by Charlotte A. Cavatica

Created on: July 19, 2008

My sister-in-law recently came out for a long holiday weekend visit with her 3 year old daughter. While here, she marveled at how effortlessly our 2 year old son goes down, both for a nap and for the night. As she and her husband have struggled with their strong-willed daughter from day one, she asked how we managed to work such miracles with our son. I shared the story of how we used the 5-10-15 method when he was just 2 months old, it only took 3 nights for it to work and going to sleep hasn't been the slightest struggle ever since.

The article I had initially read on the topic was written by a pediatrician. I can't recall her name now, but I remember being struck by the simplicity of the method, as well as by how she detailed exactly how and why it works. The other aspect of it that was so attractive is that she said it could be started as early as 6 weeks old. I waited until 8 weeks as that was the limit of my maternity leave, but as long as your baby is past the 6 week mark, it's as good a time as any to start.

The 5-10-15 method has 2 parts to it. The first is to establish a routine that you follow to the letter, exactly the same every single night. For us, it was bath, bottle, book (a very short one), bed. I can't emphasize enough how critical this part is in order for this sleeping method to be successful. Babies thrive on routine, predictable events because it gives them a feeling of control in knowing what's going to come next. Even if you switch up the books that you read, they still know that every night once bath time is over, the bottle will be coming. Once the bottle is finished, it'll be time for a book. Once the book is over, it will be time for them to go to sleep. Although they will put up a fight the few nights once they're laid down to go to sleep, it won't be long before they realize that this is a part of the routine and it's going to happen the same every night. The second part is where they learn why it's okay for them to just go to sleep rather than fuss about it.

The first night I did the bath, bottle, book, bed routine, I had bedtime scheduled for 7:30pm. I gave my son a kiss good night, told him I loved him and then put him down in his bassinet. I barely had the door shut when he started crying. I hated having to hear it, but I kept an eye on the clock until 3 minutes had passed. I know, it's supposed to be 5, but he didn't know that! I went back in the room and wanted to pick him up to soothe him, but I remember the pediatrician

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