Sleep
Sleep training is a family of approaches, not a single method
The phrase covers a wide range of approaches that differ substantially in what they ask of parents and babies. Understanding that…
Sanjana Oraon
Contributing writer, My John Baby
Sanjana covers feeding and weaning, practically rather than prescriptively.
Contact Sanjana through our contact page — mark your message for their attention and it will be passed on.
10 articles
Sleep
Dividing the night between two adults so that one of you actually sleeps
Two half-rested adults function worse than one rested one and one exhausted one. The night is a rota problem, and most households…
Sleep
Short naps are not a technique failure
A baby who sleeps forty minutes and wakes is following the length of its own sleep cycle. The parent who concludes they did…
Sleep
A bedtime routine works because it is boring and identical every night
The content of a wind-down matters far less than its predictability. What a routine actually does is signal, and signals only work…
Sleep
Sleeping through the night means something much narrower than it sounds
The phrase is used by parents, researchers and relatives to mean at least three different things. Most of the comparison anxiety in…
Feeding
Breast, formula and combination feeding all arrive at the same place
The three routes have different practicalities and the same destination, which is a fed baby and functioning adults. Most of the…
Feeding
Bottles, teats and the sterilising routine that becomes automatic
Bottle feeding involves a small equipment ecosystem and a repeated cleaning cycle. Almost all of the difficulty is in the first…
Feeding
Night feeds without waking the entire household
A night feed handled well takes fifteen minutes and leaves two people asleep. Handled badly it takes an hour and wakes everyone…
Feeding
Baby-led weaning and purées are not opposing camps
The two approaches are presented as a choice with a right answer, and most families end up doing some of both. The differences are…
Feeding
Feeding apps stop helping at the point you stop looking at the baby
Tracking apps solve a real problem in the first weeks and create a different one shortly afterwards. Knowing when to stop is the…