We have been explaining the method of sleep that he devised for two days Tracy Hogg, also known as the baby whisper, and after explaining a little what was the philosophy of this author and tell you the basic premises today we enter fully into the recommendations of the author.
As we have been saying, we treat it as an applicable method basically because we compare it with another much better known, and at the same time more used, which in our eyes is much more disrespectful to babies, the Estivill method.
If this method did not exist, we would perhaps be more critical of the Tracy Hogg method, but knowing that many desperate parents come to consider the application of "Estivill", we believe it is necessary to explain this method, also behavioral, but that causes, at least, less tears.
How to make the baby fall asleep
Hogg, like all authors who talk about sleep, recommends having rituals to sleep at night (dim light, quiet music, bath, dinner, ...) and take a nap so that the child recognizes through these routines that the time comes later about sleeping.
Once the child begins to yawn, we must put the child to bed, so that he does not reveal himself, leaving him in the crib before he is totally asleep.
If you have trouble falling asleep, you can use the pacifier, he says, to prevent the mother from becoming a human pacifier, controlling the use so that the pacifier does not become a support.
This point has, for me, an erroneous approach because, as we have said on other occasions, it is not the mother who becomes a human pacifier, but the pacifier who came in her day to become a silicone tit. In addition, I find it very difficult to control the time that a child uses it, as he says, although if she who has been with thousands of children, talks about this method, it may be possible to control it by ensuring that the child does not complain (although I say, that I am very surprised).
If the baby is very nervous
In the event that the baby cannot fall asleep because he is too tired, we should not rock him excessively in his arms, nor shake him, because in addition to exciting him more, he runs the risk of creating a support such as a walk in arms every night, a stroller ride, etc.
To help you fall asleep, you recommend:
- Wrap it: with a blanket or shawl, so that it takes heat and that its limbs are collected, creating something like an artificial uterus.
- Reassure him: Pat him on the back on a regular basis, with a steady rhythm, as if it were a beating heart. These pats can be accompanied by a whisper: "shhh, shhh, shhh ...". To which we can add, also whispering, phrases like: "now to sleep, little one", "good night", "nothing happens". All this that is done with the child in his arms should continue to be done while the baby is put in the crib and also being already in it.
- Block visual stimuli: prevent visual stimuli that can distract you and make you focus your attention on them, returning to consciousness (if it began to fall asleep).
- Do not go back to problematic routines: If something goes wrong, you should not return to those habits or routines that were created in your day and that are problematic, such as carrying it in your arms, breastfeeding or shaking it compulsively. If he wakes up, you have to wrap him again with the blanket and again reassure him with pats and whispers in our arms, to leave it again, still awake in the crib, but calm and without tears.
In theory, the first few days it may happen that babies wake up quite often, however, little by little, they should start to wake up, to the point that they are reduced or even disappear.
I would say that the operation is similar to the Estivill method: Children realize that they do not get what they really want, which is usually the arms of dad and mom almost constantly and that is why they end up giving up in some way to keep calling. The difference is that these children do get some arms and whispers that help them calm down and sleep again and their crying is more respected, because dad and mom come to relieve him, not in the way the baby would want, surely, but at least He is comforted, which is already a lot.
To sleep all night
In addition to all the advice offered, Hogg adds a few to get babies to sleep through the night:
- Control naps, so you don't steal sleep at night: some babies tend to fall asleep in the afternoon, and a little late (say after six in the afternoon), then go to bed at night. Others do not nap so late, but they sleep quite a few hours and the same thing happens at night.
In such cases the author recommends waking the child so he doesn't steal sleep at night. This is not a new and sure advice that many of you have heard: "do not let him sleep during the day and so he will sleep all night." The problem is that it is not entirely true and the results are not always as expected. There are children, many, whose sleep deprivation feels fatal, or they arrive so tired at night that they sleep very badly, waking up very often, or having been awake they spend an afternoon "of dogs", because they have not rested as much as they needed.
- Give him a generous dinner: he recommends feeding him a generous dinner, which will fill him enough so that he is not hungry. In addition, when the baby has been asleep for a while (when about 2 hours have passed although it depends on each child), feed him again while he is sleeping, that is, take him out of the crib and, without waking him, feed him again, to then leave it again in the crib. I guess the author should not be aware of the epidemic of childhood obesity that affects a large part of children, because I do not understand how such dietary aberration can be done.
- Use a pacifier, but without it becoming supportive: he says if the baby keeps waking up because he asks for a breast or bottle often, probably because he needs (and asks for) oral stimulation to help him calm down again, we must give him a pacifier. The first nights will surely suck the pacifier the same time he was sucking (20-30 minutes), but little by little, night by night, that time will be less.
In this way the feeding with the breast or bottle is replaced because he wanted to suck for a pacifier, finally getting him to not wake up. The author imagined that she has not read too much about the physiology of breastfeeding and how nutritive suction and non-nutritive suction at night help establish breastfeeding, because the mother's greater prolactin segregation is used at night, nor should she know that breastfeeding babies also eat more at night, having better weight and also ensuring the production of breast milk (more demand, more supply).
Even with everything, there are inevitable things
The author leaves an open door for all those fathers and mothers who do not see results with their methods, since it explains that there are times when sleep disturbances cannot be avoided, for example, when they start giving solid food, when the baby starts to move and explore the whole house, when he pulls, when his teeth come out, when he has a dirty diaper, etc.
He also explains that, fortunately, this situation will not last forever and that in order to remove some iron from the matter, one must know how to see what happens as something transitory. Basically it is a matter of luck, since there are babies who sleep better than others, but whatever it is, he emphasizes, “Parents have to be able to rest for the time necessary to be able to withstand the onslaught”.
Conclusions
As I explained the points I have made some notes of what I did not like or that seemed quite out of place.
In general it is a method that I just did not like for several reasons, including breastfeeding aside, as if it were a nighttime vice and not end up giving the baby what he really wants, which is nothing more than continuous contact.
But nevertheless, yes I like it a lot more than the Ferber or Estivill type sleep method, in which it does not matter if the baby cries or vomits, because it cannot even be held in his arms. With the baby whispering method they will probably cry a little more than if they are treated with arms, walks, chest, etc., but probably less than with the other methods.
That is why I would place him in that intermediate point that he does not dare to collect with his baby, or does not want to do it and he who thinks he needs a solution now and is considering letting his baby cry so that, at the cost of not attending to him, he leaves to cry.
