Brand New Little People

It’s a big concern for so many new parents - the dreaded four month sleep ‘regression’. The science behind sleep regressions is  non existent 🤷🏻‍♀️  so mostly, we disregard them, but the reality is, sleep often does become a big challenge at 4 months of age for so many parents and their babies. 🎧 In episode 95 of Brand New Little People, Dr Fallon & Dr Laura (PhDs, Sleep Practitio...

We all dread the day it happens—your toddler suddenly starts trying to climb out of the cot, and it feels like game over for sleep. Well, good news: it doesn’t have to be. While we don’t always get to choose when our toddlers transition to a bed, there are plenty of ways to make the shift smoother and keep their sleep (and yours!) on track. 🎧 In episode 94 of Brand New Little People, Dr Fallon &a...

👶🏽 Dummies, or pacifiers, can be a life saver for exhausted parents. Some babies and toddlers find it comforting to suck, and their dummy becomes part of their strategy for staying calm and even falling asleep. But dummies don’t come without their controversies. 🎧 In episode 93 of Brand New Little People, Dr Fallon & Dr Laura deliver the sensible middle ground, discussing the pros and cons...

We never recommend the 'Cry It Out' (CIO) approach in our sleep clinics - and for good reason. In this episode, Dr Fallon & Dr Laura (PhDs, Sleep Practitioners) unpack what CIO means, and  what alternatives align better with responsive, evidence-based care. We also take a look at the damage that can be done when the term 'Cry It Out' is applied incorrectly and explore why we&nbs...

Rigid, age-based wake windows are splashed across the internet, promising the solution to all your baby’s sleep difficulties. But do they actually work? Mostly, no. 🥱 The majority of age-based schedules aim for more sleep than is typical for your baby’s age. 📉 They also assume that all babies of the same age need the exact same thing – which is a bit like assuming that all babies of the same age...

There is nothing better than those sweet baby cuddles when your little one naps, but at some point, you may find yourself wishing you could have your arms back. You’re not alone! Contact naps can be precious, but they might not feel sustainable, especially if you’ve got other children 👧🏻  your own sensory challenges 🌻 or you simply want to use the bathroom...alone 🚽 In this episode, Dr Fa...

In this episode, Dr Fallon & Dr Laura (PhDs, Sleep Practitioners) unpack what it means to have a low sleep needs baby or toddler, how to know if your little one is getting the amount of sleep they truly need, and how you can manage their lower sleep requirements across the first few years. ☕️ Love our work? Buy us a coffee: https://loom.ly/gKUHe3M ❤️ Listen on Apple Podcasts https://loom.ly/z...

If you’ve been trying to get your baby or toddler to go to bed earlier and wake earlier, then the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) is going to be a huge win for you! But what if you’re happy with your baby or toddlers’ bedtime and wake time and feel mildly petrified that the end of DST is going to mess things up? Never fear, today Dr Fallon & Dr Laura (PhDs, Sleep Practitioners) explain...

You might have worked really hard to build your child’s confidence falling asleep in their cot or bed at bedtime. But what happens if you still find yourself sitting in their room near their cot or bed, until they fall asleep? Some parents don’t mind this, but others find it difficult, especially if they have other children to get to bed, and for some, their children continue to wake overnight, wo...

The term ‘self-soothing’ gets thrown around a lot on the internet, but what does it actually mean? In its simplest form, self-soothing refers to the behaviours humans use to calm themselves when feeling upset. For an adult this might mean meditation, deep breathing, or debriefing with a friend, and for a baby this could mean sucking their thumb or fingers, stroking their ears or nose, or rocking t...

Imagine if your toddler’s bedtime often took longer than 3 hours 😥 Imagine they refuse to sleep in their cot, will only fall asleep if breastfed, and every approach you’ve previously tried simply hasn’t ‘stuck.’ Sounds pretty awful doesn’t it? 😔 This week we received an email from Michelle, a parent who is currently battling this exact situation with her toddler. Michelle desperately wants her t...

Has your baby or toddler suddenly started to sit or stand in their cot? Have easy bedtimes evaporated in to thin air as you struggle to get your little one to stay lying down long enough to fall asleep? 😵‍💫 If this is you, don’t worry. You’re encountering a very common hurdle but it can be overcome. In this episode, you’ll learn what to do when your little one starts to practice their new s...

You’ve probably heard some advice suggesting that babies and toddlers must sleep in a dark room…. and then moments later heard the exact opposite – that all babies need to learn how to sleep in a brightly lit, noisy room. 😵‍💫 So who’s right? Our dedicated listeners won’t be surprised to hear that the answer depends a little bit on your individual child. As always, there are shades of grey betwee...

When your baby or toddler isn’t sleeping well and you’re filled with dread at the thought of facing another broken night, it can feel like you are so deep down in the trenches that you might never climb out 😥 When broken sleep stretches across weeks, months, or even years, it’s easy to feel like better nights are just SO far away. But they are not. 😎 Even with the most challenging, ingrained, pe...

In this episode of Brand New Little People, Dr Fallon & Dr Laura (PhDs, Sleep Practitioners) discuss how you can help your toddler adjust to big life changes, with a specific focus on protecting their sleep. Do toddlers who sleep through the night have interrupted sleep after a new baby arrives? What about moving house with a toddler – how do I avoid hiccups with their sleep during such a...

In our sleep clinic it’s common to hear parents say they’re worried about their baby or toddler’s naps. And we completely understand why. Everyone has a different opinion on how long naps should be and it gets tangled up in a lot of emotion. The reality is, the perfect nap for your child might be entirely different from the perfect nap for another, and it might even change day to day. The best nap...

Some parents believe bed sharing and holding their child for their naps, will create more secure attachment than if their child sleeps in a cot or bed. But actually, where your child sleeps has very little bearing on their attachment style. Secure attachment is built through warm and responsive interactions when your child is awake, not during their sleep. Sharing your bed with your child mig...

Parents often tell us that there was one particularly tricky night when their baby or toddler just wouldn’t fall back asleep, and they finally caved, bringing their child in to their bed, in the hopes of getting more sleep. The problem? Their child realised that bed sharing was an option and decided that this would be the only place they would fall asleep from that point onwards 😅 Some parents en...

Cassie had an 8 month old who was waking multiple times each night. When she sought help from a friend she was told that bed sharing would be the best way to maximise her sleep and her baby’s sleep too. But instead of helping, bed sharing caused a drastic increase in night waking. Her son was now waking 8-10 times per night and Cassie was more exhausted than ever. But all of this turned around in...

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or if you just enjoy a nice break from paid work over the New Year period, you might have questions about how to manage your baby or toddler’s sleep. With family gatherings, changing routines, excitement and fun, it can feel a little scary to suddenly have your little one out of routine. In today’s episode Dr Fallon & Dr Laura (PhDs, Sleep Practitione...

Your baby is happily playing but then lets out a yawn. What do you do? Do you drop everything and sprint for the nursery, keen to settle them for sleep before they become overtired? Or do you wait longer to see if a collection of tired signs show up? It might surprise you to learn that yawning isn’t a reliable tired sign in little babies. It might also surprise you to learn that the haste with whi...

The amount of conflicting information circulating about baby and toddler sleep, is wildly out of control 😵‍💫 When you’re sleep deprived and searching for a solution, it’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole of emotionally charged misinformation.🐰 And this can be dangerous. A parent who’s on the brink of a major mental breakdown due to exhaustion, needs: ✅ support ✅ effective sleep strategies 🚫...

Your baby or toddler wakes in the night and you drag yourself out of bed, exhausted, but by the time you’ve got them back to sleep and you finally climb back in to your bed…you’re wide awake. In the middle of the night, it’s easy to begin worrying about anything and everything. Before you know it, your heart rate is up, you’re replaying every embarrassing thing you ever did, or doubting your life...

New parents are told to expect their sleep to change forever—but nothing truly prepares you for the reality of caring for a precious new life on such fragmented sleep. After the blur of the early weeks and months, many parents find themselves ready to make adjustments to where, when, and how their baby sleeps. For some, this shift happens within the first six months; for others, closer to a year;...

Let’s talk about the ‘17 diapers’ trend happening on TikTok. Hannah is a mum who posted a video counting the number of dirty diapers she could find lying around her house. She found 17. She has a newborn and a toddler, so that’s probably 1 days’ worth of dirty nappies. Most would find this normal and unsurprising, but over 10,000 people jumped on her post to leave nasty comments criticising her pa...