The Estivill Method: Is It Really Safe?

The Estivill method was especially popular with parents a decade ago. Being designed to teach the baby or child to sleep autonomously, it raised a huge controversy for encouraging caregivers not to respond to the calls of attention of children when putting them to bed.

In this article, we will talk about what security issues your dictates may raise and how the debate is today. So, today we want to ask ourselves if the Estivill method is really safe.

What is the Estivill method?

The Estivill method is made up of a series of manuals for parents on how to intervene in childhood insomnia. The specialist who shaped the method was Dr. Eduard Estivill. It was especially popular a decade ago and is based on the Ferber method or what is known in clinical psychology as the gradual extinction technique of childhood sleep.

In summary , the technique consists of letting the child sleep alone in his room and not attending to the crying, making a few visits, scheduled in advance and detached from the child’s behavior, to say a phrase. In fact, the time that these visits should be spaced is regulated by the manual. On the other hand, the effectiveness of the method is also based on not establishing physical contact or conversations with the little ones.

According to Estivill, it works in most cases; This technique assumes that childhood insomnia is the product of incorrect habits by which the child has learned that he needs his parents to sleep. Thus, the Estivill method will force a relearning that will establish the autonomy of the child in the face of sleep.

What security problems have you raised for the Estivill method?

The Estivill method, as well as the well-known gradual extinction, has proven to be effective in many cases . By following this method, many parents have made their children stop complaining to them at bedtime. But is it really safe for them?

Doubts have been raised about its safety around three fundamental aspects:

• Deterioration of the father / mother-child relationship and attachment difficulties. Babies and young children are in preverbal stages and the form of communication with their main figures is through crying. In fact, how parents attend to crying, the promptness and success with which they do so, make up a fundamental part of the development of future attachment. The difficulties of this bond in early ages are precursors of various pathologies in adolescence and adulthood.

• Incompatibility with breastfeeding. The fact that the young child sleeps in his room from the age of three months, as suggested by the Estivill Method, may conflict with breastfeeding, particularly if the mother is breastfeeding on demand.
• The child stops crying when the effect of learned helplessness occurs. Learned helplessness is characterized by the subjective feeling of inability to respond to the situation that is causing stress. According to this approach, the baby will stop crying adopting a passive behavior when feeling that crying is of no use.

Current situation of scientific research on the Method

The reality of the current scientific research situation is that there are still many unresolved questions. There are enough studies to affirm that gradual extinction is effective; however, it is known that when parents practice the method without professional supervision, its effectiveness is significantly reduced.

Some authors suggest that this is the case because in many cases the method is not applied in a systematic and rigorous way.

Regarding the possibility of suffering attachment difficulties as a result of the Estivill method, there is not much research in this regard and the studies that have been raised have problems or are small to be able to extract causal results.

However, there are studies that link infant crying with the production of cortisol, known as the stress hormone. Also, other studies indicate the lack of attention from crying with the development of bonding difficulties in postpartum depressions or the desynchronization of the mother-child relationship when this technique is applied.

Regarding incompatibility with breastfeeding, studies have been described that highlight that skin-to-skin contact directly influences the production of breast milk. Therefore, being separated in the first months (either by the Estivill method or other demands at work level, for example) could interfere in this regard.

Nor have they conducted studies on whether children could develop the known learned helplessness or whether the application of the method could impair communication with parents.

So, is the Estivill method safe?

Ultimately, it is known that the lack of attention by crying is negligence that can cause serious repercussions on the child. However, the degree of neglect that leads to producing them is not known. In this case , it is not known if the Estivill method is sufficient to cause an emotional impact on the child and the relationship with his parents.

Ultimately, there is not enough research to determine that it is a safe method. However, currently, there is a pioneering study on the Estivill method directed by Doctor Amenábar from the University of the Basque Country that is in the period of analysis of results. We are looking forward to reading them!

Teach children to sleep

The Estivilll method consists of teaching children to sleep alone by unlearning the presence of their parents to consolidate it. Therefore, it supposes that parents ignore the crying of the baby or child through the instructions and times contained in the educational manuals.

Various authors, parents and professionals have expressed doubts about its safety. Above all, with regard to attachment difficulties and mother-child relationship deterioration, incompatibility with breastfeeding and the production of the phenomenon known as learned helplessness.

The current situation in the scientific literature supports the effectiveness of the method, being diminished when it is the parents who apply it. Thus, the best thing you can do in these cases is to consult with a professional so that, after a rigorous evaluation, he is the one who establishes the intervention plan.