# Warning, the latest in torture/"sleep training"



## In Exile (Jan 12, 2007)

I was wondering if her name made it over here yet. She has published a couple of things.

Compared to self-proclaimed sleep "expert" Anna Wahlgren, Richard Ferber and even Ezzo seem like AP Hippies all of a sudden.

Ms Wahlgren is getting pretty big in Europe and it's only a matter of time until she will find her audience here.

She published a couple of books on sleep training, has a website etc. BEWARE! There a some videos that show her "work".
http://www.annawahlgren.com/index.ph...filmer-vagning

She took down another video when public outrage ensued and Doctors in Sweden are "contemplating" their actions- but somebody still got it.
Look for "trypress" and Anna Wahlgren- that was previously on her website and that is her "sleep training" style.

I thought I knew some really bad sleep advice- but that "author" really tops it all.


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## gromero (Apr 14, 2008)

I just saw a video on you tube of her "technique"...I am speechless....I can't believe people would even believe for one second that her "technique" would be okay for a baby!!!! I honestly feel sick to my stomach right now after viewing it....those poor poor babies whose parents who do what she says.


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## madis81 (Jun 16, 2005)

That should be considered child abuse. My DH asked if she was trying to put the baby to sleep permanently. I don't see any doctor in the U.S. condoning this. Especially with the Back to Sleep campaign.


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## eclipse (Mar 13, 2003)

can someone give a rundown? I don't want to watch any videos.


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## Agatha_Ann (Apr 5, 2009)

My computer won't let us watch videos...what is her technique?

I hate sleep training


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## MLA (May 22, 2008)

The video on that site's not really loading for me, but I saw a bit of it. Am I right that she's trying to put the baby to sleep on its FACE?!? I couldn't bring myself to watch any more of it. Does it get worse? That poor baby.


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## Gentle~Mommy :) (Apr 21, 2009)

OMG is she running the stroller into the wall? What the heck is that all about, I wish I could understand what she was saying.


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## frontierpsych (Jun 11, 2006)

Yikes! Is she trying to kill that kid?! Seriously disturbing.


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## Honey693 (May 5, 2008)

What's she doing? My computer wont' let me watch it and I'm not sure I could stomach it anyway.


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## gromero (Apr 14, 2008)

Basically, she has the baby (I am talking infant here...the one in the video I saw had the newbornish cry still) laying on their tummy in a carriage, and she is pushing it pretty roughly back and forth, and when the baby starts to cry and lifts its head up and archs their back, she pushs them back down and turns their face to one side...I am not talking a soft push....this is a rough push, and will go right back to pushing the carriage. Each time the baby lifts his head up, she pushs it back down and positions their head to the side.


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## Honey693 (May 5, 2008)

That's awful. These poor babies.


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## Everrgreen (Feb 27, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *gromero* 
Basically, she has the baby (I am talking infant here...the one in the video I saw had the newbornish cry still) laying on their tummy in a carriage, and she is pushing it pretty roughly back and forth, and when the baby starts to cry and lifts its head up and archs their back, she pushs them back down and turns their face to one side...I am not talking a soft push....this is a rough push, and will go right back to pushing the carriage. Each time the baby lifts his head up, she pushs it back down and positions their head to the side.

















OMG, just reading this makes me feel nauseous! I can't watch that video. I don't understand how people can abuse their baby, and then make it into a parenting technique! Why isn't this illegal?


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## Agatha_Ann (Apr 5, 2009)

That is so sick. I can not fathom how any mother could do that to their baby. CIO a mother physically removes themselves and so I can see how it would be possible to justify it in their minds that since they can't hear the baby, it must have fallen asleep just fine...but to be right there listening to the screams FOR YOU and not only ignore it, but treat them so roughly...


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## AllyRae (Dec 10, 2003)

That is awful.









On an aside, that baby doesn't even look older than 4 months old yet, and so she is probably just learning how to put her head up. I can't imagine the stunting of her skills that comes from someone shoving her head down every time she picks it up. Nevermind the fact that if the baby ever DID roll onto her tummy and get her face pressed into the mattress, she would have been trained to NOT lift her head to prevent suffocation.


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## mandcc96 (Feb 19, 2009)

Just saw that video .... what a nightmare! I hope that the "back to sleep" campaign is enough to stop parents in this country from ever going down that road. That baby in the video didn't even have good strength in the neck muscles (probl. 2 months old?). She is being so rough...slamming the carriage into the wall! The only simulation of mother's movement that could possible mimic this is if the mother was falling down a flight of stairs. I never slammed my body around like that when I was pg. It's amazing the depths of greed and pure viciousness someone is willing to stoop to in order to "comfort" a sleep deprived parent. Just an outrage. Almost makes CIO the lesser of the evils. What a shame.


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## Gentle~Mommy :) (Apr 21, 2009)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *gromero* 
and she is pushing it pretty roughly back and forth,

she is ramming the stroller into the wall


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## Jenne (May 21, 2004)

I couldn't tolerate the jerky loading from that site but the youtube video.






















uke

Even DH said, "Gah! I don't want to see that! Why would someone do that!"

That is just awful, awful, awful. I'm not quick to call mainstream stuff abuse. THAT is ABUSE though.

Jenne


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## vbactivist (Oct 4, 2006)

I saw the youtube video and am horrified. Oh, those poor babies. Who is this woman? Why would that sort of treatment ever be acceptable. CIO (while horrible and wrong) is at least a passive thig, this is so aggressive and phsically abusive. If you are especially sensitive, I would recommend NOT watching the youtibe video. It is pretty much child abuse.


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## treehugginhippie (Nov 29, 2004)

Oh look, I found the website in english too! (eyesroll) http://www.annawahlgren.com/index.ph.../anna-wahlgren

Sick, sick, sick! She should be in jail for abuse! If you feel like making your heart break even more...read the stuff on the right side under "Read More".

She does have a Guestbook though...


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## In Exile (Jan 12, 2007)

She deletes stuff from her website. A lot of people have commented already, even her own readers that now saw the videos- as in "she does WHAT HOW?"

A lot of us commented on her website and it get's deleted.

Mothering Rules though, can't recommend running over there! I'm sure a Moderator will remind us also.


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## Fujiko (Nov 11, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *treehugginhippie* 
Oh look, I found the website in english too! (eyesroll) http://www.annawahlgren.com/index.ph.../anna-wahlgren

Sick, sick, sick! She should be in jail for abuse! If you feel like making your heart break even more...read the stuff on the right side under "Read More".

She does have a Guestbook though...

I find this quote from the website particularly ironic:

Quote:

It is the adults who must help their child find peace...They must guarantee a good life, a secure life with good sleep, peaceful sleep, sufficient sleep and blissful sleep, sleep that their baby will soon joyously take, secure enough in herself to both dare and desire to sleep that well.


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## gromero (Apr 14, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Gentle~Mommy * 
she is ramming the stroller into the wall









Woops...sorry, I didn't realize that she was ramming the stroller into the wall!!!

Just, incredible...I did a search on her name and not much came up. Most of the stuff was in Sweedish (I think). Obvisouly, there is a problem with her in her country if other doctors are thinking or trying to take action against her.

This is without a doubt, abuse.

In Exile...where did you hear about her from? This is the first time I have heard about her.


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## In Exile (Jan 12, 2007)

I heard about it from other German AP Parents. Her books are available in Germany and that's where I heard from her.

Pretty sick.


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## calpurnia (Sep 26, 2004)

reading it in translation makes it seem really creepy.

i only scanned it but i have to say, from about 6 months we discovered that dd liked to go to sleep lying on her front, with her head turned to one side, while we patted her quite hard on the back... am i going to get flamed? she was going through a stage when she refused to nurse to sleep.


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## MissE (May 12, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *calpurnia* 
reading it in translation makes it seem really creepy.

i only scanned it but i have to say, from about 6 months we discovered that dd liked to go to sleep lying on her front, with her head turned to one side, while we patted her quite hard on the back... am i going to get flamed? she was going through a stage when she refused to nurse to sleep.

But if your baby would have cried, arching back, screaming and everything you would have stopped it and tried something else instead, right?

She is basically forcing the baby to stay on its belly, no matter if baby is happy or not.


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## In Exile (Jan 12, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *MissE* 
But if your baby would have cried, arching back, screaming and everything you would have stopped it and tried something else instead, right?

She is basically forcing the baby to stay on its belly, no matter if baby is happy or not.

Exactly. She's practically shoving the baby's head down and on top of that she is sort of whipping the carriage around so hard that the baby must be hitting the edge. On her homepage she is crashing her hand on the carriage very abruptly- it's like a "how to" for shaken baby syndrom, especially with those really little ones.

I also get if a baby prefers to sleeps on his belly and likes to fall asleep with a sort of rythmical patting, that's fine by me, some adults have stranger ways of falling asleep. But that is not the same as ripping a stroller around the way she does and hitting that poor baby on the butt so hard that the head wobbling on the other side.

That's just sick. Those are not her babies- her children are grown. So it's not even a totally sleep deprived parent on the brink of a breakdown. No, this is a "rational" adult who has sadistic streaks.

And she has a following, it seems almost cultish. Creepy.


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## Jenne (May 21, 2004)

Yeah, when I watched the two videos I thought, "Yeah, I bet shaken baby syndrome makes the babies sleep for 12 hours."

Sick, sick, sick!

Jenne


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## In Exile (Jan 12, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Jenne* 
Yeah, when I watched the two videos I thought, "Yeah, I bet shaken baby syndrome makes the babies sleep for 12 hours."

Sick, sick, sick!

Jenne

Yes, shove the baby a little harder and the baby might sleep forever.









I hope somebody in Sweden has enough backbone to call the police. The youtube video "tryckpress" is gone, so obviously she starts feeling like maybe that's not the best idea. I don't who had that video up, maybe it's herself, or maybe that someone got threatened, I have no idea. But I hope somebody there calls the police.


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## Ceinwen (Jul 1, 2004)

G!d have mercy.









I'm not a particularly spiritual person, but I hope like nothing that someone, somewhere is looking out for these little ones.


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## To-Fu (May 23, 2007)

Just a friendly reminder not to encourage MDCers to head over to other sites for adversarial purposes, as per UA #6:

Quote:

Do not post to invite MDC members to other communities, blogs or message boards for adversarial purposes or link to discussion about MDC at another site. Do not negatively discuss other communities or discussions elsewhere (this includes blog comments), regardless of whether or not you link to that discussion or community. This is to maintain and respect the integrity of our own and other communities.
And I think I won't be clicking on any of the links here because we have company coming over and I don't want to be blowing my nose and wiping tears when they arrive! Yikes.


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## Devaskyla (Oct 5, 2003)

I have a 2 month old, I can't bring myself to look. Sounds utterly horrfying though.





















And there's actually people who let this UAV near their precious little ones?


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## Mommy2Haley (Oct 25, 2007)

I searched and found her website but I couldn't get the video to load. I wrote a message in the guestbook ... I'm sure it will be deleted.

What kills me is that this method only teaches infants that their needs won't be met when it comes to nighttime/sleep. Rather than "training" or the infant "learning" this method is only conditioning them to operate under learned helplessness and despair. I just can't imagine doing that to an infant.

That lady is crazy and I feel bad for the children of the deluded, sleep-depreived, desparate parents that don't know any better.

ETA: 20 minutes later and deleted. Crazy.

I also found scores of videos of people "sleep training" their kids -- on youtube!! Why would you advertise that to the world?


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## elismum1908 (Jun 5, 2008)

i can't bring myself to watch the videos but from what y'all have said my heart is really breaking. i just don't understand why some people have babies.


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## teale (Feb 20, 2009)

I have no words. That's just sick, and wrong.


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## jt'smum (Apr 13, 2004)

Dang I just read that the stuff we are posting is getting deleted. I babbblefished one comment and a parent was concerned about leaving babe in bed to cry if 12hrs of sleep hadn't been met. ARG! That lady is a nut!


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## Freud (Jan 21, 2008)

I tried to search on youtube, but nothing came up. What were some of the search terms you used?


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## tammyswanson (Feb 19, 2007)

Has she been arrested for child abuse/endangerment yet??


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## In Exile (Jan 12, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Freud* 
I tried to search on youtube, but nothing came up. What were some of the search terms you used?

"Tryckpress" has been taking down by claiming copyright infringements. So one of the most horrifying videos is down- the one she took down from her website after public outrage in Sweden.

I guess several Pediatricians are contemplating next steps.

I hope somebody FINALLY has the guts to call the cops.


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