Sleep Training Babies

Sleep Training Babies


Contents:

How to Sleep Train a Baby

Baby sleep training is a term that seems to be funny and ridiculous. The fact is the term has the right to exist. It’s not a secret that a newborn baby can’t do anything. His/her life depends mostly on inborn reflexes. When it comes to learning how to do something, his/her parents are meant to teach their baby how to do whatever it is.

What You Need to Know Before You Get to Baby Sleep Training

As you know, a good sleep is the crux of the matter in terms of being in good mood and being healthy. Your baby also should have a good sleep since it guarantees that he/she will be healthy and all the members of your family will be in good mood. If you still doubt that these are exactly the parents who are responsible for training their baby to sleep, you need to read through the following theory on sleep training.

  • A good sleep is not about the number of hours you sleep, it’s about the quality of your sleep. When it comes down to the quality of your sleep, the thing that play the greatest role are comfort and your sleep being uninterrupted.
  • If a baby is healthy, by the time he/she turns 6 months old, he/she’ll be able to sleep all through the nighttime without waking up to eat or waking up because he/she needs to urinate and defecate.
  • You shouldn’t think that a longer sleep during a day can make up for the lack of sleep or absence of sleep during the nighttime. This belief that’s common among young parents is totally wrong.
  • Baby sleep training doesn’t imply that you should follow the rules of Spartan approach and be strict. The majority of approaches are known to recommend the so-called “comfortable and far from being strict” methods.
  • You shouldn’t refuse from breastfeeding your baby when you’re training him/her to sleep. Many parents are inclined to believe that it’s actually necessary. The truth is that it is a misbelief that may have a bad impact on the development of your baby.
  • In order to make the process of training as comfortable for your baby as possible, you may sleep in one bed with your baby for some time. You’ll be able to help him/her get accustomed to sleeping alone later on.

It’s important to remember that every baby and every family are unique. When training your baby to sleep you need to take the advantage of the bond between you and your baby. The bond is based on love. Anyway, only you are able to understand and feel your baby the best. No one else is able to do it.

Training a Baby to Sleep: Various Methods

when to start sleep training baby

In pediatrics, the most well-known approach is the Ferber method. Even though the method is well-known, it should be pointed out that many mothers consider it to be strict too much. Actually, this is really so. The fact is that Ferber recommends parents to put their baby to sleep in his/her own room. In case a baby starts crying, Ferber recommends to pay attention to it only when the baby seems to be close to hysterics.

Of course, such like recommendations resulted in a negative attitude towards the approach. As a result, there appeared alternative approaches on how to train a baby to sleep. These alternative approaches are less strict and more humane. Below you’ll find several tips that will help you to work out your own method of training your baby to sleep.

  • While putting your baby to sleep, you need to calm him/her down and assure him/her that mother and father will stay close enough so that he/she can call them any time he/she needs them. Caress your baby so that to intensify the effect your words have with the tactile contact.
  • Work out your own “ritual” when putting your baby to sleep. You may read fairytales aloud or sing lullabies. Find out what your baby likes and what calms him/her down.
  • If your baby is still worried, don’t stay indifferent to it. Show your love to your baby. Come back to him/her and calm him/her down once again. It’s important for your baby to feel safe.
  • In order to be able to react to the crying of a baby, some parents spend several nights in his/her room. Alternatively, they spend nights as close to the room of their baby as possible so that to be able to come to the baby on time.

As we said before, there is a method implying that you may sleep with your baby in one bed. However, if parents follow this recommendation, it often so happens that they turn out to be unable to pursue the purpose of training their baby to sleep. Before you decide to actually follow this recommendation, you need to answer a couple of important questions:

  • Is sleeping together with your baby is the best solution? You need to consider the comfort of everyone who us going to sleep in the bed. Very often, husbands disagree to sleep in one bed with their babies. The fact this method may have a negative effect on the relationships between parents themselves. Besides, do not forget that any of those sleeping in one bed may suffer from a troubled sleep. Consequently, it will cause discomfort for those who are sleeping in one bed with such a person.
  • Are you ready to refuse watching TV, having the light turned on, using your laptop or talking when in bed? You won’t be able to do all these when there is a baby sleeping with you in one bed. It means that you’ll have to radically change your habits that you got accustomed to long ago.
  • Will you be able to train your baby sleep in his/her own bed later on? Some babies get very much accustomed to sleeping in one bed with their parents. In such like cases, it may so happen that parents start to train their baby to sleep in his/her own bed only when he/she turn the primary school age…

You should remember that sleeping in one bed with your baby is the best way in terms of supporting and contributing to the emotional bond between a baby and his/her parents. This method is especially beneficial if parents work a lot and don’t have an opportunity to spend time with their baby during a day. Of course, such like a way of making the emotional bond between parents and their baby seems to be a little bit “artificial-like”. Still, it’ll be a great solution of problem for the nearest future.

Video: How to Sleep Training Your Baby.

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