Tweddle Child & Family Health Service

Wow! What an amazing week at Tweddle! I brought my 12 month old son in for a 4 night stay as he was waking 4-5 times a night and wouldn't settle without a breastfeed. My ultimate goal was to have him sleep through - something that had never happened before! Having been educated on responsive settling and relationships, my confidence in parenting improved and he slept through for the first time ever on just the second night! I was delighted! I also found that, with a good night's sleep, my son ate better and was much more affectionate - our relationship had grown stronger. I also made great friends with the other families - it felt like school camp haha I always wonder just how much longer I would have gone without sleep had I not been to Tweddle. I cannot thank the staff at Tweddle enough! I bought them flowers x

We took our soon to be 1 year old there in March 2018, as I was struggling with his sleep and I was about to go back to work from maternity leave. I was a pretty tired mum to a baby that kept waking up at night several times, cried loudly when we put him in bed and wanted to be breastfed in the middle of the night. It’s been almost a year since we were at Tweddle day and night for a week. It wasn’t an easy week but my son has slept through the night for more than 11 hours straight since then, with a 1-2 hours nap after lunch time at 23 months. His mood changed, no more tired baby and grumpy tired mum:)

The girls at Tweddle are fantastic, helpful, knowledgeable and will give you tips that last a lifetime. What a life changing experience for me an my husband to have taken our little one there! I hope I haven’t forgotten what you girls taught me because I’m about to have another baby soon. I also recommend to bring your own lunch and dinner as the food is not good. But hey people don’t go there for food but for help with sleeping routines and behavioral issues.

I was referred to Tweddle from my MCHN for issues with my four month old catnapping during the daytime.

Following an extensive phone consultation with Susan, I was approved for an in-home visit (Tweddle is bulk-billed so additional benefit for the hip pocket).

Due to flexibility with my schedule, I was able to pick up a last minute cancellation and had Christine come out to our home.

We went through a standard settling process and she offered suggestions throughout the process - always very emotionally intelligent and not intrusive at all. After struggling through the settling process, Christine offered to assist and I said yes - she had our baby asleep in no time!

Once settled, we went into another room to discuss the exercise - she shared her observations with us about our baby (eg.she noticed that if she couldn't see our faces, she became more agitated and therefore suggested we don't try and settle by placing her over our shoulder, and showed us a few alternative positions). Being an in-home visit, we also benefitted greatly as her observations about the sleep environment have greatly contributed to our baby now self-settling (eg.positioning of the bassinet, darkness of the room, introduction of a white noise machine).

Christine went on to talk through any of our concerns and gave us suggestions on how to overcome these, as well as talking through with us the theory behind Tweddle's approach. She was realistic and also gave us some "plan B" strategies for the transition period which helped as these changes don't occur overnight.

Since her visit, the transformation has been overwhelming. Baby now happily goes down for her naps during the daytime, sleeps overnight and is self-settling. Further, if she is woken up during any of her sleeps, we now have the confidence in how to resettle her.

Tweddle's approach aligned well with our approach to parenting, and not using the controlled crying method meant that we both felt comfortable with our new approach to baby's sleep. We had a follow up call a few days later to check in, and had a follow up visit scheduled in a few weeks later, which we ended up declining as our baby took to the new routine and approach so well. The team at Tweddle were incredibly supportive and available during the course of the process.

We can't thank Tweddle enough for their help and support, and would recommend them highly for any parent with sleep issues.

Wasn’t impressed with the service said one this to me and told others something else I wouldn’t suggest people come hear they don’t help at all

Was good being there to help me get both my boys to settle and sleep in their own room still a struggle but I can manage more it takes 4-6wks to regulate our new routines that have been set in place so if I stick to what I've learnt we should be good. The staff are great helping understand my boys needs as they are different ages, and to be patient with my 2year old and his tantrums, honestly don't see why there is negative reviews as you get what you put in you don't just go and the staff magically help your kid. Put in the effort and listen to information that's given and stick with it when you go home, not there for babysitting or the food don't like it get someone in to support you and order food if you don't like what's given. I liked my experience wish I didn't have to come home.

Wonderful supportive staff. Glad there is a program like this to help when things get on top of us.

The cleanliness of the food communal area sub standard have photographic proof and videos of more than 3 areas including main food area and gross microwave

Were fantastic with my family. I laugh now, when I look back and realise as a first time mum I had no idea. I thought I did. Totally recommend it and don't be scared to ask for help, cause one day you will hopefully be like me and be able to look back and laugh.

Awesome support.
We took our son to tweddle footscray for a day stay. Staff were so friendly and supportive, they wouldn't ask us do anything we were not comfortable with. They gave us all the advice we needed to help our little man sleep better and stayed with us while we at the centre. After 1 week at home we are already seeing the benifits.
Thank you Tweddle

Page ur right sadly they see us 10 day people as scum. I had no help at all they didn't mention anything about cues until they gave me a bad report on it but over the entire 10 days not once did any worker offer me any help about it at all. I hate tweddle. Qec is amazing they actually help you and teach you they have a doctor that comes in every morning in case anyone is unwell the food at qec is soooo good they do lunch and dinner and its delicious they have cereals for breaky and delicious muffins throughout the day plus soup and the soup was even amazing the staff are friendly gosh I just can't recommended that place enough they are there to actually help not just for a pay check. The rooms are secure as u have your own swipe card to get in so no other person staying can get in ur room except staff. Seriously stay away from tweddle go to Queen Elizabeth centre in noble park you will not regret it at all

Currently here for a 10 day stay i find they dont seem to care too much about the safety and wellbeing of the clients attending they seem to be very rude and invasive coming into parents rooms at all hours of the night they seem to take away all rights you have and at this present time their is an oh&s situation they're withhold from others staying in the facilities as my partner has the flu a chest infection and an ear infection and they dont seem to have a problem with that around young children which i find very unethical also refusing me medical attention in house for a compressed l4 & l5 disk in my back and expects me to walk 2kms with my back like the way it is very unhappy with their services here!

Recently, my husband, two children and I had an experience with Tweddle Child and Family Health Services. Our 3 year old has been a very poor sleeper for the better part of a year and was only getting worse and more dependent on us to help him sleep. This became very difficult once our baby arrived. We visited a doctor and got a referral to Tweddle for their week long Sleep School Program.

We were nervous, scared, unsure of what to expect. We were worried about being judged and that our son would just sleep like an angel making us look silly! Well, he did not!

It was probably the most challenging 4 nights and 5 days of our family life thus far and yet the best thing we have ever done together! We had little sleep and bad food but we also had amazing support from their wonderful staff and learned lots about the needs of our children. Our lives have been forever changed for the better. My husband and I communicate more kindly and effectively with each other and our boys are happier and better catered for. Our toddler has slept in his own bed every night since. It's still a challenge getting him down and he can sometimes wake several times in the night but we now have the skills and techniques to cope.

Tweddle was so much more than just sleep for us. The staff helped us with routines, eating, play and developmental needs, as well as sleep routines.

The organisation is publicly funded and what they can achieve on such a small budget is incredible! You only get out what you put in to programs like this but I would truly recommend Tweddle to anyone and will forever support this organisation in any way I can!

I recently did a 4 day residential stay program at Tweddle Footscray to help with my 9 month old son’s terrible sleeping and settling. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but after a few days we started to see his sleep and settling improve. It’s not a magic bullet and I’ve been told I need to persist for 3 weeks for it to really stick. But we’ve gone from my son waking 5-6 times a night to 2 times a night. I feel like a new person! Every single staff member and nurse at Tweddle were honestly so lovely, supportive and knowledgeable. Highly recommend any parents with sleeping issues to come and stay here!

While the facilities may not be as good as others, the staff can't do enough for you. The food is poor, but you can eat out, and your not there for the food.

Extremely disorganised and rude. I was put on the standby list and got a call at 9.15am on the day of the session despite having called the previous day to check if a spot was available, for a 9am to 3pm session, as someone else cancelled at the last minute. When I advised them that I live an hours drive from the centre, and could only arrive by 11 am, the person on the call decided to make a note that I had declined the opportunity to attend. It seemed like they were more interested in going through the motions and ticking the right boxes rather than helping parents in need.