Six questions you should you ask a sleep consultant before hiring them.

You’ve read every blog, followed every sleep consultant on social media, and posted your sleep question on a handful of moms’ Facebook groups, but no matter what you try, your child still isn’t sleeping. You know that it’s time: you need to hire a sleep consultant (see “Is it worth it to hire a sleep consultant?”). However, with so many options these days, how do you choose who will be the best fit for you?

Most sleep consulting companies offer a free “discovery call” or “evaluation call” to start things off. The consultant will most likely not give any sleep advice in this call, but they will hear about your situation and recommend what package or option is best for you to purchase. Here at My Sweet Sleeper, we offer a free 15-20 minute discovery call where a sleep consultant will contact you at your chosen time. She will ask questions about your situation and your goals, suggesting the best resource for you based on your child’s sleep troubles. She will also answer your questions about our process. 

What kind of questions should you ask in order to help you make your decision? Here’s some suggestions:

Will you give me advice different from what is already on your blog and social media?

This was the best question that a potential client ever asked me. I just thought it was so practical, and, honestly, something that I would have asked, too! If you’ve been scouring the internet for baby sleep tips for week after week, you already know all the basics. You know to use a white noise machine, you know to follow awake windows, etc. You want to know that the money you spend on a consultant will give you different advice than what you can get for free from blogs and Instagram posts. When you contact a sleep consultant that you potentially want to work with, I definitely recommend that you ask this question! 

As a sleep consultant for My Sweet Sleeper, what’s my answer to this question? My answer is YES! Working one-on-one with a consultant will definitely help you much more than free advice on the internet or in books. Generic sleep advice helps with a lot, but it definitely doesn’t help with everything. Blogs don’t know what’s wrong with your child’s sleep environment. Facebook posts don’t know what’s off with your child’s schedule. Instagram reels don’t know how your child’s nutrition is. However, when you work one-on-one with a sleep consultant who digs deeper to know all the areas that might be affecting your child’s sleep, that’s when you can find the answers, experience, and accountability to be on your way to healthier sleep for your little one!

What is your take on cry-it-out vs. gentle methods? On co-sleeping? On night weaning?

If these are important issues to you, you need to ask right from the beginning how your potential sleep consultant will respond to those issues. It can be very helpful to say upfront what your comfort and passion levels are on these issues, and see how the consultant responds. At My Sweet Sleeper, we are flexible in working with you according to your comfort level. If you want to do a cry-it-out method, we can help you modify it in a safe and gentle way. If you want a no-tears method, we can support you through that as well! 

However, because we followed the AAP’s safe sleep practices, we cannot encourage bed-sharing (which you will find is true of most sleep consultants). We frequently help parents get their children out of bed-sharing, and we would be more than happy to do that with you as well, but we cannot work with parents who plan to continue bed-sharing throughout our time together. 

Which of your packages is honestly best for my situation?

This is the whole purpose of the discovery/evaluation call! After finding out about your situation, the consultant will recommend what package is best for you. However, this is where the key word “honestly” comes in. If the consultant recommends you book one of their most expensive packages, ask why. Often there are very valid reasons for recommending you book something like a month-long package (the child’s sleep problems have been going on for a long time, there are multiple issues happening, etc), but you want to make sure that the consultant has legitimate reasons for recommending this for you, rather than it sounding like something they recommend for everyone. 

Will all our sleep issues be solved at the end of our time together?

A sleep consultant should never promise that your goals will be reached completely by the end of a week. A month, maybe, but never in a week. I always tell my potential clients that a week together will give you great sleep foundations and the tips you need to continue on your own. You will see good progress throughout the week, but you most likely will not be 100% where you want to be by the end of the week. If a consultant makes a promise that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

What happens if your advice does not work?

This is a great question to ask your potential sleep consultant to see how they respond. Do they ignore the question and promise that things will work? Do they say they will offer a refund if needed? Here are My Sweet Sleeper, we know that things don’t always work out completely the way we want them to (see #4 above). However, we are confident that we will give you the right foundations to continue implementing them on your own after our time together ends. Even if our tips and tricks “didn’t work” during our week or so together, with consistency, they will!

What happens after our time together is over? 

This is a great question to ask any potential sleep consultant that you may want to work with! Your money is not just going to the hour or week or month that you book with them, but can potentially be contributing to help after your assigned time together. At My Sweet Sleeper, we end all weekly and monthly packages with a PDF sleep plan that goes over all the implemented recommendations, the progress made, things to continue, and things to work on for the future. If you have follow-up questions, you are welcome to email them back to your consultant. We also have a private sleep group on Facebook that you can be added to after you complete a package with us, and in that group you are welcome to ask questions to our consultants as your child continues to get older and encounters new issues. 

Our goal is to support you and guide you along this beautiful journey.  Feel free to contact us for guidance or try our nap training guide that will walk you through the exact process of shifting your child’s naps! You may also want to look into our newborn sleep course or 4-12 month sleep course.

Related:

Follow these steps to get your child sleeping on a schedule

How to establish healthy habits for your newborn

Here’s what you need to know about sleep regressions

Five signs your child is ready to drop a nap