This page belongs to collection of short articles and videos in plain language, called When baby cries a lot in the first few months of life. Together, these articles and videos will give you a brief and simple summary of the Possums 5-domain approach to the crying baby. For comprehensive information on this topic, please consider reading The discontented little baby book.

You’ll make your own decisions about what’s best to do with your baby’s sleep, because you are the expert on your own baby, even when it doesn’t feel like it much of the time. You’re the one who is constantly experimenting and noticing how your baby responds.

Families who have a crying baby are often advised by those around them to start sleep training. But I have found over decades now that sleep training can just make everything worse for families, including parents’ own stress levels! The research also shows that sleep training increases parent stress, yet doesn’t actually decrease the number of times babies wake in the night. I suggest you try the ideas you’ll find in The Possums Sleep Program.

You might like to go to the Brief & simple summary pages of The Possums Sleep Program, starting here.

Acknowledgements

I'm grateful to Professor Sophie Havighurst, Ros June, and Caroline Ma at Mindful, The University of Melbourne, for their feedback on the articles and videos in When baby cries a lot in the first few months of life. They helped me keep the language plain and the concepts as accessible as possible, for this brief and simple version of the Possums 5-domain approach to the crying baby.

Recommended resources

Hello and getting started with The Possums Sleep Program

The body clock: baby sleep regulator #1

Sleep pressure: baby sleep regulator #2

Why sleep training often makes baby or toddler sleep worse