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Don’t worry this is a very common toddler sleep issue but one you should try to nip in the butt as often if you need to stay with your child until they go to sleep she will most likely wake during the night looking for you and needing you to help her return to sleep.

To avoid this issue forming, the phrase “I’ll be back to check on you” is very important. If your child is looking for you to stay, say sorry but you can’t but what you will do is come back in a minute to check on her, and do! Say goodnight to her, tell her you’ll be back and then return after a few seconds, praise her, tuck her in and leave saying you’ll be back again to check on her, reduce your interaction with her when you return but do give a reassuring smile, thumbs up or wink. Repeat this pushing out your response time by a few seconds until eventually your child goes off to sleep. Feel free to reduce your response time if you feel your little one is becoming anxious and then lengthen it again. She will go to sleep eventually!

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The number of naps your child has is not as important as the length of awake time between naps.  One baby may have 4-5 short naps while another has 3 longer naps, both are fine. If the awake period is too long between naps you run the risk of your baby becoming overtired which will inhibit their ability to settle for their next sleep.

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Age

I find the best time to wean a child off a soother is between 6 and 9 months of age or else wait until your child is 2.5/3 years old.  When used for sleeping the soother can sometimes be the cause of lots of night awakenings for babies as they don’t have the hand-eye co-ordination to replace the soother for themselves leading some babies to wake multiple times a night looking for it. In this scenario, I feel it is important for them to learn to settle without it as it is greatly inhibiting their sleep quality.

Children can usually find the soother for themselves when they are about 1 year old therefore it no longer disrupts sleep. I find it is best to wait until the child is older and you can explain why you (fairy/santa etc.) is taking the soother away and implement a reward system. I find taking the soother off a child between the age of 1 & 2.5 years too difficult as they don’t understand why it is gone and leads to a lot of heartache and tears all round.

Sleep Without Soother / Dummy

When you take the soother away your child is going to need to learn how to settle in another way. This will take time to learn. Therefore, be prepared for a few long evenings and periods of wakefulness during the night. Always remain calm with your child and empathetic but don’t introduce any habits you may regret later.

Babies
Use a very gentle settling technique whereby you are responding to your baby very frequently but don’t replace the soother with a bottle/breast/rocking….. dependency or your help will continually be needed during the night. If you use a gentle consistent response at every wakening you baby will learn how to settle themselves to sleep and resettle during the night without any assistance usually within 1 week.

Older child
Your child will need to learn how to wind themselves down and stop thinking about the soother, I find audio books can really help with this or soft gentle music, introduce a few nice breathing exercises with your child if you find he/she just cannot relax. Most of all be very patient and empathetic this is a big step for your child and it will take a little bit of time. Be prepared to be up during the night. Do try to avoid introducing any habits such as staying with your child until he is asleep. Remind your child you will be back to check on him and do check on him every 1-2 minutes until he eventually falls off to sleep. Your child will, in a little bit of time, with patience and consistency learn how to settle/resettle himself without the soother.

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In the beginning, your newborn woke to feed around the clock. You probably expected this, so it wasn’t much of a shock that you had to drag yourself out of bed at 2 am and then again at 4 am to feed her. You might have even embraced zoning out to crap TV while you coaxed your little one back to sleep.

Eventually though, as the weeks of sleep deprivation stretched to months, the novelty probably wore off and life may have become more difficult. Your sleep deficit mounts and overall fatigue might begin to take its toll on you physically and emotionally. Depression is one result of chronic sleep deprivation. Decreased cognitive function is another area where you might begin seeing an impact from missing sleep. In layman’s terms, you might begin forgetting details and your multi-tasking abilities could suffer. Effective communication and alertness often lapse, also.

So, what can you do? First of all – go easy on yourself. Remind yourself how difficult your job is and give yourself permission to simplify life when you feel frazzled. While your baby struggles with a sleep schedule, realize that sleep for yourself should be a high priority. This means that you should choose a nap over washing dishes or scrubbing the kitchen floor. Aim to get eight hours of sleep in every 24-hour period, adding up all the broken sleep you get during the daytime and the night-time hours. You might relax and sleep more easily if you reduce screen time during the night-time hours. Watching television or hanging out on the computer can interfere with your body’s natural release of melatonin, which helps relax you for sleep. Try cutting out screen time in the hours before bed and overnight when you should be sleeping and you might sleep better when you have the opportunity to sleep.

Above all else – know that for most children the season of sleep challenges is just that – a season, if you would like to change season’s early email/phone Baby Sleep Academy and we can arrange a consultation.

– The main image above is by EveryStockPhoto.

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Flipping Babies
It’s common for babies to mix up their days and nights – especially during those early newborn days. Whether this tendency comes from time spent in utero or it’s the continual round-the-clock feeds, babies often like to hang out with eyes wide open during the overnight hours.
A common old wives’ tale persists that involves flipping a baby over to reset a sleeping schedule. According to this sleep solution, you simply lift your baby and flip her forward, head over heels. The belief is that this physical flip will reset the baby’s internal schedule so the little one will magically sleep during the nighttime hours and remain more wakeful during the daytime hours.
While you won’t do any harm if you decide to try this old-fashioned sleep remedy, do use care as you maneuver your baby.
Flipping is not something I would recommend! You will likely have more luck with nighttime sleeping if you focus on feeding your baby frequently during the day, stimulating her with light, spending time talking to her and playing with her and wake her every 2-3 hours during the day. During the night, keep activity low-key, dark and quiet to encourage sleep.

Extending Awake Periods
Your mother might advise you to try to keep your baby awake throughout the day to encourage better sleep habits at night. While this tends to make sense in theory, you might run into some unpleasant side-effects from a baby who has been awake all day.
When a baby doesn’t get the regular naps he needs throughout the day, he will become overtired and overstimulated. An overtired baby usually becomes frantic, which can make it difficult for him to settle into sleep and can cause sleep disturbances. You might even find that your baby fights sleep and wakes more quickly when he’s overstimulated.
Instead of creating a situation that involves overstimulation and an overtired infant, strive to create a regular schedule of napping and nighttime sleeping. Your little one will eventually acclimate to the schedule and his body will embrace the expected sleep more readily. It’s usually best to put your baby to bed before yawning and eye-rubbing begins because this avoids overtiredness.

Rice Cereal
At one time, mothers were urged to put a few tablespoons of rice cereal into a bottle of formula or breast milk to help a baby sleep longer at night. The conventional wisdom stated that the rice cereal would keep the baby full for longer, which would lead to longer sleep periods.
The problem with adding rice cereal to a bottle is that it can begin cycle of overeating at a very young age. Your baby’s body won’t realize that he’s taking in higher calories with the same volume of liquid. Although this might sound harmless, adding cereal to a bottle can disrupt a baby’s natural ability to stop eating when full.
Scientific evidence doesn’t support the notion that adding rice cereal to a bottle will increase sleep time or decrease crying, either.

Rock-a-Bye Baby
Mom might urge you to rock your baby to sleep or use a moving swing or vibrating infant seat. While most babies enjoy motion immensely, a problem can occur if a little one becomes overly dependent on motion. If a baby becomes so accustomed to motion that he will not sleep without it, you’ve created a negative sleep association that could be difficult to break.
Instead of relying on motion 100 percent of the time, use it to calm your baby and ready him for sleep, but don’t allow him to sleep with motion all of the time.
By thinking carefully about sleep and the way you approach it with your baby, you can make wise decisions that will lead to positive sleep habits.

– The main image above is by EveryStockPhoto.

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