6 Most Popular Baby Sleep-Training Methods Explained

This is a very gradual sleep-training method (McGinn gives her clients a two-week plan for implementation) and requires a lot of discipline on the part of the parents. Again, you prep your baby for bed, but instead of leaving the room, you sit in a chair next to the crib.

• When they fall asleep, leave the room, but every time they wake up, sit back down in the chair until they fall back asleep.
• Every few nights, move the chair further and further away until you’re out of the room.

“The pro of this method is that mom or dad is there and present,” says McGinn. “But the con is, there will likely still be some crying, and now baby is watching you watch them cry. It can be really hard to be consistent with this method.”

Mitelman doesn’t recommend this method to her clients because she says having a parent in the room but not responding to the baby is confusing and may also be too much stimulation, depending on the baby’s age and developmental stage.

“They can get so escalated to the point that they can’t calm themselves down,” she says.