In today’s podcast is interview Ali Guyer. Ali is a certified infant sleep specialist, an occupational therapist and a mom of one (very wakeful baby/toddler). She became certified to help other families navigate sleep after her own anxiety-inducing and confusing journey of deciding whether or not to sleep train her son. From her own experience of living with an anxiety disorder, she wanted to help other families understand the importance of infants experiencing close proximity and responsiveness day and night- to prevent future nervous system dysregulation and mental health challenges. She is passionate about challenging the modern non-responsive sleep practices that are so often encouraged to new parents by family, friends and trusted health providers.
I decided to embark on this podcast because one of the most asked questions I get asked in my clinical practice is about sleep and if parents should sleep train.
Sleep training typically involves methods like controlled crying or "crying it out," where parents allow their baby to cry for a specified period before offering comfort. The goal is to teach the baby to “self-soothe” and fall asleep independently. But what we know now is that babies that are sleep trained aren’t necessarily “self soothing” but rather shutting down their nervous systems. We also know that babies that are sleep trained are not sleeping better or more compared to babies who are not sleep trained, they are just not responding anymore.
Ali decided to deepen her learning and train as a sleep specialist after she was told to not pick up her crying baby which went against all of her instincts. She desired to respond to his cues and found a training that was attachment focused and made more sense to her and her baby’s needs. With sleep specialty Ali helps moms come up with solutions to the baby’s unique signaling and attachment cues for sleep.
We also address:
Ali’s own story how she got into this work
Book mentioned: What Happened to You by Dr Bruce Perry https://a.co/d/eJL1Twu
Connect with Ali website : https://www.nestingowlsleep.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nestingowlsleep/
Isla Grace Sleep Website: https://islagrace.ca/
Work with or connect with Lesha: https://www.instagram.com/lesha__nelson/
My website: https://www.leshanelson.com/
Enjoy!