Batelle Sleep SchoolReviews of batelle.com

To set the scene, the 4 month regression and emergence of 4 teeth happened simultaneously. Sleep continued to regress until 6 months when we moved to a vastly different time zone so we added in jetlag to the mix and wake ups were happening every 1.5 hours during the night with no end in sight despite careful scheduling, sleep hygiene and watching of wake windows. 😭 I had considered a lot of sleep schools, but nothing felt right. I’m a firm believer in responsive parenting and could never leave my LO alone to CIO. Enter Batelle. We were both so hesitant, but decided to approach it with an open mind. I LOVE that everything is designed to support your baby. From the mantras, to the physical touch, the light, the games, check ins etc. Sure, it’s a change of approach that your baby will need time to adjust to. But you are there with them every step of the way. The slow phasing out of the room is so cleverly designed, and I love that you can drop back a step or two to support your baby as required at different time (sickness/ teething etc.) overall it gives you a really actionable methodology for approaching your child’s sleep for the next x amount of years. The 24/7 support is an absolute game changer. Having the team on the camera during some of the more difficult stages made life so much easier. Our LO unfortunately came down with a virus when we were on step 8, but the Batelle team ensured that we could join the next cohort commencing the week after so that we didn’t miss the two final steps. I give Batelle 10 stars. But you have to commit and put in the work. Play the games… do the priming.. think from your child’s perspective about what will help them and make them comfortable. The Batelle program is written to help you support and love your child every step of the way, but it’s up to you to do the work to make it a comfortable and loving experience for them. Love, Alicia

We had a horrible experience when we attempted to sleep train by then 8 month old. It was very traumatizing on me and baby because surprisingly there was ALOT of crying for 2 months. Even though it’s marketed as “gentle” I feel it’s a little misleading because proximity for some babies is harder on them. They don’t understand why you are just sitting there saying a mantra over and over while they are screaming crying and you can’t pick them up. There was a guarantee where they’d fall asleep within 5 mins after 2 weeks which is a huge false promise. After 2 months we still struggled and it was not at all what I imagined. The other part that was hard was using their product “The Hug”. It’s a sleep sack attached to the mattress so baby has limited mobility from standing up. I was told by Emily on our first call that the hug was optional but the entire program is built around using it and you’d be the odd one out if you didn’t. Plus they have to take the mattress out and leave it on the floor for part of the training so you need The Hug to keep baby from crawling away. She hated it though. After sending several emails out of exhaustion and frustration to the team, they arranged a call with me and Miss Megan. She was very defensive on the phone and assumed I was doing something wrong even though I never missed a zoom call and studied the material because it was important to me to have this be a success for our family. The rest of the team was pleasant to work with! I did feel they genuinely cared which is why I’m giving it 2 stars. I just don’t believe the program should make such promises and call it gentle when there is so much crying. I didn’t anticipate that. Around 10 months we sleep trained again with another program and it was a success with A LOT less crying. Hope this helps someone.

I started sleep school on 9th December. When I initially mentioned sleep school to my parents and in laws I got laughed at (literally). I was told that it’s normal for babies to wake up throughout the night, they’ll grow out of it, enjoy rocking him to sleep, one day you’ll miss it but I was too bloody exhausted, it had been 7 months and the max I’ve slept in one go is 3 hours. I started with reading reviews on trustpilot and Reddit and was VERY skeptical, especially my husband who doesn’t like spending more than he has to. Here’s my experience. First few days, I kept telling myself this will NEVER work, no chance, I’m going to be the exception. There’s a weird mantra that you have to play alllll night long, initially it felt quite uncomfortable but you’ll grow to enjoy it (seriously). My little one went from waking up 3-4 times a night to ZERO wakes up (he’s 7 months). I do wake him up once for a dream feed but he immediately falls asleep on his own. We went from rocking and walking him to sleep to putting him in bed (awake) and walking out the room (seriously, it’s not a joke). Batelle worked with us on organising his day naps, which helped with his night time. There’s finally some consistency (didn’t think this was possible. There were babies that were much much worse than our little one (for example they will only sleep when they’re fed or have a pacifier). Some people had to repeat the steps (there are 10 steps) until baby accepts that this the way forward. Batelle will literally stay with you until your baby sleeps without any support, self-soothes and stays/sleeps for 12 hours in bed. It is a little bit on the expensive side, it is veryyyy time consuming, but it was soooooo worth it. Luckily I was still on maternity leave and so had some time to spare. I would recommend maybe taking few days off (from day 5-10) work if possible but it’s still doable if you’re working. Finally, the staff are probably some of the nicest people you will ever meet/speak to. They’re available 24 hrs throughout sleep school (actually 24 hrs) and available afterwards in case your baby regresses or need additional support. Highly recommend.

After trying everything and reading anything I voted get my hands on about sleep, I assumed I would never have a full nights sleep ever again. I didn't feel like cry it out was helping my child learn coping skills. I am so happy a friend recommended Batelle. Everyone at Batelle was very supportive during every step of the way. The 24/7 support to get through the night made a HUGE difference. This process was exactly what my 18 month old needed to sleep independently.

Batelle is easily the best money I’ve spent and they have earned every penny. Do not be deterred by the price because the tools they send, along with all of the information and support, and the fact this program actually works, is valued far greater than what it costs! Can’t put a price on SLEEP. Background: My two year old has sensory processing disorder and eating problems. He had never been able to fall asleep independently. He would sleep in a crib at night (after the first year) with some regressions, but has co-slept with naps pretty much since birth. I’d have to hold him to sleep for an hour, then try to lay him in the crib and sneak out of the room. I thought for sure we'd fail this program and need our money back. Within a week of the Batelle program, I was out of the room and he was falling asleep independently. I was NOT expecting the program to make that much progress that quickly. Things are getting better with time and it has been life-changing. I don’t feel stress around bedtime and it has helped me become a calmer, happier mom. When my son got really sick several months after sleep school, we regressed a bit because he really needed additional support. I was in the room while he fell asleep and he had a harder time if he woke up in the night, but I never had to hold him to sleep again. As he recovered from back to back illnesses and he was more comfortable in his space again, Batelle was there for me with the resources I needed to get me 100% back out of the room again. Things to keep in mind: There may be tears and protesting - but you are responding to your child every time and it’s not abandonment. Your child will make the connection. It is a time commitment during the program. Be prepared, because it’s worth it. Understand that “bedtime in 5 minutes or less” means your part of bedtime (being in the room) can be five minutes or less. It doesn’t mean your child will fall asleep in 5 minutes. Do you?! I don’t! Your child will be comfortable enough in their sleep space to fall asleep independently in their own time - while you get to go about your evening. My son still sometimes takes 5-25 minutes to fall asleep, but he is content being alone during this time and it makes such a difference. DO THIS PROGRAM. Don’t delay.

This is a great sleep program and a good sleep method. The staff and miss Megan are awesome. Our son would only sleep if he was sleeping next to us in our bed and with this program we definitely saw improvement but unfortunately he’s not 100 percent there yet. Real quick: I did have several safety concerns that were eased by miss Megan and the team, they definitely reassured me that the hug is completely safe and that a lot of littles love being in the hug. We did feel like the program moved a little to quickly for our son. He was struggling in several of the middle steps and probably could have used and extra night or 2 on those steps that he was struggling with but we felt like we had to keep moving on with the next steps. The staff really is great, we did have an issue and they did everything they could to help.

Somewhat better sleep but unmet guarantees. Batelle has helped our daughter but of the three guarantees they give, two of them have not been met. The staff have been super helpful and supportive, and continue to be even after sleep school finished. We'd also add that when we made them aware of our dissatisfaction, they immediately offered us a refund, which we declined because we're still receiving their help and it didn't feel right. Why three stars you ask? Why not four or five stars? Because of the three guarantees, only one has been met. Why not one or two stars? Because we are using the method, we *have* made progress, and Batelle has been there to help us long after sleep school ended. We enrolled in sleep school and started around the beginning of October 2021. Our 6-month-old daughter was napping like a pro, but taking between one and three hours to put to bed every night, and would wake up two to six times per night. She did not have a feed-to-sleep association. We were drained every night after bedtime. The first four nights went pretty okay and as promised, after that things got tough. The Batelle method is *not* a cry-it-out method, but it's also not gentle. There's potentially a lot of crying, protesting, whining, etc., but as a parent you get to be there to help your child through it (this is the first guarantee, that it's not cry-it-out). But it's still very difficult. The staff were super supportive the entire way through though and even took A LOT of extra time to help us. Fast forward to the end of November. The Batelle method has helped a lot in that our daughter now takes less time to get to bed. Usually 10-20 minutes (the second guarantee, unmet, is that after two weeks, it will take five minutes max). However there's a lot of crying and protesting happening and while some nights are better than others, it's as emotionally draining as those 3-hour bedtimes would drain us physically. Our daughter can usually sleep pretty well for the first half of the night, but she still tends to wake up much earlier (one-to-two hours) than ideal and isn't capable of staying relaxed until her scheduled wake up time (this is the third guarantee, also unmet, that your child will sleep through the night, or wake up and be comfortable enough in their space to let you get the sleep you need). We've worked extensively with Batelle, including the CMO (Miss Megan), and adjusting her schedule has moved us further in the right direction but we still cannot declare victory. From what we've experienced, Batelle *does* work. We just happened to be one of those exceptional cases (it's unclear if we're 1-in-10, 1-in-100, 1-in-1,000,000, etc.). Would we recommend Batelle to friends? Honestly, if they would be as sleep deprived as we were, yes, totally. But we'd temper their expectations and let them know what to expect, because we don't think it's for everyone. The main reasons we'd recommend Batelle are: 1) The chance that any one child is the exceptional case for which the Batelle method doesn't work well seems to be very small. 2) The staff are super supportive and are always there for you during sleep school. 3) The educational experience you gain, not just from the workshops but from learning how your child reacts, is invaluable. 4) We would've easily paid twice the cost to get our daughter to sleep better and to get our sleep back. The main reasons we'd caution against jumping in head first: 1) If you can't deal with your child crying at all, Batelle will not work for you. This is not a gentle method, but you will NEVER let your child be in distress for even one moment without responding to them and supporting them. 2) There's always the chance that the method won't work, or work as well as promised, for you and/or your child. Again, we'll point out that when they become aware of our dissatisfaction, they simultaneously offered us a refund and offered more and continued help with Maya. We turned down the offer of a refund because we consider all the help they've been giving us very worth the cost. We're still working with them now (it's now about 2 months post sleep school) and Maya is progressing, but progress is the keyword, her sleep, and especially bedtime, are still a work in progress. Whatever your choice, we know you're reading this because you're having problems with your child's sleep, your sleep, and you need help. Good luck in whatever route you take.

We had such a wonderful experience with the Batelle team. If you've been struggling to get your little into a healthy sleep routine, do not hesitate to sign up for their program. I hated hearing our son cry at night, and was always quick to run in and "rescue" from the crib. Having a detailed plan of how to handle bedtime and middle of the night wake ups was such a relief. The program allows you and your co-parent to have a united approach.