As a Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant, I understand that sleep training can be challenging for parents and their little ones. One concern that often arises is why babies or toddlers sometimes vomit during sleep training. Let’s delve into the reasons behind this, why it’s usually not a big deal, and what you can do to manage it.
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Common Reasons for Vomiting During Sleep Training

1. Crying: One of the primary reasons babies and toddlers vomit during sleep training is due to crying. When a child cries intensely, it can trigger their gag reflex, leading to vomiting. This natural response to prolonged crying can be more common in some children.
2. Loose Sphincter Muscles: Some babies have underdeveloped or loose sphincter muscles, making it easier for stomach contents to come back up, especially when upset or crying hard. This physiological factor can contribute to vomiting during sleep training sessions.
3. Learned Behaviour: Some toddlers may learn that vomiting gets a quick response from their parents. If a child discovers that throwing up brings immediate resolution and attention, they might use this as a way to get the things they want. They may start to use this strategy in other situations as well.

Why It’s Often Not a Big Deal
While seeing your child vomit can be distressing, it’s often not a serious issue. Here’s why:

• Self-Limiting: Vomiting due to crying or stress during sleep training is usually self-limiting. As your baby adjusts to the sleep training process, these episodes typically decrease in frequency, usually after night one or two of the process. 
• Natural Reflex: Vomiting is a protective reflex that helps clear the stomach of irritants or excess food. It’s the body’s way of managing discomfort.
• Common Occurrence: Many parents experience this during sleep training, and it’s a normal part of some children’s response to change.

What to Do When Your Baby or Toddler Vomits During Sleep Training

1. Stay Calm: Your reaction sets the tone for your baby. Staying calm and composed can help reassure them and prevent further distress.
2. Comfort Briefly: If your baby vomits, clean them up and offer comfort briefly without extending the interaction too long. This helps reassure them while maintaining the sleep training process.
3. Adjust Sleep Training Methods: If vomiting occurs frequently, consider shortening the intervals between check-ins or staying in the room with the child. 
4. Avoid Reinforcing the Behaviour: For toddlers who might be inducing vomiting for attention, it’s important to gently discourage this behaviour without giving it too much focus. Respond calmly and clean up without making it a big event.
5. Hydrate: After vomiting episodes, offer small amounts of water or an oral rehydration solution to ensure your child stays hydrated.
6. Be Patient: Understand that this is a phase. As your baby or toddler gets used to the sleep training routine, these vomiting episodes will decrease and eventually stop.

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Understanding why vomiting might occur during sleep training can help you manage it calmly and effectively. Most of the time, it’s a minor issue that can be handled with simple measures and a bit of patience.


Remember, consistency and reassurance are key. With time, your child will adjust to the new sleep routine, and these episodes will become a thing of the past. Stay positive and confident in your approach; soon enough, you and your little one will enjoy peaceful nights of sleep.

If you are struggling along your sleep training journey with your child and are ready to receive expert guidance and support to get through the difficult process reach out for help. Book your Free 20-minute Sleep Evaluation Call to learn more about how I can help your family transform into one that sleeps well. 

Parenting a toddler can be a whirlwind of joy, laughter, and, sometimes, sleepless nights. If you’ve embarked on the journey of sleep training, you might be familiar with the term "extinction burst." It sounds daunting, but understanding and addressing it can be the key to a peaceful night’s sleep for both you and your little one. Let's dive into what an extinction burst is, why it happens, and how you can navigate through it successfully.

What is an Extinction Burst?
An extinction burst occurs when you first start to withdraw reinforcement from a behaviour—in this case, your toddler’s nighttime awakenings. Picture this: your toddler has gotten used to certain responses when they wake up at night, such as being picked up, rocked, or given a bottle. When you begin sleep training and stop these responses, your toddler might initially escalate their behaviour. This escalation is the extinction burst. Essentially, things get worse before they get better as your child tests the boundaries to see if their previous behaviour will eventually yield the desired response.

Steps to Work Through the Extinction Burst

1. Stay Consistent Consistency is crucial. If you give in even once, your toddler learns that persistence pays off, which can prolong the extinction burst. Stick to your sleep training plan, whether it involves gradual withdrawal, controlled crying, or another method.
2. Create a Solid Bedtime Routine A predictable, calming bedtime routine helps signal to your toddler that it's time to wind down and sleep. Activities like a warm bath, storytime, and gentle lullabies can create a comforting environment that eases the transition to sleep.
3. Comfort Without Reinforcement If your toddler wakes up and cries, offer comfort in a way that doesn’t reinforce the waking behavior. This could mean patting them gently, speaking softly, or using a reassuring phrase. Avoid picking them up, feeding them, or engaging in prolonged interaction.
4. Monitor and Adjust the Environment Ensure your toddler’s sleep environment is conducive to rest. This includes a comfortable temperature, minimal noise, use a white noise machine and a dark blacked out room. Sometimes, environmental factors can exacerbate nighttime awakenings.
5. Stay Calm and Patient Your toddler will take cues from your behaviour. Staying calm, patient, and reassuring can help them feel secure even during the tumultuous period of an extinction burst. Remember, this phase is temporary and will pass.
6. Keep Track of Progress Chart your toddler’s sleep patterns and any changes in behaviour. This can help you identify improvements and stay motivated. Progress might be slow, but even small steps forward are a win. Use the Rested App to track your child's sleep. 

When to Seek Professional Help
If you find that the extinction burst is lasting longer than expected, or if you're struggling to stay consistent and need additional support, don’t hesitate to seek help from a professional. A certified pediatric sleep consultant can offer personalized advice and strategies tailored to your child’s needs. They can also provide the emotional support you need during this challenging time.

Final Thoughts
Navigating through an extinction burst during sleep training can be exhausting, but it’s a vital step toward helping your toddler learn to self-soothe and sleep independently. By staying consistent, creating a comforting bedtime routine, and seeking help when necessary, you can guide your child through this phase and onto restful nights for the entire family.

Remember, you’re not alone in this journey. Many parents have faced the same challenges and come out the other side with happier, well-rested children. Hold on to that thought, keep pushing through, and soon, peaceful nights will become the norm rather than the exception.

If you need help through this stage of your sleep training journey I'd be more than happy to help. Book your Free 20-minute Sleep Evaluation Call today. I'll learn more about what's happening with your child's sleep, explain why and how I can help your family become a well rested one. 
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If you plan on addressing your little one’s sleep issues, I want to prepare you for something.

It’s possible that things are going to get worse before they get better.
For some babies, that might mean a night or two of more intense crying at bedtime; for some, it might mean more like four or five.

That probably doesn’t come as a big surprise. If you have a child that doesn’t sleep well, you’ve probably already established an elaborate routine to respond to your baby’s bedtime. 

It’s usually a combination of feeding, bouncing, getting them settled in your arms, popping in a pacifier, and getting them into their crib at the exact right moment.

Why? Because if you try to do it any other way, your baby will cry. And if you don’t give in, they’ll cry even louder and harder. It’s a common response to behaviour modification known as an extinction burst.

EXTINCTION BURST

An extinction burst occurs when a behaviour that has been previously reinforced suddenly stops being reinforced. In other words, when a baby is used to receiving a specific response or reward for a particular behaviour, and that response or reward is suddenly removed, the baby will increase the intensity and frequency of that behaviour in an attempt to get what they want. In this case, the rocking, shushing, or nursing to sleep that they’re accustomed to.

Extinction bursts can occur in various situations, from sleep training to weaning from breastfeeding. They can be particularly challenging for parents to navigate, as it can be difficult to tell if the baby is seeking attention or if they’re genuinely upset. 

However, it’s essential to understand that extinction bursts are a normal part of a baby’s development and are not a sign that something’s wrong.

So, how can parents cope with these bedtime extinction bursts? 
One word. Consistency.

CONSISTENCY

Suppose you have decided that a particular behaviour is no longer acceptable or that a specific reward will no longer be given. In that case, it’s crucial to stick to that decision and not give in to the baby’s increased efforts to elicit the desired response.
 
Staying consistent isn’t going to be easy, I know. The increased intensity of the baby’s crying will be stressful and occasionally overwhelming. Still, it is important to remain calm and consistent. 

Get your partner involved or call in the support team, whether it’s your parents, your in-laws, your friends, or a professional sleep consultant so that you can take a break when things get to be too much for you.

As tough as things get, don’t forget this crucial fact. Extinction bursts are temporary. Good sleep habits are not. 

Once you’ve come out the other side of this experience, you can look forward to years of your little one sleeping soundly through the night. 

Need help to stay consistent and get through your child's extinction burst?
​Book your Free 20-minute Sleep Evaluation Call with me and I can explain how I can help make this transition to independent sleep a lot smoother. 

Almost every sleep book on the market talks about the word “drowsy.” If we’re working with newborns, for example, many books state that the goal is to put your newborn down drowsy but awake. And in most cases, that works just fine, but sometimes it doesn’t.


I’m here today to talk about when it doesn’t.


If we’ve moved beyond the newborn phase, let’s say with a baby aged four months and up, drowsiness can actually become a loose prop association. 


Let’s think about it this way: sleep is a journey, and if you are at point A, which would be wide awake, and are trying to get to point B, which is asleep, how you make the journey becomes essential. 


If you read the Sleep Sense program, you’ll know it’s the journey we must fix for our child to start sleeping well. The goal is to have the child learn to make that journey all on their own — or independently, we like to say — so that when they have a naturally occurring wake-up during the night, they can make the journey back to sleep easily and on their own.


In some cases, if we help our baby into the journey by getting them drowsy with either rocking or feeding, then when they have a naturally occurring wake-up sometime in the night or during a nap, they won’t be able to get back to sleep from point A to point B. So they will want you to return to the room and help them get started on the journey.


This becomes problematic for both baby and parent because for your baby to return to sleep, you will need to assist them at least part of the way, which becomes frustrating on both sides. That’s why the goal is to teach the baby how to fall asleep from point A. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to be very cautious in your bedtime or nap time routine so your baby is not entering the drowsy phase.


So what does drowsiness look like?


Drowsiness can be tricky to read because, in some cases, what you would consider drowsiness could be the first sleep stage. So here are some things you want to keep an eye on.

1. Zoning out, or what we often call “the seven-mile stare.” If you notice your baby looking off into space, this can signify drowsiness. The best way to avoid it is to talk to your baby, tickle your baby, or remove your baby from the nipple or the bottle before resuming feeding again.
2. Heavy blinking. Make sure your baby’s eyes look alert and are not blinking heavily. This can be a sign of drowsiness. The best way to avoid this is to talk to your baby, sing, or give them a little tickle to keep them alert. 
3. Closing the eyes for several minutes at a time while having the bedtime feed. Again, you want to ensure your baby’s eyes stay alert and open through the entire feed. 

The goal is to make sure the baby remains alert and wide awake through the entire bedtime routine and goes into the crib, ready to start the sleep journey from point A.


You might notice that your baby does a little bit more protesting suddenly. This is a good sign that your baby was actually relying on you to help them to sleep in some way, and they are struggling slightly with the process of going from start to finish all on their own. But don’t worry — the good news is that within a couple of nights, the baby will be able to make the journey independently and start sleeping through the night.


If you’d like to chat more about your baby’s sleep challenges, I’m more than happy to offer a complimentary 20-minute evaluation call to see if we can get to the bottom of your struggles; I can explain how I can help! You can book your Free chat below. ​