Putting a baby to sleep often scares young parents. How to teach a child to fall asleep? How to put a baby to sleep without swinging it or carrying it in your arms for hours? What to do to make the baby sleep through the night? It is worth knowing that there is no one method to put your baby to sleep - sometimes you have to find your own way. And by looking for it, you can use some of the sleep trainers suggested by sleep trainers.
Contents:
- Putting a baby to sleep - when to start learning?
- Putting your baby to sleep: the most important rules
- Putting a baby to sleep: Dr. Harvey Karp's method
- Putting a baby to sleep: Dr. William Sears method
- Putting your baby to sleep: Tracy Hogg's method
- Putting your baby to sleep: do not use these methods
Putting a baby to sleepis not an easy task. The average newborn baby sleeps 15-20 hours a day. But you have probably heard many times that many new parents have only one dream - to have a good night's sleep. Paradox? Not really.
The toddler does not yet distinguish between day and night, so he does not necessarily sleep when his parents would like it. His sleep is different from that of adults - the child wakes up often, sometimes even every hour. This is because in newborns the REM phase (i.e. active sleep - the phase of rapid eye movements) accounts for more than half of the sleep time (in adults it takes about 20%). It alternates with the non-REM (restful sleep) phase approximately every 60 minutes. At the end of such a cycle, the toddler wakes up for a while. And if he can't fall asleep himself, he starts crying.
A child wakes up at night also because of hunger (because his small stomach requires frequent feeding of small portions of food), or because of a dirty nappy. That is why it is so important to teach your baby to fall asleep on his own. Whether in your own bed or in your parents' bed is a moot point even among experts. Some people advise you to teach your baby to sleep in his crib right away, as this helps to avoid despair later whenever you try to put your baby back in the crib.
Others, on the other hand, believe that the baby can sleep close to his parents, either in their large bed, or on a cot that can be moved to the large bed, thanks to which the baby sleeps very close to his mother. However, such a crib is only suitable for children who are still therethey don't try to sit up by themselves.
Putting a baby to sleep - when to start learning?
Between 8 and 12 weeks of age, your baby's sleep-wake rhythm becomes more regular; the infant begins to wake up and go to sleep according to the natural biological clock determined by the time of the day. And it is at this time that you can start teaching them to fall asleep on their own.
Putting your baby to sleep: the most important rules
Proven way tosuccessfully put your baby to sleepdoes not exist. After all, babies are very different and what works for one baby may not work for other babies at all. However, there are general rules that should be followed when you want to put your baby to sleep.
- First, you should carefully observe the baby. Some toddlers start rubbing their eyes when they are tired, others pull on the ear or hair. It's important that you recognize when your baby is getting drowsy and know when to start putting them to sleep.
- Help him learn to tell day from night too. In the room where the child sleeps during the day, do not cover the curtains and do not close the door, so that you can hear everyday noises, e.g. the sound of water or the murmur of the TV.
- Set a steady rhythm for your baby's day. Walking, playing, feeding or napping should always take place at the same time and in the same order. The last nap should end in the early afternoon - otherwise your child will not be able to fall asleep if they get enough sleep.
- In the evening, always put your baby to bed at the same time. Ideally between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. - after that, he can be very tired and find it difficult to fall asleep. Feeding, bathing and lying down should be in the same order.
- Try to silence your baby before going to bed. A warm bath, a gentle body cream massage, disguising the baby in pajamas, hugging and feeding the baby will help. The light in the room should be dim - a small lamp is enough.
Putting a baby to sleep: Dr. Harvey Karp's method
Ways to put your baby to sleepare eagerly watched by experts - and they offer their own. One of the most popular methods of falling asleep is the method of Dr. Harvey Karp, a well-known American pediatrician, described in the book "The Happiest Baby Around". This method is most effective in the first three months of a child's life (described by Karp as the fourth trimester of pregnancy).
Its name is the 5S method: swaddling, slide / stomach position stabilization, shusing, swinging and sucking. We start introducing the method by wrapping the baby in order to provide him with conditions similar to thoseprevailed in the tummy: tight and warm. The baby should be wrapped in an elastic swaddle or nappy, but in such a way that the baby can move them when he wants or need it.
Stabilizing the position is the next step: the wrapped baby should be placed on his hands in a position that is comfortable for him: on his tummy or slightly on his side (we do not put him in this way in the bed). Another element is the hum, which is also reminiscent of the time spent in the mother's womb, in which it was not quiet at all: sounds reaching the fetus are muffled, similar to those produced by a hair dryer, vacuum cleaner or poorly tuned radio.
Similar sounds can be served to your baby by placing a toy emitting white noise near the bed or by turning on the dryer. The fourth element is rocking: we place the baby on its forearms, support its head and rock it while walking - so it will feel like it is in its mother's belly again. The final step, if the previous steps have not put your baby to sleep, is suckling: you can use the breast, the nipple, or even let your baby suck on the nappy cone.
Putting a baby to sleep: Dr. William Sears method
Dr. William Sears is the creator of the concept ofcloseness parenting , acc. whose children develop best, having the greatest possible closeness to their parents and feeling a strong emotional bond with them. This concept assumes that you should be sensitive to the baby's needs and meet them without undue delay, as well as be close: breastfeed, sleep with the baby, carry and hug, respond to crying.
Dr. William Sears advises you to stay close to your baby when you put your baby to sleep. You can take a bath with him, then feed them, read a fairy tale, and finally - fall asleep, rocking on your hands, until he falls asleep. Then lie down with him. If the parents prefer the baby to sleep in his own bed, they should put him down only when he is deeply asleep: he is breathing calmly, his eyeballs do not move, the body is relaxed. Otherwise, the baby will wake up and the whole ritual will have to be repeated. And when he wakes up, he starts crying, you have to take him out immediately and hug him.
Putting your baby to sleep: Tracy Hogg's method
She is an English nurse and midwife with many years of experience, author of best-selling guides for parents. The technique she developed to put babies to sleep is called "picking up - putting down". One might think that she is in favor of letting a child cry out, but she is far from that view. The idea behind her method is to accompany the child while falling asleep, but discreetly and as far as possible - without too much interference.
In progressso there is a routine that needs to be introduced into the day: feeding - activity and play - sleep. A constant routine is designed to teach your little one that sleep is a natural part of ending the day. It is important to observe the baby: when he becomes cranky and distracted, then from the active stage we go to the process of falling asleep. Rituals should be its permanent element, e.g. covering curtains, turning on a lullaby, mum's quiet whisper: "it's time to go to sleep".
When we put the baby in the crib (as advised by Tracy Hogg), we do not move away from him, but we are close, keeping our hand on the baby's back, gently massaging it. When he starts crying, at first we try not to react, but we continue to stroke him - but if it does not work, we take him in our hands and calm him down. According to this method, you should not let the baby fall asleep on your arms, but when it calms down, we put him in the crib - but you still have to be close and take the baby out when he starts crying again.
This lifting and putting down should be repeated until the child falls asleep, which may unfortunately take a while. It is very important that the child is fully aware when putting it into the crib (and fell into a deep sleep only in its own bedding) because this method is about acceptance by the baby.
Putting your baby to sleep: do not use these methods
There are also many methods of putting children to sleep, which - to put it simply - are to let the child cry until he falls asleep. The most restrictive one is the one created by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, which consists in putting the baby in its crib, leaving the room and not reacting to crying - it will fall asleep when it cries. Its milder version is the so-called Ferberization, or the method of Dr. Richard Ferber.
This method is also about putting the baby back in its crib and leaving it to go to sleep. If he cries, we do not leave him alone, but look in - on the first day after three minutes of crying, then after five and seven. On the second day in the evening, when the toddler starts crying after putting him to bed, you have to check him in after five minutes, then after seven and ten minutes, on the third day after seven and nine minutes, and from the fourth day of schooling - after ten minutes.
Although the child, tired of crying, will eventually fall asleep, these methods are not worth using, because in the long run they bring very negative effects. For a young child, crying is the only way to communicate with parents - if they do not respond to him, it is a sign for the child that his needs do not matter. Prolonged crying is also stress during which the body releases various substances, including the stress hormone. These substances damage the neural connections in the brain,which may in the future affect the emotional development and psyche, intelligence or even disrupt the functioning of the whole organism.