If you’re struggling getting your baby to sleep at night, you are not alone. But don’t despair. There are strategies you can do to help your baby have better sleeping habits.
Making your baby sleep at night can be very challenging. This is because they don’t have sleeping schedule. They fall asleep anytime and wake up every few hours. As the parent, this can be overwhelming because when the baby doesn’t sleep, you don’t either. This can lead to tiredness and health issues which are the last things you want when caring for a baby.
Bad sleeping habits for babies are irreversible. You can sleep train your baby by practicing sleep routines that will help them figure out when it’s bed time. But first, it’s important to make sure that they are old enough for sleep training. Newborn babies have small stomachs and can easily get dehydrated. They require feeding every two to three hours to get sufficient nutrients that they need to grow.
Wait until your baby is ready for night weaning. About three to four months old. At this age, they can stretch their sleeping time for up to six hours without feeding. This is the best time to introduce sleep routines and help them develop good sleeping habits.
One of the most effective ways to sleep train babies is using dim lights about 30 minutes before bedtime. Dim lights or darkness releases melatonin in the brain which is a hormone that makes us fall asleep. Expose your baby to a bright room during the day then use dim lights when it’s time for bed. This way he/she will get familiar with the idea of day and night. Day when they can be active and night when it’s time to rest. Incorporate dim light with a quite surrounding to help the little one doze fast.
Allow your baby to sleep on his/her own. Put the baby in the crib when he/she is sleepy, not fully asleep. This would help the infant get familiar with his/her bed and feel comfortable with it. This lets the baby learn to self-soothe and fall asleep without your intervention. When you put a fully asleep baby in the crib and he/she wakes up, it would be difficult for him/her to get back to sleep without your help if the baby doesn’t recognize the surrounding.
Many mothers like to offer breastmilk to make their little ones fall asleep. While this is an effective way to help baby sleep fast, it can have a disadvantage. The infant will think that they need to eat to sleep or get back to sleep. This can be a problem when the baby drifts off in your arms while breastfeeding and you have to transfer him/her in the crib. The baby may wakeup upon putting him/her in the crib and it can be difficult to soothe the little one back to sleep without carrying him/her back. A better way to make sure that the baby is full before sleeping by moving the feeding time earlier.
It’s important to make sure that the baby gets enough milk (and food for babies more than six months old) before going to bed to avoid sleep interruption because of hunger. It is helpful to minimize snacking so the baby drinks good amount of milk before bedtime. You can determine when the baby is just snacking by keeping a 24-hour log of how many ounces of milk he/she can consume in each feeding. For breastfeed babies, you can determine it by how many minutes they are breastfeeding. If the baby doesn’t consume much milk than they usually consume when they are hungry, it means that they are not filling their belly enough to sleep through the night.
Allow your baby to nap multiple times a day. A well-rested infant actually sleeps better than an overtired one. If you think skipping a nap will make your baby sleep longer, then you are wrong. Babies’ stress hormones increase when they are tired. This causes them to sleep lightly. Which means they can be easily awaken by any small disturbances in their surroundings.
As a parent, you need enough rest to stay healthy and have sufficient energy to take care of your baby. It’s good to start sleep training your little one as early as possible so you can get back to how you used to be. It’s difficult to manage time and be productive when you lack of sleep at night. Try the tips you learned from this article to help you and your baby have a good sleep every night.
Isabella Whitmore is a mother of two. She likes sharing tips and guidelines about baby care to help especially first time parents to have confidence in taking care of their infants. She works at https://electrickettlesplus.com, an appliance website that offers a wide selection of electric kettles including BPA-free kettles which are safe for babies.