Blog
Babies, Toddlers, Kids & Childrens
30 -
Ferberizing your Fussy Baby to Sleep
Richard Ferber is
director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at
Children's Hospital in Boston who believes in a
“progressive” approach to helping your child fall – and
stay – asleep.
Ferber has developed a
forward-thinking plan of action to instill consistent
and regular sleep patterns in your child. Briefly, he
suggests that after a warm, loving pre-bedtime routine
such as singing, rocking, or reading a book, you put
your child to bed while she's still awake. According to
Ferber, putting your child to bed while still awake is
crucial to successfully teaching her to go to sleep on
her own.
Once you put her in bed, leave the room.
If she cries, don’t check on her until after a specified
amount of time has passed. Once you do return to her
room, soothe her with your voice but don't pick her up,
rock her, or feed her. Gradually increase the length of
time that passes between checks. After about one week,
your infant will learn that crying earns nothing more
than a brief check from you, and isn't worth the effort.
She'll learn to fall asleep on her own, without your
help.
Ferber says that there are a number of
things that may interfere with your child's sleep.
Before you "Ferberize," you should make sure that
feeding habits, pain, stress, or medications are not
causing or contributing to your baby's sleep problems.
Ferber recommends using his method if your baby is 6
months or older. Like most sleep experts, he says that
by the time most normal, full-term infants are 3 months
old, they no longer need a nighttime feeding. And at 6
months, none do.
Ferber’s method can be modified
if you feel it’s too rigid. Stretch out Ferber's
seven-day program over 14 days so that you increase the
wait between checks every other night rather than every
night.
28 – Swaddling your
Baby is Sweet
The practice of baby-swaddling dates back centuries
and is still common in many cultures. Swaddling involves
wrapping a baby securely from shoulders to feet with a
small blanket. American Indians and people from the
Middle East use bands and more sophisticated swaddling
techniques, but more traditional swaddling techniques
are still practiced in such countries as Turkey,
Afghanistan and Albania.
Not only can swaddling
be a great way to calm and sooth a fussy infant, it’s
also been shown to lower the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome). At the age of three months, when the
risk for SIDS is greatest, traditional American
swaddling techniques allow a baby to escape. It allows
the baby to stay in a more stable position while
sleeping, thereby lowering the SIDS risk. In addition,
swaddling has been shown to help Babies, Toddlers, Kids
& Childrens sleep longer and
more restfully by preventing the sudden movements that
can cause them to wake up, thereby improving mom and
dad’s sleep quality and quantity also. Babies, Toddlers,
Kids & Childrens who are
swaddled are said to feel secure, similar to how they
felt while in utero. It can also assist in temperature
regulation, keeping baby nice and toasty warm while
sleeping.
A couple of additional perks to
swaddling come during waking hours, too. A swaddled baby
is easy to carry and hold ??an adorable, compact little
package. It can also help baby focus on breast or bottle
feeding by keeping little hands out of the way.
Swaddling usually works best from newborn to
approximately four months, but if baby is used to being
swaddled, and then it might be utilized even longer.
Babies, Toddlers, Kids & Childrens just being introduced to swaddling may require an
adjustment period. Modified swaddling, such as leaving
arms free while swaddling the rest of baby’s body, might
be needed when first introducing the practice to your
baby. The blanket should always feel snug but not tight.
Take special care to ensure baby’s circulation is not
compromised in any way or that baby is not
uncomfortable. Ask a nurse, physician, midwife or other
knowledgeable healthcare practitioner to demonstrate the
correct technique for swaddling your baby.
25 – Avoid
Stimulating Your Baby during Night-time Feedings
As your newborn baby grows, it is slowly
acclimating to sleeping at night and being awake during
the day. Also, as baby's stomach is growing and holding
more breast milk or formula, it will be able to go for
longer periods between feedings at night. At
approximately three months of age your baby will likely
sleep about 15 hours out of each 24-hour period, and two
thirds of that sleep will take place during the night.
Most Babies, Toddlers, Kids & Childrens will have settled into a daily sleep routine
of two or three sleep periods during the day, followed
by "sleeping through the night" for 6 to 7 hours after a
late-night feeding.
You can help adjust your
baby's body clock toward sleeping at night by avoiding
stimulation during nighttime feedings and diaper
changes. The act of breastfeeding itself provides
frequent eye and voice contact, so try to keep the
lights low and resist the urge to play or talk with your
baby. This will reinforce the message that nighttime is
for sleeping. Keeping the door closed to keep out
well-meaning but vocal older children, spouses and pet
will also keep reduce stimulating your infant. Avoid the
use of musical mobiles or toys as a way to lull your
infant back to sleep after night-time feedings. This
will also help to reinforce that nighttime is for
sleeping.
And, as with adults, overly tired
infants often have more trouble sleeping than those
who've had an appropriate amount of sleep during the
day. So, keeping your baby up thinking that he or she
will sleep better at night may not work. You may find
that when your infant sleeps at regular intervals during
the day, it will be easier to put them back down to
sleep after night-time feedings.