The coach, who spent the first night at Moles’ home, told Moles to walk into the room every 10 minutes or so, say, “I’m here, it’s OK,” and then leave until the baby settled. But Allegra never settled. Instead, she cried “for hours and hours until she vomited all over herself”.

Although Allegra eventually fell asleep from exhaustion, Moles, an account director from Sydney, said the whole experience left her feeling “so upset”. She tried to continue the consultant’s technique for a few nights but after Allegra persisted with screaming for hours, Moles decided it was enough.

The coach, who charged $1500 for the stay and up to two weeks of phone consultations, replied: “This works with every child I’ve worked with. I don’t know what to say about her.”

Moles thinks the stress of the experience made their problems worse. “It made [Allegra] more anxious about going to sleep,” she says. “It was probably my fault for not asking the right questions, but I was desperate.”

Gradisar says the effects of chronic sleep deprivation, which can be felt for up to six years after giving birth, can be serious.

“What happens over that first six months usually is that [babies] are learning and their biology is developing and it is at odds with parents and their sleep needs. Sleep deprivation is not a rite of passage, it’s actually a risk factor for depression, which is much harder to treat.”

For this reason, Gradisar said he bases the need to treat sleep problems in babies on how the parents are coping. He adds that it ought be the right of parents to have access to quality support.

“We have got to be able to help the parents and teach them skills to be able to help the infant sleep so that then the parent can sleep,” he says.

While he and Richardson say sleep training should be embedded into the curriculum for health professionals, they suggest parents do their research. As a rule, qualified sleep experts are often affiliated with a university, hospital or government-funded service like Tresillian.

“You want to look at their qualifications to ensure they have registration with a health body,” he suggested, adding it is worth asking “two basic questions”: how much experience they have with this particular issue, and their success rate.

Although every family has individual needs, Richardson promises parents there is effective help out there if they are struggling.

“Sleep is the third pillar of health,” she said. “People realise the importance of diet and exercise, but sleep is just as important and you need all of the three pillars of health to be equally focused on to optimise wellbeing.”

PANDA National Helpline (Mon to Fri, 9am - 7.30pm AEST/AEDT) 1300 726 306

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