If you’re anything like me, bedtime doesn’t always go smoothly. Some days all is great and those last few minutes with the little ones snuggled up in bed listening to you finish the bedtime story are just perfect.
But there are many nights when the baby won’t go to sleep or your toddler asks for a drink for the 5th time, you’re frazzled from a long day and you just want the kids to GO TO SLEEP! On evenings like this, I can say for certain that I’m not exactly “emotionally available”.
Yet new infant sleep research suggests that parents who are “emotionally available” to their babies and toddlers at bedtime help their children to sleep better at night. Researchers videotaped mothers in 39 families as they put their babies to bed, and also had them fill out questionnaires and sleep diaries. Dads were recruited to participate in the research but not enough of them interacted with their little ones long enough and so the study focused on mothers. (more…)
A new study by researchers at SRI International in California has found that children who go to bed around the same time every night and sleep at least eleven hours get better results. Getting less than this was linked to lower abilities in language, reading and early math skills.
Many studies before this relating to baby and child sleep have published similar findings. In February, a study by academics in Finland suggested a good night’s sleep could reduce bad behaviour and hyperactivity in children.
Previous studies have found that babies learn and grow better when they nap and sleep well at night. Poor sleep habits in babies and children have been linked to obesity, hyperactivity, poor behaviour, slow growth and learning difficulties.
Despite the frequent studies telling us of the negative results our babies and children are suffering as a result of poor sleep habits, we still find it hard to teach them how to sleep through the night. (more…)
I can’t remember who told me you should never wake a sleeping baby. It might have been my mum, or maybe it’s something I heard a lot of people saying as I was growing up. And it does seem crazy to wake a sleeping child.
And yet, there are times when you should.
Take, for example, a newborn who has day and night mixed up. Your little mite is having beautiful long stretches of sleep in the day and then feeding all night. You need your baby to get most of his calories in the day so he gradually needs less feeds at night. Waking him every so often for a feed, change and cuddle throughout the day, is the beginning of teaching him the difference between day and night. (more…)
I like routines for my small people. They help me plan my day and they prepare my children for what’s going to happen next. My baby naps at about the same time every day so his body is ready for a sleep when I put him down, and this means he goes to sleep without any fuss. (more…)
The truth is that it’s rare any product will magically transform your hourly waking baby or toddler into a “sleeps through the night” dream child. Things are normally much more complicated than this.
But there are some products which really do help. Here are the basics: (more…)
This method of baby sleep training basically refers to returning and checking on your baby until she learns how to soothe herself to sleep without your help. Before starting any sleep training, you should first be sure that your baby is getting enough day time sleep, is over six months of age and is feeding well in the day. Never sleep train a baby who isn’t well.
After following a familiar and relaxing bedtime routine, put your baby in her cot while she is still awake and give her a few minutes to see if she might settle. If not, then go into her and calmly remind her it’s time to sleep. When sleep training, it’s really important that you don’t become visibly upset as your baby will pick up on it. Stay as calm as possible and remember that the end goal – a baby who sleeps through the night – will make this worth it! (more…)
The recent media coverage of Penelope Leach’s new book, The Essential First Year – What Babies Need Parents to Know, has focused on this sensational headline –
“Crying-it-out Harms Babies Brains.”
This media coverage is tough on the sleep deprived mother who hears that on the one hand that, if she doesn’t do something about her sleepless baby, he will probably grow into a sleepless child who will have problems with his weight and/or behaviour. And on the other hand, if she allows him to cry until he figures out how to fall asleep by himself, it may harm his brain.
I think it’s safe to say there’s a middle ground, which might be called “common sense parenting”. As parents we are faced with choices that we have to make on behalf of our children on a daily basis and these choices have to take into account the needs of our whole family. (more…)
There is no one answer to the age old question of how to get baby to sleep through the night. If there was, there wouldn’t be so many books, products and child sleep experts available to help! I wouldn’t be writing this blog post, and there wouldn’t be millions of exhausted parents frantically searching for a solution. However, here are 6 key steps you can follow which will encourage your baby to sleep through the night.
Keep in mind that under 6 months your baby may need feeding in the night and that you are teaching your baby how to sleep. This can take a while but by putting the right elements in place as soon as possible, it will make things easier for you all in the long run. (more…)
People often say to me that they have chosen not to use blackout blinds in the nursery because they don’t want their baby to get so used to only sleeping in the dark, that they can’t then sleep when out and about or on holiday and so on.
I completely understand this and if you have a baby who naps well, sleeps through the night and doesn’t wake at 5am, then please don’t bother investing in blackout blinds or anything else to help your baby sleep!
However, if your baby naps poorly or is an early riser, then blackout blinds can make a significant difference to your baby’s sleeping habits very quickly. (more…)
Using behavioural techniques including ‘controlled crying’ to help infants to sleep does not lead to later emotional and behavioural problems, according to new research by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.
The world-first study followed up 225 six-year-old children who had received behavioural sleep intervention as babies to assess their health including emotional wellbeing, behaviour and child-parent relationship. (more…)
