Does Your Baby "Sleep like a Baby"? Here are a few tips to help your infant and toddler get into bed and sleep better.

Babies and toddlers are energetic and inquisitive little angels who just don’t seem to get tired of playing and exploring. Playing and exploring is very good for their growth and development, however, a good night’s sleep is equally important. In fact, according to many pediatric theories, babies (and even older kids) grow while they are asleep. Sleeping provides their bodies’ with the much needed rest, time for the body to recover from everyday stress and grow.
Nonetheless, putting our baby to bed may not be the easiest thing to do. We have heard of blessed parents who claim their babies go to sleep as soon as they lie in their beds. But mums and dads walking while holding their children, rocking them and singing to them in an attempt to get them to sleep is a more common sight. Soon after I had my first child, I began to doubt the truth of the phrase: “sleeping like a baby” and certainly I wasn’t the only one having trouble getting my baby to sleep. I have seen numerous parents trying frantically to calm an irritable baby in the middle of the night, when they themselves are too tired to stay awake. At other times, toddlers just don’t want to turn the TV off and go to bed.

Knowing the importance of sleep and rest, parents try almost everything in their power to help their child get a good night’s sleep. However, in the process of doing so they do, occasionally and obviously, lose patience and their nerves. I have even seen little toddlers driving their tired mums to tears. After a hard day, a naughty, uncompromising and not-ready-to sleep toddler (or baby) is the last thing we would want! So what to do?

In order, to solve a problem, we must first try to find the reasons behind it and same is true for this situation. Babies and toddlers may not want to go to sleep for the following possible reasons (under normal healthy circumstances):

1. They have been over-stimulated. Going to sleep is difficult in an over-excited state

2. They are too tired and have trouble falling asleep

3. They may be hungry!

4. They may not be as comfortable in their bed/cot/cradle as we might expect them to be.

5. They don’t want to part with their mum and dad and sleep alone.

Over the years through my own experience, the experiences of friends and family members, and advice of the “old wives” I have found the following “solutions” to work best.

1) Solutions to prevent over-stimulation (and what to do if the baby is already too excited!): Over-stimulation can cause babies to stay awake for longer and make it difficult to go to sleep. It is only too obvious. If the baby is happily employed in an exciting game he/she is really interested in, it would seem too boring to leave it so soon and go to sleep. Asking them to leave what they are doing would make them a little rebellious and disturbed (even if they are but only young babies).

a) A Nice, Warm BATH: Bathing helps calm and relax the baby. A relaxed baby will go to sleep quicker and sleep better.

b) Avoid playing exciting games with the baby/toddler few hours before bed time.

c) Avoid loud music/TV which can cause over-stimulation.

d) Turn off the flashy lights and use dim lights half and hour or so before bed time. Creating an atmosphere that the whole family is getting ready to go to bed will convince the baby to get ready for bed as well.

2) When the baby is too tired:

a) Some babies cannot sleep when they are too tired. It’s just like some adults cannot sleep when they are too stressed out. To prevent such a situation, allow small nap times during the day. However, try to keep the nap time short other wise a well-rested baby may not want to go to sleep.

b) Massage: A nice massage can help relieve the stress and relax the baby. However, giving a good massage to baby needs a little bit of skill and a lot of care. Parents or care givers should be very careful when massaging babies’ because they have very delicate bodies and malleable bones.

c) Don’t allow them to wear themselves out! Babies who have learnt to crawl and toddlers who have just taken their few steps can be too tempted to practice their new learnt skills all the time and unintentionally get very tired. Remember they are only babies, they cannot walk all the way to the grocer’s and back like their mum and dad (even if they wanted to) and then keep running around long after that without getting tired!

Parents and care givers need to take care of this on their own. Babies and toddlers may never want to sit and relax but try engaging them in slower activities so they may sit for a while and relax a bit like ask them to play with dough or have a look at the fish in the aquarium, or sit and watch a nice baby show on TV/ DVD. Very tired little legs may need a massage at night is they don’t stop skipping around all day!

3) It is very obvious that hunger can cause sleeplessness. Parents feed children regularly through out the day so how can they be hungry? Babies tend to eat or feed at regular intervals. So how to make sure babies are not hungry just before bed:

a) Meal times should not be too far from bed time (like a four or five hour gap between them can make a child feel hungry). If you feel its appropriate give them a short healthy snack an hour or so before bed.

b) However, don’t be tempted to put a baby to bed with a milk bottle. It can cause discomfort as the baby may need to burp even when asleep and may not be able to do so without assistance and hence may cause him/her to wake up.

4) Make sure they are completely comfortable:

a) The mattress should be flat but not to hard or too soft.

b) Blanket must not cover their head or face or especially nose. The baby must not be having any difficulty in breathing. You might be surprised but sometimes a much wrapped baby may start feeling claustrophobic. Since he/she cannot tell verbally, he/she will keep crying or remain awake and fussy.

c) Keep the room temperature comfortable, neither too warm nor too cool. If we are feeling alright then a light blanket over the baby would be just fine. Over wrapping and over warming even in cold weather can make them uncomfortable and irritable.

5) Try Attachment Parenting: Some babies just don’t want to part from their mums even at night.

a) Allow the baby to cuddle with you if possible. Sleep sharing suits many households and works for many parents since it has numerous other benefits for both parents and babies.

b) Carry the baby in a sling and trying putting back in bed when he/she is fast asleep. This really worked for a friend of mine.

Some other useful tips:

If the above methods are not working, here are a few more tips:

 Rock the baby: Slight rhythmic motion at a comfortable pace calms the baby and helps them go to sleep.

o Try sitting in a rocking chair with the baby in your arms. Rock gently; the baby will be asleep in no time!

o Try putting the baby to bed in a rocking cot/cradle

o Does your baby fall asleep when you go out with her in the pram? Try it inside the house, if it’s too late to go out (at night it is of course too late for a walk). Make the baby comfy in a pram and move it to and fro gently (not too fast), the right pace will do the trick.

 Soothing music, like the one in a child’s mobile can soothe and relax a baby and help falling asleep.

 Don’t be hasty with putting a crying baby to bed. Take a deep breath, calm down and concentrate on calming the child first. A cranky baby can take much longer to go to bed.

 Last resorts:

o Take the baby for a drive. But remember it is a last resort. If you make it a habit that you take the baby out for a drive every night he/she is cranky, he/she will want to sleep only when he/she is taken for a drive. So be careful. Use this resort only when nothing else works.

o Use a soother or pacifier to soothe the baby. As soon as they are relaxed, try taking the soothers away. Never put a baby to sleep with soother in the mouth and I repeat Never! It can cause breathing difficulty, other associated problems and even SIDS! Be very careful.

Babies are our little angels and we do everything in our power to keep them comfortable. The above was a little advice based on personally tried and tested tips to help babies sleep better so that you can too! :)

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