Redditor Wants to Know: What Common Baby Advice Didn't Work for You?

Sleep is a finite resource, and arguably no one knows that better than a new parent. It starts with a newborn phase, the one that requires feedings every two hours. And then come the sleep regressions—and they just keep coming.

The internet is full of sleep influencers. For a pretty penny, you can even hire a specialist to help you sleep train your baby. And then there's the standard advice that they—and armchair baby experts like, you know, your mother-in-law—like to dole out.

The problem? These "genius" tips don't work for every kid, as one Redditor is learning.

"What's a common piece of advice that did not work for you/baby?" wrote u/Ok-Fee2446 in the Beyond the Bump subreddit.

The original poster (OP) got the ball rolling. People told them to "feed your baby more during the day so they'll sleep longer at night."

Unfortunately, this Redditor's little one has other ideas.

"Cut to my now 9-month-old, who TANKS all day, eats solids, and still wakes twice at night," the OP said.

Then, the Redditor asked others to chime in.

The top commenter had a lot of feelings.

"Basically, everything I ever read about sleep on the Internet. These sleep 'experts' are nothing but a bunch of grifters and con artists," the person said. "They tell you to stop doing what works, like…just put your baby down drowsy but awake. What—he's not sleeping? He's actually crying hysterically? Well, I guess you have to buy my course to find out what you're doing wrong."

To be fair, these tips do work for some parents, and some swear hiring a sleep consultant or taking a course was game-changing. If it worked for you, that's great. If it didn't? Remember that your child has a mind of their own.

Others took aim at another age-old cliché.

"Sleep when then baby sleeps," one user said. "She only naps in our arms. I don't want to fall asleep and drop her."

"My baby is five-weeks-old, and the advice to sleep when the baby sleeps seems near impossible during the day," concurred another.

And another parent got some morbid advice about a different kind of sleep.

"The dumbest piece of advice I've actually gotten was, 'You should consider putting your dog down before baby arrives,'" the person said.

Pardon? Dogs are family members, too.

Back to nighttime baby sleep, though. We won't tell you about swaddles, sleepsuits, white noise machines, or sleep-wake windows. You've probably heard it all before. Two pieces of advice, though:

• Work in shifts. If you have a partner or someone who can help, rotate who is up so at least one of you gets to sleep. Instead of switching off every two hours, consider taking shifts. Perhaps one of you takes the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift, and the other is on call from 2 to 6 a.m.
• Be nice to yourself. Just because that mom in your Facebook group has three kids who have been sleeping through the night since they were four-weeks-old doesn't mean you're doing something wrong if you're still struggling at nine months. Your child isn't a "bad baby," either. Certain things come easier to certain kids and parents.

Like everything else in parenting, take baby sleep advice with a grain of salt. Do the best you can, and know that you'll get a solid eight hours of sleep again one day. Eventually. Hopefully.