Hi, I’m Alexandra – but everyone calls me Szandi.
I’m a baby sleep consultant, educator and author from Hungary.
I have been working with families for many years now, but my interest in baby sleep started long before it became my profession. It started when I became a mother myself.
My first daughter, Lili, was born in 2007. Like most new mothers, I wanted to do everything as well as I possibly could, and at the beginning that mostly meant following the advice I was given. I fed her according to the clock, tried to put her down in her cot and, for much of the night, she slept in her own room. From the outside, everything probably looked as though it was going very well.
But I had questions. I was breastfeeding, and the long gaps between feeds that were recommended at the time caused repeated difficulties for me. I also found it strange that my tiny baby was expected to spend so much time away from me, including at night. I wasn’t looking for a different parenting philosophy. I simply wanted to understand why some of the advice I was following seemed to make life harder rather than easier.
So I started reading.
At first I read mostly about breastfeeding, because that was the immediate problem I was trying to solve. From there I became interested in infant development, attachment, babywearing, human biology and eventually infant sleep. I discovered that many of the things babies do — feeding frequently, waking at night, wanting to be held, falling asleep through sucking or movement, sleeping better close to another person — looked very different when you understood the biology and development behind them.
That was probably the beginning of the work I do today, although of course I had no idea of that at the time.
By the time my second daughter, Sári, was born in 2012, family life looked quite different. I had trained in breastfeeding support and as a babywearing consultant and educator, and I had already spent several years studying infant sleep. I worried much less about how often she fed, where she fell asleep or whether she needed me close. I had learned enough by then to know that dependence in a baby is not something that needs to be hurried away.
I began studying infant sleep seriously in 2008, created a Hungarian website about cosleeping in 2009, and from 2010 onwards started speaking about baby sleep at parent groups, birth events and babywearing programmes around Hungary. Over time, sleep gradually became the main focus of my professional work.
For around 15 years I have worked directly with families in consultations, while continuing to study, teach and write about infant and toddler sleep. Thousands of parents have trusted me with their stories over the years, and the Hungarian baby sleep community I founded in 2015 has grown to more than 60,000 members.
One of the things those families have taught me is just how different babies really are. The longer I do this work, the less interested I am in finding one sleep method that can supposedly work for everyone. I am much more interested in understanding the baby, the family and what is actually making life difficult for them.
What guides my work
My approach is evidence-based, responsive and completely cry-it-out free. I spend a great deal of time reading research on infant sleep, breastfeeding and child development, and over the years I have had the opportunity to learn directly from leading infant sleep researchers, including Professor Helen Ball at Durham University. I have also attended and contributed to infant sleep and breastfeeding conferences in the UK, France and Ireland.
But research does not give us a set of instructions for every individual baby. It gives us a better understanding of what we know, what we don’t know, what is developmentally normal and where genuine concerns may lie. Then we still have to look at the baby and family in front of us.
I work with breastfeeding families, formula-feeding families and families who combine the two. I don’t expect every family to bedshare, feed to sleep, use a dummy, avoid a dummy, rock their baby or stop rocking their baby. And I don’t teach one particular sleep method.
What I try to do is help you understand your baby’s sleep well enough to make informed decisions without being frightened by every night waking, short nap or piece of advice telling you that you are creating a bad habit. Sometimes very little needs to change. Sometimes a family is exhausted and something genuinely does need to change. We can take the baby’s needs seriously without pretending that the parent’s sleep, wellbeing and limits do not matter.
That balance has become increasingly important to me over the years.
My professional path has taken me through breastfeeding support, babywearing, infant sleep and responsive parenting, and more recently into Compassionate Inquiry and somatic professional development. Working with families for this long has made me interested not only in what babies do, but also in what happens to us as parents when we are tired, worried and surrounded by conflicting advice.
Sometimes you need practical ideas for getting through the night. Sometimes you need good information so that something you were worried about suddenly makes sense. And sometimes it helps to have someone look at the whole situation with you rather than simply tell you what your baby “should” be doing by now.
That is the kind of support I want to offer.
You know your baby and your family in a way I never can. My role is to bring the research, my professional experience and the experience of many years spent listening to families — and help you make sense of all of that in your own real life.
After nearly two decades of studying baby sleep, I still don’t have a magic method. I don’t think one exists.
And I’m quite comfortable with that.
With prof James McKenna at Prague airport 2019.
Professional background & training
Infant & toddler sleep
2008–present
Studying, teaching and writing about infant and toddler sleep.
2010–present
Parent talks, workshops and education on normal infant sleep and responsive settling.
Around 15 years of individual family consultations
Thousands of families supported with infant and toddler sleep.
2015–present
Founder of a Hungarian online baby sleep support community, now with more than 60,000 members.
2024–present
Founder and educator of a professional Baby Sleep Consultant Training programme.
2025
My professional continuing-education programme Baby Sleep in the Family was accredited by Hungary’s National Directorate General for Hospitals for three healthcare professional groups.
2026
Publication of my Hungarian Baby Sleep Handbook; international English edition currently in development.
Breastfeeding & responsive care
La Leche League Leader, La Leche League Hungary
My involvement with La Leche League has included many years of volunteer mother-to-mother breastfeeding support, leading local groups and providing communication education for people in helping professions.
I led La Leche League mother-and-baby groups in Budapest for many years, continued my group work online, and served as President of La Leche League Hungary from 2022 to 2026.
Further professional education has included training with Dr Jack Newman, Catherine Watson Genna, Dr Christina Smillie and Dr Nils Bergman, alongside numerous international La Leche League conferences and professional events.
Babywearing
2010–2012
Baby and child babywearing consultant and educator training.
2010–2024
Consultations and courses through Hordozóház, alongside talks and programmes during International Babywearing Week and other parent events.
Relational & somatic professional development
2025–2026 — Compassionate Inquiry® Professional Training
330-hour professional training developed by Dr Gabor Maté.
2025 — Compassionate Inquiry Retreat, Ireland
30 CPD hours of experiential and applied professional training.
2026–present — University of Debrecen
Postgraduate Programme in Mental Health
Currently in training
Selected talks & conferences
Durham University · UK · 2018
Coping with Infant Sleep Conference — poster presentation
La Leche League France · Paris · 2019
Le dorm’allaitement — poster presentation at La JIA and workshops on infant sleep for breastfeeding-support professionals
Durham University · UK · 2022
Anniversary Conference — contributor
La Leche League of Ireland · Wexford · 2023
Baby Sleep Development — conference speaker
La Leche League International · 2024
International Conference speaker
And after all these years?
I still don’t have a magic sleep method. I don’t think one exists. What I do have is nearly two decades of research, training, conversations and experience with thousands of very different babies and families.
I can help you understand what is normal, notice what might actually be making sleep harder, separate evidence from popular sleep advice, and find realistic things you can change without asking you to stop responding to your baby.
Sometimes that leads to very practical changes in sleep. Sometimes it leads to a parent saying: Oh. So my baby isn’t doing anything wrong. Both matter.
Baby sleep doesn’t need fixing. It needs understanding.