Grantham couple set up Soothing Tots to help sleep deprived parents

Sleep deprived parents could have the answers to their prayers with a new business.

Tom, 36, and Aimi Duggan, 33, who live in Grantham, set up Soothing Tots in January, with the aim of offering advice and support to parents to help with their babies and toddlers sleep habits, as well as offering baby massages.

The pair, who have a three-year-old boy called Leo, now want to offer free sleep and baby massage workshops to businesses and charities in the area.

“The idea first came about in early 2023 when our little one was having sleep problems,” said Tom, originally from Lincoln.

He added: “When that happened I was also doing a qualification in child development, which I now have.

“I thought we should look into this and some of these issues.

“With both of our backgrounds, it occurred to me if we put our skills together, something could work.

“There are lots of people out there that offer these types of services, some good, some bad.

“We want to make it a community thing by offering workshops to people and raise awareness around the expectations of sleep.”

The sessions will look at a variety of issues, including the nuances of infant sleep, safer sleep practices, baby massage techniques and teaching methods for families to overcome complex sleep issues with their little ones.

Soothing Tots also offers sleep packages at a range of prices between £80 and £200.

These involve a consultation, either face to face or online, following the completion of a three-day sleep diary and assessment.

After, two weeks of support, via WhatsApp and email, is provided to find out how the parents are getting on with the bespoke sleep plan.

A final session is then held for parents to discuss any further worries they may have after trying the sleep plan.

Tom added: “A lot of parents are sleep deprived. We want to see if people can benefit from our packages and give parents an easier life.

“It’s about giving parents this knowledge and improving their mental health and wellbeing.”

Although Tom and Aimi are not operating the business full time at the moment due to their other jobs, they hope for it to eventually be their main focus.

Tom said: “Realistically at the moment, we don’t have the capacity to do it all, such as social media and the marketing side.

“However, we are doing as much as we can at the moment. We just want to get out there, do the workshops and provide this one-to-one support for families.

“We also want to eventually look at providing help for parents with children with additional needs, such as ADHD or autism.”

The pair have over 20 years combined experience of working with children and families.

Tom has worked in child social care for over 10 years and Aimi has been working as a midwife for over 10 years, is a qualified baby massage instructor and is also a co-founder of Lucina Mama Antenatal Group, based in Fernwood near Newark.

Both are also Federation of Antenatal educator registered (FEDANT).

Anyone who is interested in the workshops or packages can find out more at the Soothing Tots website.

Would you attend one of these workshops? Let us know in the comments.