Sleep consultants- are they actually worth it?

I have heard some are quite good, but I've heard that through the Parenting Hell podcast 😅 BUT BBC had an article recently about so called sleeping coaches and how it is an unregulated profession and they found some were actually giving dangerous advice to parents. The article was from a few days ago, so very recent

I used Poppy - https://www.instagram.com/sleepmamauk?igsh=eTN6YnN4MTJuMGI1

She’s got a wonderful, gentle, non-judgemental approach would highly recommend.

She’s a twin mum and has a 3 year old so lots of professional and personal experience ❤️

I had one when my girl was 11 month old and it didn’t change a thing. I think it depends on what you’re willing to do and the temperament of your little one, my girl hated being left alone at night so didn’t even manage the first 2 minutes of the ferber method before making herself sick 😩 for us it was a waste of money cos she’s 2 now and we still stay with her til shes asleep but she mostly sleeps through unless shes poorly, but if its affecting your health I think you could give it a try, but remember there are no government/medical regulations around sleep consultants and pretty much anyone can do it 🤣😩

If you’re not willing to allow your child to cry it out in some capacity (nor am I, I personally would never sleep train my children) then I don’t think it’ll be worth your money.

More or less all of them use cry it out/ Ferber in some capacity some just dress it up better than others and they don’t advocate for being responsive to your baby. It’s also massively temperament driven.. my first son didn’t sleep until he was 25 months but he was and still is highly sensitive and needs a lot of sensory input. A baby that is naturally more chill and placid is more likely to have ‘success’ with sleep training methods with less distress

I haven’t used a sleep consultant but followed a couple on social media. There’s a company called calm and bright which have been interviewed on lots of different parenting podcasts. They’ve also partnered with mamas and papas. I also follow a health visitor called Ruth Watts. Both of these are great for top tips and do lots of Q and As for free. Both offer a sleep support service. I’ve found this really useful as like you, I’m not sure I would want to pay for a service as I’m not sure how effective/how much I’d follow it.