The Sleep Fairy Paperback – January 1, 2009

I didn't want to do it, but after three years without a full night's sleep I need to do something. My 35 monther was still waking me up 1-3 times overnight, every night.We read the book only one time. They saw their sibling get a present after the first night, and they were motivated to get it right. They had some trouble the first week, but they have been sleeping through the night ever since. I still need to give presents, but they just had their 3rd birthday. Will have to wean off, maybe keep a chart to work towards something bigger.I bought a 20 pack of Matchbox cars and 100 temporary tattoos, so all of the gifts to get to this point cost about 25 USD.I don't think it would have worked if the child was much younger than three years, but it was well worth it for me.

I choose to call it positive reinforcement - and it works!!! I am okay with this system because as one reviewer stated that it would be better to teach your child the negative effects of lack of sleep..... I tried and that didn't work. Asking a 2 year old to developmentally comprehend those consequences is not reasonable. I bought this for my daughter when she was 2 and getting up regularly in the middle of the night and ending up in our bed for the sleep sake of all of us. The book worked like a charm. We put a small "prize" outside her door. A "dumdum" lollipop, fruit snacks, stickers were a few easy things I used. I also used things that I bought and would have just started using like Hello Kitty plastic container for lunch, thermos, new socks, underwear, or bigger things like an alarm clock--- but again. they otherwise would have just started being used. We phased out the Sleep Fairy by saying she needed to visit little kids and that my daughter was getting so big. A couple mornings of looking for prize, not finding it, she moved on. Now my daughter is 3 1/2 and the once easy night ritual became a nightmare. Begging for more water, hugs, kisses, bathroom and lots of tears. I remembered the book, started it again and in one night- problem fixed. This is such a huge relief to this family. More sleep=better, more patient parents. That is most important to us.

This story was very helpful to us. Our oldest went from going to sleep perfectly to trying everything in the book to stay up. We were out of things to try.This story is basically about a fairy who delivers a special present if the child goes to bed well, think Santa Claus meets the Tooth Fairy. The story is a little long (only reason I gave it 4 stars), so we edit out some things. We also amended the story so that the present is left beside the bed on the nightstand so we don't risk waking our child putting it under the pillow.Some things that have worked for us...-The first gift was a small bag for the Sleep Fairy to leave presents with in the future. If she whispers to the bag, the fairy can hear her.-We get most of the gifts from the dollar store so we aren't out a ton of $$$. Little things that can be used and gone like bath fizzies, stickers, those shrunken wash clothes, novelty socks, etc.-A little note written on pretty (inexpensive) paper.-We sometimes suggest to our child what she wants and/or should ask for...like more princess pull ups when she's low on pull ups, or wouldn't she like a new pajama shirt. That way she's getting things that we needed to get anyway.Weaning from the fairy. When we've not put something out from the fairy, our child's believed us that the fairy was too busy or she's bringing something really good the next night. But we have started talking about how the fairy is the one who gets her after nap snack ready (again, something we'd already do anyway). So we are slowly moving towards the fairy is getting too busy to come every night, but will always come to leave her snack.We have had only 1-2 nights in the last 6 weeks that were rough. I'd also suggest getting "Good Night, Sweet Dreams, I Love You: Now Get Into Bed And Go To Sleep!" by Patrick C. Friman

I didn't research the book before reading it to my 5 year old. I immediately regretted reading a book that claimed they would receive gifts every time they slept through the night.

I was hopeful but highly skeptical that my 2.5 year old would go from waking 4+ times a night yelling for us after battling to go to bed as part of his regression when he baby sister arrived. But night one, not a peep until daylight! Be aware that the fairy brings a toy. I’m not above straight bribery and we had a few toys that hadn’t been given to him yet, but turning this into a long term solution that doesn’t require daily gifts will take some creativity. And we had to adjust that it was left under his door rather than under the pillow

I was very skeptical about this book, but we were desperate for anything that might work for our 5 year old to help her stay in her own bed all night. The book has the same concept as the tooth fairy, which works well for our daughter, since she likes to be rewarded for things she does. We've been able to adapt the story a little to fit our specific situation, and we use the "parent rules" at the beginning as a way to modify things for unique situations (for example, what happens while traveling, added incentive for 10 perfect nights in a row, etc). Since she can't read yet, we can get away with these modifications! As I said, we had no real hope that this would work (and we'd tried lots of other things), but this book really, really worked. She loves to tell people all about Macy and she can almost recite the entire poem by herself each night.