Is your little one having trouble sleeping through the night? Have you heard of hiring a sleep expert to help? If you live in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton or Winnipeg then I suggest you consider hiring a professional sleep consultant from Sleepdreams. Sleepdreams’ Registered Occupational Therapists are professional paediatric health care providers that have been trained and tested at the university level. All Sleepdreams consultants have a Masters’ Degree in Occupational Therapy, by hiring them you are getting the best you can for baby sleep training.
Occupational Therapists work in areas of sleep, feeding, sensory processing, toileting, fine and gross motor skills. They assess each child to ensure they are meeting their physical and cognitive (mental) milestones, all of which can be affected by poor sleep. A really big advantage when hiring a Registered Occupational Therapists is the fact that many extended health care plans recognize and cover the cost of our services. Check with your benefit provider to see if Occupational Therapy is covered under your plan, if you don’t have coverage OT services may be income tax deductible as recognized by Canada Revenue Agency.
Last year while I was expecting I connected with Jennifer Garden, Sleepdream’s founder. I reconnected again this year after my son’s birth. Sleep was never a problem with my first but we have really struggled with our second child. From the day he was born he was waking up five to six times a night, every night. He relied on a soother and breastfeeding to fall back to sleep and our whole family was sleep deprived for months and months.
Jennifer set us up with a Sleepdreams OT and she came over to our home for a full assessment. We were also provided with a series of questionnaires and screening information for her to get a full picture of our son’s sleep diary and profile. I appreciated the in-home visit and the time the OT took going through our questionnaire, asking questions and collecting as much data as possible. She also checked his sleeping environment and gave us some tips and ideas on what to do to help him sleep better.
Shortly after the OT’s visit we received a sleep assessment report summarizing our son’s profile, all the information the OT collected during our visit and our personalized plan with suggestions and recommendations. Following the plan was not an easy task for us and it took a few months to implement all the recommendations given, it was not a quick fix and the key was consistency and helping him figure out how to fall asleep on his own. No bouncing, rocking, nursing or soother use needed.
During the time we took to implement the plan we wrote e-mails back and forth and she provided suggestions and support while answering all of our questions. I must say that some of the final suggestions really worked for us. Once we fully implemented the plan everything started to click into place. It was not an easy process but it was worth it. For the first time since he was born Jasper has been sleeping from 7:00pm to 7:00am every night. It has been a week of great sleep and it is bliss! He sleeps in his own room, in his crib and he falls asleep on his own. We can all finally sleep uninterrupted at night!
I am grateful for the opportunity to work with our OT at Sleepdreams and Jennifer. We received the support we needed to help Jasper sleep better. Sleep is super important and working with trained professionals with ample experience was wonderful. If you are having difficulty helping your child sleep better I highly recommend Sleepdreams. Be sure to contact Jennifer and use your medical plan if OTs are covered. Trust me, sleeping better at night changes everything!
Disclosure: I received complementary services in exchange for an honest review. All views and opinions are 100% my own.
19 Comments on “Better Sleep For Our Family: Our Experience Working with an Occupational Therapist”
I had no idea those were cover under some health plans, good to know! Thanks for the post.
Yeah! I didn’t know that either until I met Jennifer!
My son works with an OT and a PT as he was born with low muscle tone and has texture issues and is a bit slow on his development but you would never know it by how active he is always keeps me on my toes lol
Thank you for sharing your story glad you and family can get goodnight sleep now
It must have been so hard on all of you to lose so much sleep because lack of sleep makes the daytime activities so difficult because of the sleep deprivation. I am so happy that you could find some one to help and , better still, that this help is covered by medical insurance.
Enjoy your night’s sleep. You really deserve it and so does the little one.
Sleep is so important to both parents and baby. It’s great to know that some of these services are covered by medical!
It is SO important!
I never thought of this. Our little one is almost two and has slept with me since his birth. We’ve put him to bed alone for the past few months. He wakes up screaming upset. He doesn’t like waking up alone.
It is definitively a transition Tami! Good Luck!
I have never heard of this before but if it works, wow
It is not an “easy fix” but it worked for us!
my daughter lives in Australia and her 2 yr old son hasn’t slept through a night yet. He wakes up several times and screams. She’s been to a Sleep Clinic 3 or 4 times now and she’s been told she’d doing everything right. Poor girl, she’s at her wits end.
It is so difficult, every child is different so whatever works for one may not work for the other. Good luck to her! Sending better sleep wishes!
Sleep is what new parents crave the most, what a great way to obtain some for all
I didn’t know this was available, thanks for the info.
I never knew OTs help with sleeping. It’s so good to know that.
This was a very helpful read,I have learned so much
My daughter is having a baby in March so this info is very timely for me and we are in Victoria. Thanks for the info!
Sleep is so important to parents to be able to take proper care of baby,and proper sleep pattern is also important for baby
I had no idea that it may be covered under some health plans,will tell my sister about this