Seven tips to get your baby to sleep!
If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re very tired. You may even be overwhelmed and tearful, and you may be desperately seeking for answers that will help you finally get a good night’s sleep. As pediatricians who see new moms daily, we completely understand.
Babies are wonderfully amazing additions to a family but many struggle to sleep well and this can put a huge dampener on a parents’ wellbeing. Parents often state their babies are “too nosey” to sleep well, or will “only cat nap” or perhaps wake up as soon as they are put down. These are all normal traits but it is important to know that learning to sleep well, can be taught, like any other skill.
Here are our top 7 tips for helping your baby sleep through the night.
1. Start as soon as possible
We recommend a flexible routine right from birth and delivery. While sleep training can safely start at around 6 months of age, if you start with small steps and good sleep habits from birth, you may never even need a sleep program!
2. Educate yourself
Read about sleep before you have your baby. Decide where your baby will sleep , and what their environment will be like. Decide on things like swaddling, home temperature, bath time , pacifiers early on. It is okay to veer away from your decisions, but try to have a bit of a plan before even having your baby.
3. Have realistic expectations
Depending on your child’s age and habits, getting your baby to sleep through the night can realistically take weeks. These will be difficult weeks, as many babies and toddlers are canny when it comes to getting their way in the wee hours of the morning. Try to keep this in mind, stay strong, and remember that children may know what they want, but do not often know what they need. A good sleep schedule will give them years of rewards , despite how much resistance they may be giving you now.
4 . Don’t talk to the talk if you can’t walk the walk
People often will complain that they are tired and wish their children would sleep well, but as mentioned above, sleep is a skill that can be taught, and parents will need to put the time in to teach this skill. Just think of it like teaching your child a sport. You wouldn’t expect them to pick it up in a day. It takes practice and consistency and most of all patience. Sleep is the same. It takes time, patience and work.
5. Routine, routine, routine
The very foundation of a good sleep schedule (for kids and adults alike) is to have a consistent routine. We cannot emphasize this enough. It’s best to have a regular and consistent nighttime routine for babies from birth, even before sleep training. Make sure you’re following a regular schedule like feeding, a bath/massage, stories and songs, and put your baby to sleep at the same time every night (the earlier the better) . Starting at 2 months of age, it’s good to put your baby down drowsy but still awake , even if they fuss a bit , somewhere around 7-8pm at night.
6. Pick a sleep program and stick with it
Around 6 months of age, it’s okay to look into officially sleep training your baby. At that time, babies no longer *need* to feed at night and can safely sleep at night. There are many sleep programs available nowadays that have a myriad of tried and tested methods. Pick the program you feel most comfortable with and follow their advice. One example of such a program is sleepsense.com.
7. Don’t rely on tools to get them to sleep
This is important because whatever tool your baby uses to fall asleep, will also be the one that wakes them up in the middle of the night . Examples of such tools would be sound machines, pacifiers, etc…
Overall, getting babies to sleep through the night is no easy task. We recommend starting with sleep education before delivering a baby, having a consistent schedule from birth, and then sleep training babies around six months of age. Babies should sleep in a safe environment and on their backs to avoid the risk of SIDS. A good and early sleep schedule can help a child’s health in a wide variety of ways, including reducing the risk of mood disorders, obesity while improving overall health and school performance. Setting your baby up for a lifetime of benefit at an early age is an investment we recommend all parents make!
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