approach it, lets say you gently go at your child's pace and every so often make a shift from offering cot side comfort to getting closer out of the bedroom, this works well with older toddlers, preschoolers and school age children.  Often if I am recommending this approach it is used in combination with other methods such as camping out or a floor bed and shaping the daytime and bedtime routine.  
4. Camping out, other variations or names are stay in the room, constant presence, co-sleeping floor bed, these can also involve crying or protest to varying degrees with parent’s presence, comfort of some degree such as holding in arms, patting or shhing, but basically the parents or care-giver camps out in the room with them and usually gradually withdraws the level of support over several weeks - this can be a very gentle approach.  
5. ​Gentle behaviour modification, this is a less well known method and like camping out and variations of gradual retreat it doesn't involve leaving your baby alone, this can take several weeks and involves layering up sleep triggers or associations such as feeding, patting, shhing, rocking, singing and/or scent as some examples to create more than one way your baby becomes conditioned to fall asleep, then once their is a strong association with all these ways to fall asleep you can then one by one remove each association or the ones that are unmanageable over several weeks.  This can be an extremely gentle approach and can be used with all ages, most parents are instinctively doing this, the idea behind this is that some babies are really attached to a specific way to fall asleep, such as feeding, it can become unmanageable for some families if the wakings are hourly and there is no way of sharing the nighttime partnering.  This way you can help your child fall asleep with other triggers so others can help and even slowly remove all the triggers and help your little one fall asleep independently.  

​There are various other techniques, such as sleep shaping, floor beds, bedtime rituals, soothing ladder, safe bed-sharing, seated settling (when your baby falls asleep sitting up with your help and then are lowered down into lying position) and multi-sensory strategies, and a whole range of others for toddlers and older children, mostly people do not associate these various other techniques with sleep training, but it is fair to say they are part of a good sleep coaches toolbox

What is a Sleep Consultancy?
Sleep consultancy involves much more than one of the above sleep training techniques - if any, it involves an in depth evaluation to unpick exactly what is going on, and identify links that maybe making it harder for families and babies to sleep well, a collaborative approach with parents and caregivers to make a plan of action (if needed), Sleep coaches talk through all the information about what is normal infant sleep and ways to improve the whole family’s sleep. Sleep consultancy involves looking at environmental cue’s, sensory diet, developmental leaps, nutrition, feeding and many other factors depending on the type of training the coach has completed, things such as allergies, tongue tie, attachment, trauma, anxiety and the list can go on….. 

What qualifications do you need to become a Sleep Consultant?
You don’t actually need any, I know consultants who have done a one day training session and set themselves up (this is so wrong), while others have done degree level programmes and taken months of mentorship such as a certification program, the first program I studied took months, 3 months for initial certification and a further 12 months of mentorship and at the moment certifications are the ‘gold’ standard but more can be done to improve the training nationally, which is why I am so excited about the new accredited programme being delivered with OCN London – the problem is, as yet, there is no system for accreditation or regulation of sleep coaches in the UK, and no national training standards, but like I said that is changing with a new Holistic Sleep Coaching Programme https://www.holisticsleepcoaching.com/ which I am one of the first in the UK to be part of, it is gentle, responsive and evidnece-based. 

For a detailed look at my credentials click here.

In summary sleep training maybe one method in the tool box of a sleep consultant, not all sleep consultants are equal but the majority of sleep consultants who have undergone a certification program will have completed months of training and mentorship, not all sleep training methods are Cry-It-Out or Controlled Crying and improving sleep is complex, in that it should involve the whole family and look beyond sleep being the ‘problem’