newborn sleep

Six sleep mistakes parents make and how to avoid them

• Mistake 1 - putting your child to be too late
• Mistake 2 - relying on motion
• Mistake 3 - overstimulation
• Mistake 4 - skipping a bedtime routine
• Mistake 5 - inconsistency
• Mistake 6 - moving to a big bed too soon

 

Getting young children to sleep and stay asleep is one of the biggest challenges facing parents of young children. Fortunately we have some tips to help you identify common mistakes and improve the chances of your little one sleeping well.

 

• Mistake 1 - putting your child to bed too late

When you have been away all day, possibly working and busy, it can be tempting to keep your baby or child up so you can spend some time with them, however it's not a good idea to keep your child up.

When babies or young children get over-tired they find it more difficult to get to sleep and heaven forbid, they also tend to wake up earlier than if they went to bed at a more reasonable hour.

It's much better to have a bedtime routine in place and stick to it. Don't wait until your child is tired, yawning and rubbing his eyes to put it into action.

 

• Mistake 2 - relying on motion 

Have you ever breathed a sigh of relief as your baby calls asleep in his car seat? While this is great for a break, it's not a great idea to rely on motion to get your baby to sleep. While it's probably quite impractical in the long run, your baby is unlikely to get a deep restful sleep.

 

• Mistake 3 - overstimulation

 While you may have placed the mobile over your baby's cot to help soothe him, the movement and sound can actually be a distraction. It's better to put your baby to sleep in a darkened room.

As your child gets older a soft night light may help if your child feels afraid. It's even been found that watching TV just before bed may contribute to 1/2 an hour of lost precious sleep, which could well affect his mood and behaviour the next day.

 

• Mistake 4 - skipping the bedtime routine

Having a series of calming, pleasing activities before bed-time is important, as it prepares your baby/child for sleep. Create a routine for your baby that consists of a series of relaxing steps that happen in the same order at the same time every night. You can't expect your child to go straight from a busy day to bed, he simply won't get the sleep he needs.

 

•  Mistake 5 - inconsistency

A couple of times a week, when he's clingy, it's tempting to lie down with your toddler in your bed until he falls asleep. Or maybe you put your pre-schooler down in his room but allow him to crawl into your bed. Before you know it your bed is a family bed.

Your children won't be able to understand why sometimes you move him into his own bed and other times you let him stay. He'll simply start throwing tantrums until you let him spend the night with you, every night.

If you find yourself in this situation, ease your child out of your bed gently. Sit next to his bed as he falls asleep. Then after a few nights sit in the doorway, before leaving the room completely. Explain that when it's time to sleep he must fall asleep in his bed. Remain firm but kind and you'll get there.

 

• Mistake 6 - moving to a big bed too soon

If you move your child from a cot to a big bed too soon you may find him wondering around the house in the wee small hours. Before the age of 3 your child may struggle to understand the boundaries of bed.

The best thing to do is trial your child in a big bed. If after a week it's not working out, then move him back to the cot. In a couple of months give the bed another go. Try to stay relaxed about it all.

 

 

Typical sleep patterns

 

Newborns sleep a lot — typically 14 to 18 hours a day during the first week and 12 to 16 hours a day by the time they're a month old. But most babies don't stay asleep for more than two to four hours at a time, day or night, during the first few weeks of life.

 

So baby being up a couple of times in the night is very normal at this stage, although very tiring. 

What's going on?

Baby sleep cycles are far shorter than those of adults, and babies spend more time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is thought to be necessary for the extraordinary development happening in their brain. REM sleep is lighter than non-REM sleep, and more easily disrupted.

All this unpredictability is a necessary phase for your baby and it doesn't last long — though it may seem like an eternity when you're sleep-deprived.

What's next?

At 6 to 8 weeks of age, most babies begin to sleep for shorter periods during the day and longer periods at night, though most continue to wake up to feed during the night. They also have shorter periods of REM sleep, and longer periods of deep, non-REM sleep.

Somewhere between 3 and 6 months, experts say, most babies are capable of sleeping through the night. They're not talking about eight hours, though — they generally mean a stretch of five or six hours.

Some infants sleep for a long stretch at night as early as 6 weeks, but many babies don't reach that milestone until they're 5 or 6 months old and some continue to wake up at night into toddlerhood. You can help your baby get there sooner, if that's your goal, by teaching him good sleep habits from the start.

How you can establish good sleep habits

Here are some tips for helping your baby settle down to sleep:

• Learn the signs that mean he's tired. For the first six to eight weeks, most babies aren't able to stay up much longer than two hours at a time. If you wait longer than that to put your baby down, he may be overtired and have trouble falling asleep.

• Watch your baby for signs that he's tired. Is he rubbing his eyes, pulling on his ear, or developing faint dark circles under his eyes? If you spot these or any other signs of sleepiness, try putting him down to sleep. You'll soon develop a sixth sense about your baby's daily rhythms and patterns, and you'll know instinctively when he's ready for a nap.

• Begin to teach him the difference between day and night. Some infants are night owls and will be wide awake just when you want to hit the hay. For the first few days you won't be able to do much about this. But once your baby is about 2 weeks old, you can start teaching him to distinguish night from day.

• When he's alert and awake during the day, interact with him as much as you can, keep the house and his room light and bright, and don't worry about minimizing regular daytime noises like the phone, TV, or dishwasher. If he tends to sleep through feedings, wake him up.

• At night, don't play with him when he wakes up. Keep the lights and noise level low, and don't spend too much time talking to him. Before long he should begin to figure out that nighttime is for sleeping.

• Consider starting a bedtime routine. Familiar bedtime rituals set the baby up for sleep. The sequence of a warm bath, rocking, nursing, lullabies, etc. set the baby up to feel that sleep is expected to follow.
  - Warm bath. Give baby a warm bath with mahu Baby Wash , Soap and sulphate free with a soft natural Lavender scent, it will safely, gently and naturally cleanse baby’s skin, while relaxing and soothing baby before bed. Containing Chamomile which is wonderful for treating sleep difficulties, anxiety, restlessness, poor digestion, wind and colic in babies and Lavender to calm and relax, combating stress and crisis for baby.
  - mahumassage. Follow with a soothing mahumassage to relax tense muscles and busy minds with mahu Baby Massage Oil. It is useful for massaging into baby’s skin to treat anxiety, restlessness, poor digestion, wind and colic and aids in a healthy sleep, it contains Lavender: a beautifully smelling, and safe essential oil to use on baby, it is calming, and relaxing, combating stress and crisis for baby.

• Give him a chance to fall asleep on his own. By the time he's 6 to 8 weeks old, you can start giving your baby a chance to fall asleep on his own. How? Put him down when he's sleepy but still awake, suggests Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Sleeping Through the Night. Mindell advises against rocking or nursing your baby to sleep, even at this young age. "Parents think that what they do this early doesn't have an effect," she says, "but it does. Babies are learning their sleep habits. If you rock your child to sleep every night for the first eight weeks, why would he expect anything different later on?" Not everyone agrees with this strategy, however. Some parents choose to rock or nurse their babies to sleep because they believe it's normal and natural, because they enjoy it and their baby is thriving and sleeping well, or simply because nothing else seems to work.