How I Got My Baby To Sleep Through the Night

The best advise that I received after becoming a mom for the first time was this: “You didn’t go to live with your baby, your baby came to live with you.” –Dr. Leila Denmark Recently, I had the fabulous opportunity to help another friend get her newborn baby to sleep through the night using Dr. Denmark’s incredible, infamous routine. Dr. Denmark is a local, retired Pediatrician that is going to be turning 112 on February 1st, 2010, and, as of the time of this post, is the 57th oldest person in the world according to the Guinness book of world records. From referral, my friend came to me to seek out any help that I could offer to get her baby to sleep. I was honored, and we immediately began the baby on a new day and night routine. This “schedule” involves a feeding and sleeping pattern that also helps the baby feel secure and happy because he learns what to expect throughout the day. We are all creatures of habit, and I believe that it is our responsibility as parents to show our children the right way to live each day, and I also believe that this starts immediately at birth.

The first day, the baby accepted the schedule well, and actually slept a little that night; however, the second night was absolutely horrible! Through a series of questions to the mom, it turns out that the baby was colic; however, the mom told me that her pediatrician would not diagnose him as colic “because,” she said, “there is no cure,” and, “he is too young to diagnose,” but I believe she was wrong and that there is a cure!

The mom, that I was working with, had been feeding the baby every 2 hours, and according to Dr. Denmark and Northside Hospital in Atlanta, GA (Northside Hospital delivers more babies than any other hospital in the nation), if you feed a baby more often than every 4 hours, for longer than 20 minutes at a time, you drastically increase the chances of your baby developing colic and reflux. The mom decided to go ahead and feed the baby again at 2:00 am and lay him back down. They finally made it through the night, but it was extremely difficult. The next day and night went very well, and then by the 4th night, the baby was sleeping for 8 hours. He has had no more colic and has been continuing to sleep all night since. The baby hardly cries, even throughout the day, and has become a very happy baby boy!

The routine that Dr. Denmark suggests is as follows: Feed only at 10, 2, 6 and 10, for no more than 20 minutes at a time. If you are breastfeeding then feed the baby 10 minutes on each breast. After the 10:00 pm feeding, put the baby down in his crib, on his belly (she also tells how to make the crib safe and comfortable.) The baby should stay there until 6 the next morning. At that time, you pick the baby up, feed him and then put him back down until 10:00 am. I have read accounts and personally witnessed this schedule working with all types of babies and personality types. I have used this schedule with both of my children. My first son was 5 weeks old when I was first introduced to her routine. I immediately started it, and he was sleeping all night within a 3 day period. With my second son, I started it immediately after birth. He began sleeping all night when he was 10-days-old. Both of my children are completely opposite in personalities, and they both did very well on this schedule.

Both of my children were born at Northside Hospital. My first son was in the NICU for 4 days after birth, and when we brought him home from the hospital, the NICU nurses had already put him on this exact eating schedule, and he was following it very well. I also bottle-fed my first child and nursed my second. Neither one had any problems following the 4-hr-schedule, and neither did my body. I adjusted even throughout the night.

Dr. Denmark wrote a book called “Every Child Should Have a Chance” that is no longer in print. It has now been revised by the author, Madia Bowman. The name of the revised book is  “Dr. Denmark Said It!”