DR GOLLY: The 'foolproof' method for getting your kids to sleep in their own beds

Laura has been struggling with keeping her youngest, Lola in her own bed overnight. SO Britt has enlisted the help of paediatrician and father of 3 - Dr Golly, who reckons the 'Camp Out' Method could be the answer to Laura's dilemma.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, I have actually been dying for an update.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
You've been talking earlier in the week about how your
smallest daughter, Lola or I fondly call her Lola Derby.
You've been talking about her being an absolute nightmare in
your bed.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
No, nothing's changed. So Lola's four for anyone who's not familiar.
So at nighttime she gets into my bed every night.
We're at the point now where I say good night
to her and I'll be like, see you in the
morning's sweetheart, and I give your a little kiss, and
she goes na, mummy, see you soon, and she just
she gets up at midnight, wanders through the dark, climbs

(00:32):
into my bed and then she sleeps horizontally across it.
And to the point now where Matt gets out and
he goes and sleeps in.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
The spare room.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
It also sounds so calculated and evil, like see you soon,
Like she knows. She's like, I'm not gonna wait for
a nightmare or I'm not gonna wait to wake up.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm just gonna literally like I'll pretend to go to
sleep for ten minutes.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
And it's every single night clockwork. My child's body clock
is midnight mum's room.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well, you have been talking about this.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean you and I have been friends for a
very long time, and this has been an.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Issue from as long as I can remember.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
And recently I saw a pediatrician online.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
His name is doctor Gollye, and he was going pretty
viral for his sleep technique.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
He says he's a sleep expert for like unsettled babies
and really helping distraught families like yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
I'm not restraught, I'm just tired.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
So I've got him on the phone because I figure
doctor Gollie is going to be able to help you
where I can't.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Doctor Gollie, welcome to the pickup.

Speaker 5 (01:26):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Now you're going viral for this camp out method, can
you explain.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
What this is?

Speaker 5 (01:33):
It's really, to say, not a rip off the band
aid method. It's a slow way of getting kids to
sleep through the night in their own room. If the
issue is they have created a little bit of a
shall we say, unhealthy or unwarranted in Laura's case, attachment.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
To mum or dad or both, I mean feeling personally
victimized here unhealthy also, But okay, how does this work?

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Because we've tried.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
We've tried a few different things, and like, what do
you tried, Laura telling her to stay in her own bed.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Locking her in there the pad lot, She just finds.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
A way back.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
It doesn't matter where I am, because like, I'll move.
I don't always sleep in my own bed. Sometimes I
sleep in the spare room. She's just like I find you,
and she comes through the night and then I hear
a little footsteps down the hallway and there she is,
like a dementor, next to the bed in the dark.

Speaker 5 (02:20):
I think the really important thing to note is that
if it's not a problem for you, it's the problem.
You don't want this, But for all your listeners, if
it's not a problem, and if you kind of like it,
and there a lot of parents you say to me,
you know, this is such a short period of time
when the kids know they're young, and they're cute and
cuddly and their little koalas, and I really want that,
I love that. Then there's absolutely nothing I'm healthy about it.

(02:42):
It's not I don't want anyone to feel like they
have to make this change if they're really happy with
co sleeping or kids coming into your night in the
middle of the night. It's absolutely totally fine. It's healthy,
not an issue. But if you, Madie, want your own bed,
your own space without kids coming in the middle of
the night, it is definitely something you can fix.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, I would say when she was younger, because she
used to be a really good sleeper, and so when
she was younger, it didn't bother us, like we were
quite happy to have her climb in the bed and
she'd sleep between us. But now that she's older, she
just kind of motors around and so someone ends up
getting kicked in the back or kicked in the side.
But this method that you're speaking of, the camp out method,
I mean Bridge shown me a little bit about it,

(03:21):
and I have my questions because I'm not convinced it's
going to work in our household.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
What are you doing in the camp out method? Where
does Laura start?

Speaker 5 (03:28):
So it takes anywhere from one week to four weeks,
depending on how quickly you want to actually maneuver this method.
But essentially you put Lolly in her bedroom, in her
bed where you intend for her to sleep the way
you're currently doing it. But then at the same time
you go to bed in the same room, so you
actually move a single mattress into her room, and you

(03:51):
both sleep through the night together in that same room,
but in separate beds. And the summary of the method
is that ever so slowly you move that mattress closer
and closer to the door, eventually on the other side
of the door in the hallway, and then again you
inch it every night or two further away until eventually

(04:11):
it's in the corridor, and then magically just returned to
your own bedroom.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Okay, my fear is that this is an absolute stitch up,
and we will both be sleeping in a trundle bed
in the hallway. That's what I think it's gonna happen.
She will just come, she will just come to me.
She'll get out of her bed and walk across the room.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Do you think this is a full proof method, doctor Gollie?

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Like, do you think obviously Laura might be at you
said two to four weeks, she might be at the
full week.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
You might edge up the hallway for a month, Laura.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
But do you think that this is full proof that
any child, any relationship with a parent, this can.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Work for them.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
There's no such thing as foolproof when it comes to pediatrics.
But the more you set yourself up for success, the
more likely you are to succeed. So we have to
sort of unpick what it is with all. Is she
worried about something in particular? Is there a dog barking?
Is something waking her making her home settled? Is it
just the temperature change that happens at midnight and that's
why she's waking up? You know, we can use positive reinforcements,

(05:08):
so it might be a reward chart that you build
up towards a gift or an experience with mum and
Dad and Malie, whatever it may be. It's almost like
you have to have the stars aligned and then you
can implement the camping out method if you need to.
But she's probably just seeking that connection, that reassurance that
mummy's close by, the other thing that you know, as

(05:28):
a pediatrician, I can't help but think of is especially
if you notice when she's coming into your bed at
nighttime and she's tossing and turning, do we actually have
a sleep problem? Like do we need to explore her
sleep and maybe her airway. There's so many different parts
to this puzzle.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Have you actually about Laura, Like genuinely.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Have you asked her why she comes in, Like, have
you tried to get to the bottom of like if
she's hot, is she having nightmares or terrors?

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Or does she just want to.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Be with you?

Speaker 3 (05:53):
She just says she just wants to be cuddled. She
wants to be in bed with us and have a cuddle.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
So could you get one of those huge pill like
a pregnancy pillow, like one of those ones that wrap
surround her or something.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, I think that we can give this a go, Laura.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I think you need to put what doctor Gollie has
said into practice.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
This is for yourself. I'm not doing it for me.
I'm not doing it for the content.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
I'm doing it purely because I want to help you
have a better night sleep and I will.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Be the sacrificial am.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
Look, we'll report back and see how this works.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
You can throw Maddie under the bus, so you can
do it.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Nah, she doesn't want a dad, She only wants me. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
She screams at him get out of my room and
time if he goes. So she's definitely got some mad
parental preference happenings.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Like you need to make an appointment to come and see.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Me all right.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Well, thank you so much for joining the show. I
appreciate the help. I need all of it

Speaker 5 (06:39):
Anytime.