How to use the Soothing Ladder Method to Calm Down Your Baby while Sleep Training

I know sleep training can be really difficult and emotional for the parents, but when you have a set plan of action, it’s way more manageable.

HOW TO USE THE SOOTHING LADDER METHOD TO CALM DOWN YOUR BABY WHILE SLEEP TRAINING

What is the soothing ladder? So the soothing letter is exactly how it sounds. Each rung of the ladder needs to be taken 30 to 60 seconds at a time, depending on your child’s age and ability to self-soothe. Giving babies under six months old 30 seconds is definitely going to give them an opportunity to self-soothe, but also have your support while you’re there.

Babies older than six months old can definitely self-soothe for at least one minute before you intervene. This is a very gentle, very gradual sleep training method where you are slowly removing your presence from your child’s room when they are falling asleep at night, and giving them less and less hands-on assistance.

To make sure that you have everything else lined up and in order, before you start sleep training, here’s a free baby sleep guide. This guide is going to tell you everything that you need before sleep training and implementing healthy sleep habits.

How to use the Soothing Ladder Method:

Bedtime routine. Once your bedtime routine is over, and your baby is still awake, you are going to lay your baby down in the crib. If they begin crying, I want you out of sight. That doesn’t mean you need to be out of the room, just be where your kid can’t see you and give them 30 seconds

* If they continue to cry and you’re not seeing any self-soothing skills, then make your presence known in the room for 30 seconds just standing there so they know you’re there and everything is okay. However, if that is not enough and your baby is still crying, then you can move to the next rung of the ladder

Humming, singing, or just using your key phrase saying Mommy’s here, I love you. Daddy is here. It’s time for night night and just use your voice so that your baby really knows that you’re there for 30 seconds.

* If the baby has not calmed move to the next rung of the ladder

Replace your child’s pacifier, give them their lovey, if they’re old enough to have one, and see if that external source will help them calm down. So it’s not you putting your baby to sleep but something else that is soothing them. You’re going to stay there for 30 to 60 seconds.

* If it’s not helping your baby’s still crying then you’re gonna put your hand on your baby and you’re just going to keep it there for 30 to 60 seconds

Start rocking back and forth, rubbing on the belly. If they’re rolling over independently and they roll to their back is when you can do back tapping, anything that is just giving your baby some motion and movement. And while you’re doing this part of the ladder, anything that you’ve done before that you can continue to do.

* if that doesn’t work, we’re jumping up the next rung of the ladder

This is when you pick your baby up. Now, practicing this with you only hold your baby until they stop crying, and then you put them back down and go to the bottom of the ladder again.

Now, the very last rung of the ladder is absolutely nothing else worked, and it is time for a feeding. Obviously, feed your baby. This is something that you should talk to your child’s pediatrician about. Do they still need a feeding? Should you be feeding throughout the night?

So you’re probably wondering how this is going to work to help your baby fall asleep independently if you’re constantly picking up and putting down and rubbing bellies and shushing and putting pacifiers in and doing all these things on the ladder all night long. But what you need to continue doing is making progress towards more amounts of time in between starting the soothing ladder.

If you need help with any of this, I would love to help you one-on-one, set up a free evaluation call with me. Let’s hop on a call and talk about which sleep consultation package is best for your family for more sleep training advice. Free Intro Call for 1:1 Consultation: https://www.slumberandbloom.com/free-evaluation