Australian father Nathan Dailo became an internet sensation when he shared this video demonstrating how he gets his three-month-old son Seth to sleep in just 42 seconds by simply tickling his face with a piece of tissue paper.
We know what you’re thinking – what kind of sorcery is this?
And you’re not the only one. When the video was published in 2015, it quickly went viral, as desperate parents across the globe reached for the Kleenex and prayed for a miracle.
Of course, if getting your baby to sleep in under 60 seconds really were as simple as wafting a tissue over their face a few times, sleep-deprived parents and children’s sleep clinics would be a thing of the past.
Even Dailo admits there is no silver bullet, or one-size-fits-all trick when it comes to sending your newborn off into the land of nod:
“The tissue trick isn’t actually anything special. Any light touching on the baby’s facial areas such as the head, forehead or the bridge of the nose also works,” he told US magazine TIME.
“Remember that each child is different, and what works for some parents may not work for others. And always use you’re instincts. You are the parent,” he added.
Chireal Shallow, founder of The Baby Sleep Clinic and author of The Gentle Sleep Solution agrees: “I believe that the best way to make change happen when it comes to [your baby’s] sleep is to work out what works best for you, and then do it.”
She adds: “A trick your friend used to get her baby to sleep may not work for you, and there’s nothing wrong with that. All it means was that ‘trick’ worked for that particular baby, in that particular family under a particular set of conditions.”
If you’ve tried the tissue trick to no avail and are looking for a solution that works for you, here are a few ideas to get you started.
The Guide Book
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The Gentle Sleep Solution: The Naturally Nurturing Way To Help Your Baby To Sleep offers a gentle alternative to controlled crying methods. Drawing on her experience as a psychologist, CBT therapist and mother of four, Shallow teaches parents, firstly, how to identify the underlying reason for their baby's troubled sleeping by reading their behaviour, and, secondly, how to respond in ways that will help to reduce their anxiety and allow them to fall asleep independently.
The Bedtime Story Book
Penguin Random House
Swedish behavioural psychologist and linguist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin spent more than three years perfecting his bestselling sleep-inducing bedtime story
The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep. Using psychological and positive reinforcement techniques to help little ones to relax, focus and eventually drift off, he describes the story as “the verbal equivalent of rocking a baby to sleep.”
The Smartphone App
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The
Sound Sleeper app, gives you a choice of sounds for lulling your baby to sleep according to her personal preferences – whether that’s the rhythm of the womb, a gentle ‘shhh’ or the sound of a vacuum cleaner. It also ‘listens’ for your baby and starts playing the sound you’ve chosen as soon as it hears a whimper. You can even track your baby’s sleep and generate graphs to help you learn and analyse your baby’s sleep patterns.
The Night Light
Lighting Science
The
Sleepy Baby™ Biological LED Lamp light bulb works by filtering out the stimulating blue light spectrum that can inhibit your baby’s production of the sleep hormone, melatonin. Although it provides adequate light for bedtime stories, nappy changes and night-time feeds, your baby’s brain registers the light as darkness, making it easier for them to fall back asleep.