How to improve your baby's sleep from birth. All the secrets of children's sleep from Dr. Anna

It is important for young parents to understand how the baby’s rest period should proceed. Sleep for a newborn is a time when the body rests and gains new strength; babies grow in their sleep. How do you know how much sleep a newborn should sleep? Is it worth introducing a special regime, and what sleep phases does the child have? Moms and dads face all these important questions.

Infant sleep duration

Children are born weak, so the first weeks of their life are spent accumulating the strength required for development. While in the womb, the child got used to the aquatic environment. At birth, he finds himself in a different space, with a different atmospheric pressure, to which he has to get used to again. For adults the world around us It seems simple: the air is easy to breathe, the pressure of the atmospheric column goes unnoticed. Newborns have to make a lot of effort to breathe and make simple movements. Therefore, during the first days of life, the baby sleeps more, gains strength and gets used to the world. In the first month, the duration of rest is much longer than the period of wakefulness: babies sleep for about 20 hours, and eat the rest of the time. In the future, the baby sleeps less and less, and more strength will appear to explore the world around him.

Duration of sleep by month to year

The baby's sleep at first depends on how much time has passed since birth. Further, the duration of sleep in newborns varies by month:

• During the first 2 weeks of life, a newborn’s sleep takes almost the whole day (20-22 hours). At this time, he sleeps intermittently, since the baby does not yet understand when day and night begin. During the day, an infant sleeps for 2-3 hours at a time, and a little longer at night. He wakes up periodically to eat. If he does not receive milk every 3-4 hours, he will not have enough strength, so frequent awakenings are the norm.
• Over the next few weeks, the duration of rest slowly decreases to 16-18 hours per day. The baby is accustomed to the environment and can go without feeding for about 6 hours at night. During the day after feeding, he will not immediately fall asleep. Now he will study the world around him, only after that he will get tired.
• Infants' sleep begins to change by month from the third month. By the end of this period, it is enough for the baby to get 15-16 total hours of sleep per day.
• Within a period of up to six months, the transition to night rest, but he still needs rest breaks in daytime. In total, rest will also take about 15 hours, of which 8-10 are at night, the rest is divided into short naps for the baby during the day, 1-1.5 hours each.
• Over the next 3 months (from 6 to 9), the total rest time is reduced to 12 hours a day. Most of the time the baby rests at night. During the day, rest is required before lunch and in the afternoon for 1-1.5 hours.
• From 9 months to one year, children need 10-11 hours of rest, which includes two short rest breaks during the day. Parents try to establish the baby’s daily routine and not disturb it.

How to organize your child's sleep

How much children sleep depends on their parents. Newborns' sleep at night can be made longer by introducing an approximate sleep schedule from 2-3 months. Gradually, infants get used to the routine and quickly switch to nighttime rest. To introduce the regime, parents do the following:

• They try to keep the same time every day when they put the baby to bed for the day.
• The period of wakefulness before bedtime is slightly extended to tire out the baby.
• To ensure that the baby sleeps soundly at night, they bathe him, feed him, communicate with him, and sometimes take him for a walk. All these actions are important for infants to sleep.

Attention! You should not delay the period of wakefulness, otherwise the baby will be capricious and make it more difficult to fall asleep.

Starting from six months, children better grasp the daily routine - this is the ideal time to introduce a clearer routine. During this period, many parents try to accustom their baby to the following procedures:

• In the morning, his mother washes him.
• In the evenings he bathes in the bath.
• All procedures are accompanied by repeated words and songs so that the reaction to familiar actions is triggered.

Baby's sleep in 1st year

Parents can track their newborn's sleep by month using a short table.

Sleep intervals up to a year

Night time

At first, the baby will sleep almost around the clock. Periods for night and day rest are not separated. From 3 months, when babies get better night sleep, the intervals between feedings also increase. At night, the baby can go longer without feeding. Gradually, children begin to sleep continuously at night; by the age of one year, the duration of night rest in total decreases to 10 hours.

Daytime rest time

Daytime rest is formed in infants from 3 months, when during this period they rest more at night. Up to six months, children sleep in short intervals three times a day. From 6-9 months, daytime rest is required twice a day. Gradually, by the year, parents can introduce 1 rest break.

Sleep phases in infants

An adult's sleep contains about 6 phases. When children are not yet a year old, they have only two phases:

1. Deep. Children during this period are relaxed, the body is resting right now.
2. Surface. The baby continues to rest, but this is accompanied by body movements: he may open his mouth, open his eyes, change his facial expression. During this period, children are easy to wake up; they themselves often wake up from their own touch of a hand or a start.

Impact of phases

Most of a child’s dream is occupied by the deep phase (60%), the rest is superficial. During the entire rest period, these phases alternately replace each other every 20-30 minutes. In children under six months of age, the phase change cycle is about 50-60 minutes: 30/40 minutes deep sleep and 20 minutes shallow sleep. Up to a year, this cycle increases to 70 minutes.

After a year, children will gradually add other phases. In order not to disturb them, parents maintain silence and switch to dim lighting (draw the curtains, turn on the night light).

If your baby confuses day with night

For healthy development, the baby sleeps the prescribed number of hours at night and during the day, but it happens that he seems to confuse the time of day. The reasons why this happens can be different:

• Difficulties with night sleep occur when the child has poor and restless daytime sleep - often wakes up. He does not have time to rest, becomes overexcited and sleeps more restlessly at night.
• A good rest for children is possible in comfortable conditions. If the baby has wet diapers, clothes that are too hot, or dry air in the room - all this can affect anxiety. This shifts the night's rest hours.
• Lack of fresh air can make it difficult to sleep. Before going to bed, try to ventilate the room.
• A walk outside tires the baby in a timely manner and helps him fall asleep more soundly. In winter, frost promotes deep sleep; in summer, children get tired of the heat faster.
• The cause of anxiety may lie in abdominal pain.

How to improve your sleep

In order for children to develop according to their age, they need rest. Parents can anticipate problems with falling asleep and sound sleep in advance.

Children often get used to sleeping with their mother and feel fear without her presence. Rest in a crib will be calmer. Here the baby feels comfortable. To organize a relaxing holiday, the mother tries to satisfy all the baby’s needs before bedtime.

When the baby is put to bed, the parents stay close and talk to him. He falls asleep more calmly when he feels the closeness of his parents. Parents can leave when they are sure that the baby is fast asleep and leave the door open. If he starts screaming and crying, they react immediately.

From birth to one year, children's sleep period changes smoothly every couple of months. Parents are guided by the time norm given above, but this is not a mandatory number of hours; it may differ for everyone. The gradual introduction of the regime allows you to transfer the child first to night rest, then evens out the daily regime.

Video

If you are interested in the child’s sleep time (child’s sleep up to one year, from one year to 2 years), the reasons for the baby’s sleep disturbances and ways to solve the problem, why the child wakes up and cries in his sleep, if you want to improve your child’s daytime sleep, then I highly recommend reading this article Olya:

upd: if you want to stop night feedings (night “hanging” on the chest), but plan to continue breastfeeding, are worried about stimulating lactation, read the comments!!

SLEEP - Main problems and how to help
While it is still possible to force someone to eat (although it is not necessary), it is impossible to force them to sleep. The enormous changes that a child experiences during the first 2 years of life involuntarily constantly disturb his sleep, and pose an eternal task for us, parents, to help them cope.
Listed below are the most common sleep disorders, their causes, and solutions.

DAY DREAMS ARE TOO SHORT

Short daytime naps are the real bane of a good routine! A 30-minute nap usually means that the child OVERWALKED during the previous waking time. A 45-minute nap can mean either OVERWALKING (then the child will most likely wake up crying) or UNDERWALKING. Therefore, it is important to know how long your child was awake. If he walked for an hour and slept for 45 minutes, it might be worth lengthening the time he was awake; if he walked for 2 hours and slept for 30 minutes, it might be worth shortening it.

Whatever the reason for a short nap, the child will not be rested, and therefore will not be able to withstand the next nap. normal interval for his age. Therefore, for the next cycle (and possibly for the whole day), the WB needs to be reduced.

Therefore, if a child has had a short nap and you cannot put him to sleep further (the time spent trying to put him to sleep counts towards the WB of the next cycle), it is worth offering them a short, quiet wakefulness not in the bed (but possibly in the bedroom), and putting him there after a while. It's time for one more nap. Your feeding schedule may shift, but with short naps it is more important to let them get enough sleep (and not let them get HYPER-FATIGUE).

So although you plan the day in cycles taking into account the usual WB, in fact the WB and the whole day depend on the first daytime sleep. If the first nap is long enough (more than an hour), repeat the same WB during subsequent cycles throughout the day. If the first nap is short (less than 45 minutes), reduce the nap in subsequent cycles by at least 30 minutes. .

The first 20 minutes of sleep are light sleep, the second 20 are deep sleep, between them there is a partial awakening during the transition in sleep phases. If the child has not yet learned to go through this transition on his own, or if he is hypertired, he may wake up after 20 minutes.

At first, it is better to help the child go through this phase (often the child “jumps up” during the transition)

There are several ways to deal with this:

The most important thing is good swaddling. This allows you to keep the limbs from throwing up, and the arms and legs do not wake up or frighten the child.

After your baby has fallen asleep, you sit next to him and help him make this transition by keeping your hands firmly but gently on his stomach (back) after he falls asleep and after 20 minutes you will feel the jump. The pressure from the swaddling may be enough, it may be worth hissing a little shush to get him to sleep. If you do this for a few days (don't worry if it doesn't work right away, the key is persistence), he will learn to switch between cycles on his own and you won't have to do it anymore.

For some children, biorhythms do not allow long naps during the day. Most babies have long naps between 1 and 2 months of age, then go through the nap stage (45 minutes) from 2 to 6 months, and then learn to take long naps again. You can understand what your child’s biorhythms are and whether his daytime naps are sufficient by asking yourself the following questions:
- has he ever slept for more than 45 minutes?
- Does he wake up from sleep crying?
- Is he capricious during the day, does he look tired?
- Does he sleep well at night?
If the answers are no, no, no, yes - then your child is most likely a “little sleeper.”

CHILD GETS UP TOO EARLY

Early awakenings (getting up at 4, 5, 6 am) are one of the most common problems, and one of the most difficult. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Children wake up for a variety of reasons, and some of them are completely solvable.

Getting up early is a subjective thing, and it depends on what parents consider early. A baby's normal sleep cycle is 7.30pm - 7.30am, however many babies are unable to sleep 11-12 hours until 6 months of age.

Causes of Early Waking Ups and Ways to Help
1. Hunger
The baby may wake up hungry because he is too young to eat enough to last for long periods of time.
In principle, by 3 months, most children are able to sleep 6 hours straight.
How to help: feed.

2. Habitual hunger

Children can learn to feel hungry. If you feed them at the same time all the time, they will get used to it and begin to wake up to feeding, even if they are not actually hungry.
How to help:
- gradually delay the time of morning feeding.
- gradually reducing the feeding time, then switch to simply laying her down, replacing her with a pacifier.
- replace feedings with water in older children.

3. External stimuli

Babies can wake up early due to light, noise, heat or cold (if dilated), a wet diaper, and so on.
Around 5 a.m., cortisol levels in the blood rise and the motivation to continue sleeping decreases. If the external stimulus is sufficiently constant, they begin to expect it and wake up out of habit.
How to help:
- blackout blinds, cover the window with foil (although the foil will make noise if the window is open)
- sleeping bags or blanket protectors
- the other is a double diaper
- toys to keep the child occupied
- bottled water (for older children)
- training to the alarm clock

4. Forced dependencies

Early rises can be the result of forced dependence instilled by parents. If a child wakes up for some reason, and without understanding it, you feed him, rock him or take him to sleep quite regularly, he will develop the habit of waking up at this time and will need the same thing in order to fall asleep again.
How to help:
- If you feed in the morning, gradually delay feeding
- If you do, look for another way to help them fall asleep.
- If you bring them to your bed, start accustoming them to staying in their bed.

5. Low need for sleep
All children are different, some need less sleep. Monitor your child's behavior and you can tell whether he is getting enough sleep during the hours he sleeps or whether he is in a cycle of hyperfatigue and overstimulation. If they really need less sleep, then you can go to bed a little later.

6. High expectations
If you expect too much sleep from your baby, he may start waking up early, simply because he has already had a good night's sleep.
How to help: Try cutting back on naps and/or moving your bedtime later at night.

7. Hyperfatigue
Often getting up early is caused by hyperfatigue, staying awake for too long, or chronic lack of sleep. If the WB before bedtime is too long, the child becomes nervous, irritable, and overly active. He finds it difficult to relax and may resist being put to bed. Hyperfatigue increases the number of times you wake up at night.
How to help:
Reduce your VB, watch closely for signs of fatigue, and act immediately when you see them. Make sure your nap schedule is age-appropriate.

8. First nap too early
Children wake up early if the first nap is too early. This leads to the fact that the final part of night sleep is separated, and passes into daytime sleep.
How to Help: Gradually and slowly move your naps a little later over the course of a few days.

9. Lark
The usual sleep phase is from 19.30 - 7.30. If a child is a morning person, he will be very irritable in the afternoon and early evening, and will wake up early and want to go to bed early, often in the early evening. A lark can be created by allowing the child to go to bed early (before 6 pm) regularly at night. The trend is more often observed in infants, and less often in children older than one year, many outgrow it over time.
How to help: Sometimes this can be changed, but it will take a few weeks. First you need to build a routine that starts at their early hour (say at 6 am), and then evenly shift the entire routine 15 minutes a day. The whole regime should shift - both daytime naps and feedings. Sometimes changing a lark is not possible, but most children outgrow it. If you have tried everything with patience and persistence, just accept that this is how the baby currently sleeps and he needs to go to bed early and so do you.

10. Stages of development I
Children wake up early when they experience new stages of physical or psychological development, sometimes to practice new skills.
How to help:
If the child wakes up in a good mood, then sometimes it is worth leaving him and he may fall asleep again. If this does not work, use one of the styling methods.

CHILD WAKES UP AT NIGHT

A child can wake up at night for a variety of reasons, and the method of correction will depend on how accurately we can determine the reason why night sleep is disturbed:

1. Forced dependencies
Everything that parents use to make their child fall asleep that creates dependence - the breast, pacifier, rocking, falling asleep in their arms, in a stroller, in a car seat - can turn into forced dependence when the child cannot sleep without external help. If any of these are used occasionally, it is usually not a problem. Also, if the baby falls asleep with the pacifier, then spits it out before going to sleep, and the parents do not rush to give it back, this will not be a problem.
In other cases, sooner or later this will lead to serious sleep disturbances (especially if the parents are unable to maintain dependence on all dreams).
How to help:
Wean off addiction.

2. Hyperfatigue before bedtime
Usually it manifests itself in the form of night awakenings in the first half of the night (1-2 hours after falling asleep), and is associated with a lack of daytime sleep, and too long WB in the evening.

How to help:
Work on your routine, lengthen daytime naps, reduce naps before bed

3. Incorrect feeding regimen
Feedings are too infrequent (less than once every 3 hours) for children under 4 months, and too frequent (more often than every 3 hours) for children over 4 months. Too frequent feedings lead to the fact that the child’s instinct to stock up on food stops working, and he stops doing this before bedtime, too, and begins to eat little by little and often. Also, after 4 months, children are often distracted and may eat little by little. Introducing complementary foods before the child is ready for them. There is a myth that after the introduction of complementary foods, children begin to sleep better, they often begin to wake up even more often, their tummy may hurt, they consume less liquid milk, and they may wake up from thirst.

How to help:
Feed in a dark, quiet room so that the baby is not distracted
Adjust feeding schedule to age appropriate

4. Fear of separation from mother (after 7 months)
The baby wakes up and needs to make sure he hasn't been abandoned and mommy will come back
How to help:
DO NOT IGNORE your child, spend as much time with him as possible, respond to his needs and requests quickly and caringly. Children do not manipulate, this is a real stage of development, and ignoring the need can lead to more big problems with sleep.

5. Inconsistency in styling.
An inconsistent attitude towards bedtime (either sitting with the child or leaving him to cry), the lack of a ritual confuses the child, and he does not know how to behave and what to expect, and becomes even more nervous.

How to help:
Introduce regular bedtime rituals and stick to them.
If you make changes, make sure those changes apply 100% of the time.

6. Respond to every squeak
Often, a child can talk in bed, coo, squeal, sigh, whine softly - this is often how the child calms himself down and helps him fall asleep. There is also crying “mantra”, it is quiet, mournful, subsiding at the end of each session - the child does not start yelling, does not call, does not express indignation. Many children calm themselves down with such crying; after 6 months, it can transform into a mournful “mooing” under their breath, and persist until adulthood as a way to calm down. Reacting too quickly, approaching the child, or interfering prevents the child from calming down on his own and only disrupts the process of falling asleep.

How to help:
Learn to differentiate between your baby's different cries so you know when you will respond. When in doubt, consider counting to 20-50-100 before reacting so you don't jump too early. ALWAYS approach loud, real crying.

7. Acute lack of sleep for several days, weeks, months.
Because sleep loss is cumulative, one day of insufficient sleep may not directly affect the next night, or the next few nights. If a child does not get enough sleep for several days in a row, then sooner or later it will hit him. This is most often seen in babies who sleep less than 7 hours a night at 3 months, less than 10 at 4 months, and less than 11 at 6 months, while not getting enough daytime sleep. Since lack of daytime sleep has a bad effect on night sleep and vice versa, it turns out vicious circle. Night awakenings are very common in children over 4 months of age if they go to bed after 8:30 pm, because they often wake up at 6-7 am anyway, that is, they do not get enough sleep at night. Some people start waking up earlier and earlier. And although not all children go to bed early, most do, and most benefit from it.

How to help: Put your child to bed early several nights in a row. This will allow him to sleep off. This may not immediately stop waking up at night, but it should help gradually. For example, if your child wakes up at 7 a.m., try putting him to bed at 6 or 6:30 p.m. a few nights in a row and see what changes. It may take some effort to style early, so do it gradually, say for half an hour each night. After 3 months, the recommended bedtime is between 6 and 8 pm.
Only you and your baby know how much sleep they need. Some need more, some need less. But if you're worried about waking up at night and your baby is sleeping less than the recommended amount at night, try increasing the amount of sleep at night and see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Sleep is the most important part in the life of a small child. The quality of sleep directly affects physical development, emotional state, behavior and mood of the baby. Therefore, it is important to ensure healthy and adequate sleep for your baby both at night and during the day. Let's find out how to improve a child's sleep and how much sleep a baby should sleep.

Sleep standards for infants

There are standards that indicate how much sleep a baby should sleep depending on age. However, keep in mind that the figures are approximate. Since the development of each child is individual, the time may deviate by 1-2 hours up or down.

Age	How long should a baby sleep during the day?	How long should a baby sleep at night?	How long should a baby sleep per day?
1 month	8-9 hours	8-9 hours	16-18 hours
2 months	7-8 hours	9-10 hours	16-18 hours
3-5 months	5-6 hours	10-11 o'clock	15-17 hours
6 months	4 hours	10 o'clock	14 hours
7-8 months	3-4 hours	10 o'clock	13-14 hours
9-11 months	2-4 hours	10 o'clock	12-14 hours
1-1.5 years	2-3 hours	10 o'clock	12-13 hours
2-3 years	2 hours	10 o'clock	12 o'clock

How to properly organize your child's sleep

Sleep organization plays a crucial role in how and how much the baby sleeps. There are certain rules for children's sleep, subject to which the baby will sleep peacefully. Organization of sleep includes the following recommendations:

• The baby should have a firm, elastic mattress and a flat pillow. In the first months, it is better to do without a pillow altogether. Instead, a folded towel is placed under the mattress, or a folded sheet is placed under the baby's head. When to use a pillow and which pillow to choose for a baby, read;
• Ventilate the room well before going to bed. The room should have a comfortable temperature for the baby, which is 18-22 degrees;
• Regularly remake the crib so that the mattress and sheet do not form folds and other irregularities that cause discomfort and disrupt sleep;
• Don't forget to change your diaper and diaper. The child should be dry and clean while sleeping;
• Be sure to feed your baby before bed. Breastfeeding calms the baby; he often falls asleep while sucking. Do not wean the breast until the baby falls asleep or releases the nipple on its own;
• It is important that mom is nearby. Constant and close contact with mother has a positive effect on well-being, physical and psychological state child. The baby will calm down and fall asleep sweetly;

• Bathing before evening feeding and bedtime will help your baby sleep calmly and deeply. Bathe your baby for 10-20 minutes. In the first month, the water temperature should be 36-37 degrees. Then gradually reduce the levels by a degree every four days. But until three months the temperature should not be below 33 degrees! Daily bathing will allow you to maintain hygiene, strengthen your muscles and system internal organs. If the baby is not allergic, you can add chamomile or calendula decoctions to the bath. Herbs will strengthen the immune system, prevent colds and help you sleep;
• In order for the baby to sleep soundly and not wake up often, in the first months doctors recommend organizing a joint sleep. How to do this correctly, and when to teach your child to sleep separately, read;
• It is necessary to swaddle a baby only when he is sleeping restlessly and waving his arms vigorously. At the same time, swaddling should not be tight! In other cases, swaddling is not necessary;
• After two weeks from the day of birth, you can begin to explain to your baby the difference between night and day. So, during the day, when the baby is active, turn on the lights, play with the child, and do not reduce standard noise (the sound of TV, music, etc.). At night, do not play with the baby; dim the lights when feeding.

Remember that breastfeeding is best way for putting the baby to sleep. However, do not rock the baby for too long. Children quickly get used to long periods of rocking and, as a result, then cannot learn to fall asleep on their own.

What to do if the baby is capricious, sleeps poorly and often wakes up crying loudly? First of all, determine the reason for this behavior. Sleep disturbances in a baby can be associated with colic and stomach pain, with the introduction of complementary foods, illness and discomfort.

To prevent your baby from suffering from colic, before feeding, place the baby on his tummy on a hard surface, and then hold him upright until he burps. Will help dill water, baths with herbal decoctions, light tummy massage in a circular motion clockwise.

With artificial or mixed feeding, problems may be associated with incorrectly selected milk formula. Do not introduce supplementary feeding unless it is urgently necessary! Mixtures may upset the stomach and cause allergic reaction at the baby. In addition, allergies can be caused by poor nutrition of a nursing mother, animal hair, dust, etc. Carefully monitor the condition of the baby!

After 4-5 months reasons bad sleep often hidden in teething. To reduce discomfort, you can use special and safe baby gels.

In addition, at 5-6 months, the introduction of complementary foods begins, which can also negatively affect the child’s condition. New products may cause food allergies, abnormal stool, abdominal pain. Carefully monitor your child's diet. Introduce natural, safe and hypoallergenic foods, start with small portions and do not try more than one type of food at a time. It takes two days to determine whether the baby has allergies or not.

Sometimes a baby cries because he lacks attention. Rock the child for a short time, talk, tell a story. By six months your baby should be able to fall asleep on his own! No need to get up at the first call. Wait and he will calm down on his own. However, severe crying that does not stop for more than 10 minutes already indicates a problem!

Psychologists have found that as early as the age of two, children can begin to have nightmares, and for no apparent reason. Night terrors, sudden awakenings and restless sleep indicate anxiety in the baby. Only a child psychologist can help you figure this out.

Main causes of sleep disturbances

• The baby moves little while awake and behaves little active image life;
• Excitability of nerve cells (bright light in the room, loud music, noise, etc.);
• Discomfort (uncomfortable mattress, wet diaper, hunger, etc.);
• Increased humidity or dry air, uncomfortable room temperature (too hot or, conversely, cold);
• Painful condition (colds and teething, colic, abdominal pain, allergies, etc.);
• Increased anxiety and restlessness in the baby.

How to improve your child's sleep

Once you have identified the cause, you need to take steps to eliminate the problem. Try to put your baby to bed at the same time! Don't wake your baby at night to feed. This disrupts the baby's biological clock. If he gets hungry, he will wake up on his own. Forcing a baby to breastfeed can be frightening, causing the baby to not latch onto the breast.

Habitual bedtime routines, which include breastfeeding, bathing, reading a fairy tale, will quickly teach your baby to fall asleep on time. In the first months of life, crying is associated with hunger. Breastfeeding a newborn at night is 2-3 times, during the day it can reach up to 14-16 times.

Many pediatricians recommend not to refuse the child and, at the same time, do not limit the duration of attachment. Every month the number and duration of applications decreases. After three months, the baby should sleep peacefully for 7-8 hours without feeding.

Feeding at night should be calm and quiet with dim lighting. Night feeding is abandoned already at 10-12 months of a baby’s life. Daytime feeding is carried out vigorously and actively. Talk to your child, sing funny songs and tell rhymes, play.

Do not allow an older child to play in the crib, as the crib should only be used for sleeping. But let your baby sleep with his favorite toy, which will give him a feeling of calm and security.

How to put a baby to sleep

• Teach your child to distinguish between daytime and nighttime sleep. Establish a clear sleep schedule;
• Don't let your baby become overtired, as overtiredness only interferes with sleep. As soon as you see that the baby is tired, rubbing his eyes and yawning, put him to bed!;
• After three months, begin to gradually establish a bedtime routine. You can take a bath, read a story, play a quiet game or sing a lullaby. Use what your baby likes!;
• Follow the sequence of actions of the daily ritual!;
• After 6 months, let your baby fall asleep on his own;
• Wake up your baby in the morning if he sleeps longer than expected. It’s good if you wake up your child at the same time;
• For children after 1.5-2 years, begin the transition from two naps during the day to one nap during the day. However, this transition is difficult, and to make the process easier, alternate days with one and two naps during the day. For one nap, put your baby to bed early in the evening;
• For older kids, you can offer an alternative. But choose the options so that they suit you too. For example, ask your baby if he wants to go to bed now or in 5 minutes. 5 minutes does not play a special role, and at the same time the child is glad that he chose;
• Let your child choose which toy he will sleep with or what pajamas he will wear.

Have you become happy parents with all the “delights” of this state? Don’t sleep at night, constantly worry about your child, count the number of diapers and feedings - in general, consider yourself a full-fledged parent. But, did you know that in Europe, for example, parents sleep at night and do not get up to see their baby even when he is 2 weeks old? They (European parents) go to work 3 months after the birth of the child, while maintaining breast-feeding. If the baby is producing at night, this means that the young mother can devote herself not only to diapers, but also to her appearance, family and career (depending on priorities). Whatever goal parents pursue in achieving a good night’s sleep for children, it is justified and quite realistic.

Pamela Druckerman, journalist, mother of 3 children: « With the birth of my first child, I lost my night. And I thought that this was the norm until I talked about this topic with French mothers. Not only do they look great after the baby is born, but they can also plan their day to within half an hour. Because their system of raising children does not imply sacrifice (unlike the post-Soviet space).”

European pediatricians say that a child should not be associated with the expression “not sleeping at night.” It is a misconception to believe that young children do not sleep at night.

Tatyana, 29 years old:“My daughter is 6 months old and it is already normal for her to sleep 2 hours a night. I get up to see the child 10 to 15 times a night - to feed, calm, change diapers, give a pacifier, etc. The little children of all my friends behave identically, so I wait until the child grows up and I can get a full night’s rest.”

Sleep training

In world pediatrics, there is a method for relieving parents of children under one year old from sleepless nights using so-called sleep training. What does this mean? The method is that even if the child starts screaming at night and, as it were, calling for his mother, he needs to be left alone - to scream. That is, the mother does not need to approach the child, much less pick her up and try to calm her down. As a rule, after 10-15 minutes the child calms down and falls asleep again. But many consider this method cruel and abusive towards children. After all, if small child screams at night, it means he is hungry, or his hair is dirty, or it is difficult for the baby to fall asleep without his mother.

So, if you want to follow the European sleep training method, try next night not running to your child at the first cry, but giving him the opportunity to cry out. Experts say that after just 3 nights you will sleep for at least 5-7 hours straight.

Sleep all night

The world bestseller “Sleep, Dreams and the Baby” says that normally a child of 3-6 months should sleep all night, that is, 8-9 hours. This time is considered parental time.

Parents in France follow this exact method. What is it? They believe that young children are no different from adults. Both have certain rhythms (phases) of sleep, lasting 2 hours. That is, normally a person wakes up every 2 hours and falls asleep again. An adult easily tolerates these awakenings - it is enough for him to change his position in bed, yawn, or even wake up to urinate at night and immediately fall asleep. A child under 2 years of age has an unformed central nervous system. Consequently, it is difficult for him to perceive the transition from one phase of sleep to another.

Day is day, night is night

What does this rule mean? The fact that during daytime sleep you under no circumstances close the curtains and windows from the penetration of light. The child must understand that now is day. Also, you can make noise in the background, turn on the TV and carry out your daily household chores while the baby is sleeping. If desired, relax with your child, but not in complete silence.

The goal is to instill in the child a feeling and understanding of the change of day and night.

WITH Tefania, 30 years old: “After I instilled in the child the sense of day and then night, he began to sleep much longer at night and only wake up to feed. And at 4 months we slept fully for 9 hours without waking up. I realized: motherhood is real happiness.”

The child will be there all night, realizing that in the morning the mother will get up and start going about her business. And she will do this during the day, and not at night. And at night there is silence and no one wakes up.

Parents' sleep

Timur Cohen, pediatrician: “I believe that the quality of sleep and life in general for new parents is just as important as that of the baby. Therefore, from the first days of the child, I teach his mother not to get up at night with the baby, to wait until he moves from one phase of sleep to another. If a child wants to eat, then, as a rule, he will scream for more than 15 minutes and then you can feed him. I don’t recommend picking up children at night.”

There is logic in this, modern pediatricians say. If a young mother, at the first cry of the child, runs up to him and takes him in her arms, then this will only excite him even more. nervous system crumbs. He will start crying harder and will not calm down until his mother sings a lullaby or waits half an hour until he falls asleep.

You should not approach your baby while he sleeps at night, if only because by doing so you are preventing him from learning to connect the phases of sleep together. As a result, a child even at 5 years old will wake up at night.

It is possible to teach babies to sleep through the night from birth, but provided that they are healthy and do not need medications or attention from parents at night.

Over time, parents will learn to differentiate between their baby's normal grunting and nighttime crying. In simple words - before you pick up the baby and soothe him, make sure he is sleeping.

Remember: Intermittent baby up to one year old with screams, feeding and prolonged rocking is the key to the development of insomnia in adulthood.