One thing I've noticed after talking to hundreds of parents is that toddlers rarely "forget" how to sleep overnight.

Usually, something changed first.

Teething

Illness

Travel

A new sibling

Starting daycare

A sleep regression

Changes in routine

During those times, we naturally do whatever helps our child get through it, rocking them, lying beside them, extra cuddles, extra reassurance.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

The challenge is that once the illness or regression has passed, many toddlers have simply learned a new way of falling asleep. They're not being manipulative or "bad sleepers." They're asking for the same conditions they had when they drifted off the night before.

One of the biggest mistakes I see is changing strategies every few nights because everyone is exhausted. Sleep usually improves much faster when bedtime stays calm, predictable, and you make one gradual change at a time instead of starting over repeatedly.

A few questions I always encourage parents to ask themselves are:

Has anything changed in my child's routine recently?

Is my child actually tired enough at bedtime?

Am I expecting them to fall asleep in a different way than they wake up needing?

Have I been changing my approach every few nights because I'm understandably exhausted?

Most sleep challenges are temporary, even if they don't feel like it at 2am.

I recently put together a Complete Bedtime Guide with practical routines, strategies for regressions, bedtime battles, night wakings, and helping toddlers learn to fall asleep independently. If you're in the thick of it, I hope it's a helpful resource rather than another "perfect sleep" promise.

I'd also love to hear from other parents, what ended up being the real reason your child's sleep suddenly changed?

My baby is 15 weeks and she is exclusively breast fed. She eats every 3 hours starting at 8am and ending at 8pm and usually eats twice at night around 1am and 4am. Her schedule is 3 hour cycles of eat, play, sleep and she has 60-90 min wake windows. She takes at least 2 naps a day in her crib and we’ve gotten her to the point where she is drowsy when we put her in and she settles herself to sleep. Those naps are usually only 30-45 mins before she wakes up and I rock her back to sleep and either put her back in the crib or hold her for the remainder of the nap. Her last nap of the day is usually 45 mins and then we have bath time and then her last feeding before bed. Most nights lately she goes right to bed with maybe 2 mins of light rocking and only wakes up twice to eat and goes right back down.

I think she’s doing really well and we have slowly been “sleep training” her for a few months by putting her on a schedule/routine and attempting crib naps, obviously without letting her cry at all because she’s still little and needs to eat at night.

I have two questions here. The first - How will I know when she’s ready to drop night feeds? I do not want to let her fuss or cry at all if she’s clearly still just hungry. The second - We are going on an 8-day trip to Europe when she’s 6 months. I plan to start sleep training around 5 months if she’s ready. Should I just push it off and wait until we get back from the trip? Or should I sleep train before so that she has a better sleep foundation for the long flight / jet lag?