Specialising in sleep therapy, 'supernanny' Nuala Reddy claims to have a 100 per cent success rate in sorting out sleep problems, writes Sheila Wayman

So what, exactly, does her sleep therapy entail? "Every job is different, every child is different. There is no set formula and I can't translate what I do to anybody but I seem to be able to analyse each child. I have not had a failure yet."

Each booking is for three nights in a row, at €30 an hour. But things are usually going so well by the second night, she suggests the parents go it alone the third night and save themselves the expense of having her there.

The moment she arrives at 6pm on the first day, "I jump straight in." She is assessing the parents, the child and what's going on before bedtime. Her aim is to help them establish a good routine.

"If you teach the parents a night-time routine, you will have a happy family."

Work schedules permitting, she tries to get the parents to sit down and have a meal with the child, even if they are just eating a piece of toast. "A lot of the times it would be their first child they are having the problems with and the child is left sitting at the table on his own. I wouldn't leave a child sitting at a table on his own."

About 6.30pm it's bath time, and she shows parents how to make that a "fun time". Standing in the shadows, Reddy is coaching the parents, not engaging with the child herself.

Then it's story time: "Grab a child's imagination, something nice and calm. I love poetry." She believes in reading something soothing again and again.

"They get a certain amount of story time, on the sofa or up in the bedroom but not in the bed. Then it's into bed: "Mummy's here, daddy's here, we both love you. Good night." Reddy takes the parents downstairs.

"My job then is to keep the parents sane while the child kicks up. We leave it for 10 minutes and then we go back up. Sometimes I have to stand at the door with my arms folded and say 'you're not going in until the 10 minutes are up'."

She gives the parent 20 seconds or less to go in and reassure the child, lie him back down and say a firm goodnight.

It generally takes two such visits. "The majority of children will be asleep within 20 or 25 minutes," says Reddy.

However, after a "power nap" they are likely to wake again by 11pm, ready to do battle. "This is when we have up to two hours' screaming. The child is thinking, 'hey, I cry, I get picked up, I get brought downstairs or into their bed. Mummy and daddy, don't you know the drill?' "

Reddy sometimes finds it difficult watching the angst parents go through at this stage, when it can become quite fraught. They want to go to their crying child immediately but she won't let them. She observes, analyses and talks the parents through what they should and shouldn't do, timing their visits to the child's bedroom.

The first night is always the toughest. The second night there may be residual protests by the child, but as long as the parents stick to their new routine, they won't last long. By the third night, apparently, it's sorted.

There is a huge demand for sleep therapists, says Reddy, yet looking for help with parenting can still be taboo. Some people "would never want to admit getting me. They don't want to admit they have paid for something that everybody else seems to be able to do."

Some clients have asked her to pretend to be a friend if anybody calls to the house while she's there.

"A lot of women feel failures that their baby is not sleeping through. Getting me in is a huge leap in admitting it to themselves, as well as to anybody else."

People who call on her services have made easy mistakes, she says, and slipped into a bad routine. They need someone like her, who can stay at arm's length emotionally, to put them back on the right track.

"Children are so manipulative. I guarantee if I had a child tomorrow I would make just as many mistakes," Reddy adds, "because it would be my child, my hormones, my guilt trip."

Nuala Reddy can be contacted through Executive Nannies, tel 01-8731273

Extract from The Irish Times, 16 Sep 2008. Article by Sheila Wayman