Signs you might not need a consultant yet

This guide is general information only and isn't a substitute for medical advice. If you're concerned about your child's health, or they're unwell, please see a doctor.

We run a directory of sleep consultants, so this is an odd thing for us to publish. But sending you to pay for help you don't need is a bad way to earn your trust. Here are the situations where we'd tell you to wait, and what to try first.

Your baby is a newborn

Frequent waking in the first three months is normal and expected, not a problem to solve. Newborns sleep about 14 to 17 hours across 24 hours, in short bursts of 2 to 3 hours, and they wake to feed and for comfort. No structured sleep program is appropriate at this age.

What helps instead: safe sleep, responsive settling, realistic expectations, and sharing the night load. Your child and family health nurse is free and is the right first call.

You're in the middle of a known phase

Regressions, teething, illness, a house move, a new sibling, starting childcare. Sleep reliably wobbles through all of these, and it usually settles within a few weeks once the disruption passes. Paying for a plan mid-phase often means paying to be told to hold your routine steady.

Wait it out, keep the routine consistent, and reassess in a few weeks.

You haven't tried the free stuff yet

• Fix the timing. Overtiredness and mistimed naps cause a huge share of sleep problems, and it costs nothing to adjust the day.
• Fix the environment: proper blackout, low steady white noise, appropriate dressing for the room.
• Get consistent. A routine followed for two weeks beats three approaches abandoned on night three.
• Talk to your child and family health nurse. It's free, and they see this every day.

When you should absolutely get help

A few things point to a doctor rather than a settling plan. Raising Children advises seeing your GP if your child snores most nights or over a long period, breathes through their mouth, or gasps, chokes or struggles for breath in their sleep, or is unusually tired or hard to wake during the day. Difficulty breathing, pale, blotchy or blue skin, or being very drowsy or hard to rouse are signs of serious illness that healthdirect says need urgent care. And if your child seems to be in pain, is feeding poorly, or isn't growing or gaining weight as expected, see your GP or child and family health nurse, because no settling method fixes a medical problem.

And get a consultant when: it's been going on for months rather than weeks, you've tried a consistent approach and it hasn't worked, or nobody in the house is functioning. Sleep deprivation affects mental health, driving safety and work, and "we're not coping" is a completely legitimate reason to pay for help. You don't have to be at breaking point to deserve support.

One last thought. If the only thing holding you back is a feeling that you ought to be able to do this yourself, that is not a good reason to wait. Nobody expects you to teach your own child to swim, and sleep is a skill like any other.

Sources

• Raising Children Network, Newborn sleep
• Red Nose Australia, Six safe sleep recommendations
• Raising Children Network, Tired signs in babies and toddlers
• Raising Children Network, Snoring in babies, kids and teenagers
• healthdirect, Symptoms of serious illness in babies and children

Last updated: July 2026. Sources include Red Nose Australia and Raising Children Network where cited above. This guide is general information only. For individual concerns, see your GP or child health nurse.