by S J

Created on: March 16, 2007   Last Updated: April 25, 2007

Most parents have, at some time in their child's life, experienced the difficulties of getting a child to sleep. Usually, the most difficult and critical period is during infancy. Parents are often inexperienced and nervous about letting their baby cry, and so, often, unhealthy sleeptime patterns develop that are hard to break.

In 1985, Pediatrician Richard Ferber wrote a book to address this very issue entitled, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems. As the director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital in Boston, he became the father of the technique known as "Ferberizing". In his book, he emphasizes the importance of babies to learn to soothe themselves to sleep. Some have called his method the "cry it out" method, but he never refers to it in those terms. Instead, he instructs parents in his "progressive waiting" theory. Parents are taught to put the baby to bed while he is still awake, allowing the baby to learn that he can comfort himself to sleep rather than relying on being rocked, nursed or bottlefed to sleep. Certainly the baby will cry in the beginning, and parents are allowed to pat the baby, but encouraged to leave the baby in the bed and gradually spend less and less time patting and more and more time away from the crib. In this manner, the baby becomes comfortable falling to sleep alone without experiencing fear or insecurity.

As you can imagine, Dr. Ferber has just as many opponents as he does strong followers. Those in opposition say that his method is too stringent and can leave emotional scars. However, those accusations are based on misinformation, and the updated version of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems sets out to address those misconceptions.

In the 2006 version of this popular book, Dr. Ferber emphasizes that this technique may not be for every child. Most often, when following his guidelines, a baby will be able to fall asleep on his own without crying in 3 days to 7 days. However, parents encouraged to take as long as they need and find a system that works for them. He also states that understands that co-sleeping (when a baby sleeps in bed with the parents) may work for some families and doesn't discourage it as many have interpreted in the past. He also includes his insight on topics such as napping, sleep apnea and other sleep disturbances.

When my children were born, I hadn't yet heard of Dr. Ferber and his method. However, I learned the hard way from my firstborn, that trying rock a baby to sleep and then put his in his bed is a very time-consuming and exhausting process. Most of the time, once I placed my son in his crib and he sensed that he was no longer being held, he awoke and needed to be patted and soothed for 10-20 minutes more each night. And then if he awoke again during the night, he would need to be rocked, patted and soothed again because he did not know how to fall to sleep without it. Therefore, when my daughter was born 20 months later, I nursed her and put her in her crib wide awake on her first day home from the hospital. She cried a bit, and I patted her from time to time, but in 20 minutes, she was sound to sleep. The next day it only took her ten minutes to fall to sleep on her own. After that, she fell to sleep independently without a whimper. In two days she learned to comfort and soothe herself while feeling safe and secure at the same time. She never had an issue with sleep after that, while my son struggled for years.....Just from experience, I would say that Dr. Ferber is a very wise physician and would encourage new parents to consider "Ferberizing" their new baby.....for good sleep for the whole family.

Learn more about this author, S J.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.