by Henry Amon

Created on: February 20, 2009

Are you a new parent who wants to get some sleep? Is your little bundle of joy fast approaching toddlerhood and you still find yourself awake for hours on end at night because your child hasn't learned to sleep on his own? There is hope! The Ferber method developed by Dr. Ferber will leave you so grateful you read it and only wishing you had tried his method sooner.

When we had our first child we were slightly prepared for the fact that sleeping would be more difficult for us, but we still had no idea how truly exhausting it would become. We would wake up in the middle of the night to crying and sometimes screaming, and this would happen night after night without end.

Practically every single night, your child will wake up in the middle of the night and more than once, there is almost no exceptions to this rule. Part of the reason for this, is that they are on a feeding schedule that requires them to eat every few hours because they have such a small stomach. But the problem is also that they do not have a real sleeping schedule and do not know how to go to sleep on their own, they're used to going to sleep in a completely different environment. Therefore they must be sleep trained.

Dr. Ferber's book "How to Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems", is a book that you should not just borrow but own. You will really need to read the book thoroughly to apply the principals correctly, but the method is quite simple. You will also want to refer back to the book when you have questions for your first child or your third.

Many people are afraid of the Ferber method because they think it is the "cry it out" method. When you understand it and think about it, nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, your child will cry some but compared to the amount of crying they would have done otherwise, it is much much less. With the Ferber method your child will have minutes of crying over a few nights, verses hours of crying over years possibly.

The upshot of the method is that you get your baby into a bedtime routine and then put them to sleep at the same time in the same way without any sleep aids, such as a bottle. Dr. Ferber recommends waiting until your child is at least 6 months. Some readers have suggested waiting longer, but we have had four children and used it on almost all of them successfully, at around four months old. Before you start however, you must wait until you can wean your child off of middle of the night feedings, this will take work and will need to wait until

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