Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Baby Sleep Solution: A Proven Program to Teach Your Baby to Sleep Twelve Hours aNight

Rate this book
Suzy Giordano, affectionately known as "The Baby Coach," shares her highly effective sleep-training method in this step-by-step guide to let both baby and parent enjoy long, peaceful nights. Full of common sense and specific tips, the Baby Coach's plan offers time- and family-tested techniques to help any baby up to the age of 18 months who has trouble sleeping through the night. Originally developed for newborn multiples, this sleep-training method worked so well with twins and triplets that families with singletons and older babies began asking Suzy to share her recipe for success, resulting regular feeding times; 12 hours' sleep at night; three hours' sleep during the day; peace of mind for parent and baby; and less strain on parents-and their marriage. This edition includes a new chapter on implementing the program with babies up to 18 months.

127 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 5, 2006

574 people are currently reading
367 people want to read

About the author

Suzy Giordano

7 books7 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
479 (38%)
4 stars
333 (26%)
3 stars
268 (21%)
2 stars
123 (9%)
1 star
51 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
Profile Image for Kyle Pennekamp.
285 reviews10 followers
May 4, 2013
At this stage, for a parent of a 16-month-old... worthless. Simplistic. Either this author has never had a kid, or was a real asshole to their own.
Profile Image for Phil J.
789 reviews64 followers
April 7, 2014
At first, I read this book as a piece of awkward, foolish, unintentional comedy. I read the really bad parts out loud to my wife and sarcastically suggested that we try them. Then, I looked at the Amazon reviews and discovered that people had actually harmed their children by using Giordano's terrible, terrible ideas. It's not so funny, now.

Suffice it to say that your natural instincts are correct and that you can trust your baby's body to cue you to their needs much more than you can trust this book. If you want some useful advice for infant sleep, I strongly recommend The Happiest Baby on the Block.

At one point in this book, Giordano suggests that "if you choose to feed your baby from your breasts," then you should halt each nursing session after a specific number of minutes. WHAT? Are you going to accept breast feeding advice from a person who is too uncomfortable to use the actual term "breast feeding?" ARE YOU? I hope not. Any nursing mother who attempts to use the strategies in this book will be switching to formula in a matter of days. You are better off checking out a good nursing book, like The Nursing Mother's Companion or The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.
Profile Image for Monece.
15 reviews
September 10, 2011
3rd baby and 3rd method of sleep training. This one felt the most natural and kind to us both. Plus, in my sleep deprived state I easily read the book in an hour and implemented it within a few days. Brilliant. She was not lying that night 2 or 3 is the worst so buckle down for a long one and to always remember to NOT TAKE STEPS BACK.
1 review
July 16, 2021
The sleep training book worked like a charm, baby was sleeping through the night by 10 weeks. He was doing the 4 feeds at 30 minute blocks during the day. At his 4 month check up the baby has almost fallen off the growth curve! Both lactation consultant and pediatricians said it was due to caloric restrictions placed on the baby too early. When I reached out to the author's team for advice had no straight answer other than "feed the baby more if you're concerned" Just shocked that this author said it was safe to feed the baby like this and now I am paying for price for it. Be warned
341 reviews1 follower
May 4, 2021
Literally fml.
Profile Image for Genevieve.
482 reviews14 followers
June 1, 2022
Women that breastfeed exclusively, this book is NOT for you. The author isn't forthcoming about this fact, she seems to not know it. Her system will only work properly for babies that are bottle fed.

Here’s a quick rundown of the sleep solution:
Baby must be 9 pounds, 4 weeks old, and drinking 24 ounces of milk in 24 hours in order to start the program.
Age requirement for twins is 8 weeks old and triplets is 12 weeks. The rest is the same.
Start by extending daytime feedings to 4 hours apart. Goal is only 4 feedings per day during daylight hours. Then slowly get rid of all feedings at night for 12 hours. Next work on baby sleeping 12 hours at night or resting quietly. Next goal, a 1 hour nap or rest in crib in the morning and same for 2 hours in the afternoon. Lots of data tracking is required- time fed and ounces taken.

Doing this program while exclusively breastfeeding (no bottle) will malnourish your baby and decrease your milk supply. How is a woman who is exclusively breastfeeding supposed to know how many ounces her baby is drinking in 24 hours?
Unless you are a rare woman that has 6-8 ounce milk storage capacity in your breasts by week 4 postpartum, gauges on your breasts that tell you how much baby has taken, and a baby strong enough with a big enough stomach to suck down that much milk in one nursing session, it’s not going to work. You may as well look for a unicorn. Limiting nursing sessions cues a woman’s body to slow down milk production. It’s a signal that the baby is weaning. One reviewer wrote her baby stopped growing when she faithfully stuck to this program while breastfeeding.

Babies will naturally sleep longer at night given enough time to grow and develop. Probably not 12 hours at 12 weeks old, because we weren’t designed that way. Human milk doesn’t have enough protein and fat to keep a baby satisfied for long periods of time. (And what in the world does formula have in it??)
Read Breastfeeding Made Simple and learn how breastfeeding works. Our culture has really messed up the natural rhythms babies and mothers have with breastfeeding.

The author thinks by simply using a timer one can predictably increase and decrease how much baby is drinking from the breast. Nope. Human breasts are not bottles…they don’t work that way. Muscles in the breast squeeze to literally squirt milk out and this doesn’t always happen right away or with regularity. Plus, a baby doesn’t always suckle at the same rate. The author doesn’t know how breastfeeding works. If one is bottle feeding, it’s easy to stick the nipple in baby’s mouth and take the time to ensure she finishes it off to hit an ounces goal. Have you ever tried to give your breast to a baby that doesn’t want it? You can’t jam it in like a bottle. It’s flesh- it’s floppy with no structure and baby has to take a big bite. It’s an active process for baby, not passive like a bottle feed.

The author also doesn’t know about current SIDS safety recommendations or ignores them. She recommends babies sleep on their stomachs. Babies that use pacifiers while sleeping also decrease their risk for SIDS and the author doesn’t approve of using a pacifier during sleep. She only wants it used to distract baby to extend time between feedings.

She recommends adding rice cereal to the bottle before bed to extend sleep time. This is outdated advice. We know now that the reason this works is infants can’t digest rice at that young age. It’s like an adult eating grass. It’ll keep your stomach feeling full and satisfied, but get too much and you’ll have gut trouble. At least she warns parents not to add too much rice in order to avoid that.

My sister bottle fed breast milk to her daughter and loved this program. Her friend, who had twins, bottle fed with formula and loved this program.

Around 75% of babies in America are fed with formula. Only 25% are breastfed. That explains to me why there are so many glowing reviews of this book. It works for a majority of women.
Profile Image for Sasha.
10 reviews1 follower
February 27, 2023
Absolutely heart wrenching.

The author is not a medical expert of any kind. Just an over exhausted mom who resented her infant and was expected by her husband to continue to make meals entirely from scratch for the whole family while early postpartum.

A baby cannot and should not be thrown onto a strict schedule, especially one that limits their food intake when they are at their most important developmental period for needing to grow. The schedules this book lays out are completely insane.

Mamas if you are reading this review and desperately looking for sleep with your baby, I feel you. Those first few weeks especially are all about survival. The nights are long and the days are short. I wish more people would have been honest with me that you just will not get sleep, it’s the most exhausted you’ll ever be in your life. But it’s because your baby is tiny and needs to eat very, very frequently to grow adequately. This is temporary I promise.

Don’t try to sleep train your tiny baby. If they stop crying because you’re ignoring them they won’t self soothe, they will just realize no one is coming and struggle with attachment issues and lack trust in you as a result. When your baby is developmentally ready, you will naturally feel comfortable letting them wait a little bit before you tend to them when they cry at night, especially when you know they are fed and diapered and are truly okay. This happens instinctively and gradually and certainly not as early as this book recommends. I looked at all the sleep resources when our baby was a newborn and came to the conclusion that it’s all just people trying to make money off you in your time of desperation. You will sleep again.

Don’t read this book, it’s advice is literal child abuse written by a woman who was at her wits end and desperately needed better support in her life.
Profile Image for Kirsten Weaks.
155 reviews1 follower
April 3, 2024
My pediatrician recommended this to me and I’ll just say I don’t really think this fits with my vibe of parenting. The only things I’m taking out of this are not new or novel concepts like trying to get all their calories in during the day to help them sleep at night. I’m not going to mess with my baby’s developing attachment that will affect her whole life by ignoring her cues in order to get more sleep at night.
Profile Image for Rebecca Svetina.
3 reviews2 followers
October 7, 2016
It was a quick read, which is needed when you're a new mom. I've reread sections depending on how old my baby is. He's currently 9 weeks, and we're still following the book as outlined. I'm still skeptical as to if he'll sleep through the night by 12 weeks, but time will tell. If anything, it's nice now to predict his eating schedule, and be able to make daily plans again.
Profile Image for Lilly.
487 reviews161 followers
June 13, 2018
The final rating will reveal itself after putting it to use, but this book gets points for being 1) to the point (no one has time for your 400 page tome on sleep, people) and 2) giving a plan to put to action after Bringing up Bébé tempted me with the vague idea of having a child that actually sleeps. It's a quick, non-preachy read.
Profile Image for Heather.
599 reviews35 followers
April 25, 2019
I'm skeptical of the healthiness of this plan for such young infants as it is suggested for. Otherwise, the book's brevity is nice, though it makes things sound simpler than they probably really are. Also, the plan is not breast feeding friendly, despite the author's assurances to the contrary. By the end, it felt a bit too much like an advertisement to hire her for her personal baby coaching expertise. Not quite what I was looking for, though I fundamentally agree with the premise that a baby should join a family and fit into it rather than the family bending to fit the baby's every natural tendency.
Profile Image for Olya.
572 reviews3 followers
March 26, 2019
Sort of like her approach to weaning off night time feeding and generally extending time between meals. The rest of it is a bit weird and dogmatic. 2 naps a day for 3 months olds? Yeah right. Also, who wants to sleep 12h? and who thinks sleeping for 12h straight is either natural or good for anyone?
Profile Image for Lisa Ann.
264 reviews5 followers
Read
March 28, 2021
I’ll rate this when my baby is asleep 12 hours :)

However, I love Suzy’s approach and positive parenting tips. We are definitely going to try this and if Suzy lived in Hong Kong I would hire her. :)
Profile Image for Savannah Knight.
135 reviews6 followers
July 7, 2024
Doesn’t follow current SIDS guidelines and not for mothers exclusively breastfeeding
Otherwise getting some ideas of how to extend sleep but not planning on using all of the ideas in it for sure
Profile Image for Stephanie.
332 reviews
December 12, 2009
This theory is basically: Stick to a STRICT schedule; feed baby 4x a day, four hours apart, for 30 minutes each; two naps: one in the morning, one in the afternoon; put them to bed awake, leave the room. Go in if they are still crying after 3 mins, help them settle again, do it over again. Don't pick them up, don't feed them. She says it will take 3 days for new babies, and 7 for older babies and they will be sleeping 12 hours a night. I am not sure about feeding a baby (especially an infant) only 4x a day. It seems to me that if they are hungry, you should feed them, not make them wait. Also, the schedule seems super strict. I think a schedule is good for any body, but it should have a little wiggle room...especially while I am going to school. Maybe I just want the easy way out, but I guess anything you want takes a lot of work right? She also has a section about vacationing, sickness, and other circumstances and how to deal with them. I found that section very helpful. Despite all the negative things I just said, I think out of all the methods that I have read so far, this one seems like the one I roll with the best. We will see how Heather rolls. :)
Profile Image for Mallory.
250 reviews15 followers
June 28, 2014
It worked! What more can I really say? The take home points of this book for me were to get down baby's eating schedule first - 4 feedings a day, and slowly cut out any night time feedings. Once that is done, focus on getting baby down to two naps a day - 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. The next step is the most difficult - putting baby to sleep when he is drowsy but still awake, and helping him to learn to put himself to sleep. It took us a solid month of baby crying and getting very upset, and me reminding myself that I'm really not doing him any favours by going in his room and rocking him to sleep - or even worse allowing him to stay up all hours of the night. A well rested baby is a happy baby after all. It was literally one month from start to finish, it was hell sure but now it is so amazing! I love how even his baby sitter can put him to bed with no problem, and he is much better off for it too.
Profile Image for Erika.
68 reviews
July 12, 2016
The premise seems easy enough. I just feel like some babies will do things when they are ready, not when they are trained and especially not at such a young age. Going to give it a go, since this is the second book I've read that has suggested spacing out day time feedings to four hours in between each one.
Profile Image for Beth.
42 reviews
April 30, 2009
By following this book, our baby was sleeping through the night at 2 months old. I would highly suggest this to new (or expecting) parents. It is a life-saver when you are sleep- deprived and desperate.
Profile Image for Emily Liebert.
Author 13 books986 followers
January 7, 2013
I have gifted this to every new mom I know. It has never failed. Possibly the best book I've ever read because it had my kids sleeping 12hrs through the night by 8 weeks old. And they've never looked back. Date I say it's as important as the crib!?
25 reviews
September 4, 2015
This book seemed great until I experienced the joy and physiological rightness of bed sharing. It feels so right!
Profile Image for Misaki Acuna.
90 reviews2 followers
September 9, 2023
This book is on the extreme side. While I don’t think I will follow it to a tee here are the basic idea.

1. Feeding during the day - every four hours four times a day for twelve hours
2. Feeding during the night - gradually eliminate all night feedings for twelve hours by lengthening the time between feedings and reducing food at each night feeding.
3. Spring during the night - sleeping or resting quietly in crib for twelve hours
4. Sleeping during the day - spring for resting quietly in crib for about hour in the morning about two his in the afternoon

- Try to follow the schedule as much as you can by waking the baby up or making them wait if they woke up sooner than the schedule
- Do not go backward! if the baby progresses, make sure you keep that time going forward and do not let him go backwards. For example if the baby was able to wait for 4 hours one night, the next night and going forward he should at least wait for 4 hours. If he wakes up before that try to district him until the 4 hour mark.
- feed more during the day for less night time eating
- let the baby cry for three to five minutes before going into the nursery. And if baby calms down at any point during the editing period, start the timer again. If baby is still crying start five minutes, go into the nursery and reassure baby from the diver of the crib without picking him up.

I say this seems extreme because not all the babies are the same and I think the plan needs to be gradually changing with babies age. But the basic principal makes sense to me. I all working on finding out his day time feeding schedule but trying to feed him a full meal every time and starting the day at the same time every day. He is always starting the lengthen the time between night feedings by himself and I would like to follow his lead. I’d rather him not cry and I want to go more gentle with the whole plan. But thankful for this book to give me insights.
101 reviews
July 19, 2018
This seemed too good to be true, because it is. The plan really only seems feasible with formula feeding and even then, it’s pretty intense for such a small baby. I cannot get my baby to eat 6 ounces in one sitting. Also the author wants to let them cry too much for my liking. They are tiny babies. Her method probably works for formula fed babies if you follow all her steps. But I cannot emotionally do it. Also she loses a lot of points for suggesting things that are harmful. Examples: adding rice cereal to formula/breast milk. This is not recommended and has been linked in scientific studies to allergies, obesity and diabetes later in life. She also suggested putting baby on stomach, which yes will probably help them sleep, but also increases risk for SIDS, as does adding a loose blanket or toy as she also suggests. Also she wants you to have baby alone in crib in own room starting day 1-also not recommended.With breastfeeding if you follow this plan it would be very hard to keep your supply up enough, or you would at least wake up in the morning with painful rocks on your chest. Also difficult to get a daycare center to space feeding out every 4 hours. Overall the theory should work, but personally not practical for me. Some good tips I will implement , don’t get too dependent on one soothing method, try put baby down awake, try to spread out daytime feeds to avoid snacking and prepare to sleep longer at night and don’t always assume baby is hungry when she fusses.
Profile Image for Kalisha Grimsman.
118 reviews1 follower
January 20, 2018
I read this book looking for some new sleep training ideas and was excited about the idea of having your children sleep through the night at 12 weeks. As someone who was successful at getting young twins to sleep well with other methods I will definitely not be implementing this method and do not think that it is right for us and our family.

Mostly I think that it is not based off of age-appropriate expectations. Having babies eat only every 4 hours in the day and reducing their night feeds so early is just not reasonable at this age. I think it can happen, naturally, when kids are ready for it much closer to the Babywise timeline. Also, I definitely do not recommend the nap schedule laid out. Babies this young need at least 3 naps, probably 4 every day, not 2. Additionally, I did not feel like it laid out any nuanced information about how to establish a bedtime/naptime routine or effective methods to comfort baby when they're crying. I'm glad this program worked for some people but I would not recommend it.
Profile Image for Kim.
83 reviews
October 10, 2019
Well I just finished the book but I'm starting with 3 stars because I haven't implemented her program yet. So far my opinion is that it seems straight forward and easy to follow. Explanations are clear and the examples help. I was able to read the book in two nights, after bubs went to sleep.

For those giving just 1 star because of her once or twice mentions of "SIDS safe crib toys" (I don't even know what that would be), or her preference for formula... Chill. Take it for what it is worth... A guide to help baby sleep. I'm going to try it but use something other than a crib toy in my night time toolbox, how's that? And her explanation for those breastfeeding made sense toe. Again.. it's just a guide. Use what works for you, your baby, and your family.. which is her whole point made in the Introduction.
Profile Image for Sarah G.
59 reviews
May 1, 2019
The good part is that this book is short and to the point. There are good tips in here, like what to do when baby wakes up, but pretty much all stuff I've read elsewhere, nothing revolutionary. The main difference in her technique is to feed baby 4x per day. I am totally not comfortable forcing my baby to eat more than she wants naturally in order to feed her only 4 times. It will just end up with her throwing it all up. And some days she eats more than other days, and why is that bad? I do the same thing. I also didn't really like the mentality of the baby conforming to the family's schedule rather than the other way around. I'm totally for the family having other things going on besides taking care of the baby, but when you have a baby, you have to be prepared for your life to change!
79 reviews11 followers
July 31, 2017
Great information that makes a lot of sense. I have been researching sleep training from the get-go in prep for baby #4 to hopefully preserve my sanity as a mom. Having gone through trial and error with 3 other kids with some success, I really like what she has to say. She reinforced some of my own ideas about sleep training while giving me a more structured approach to how to implement it for a young infant. I can see how it would be super helpful for parents of twins or multiples! It was a fast read and easy to understand and skim through if needed.
Profile Image for Jenn.
438 reviews
September 26, 2019
I read this book because a few friends of mine used this method with their babies successfully. However, those babies were formula fed. After reading the book, I determined that this exact plan wouldn’t work with my baby because I wasn’t willing to change the way we feed - the author suggests using bottles exclusively for weeks 6-12. I chose to rate the book a 3 because it did work for others and I did take some useful tips from the book and it inspired me to start a more routine daytime feeding schedule.
Profile Image for Naomi Noorda.
123 reviews
June 12, 2024
I really valued the simple readability of this book, making it accessible to sleep deprived new parents.
My husband and I read this in preparation for our baby who will be born in a few months. It brought hope to future parents who worried they would never sleep again.
As someone who has studied attachment a lot I do wonder how this sleep training method could interact with an infant’s developing attachment. But also, having a well rested baby and parents facilitates familial bonding. I plan to read it again when I’m actually in the newborn fog.
21 reviews3 followers
June 21, 2017
There were some things I found helpful in this book, but overall I didn't like the plan. My twin girls love to snuggle with me and I don't want to stop that yet. Some babies do better with cuddling and some want to just be set down to sleep. Also, you can't force a breastfed baby into eating only 4 times a day at such a young age. You shouldn't put cereal in a bottle either or give infants lovies yet!
Profile Image for Gennifer Dionisio.
14 reviews
November 12, 2019
A must read for soon to be parents

I have read several books claiming to be in between the cry-it-out and no cry method. This is the ONLY one that is truly in between. It’s a quick read with an easy to follow plan. The author even gives you charts to use. I only wish the “toolboxes” she mentions in the books were larger and that there was a little more detail on modifications used when it came to the extreme circumstances chapter.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.