hiya i went to an amazing conference about babies last week where we were told that research has shown that sleep training approaches don't actually make a difference in the long term - they often help for a week or four, but over longer periods babies revert to old - or form new - patterns i thought that was interesting they were also saying how very different babies' sleep patterns are from adults (like we don't know that) but that it is during sleep that baby's brains 'wire and fire' - ie process and lay down neural networks which become life long learning. thus it is advised not to interrupt a baby's natural sleep pattern - they sleep the way their physiological needs demand. also some really interesting new stuff coming out about problems associated with the fact that everyone now puts babies on their back to sleep, because of the reducation in cot death. apparently the reaons the babies don't experience cot death on their backs is cos sleeping on their backs is inherently stressful for babies and they never fall into as deep a sleep as they do in other positions, which means their brains don't form as they would otherwise.... golly, what is a mother to do?! the guy speaking was called Nils Bergman, he's a South African Dr and world -renowned neonatal 'expert; please google him if you want more info on that