Stevens said that pediatricians often refer families to her, as their caseload does not permit the type of individualized behavioral coaching that a sleep consultant can provide. Though they are not medical providers and may not have a health care background, certified child sleep consultants fill a need for commonsense solutions to everyday sleep hassles.
While childhood sleep problems are common, the supply of board-certified pediatric sleep specialists is low, with few pediatricians certified in sleep medicine or psychologists certified in behavioral sleep medicine. A survey of sleep consultants published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine in 2018 showed that the median length of time a consultant has been in practice is just four years. The sleep consultant can offer each family custom assistance from a menu of services, ranging from a one-time phone consult for $50 to a custom sleep plan with coaching via text message, to extended stay in-home consulting, which can cost thousands.Ĭhildren have presumably been tormenting their parents with disrupted sleep since we lived in caves, yet sleep consulting is a fairly emergent field.
Most parents have tried to solve the issues themselves but feel overwhelmed by the abundance of opinions available via internet forums, books, and friends and family. Another family might be trying to keep their 2-year-old from sneaking into their bed at 3 am every night. One set of parents may be fed up with their 10-month-old still waking every two hours at night like a newborn, and they might feel prepared to grit their teeth through some crying they just need help getting started. Some might associate sleep consulting with “sleep training,” a phrase often used as shorthand for the practice of teaching infants to self-soothe via controlled crying, also called “crying it out.” But childhood sleep concerns are as diverse as each family who seeks help. “I’m all alone and I’m only 3 years old!” The Family Sleep Institute, one of these organizations, calls its curriculum comprehensive and evidence-based, covering such topics as “Safe Sleep Environments Preventing SIDS,” “Twins,” and “Working with Families of Children with Special Needs” in their certification program. There are no national or international guidelines on who can be a provider, but a sleep consultant typically receives training through one of several organizations that offers a proprietary sleep curriculum in service of getting parents and children the sleep they need to function and thrive. She is one of the growing league of such professionals around the globe, a cohort of providers who fill this need for exhausted families.
Toddler sleep expert professional#
Stevens is a certified child and infant sleep consultant, a professional who offers services to families struggling with behavioral childhood sleep problems. “One of the top times that I get emails from tired parents is somewhere between midnight and 2 am,” says Christine Stevens, who owns Sleep Solutions by Christine. Christine emailed me back the next morning. As his heels jabbed at my ribs (“I’m just stretching”), I directed my phone’s glow away from his face and fired off a deranged missive via online form. The lights were off but his little overtired body wouldn’t stop twitching and jerking with excitement. I pulled him out of their shared bedroom and into “the big bed” with me. Hours since I’d gotten him in his jammies, my son was still awake and his protests were threatening to wake the baby. This particular night, my husband was out of town, leaving me solo with both kids. If we left the room, he hurled his body against the door like a moth thumping a porch light. “I’m all alone and I’m only 3 years old!” he wailed through a sheet of tears and mucus. If my husband or I didn’t stay in the room with him until he fell asleep, he would explode with panic. His routines suffered for it, and his bedtime demands had become increasingly baroque and desperate. He had faced big changes to his little life over the previous year: an interstate move, a new house, a new preschool, and the arrival of his baby sister. I remember when I reached my breaking point with my son’s sleep.
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