Here's what each of 16 settling methods asks you to do at bedtime

What the guidance saysOne NHS trust's sleep page says feeding to sleep is normal in the first six months, and babies change it once they can settle themselves.1

From newborn to about 4 months · In the room yes · Who Harvey Karp, a paediatrician whose company sells the SNOO bassinet

Swaddling, holding your baby on their side or tummy in your arms, shushing, swinging in small movements and sucking. Each one copies something from the womb to calm a crying newborn.2 Lay your baby on their back to sleep.

What the studies foundMothers using Possums reported less crying, better sleep of their own and lower depression scores by 12 months. The study compared them with a group who joined later and was not randomised, so some of that change comes with the baby getting older.3

Where Possums and Snug differPossums rejects wake windows, tired signs and putting a baby down drowsy but awake.4 Snug times naps from wake windows.

From newborn to 5 years · In the room yes · Who Sarah Ockwell-Smith

The book sets out how babies sleep at each age, then offers gentle, no-tears changes for waking, night terrors and the sleep space. It uses no controlled crying.2728

What the studies foundNo trial has tested this book's plan. A small 2022 trial of a responsive method found sleep results close to controlled crying, with less stressed mams.5

On the listsIt appears on 9 of 17 recommended book lists, more than any other.630

From any age · In the room yes

You keep your usual way of getting your baby to sleep and do a little less of it each night, until they go into the cot awake. The Pantley Pull-Off works this way.30

In the room yes, at the cot · Who Tracy Hogg

Lay your baby in the cot, then shush and pat their back in a steady rhythm. Hogg kept patting for seven to ten minutes after the baby calmed, then slowed the pats and stopped the shush.29

What parents saySome Mumsnet parents found it prescriptive, and others preferred it to Gina Ford.732

From 6 months; the trial ran from 6 to 16 months · In the room your choice

You put your baby to bed later, by 15 minutes a night, so they're sleepy enough to drop off fast.31

What the studies foundIn a 2016 trial of 43 babies, bedtime fading cut the time to fall asleep as much as controlled crying did. Only controlled crying cut night wakings.8

Where you'll hear of itIt is the method Irish outlets cover most, and RTÉ had a presenter try it in 2020.9

What the studies foundCamping out was one of the methods in the Melbourne trial that found no harm at age six.10 The HSE suggests it for babies of six months and older.11

What the studies foundIn a 2002 trial, 53 of 76 babies' sleep problems cleared within two months, against 36 of 76 without it, and the mams' low mood lifted.12 A 2016 trial found fewer night wakings, a small fall in the babies' stress hormone, and no difference in attachment a year later.8 Children followed to age six showed no lasting effect, good or bad.10

What the studies foundA 2012 study of 25 babies in a five-day hospital programme found their stress hormone stayed raised on day three after they stopped crying. It had no control group and no reading from before the programme.13 A 2020 study of 178 babies found no link between being left to cry a few times in the early months and attachment or behaviour at 18 months.14 Other researchers disputed that finding in the same journal.15

Who Gina Ford, a former maternity nurse

Feeds, naps and bedtime run at set clock times from the first weeks, with each day split into slots.16 Ford suggests different amounts of crying at different ages.33

What parents sayMother&Baby says the book has divided parents since 1999. Some credit the timetable with getting them through the early months, and others say parts of it go against current thinking.16

The concernIn 1998 the American Academy of Pediatrics' newsletter linked the book's feeding schedule to poor weight gain, low milk supply and early weaning, and the Academy restated its advice to feed on cue.17 Bucknam took his name off Babywise in 2025.18