Blog Ian

Oops, that previous post got away from me before I meant to post it.

But the only thing I wanted to add is that Ferber's method is based on two principles:

1. The parents must show the child that they are dead serious about bedtime. There are no other options.
2. The child needs to learn how to put him/herself to sleep. Apparently, the increasingly long intervals help him/her with that.

Since 27 December 2006, bedtime has ceased to be internecine combat. It's made our evenings our own. It's helped preserve our sanity. If I were a religious man, I'd say that Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems was God sent.

If only we didn't have to wait until Ian was over three to find it! But then, maybe he wouldn't have been ready for it earlier. Who knows? He still has a lot of trouble taking naps (and is cranky and unpleasant when he hasn't), but it's harder to apply this method to naptime because we only have the weekends to work on it and during the week he's at daycare at naptime (and he usually takes naps there).

In any event, Dr. Richard Ferber, you have our thanks!