Our Baby News

The hallmark of an easygoing baby is one who tries to sleep through feedings. This is most common in the first few weeks of life, and you may have to resort to a few tricks to get a laid-back baby to feed.

First, feed her when she’s more likely to be awake: after a nap, before bathing her. Even if she’s a true sleep-n-eat baby, she has to be awake some part of the time to fulfill the “eat” obligation.

Second, place her in a more vertical position. Sit her up, with her chin cupped in your hand, and supporting the breast or bottle. The other hand should support her back and is in a good position to burp or pat her as needed.

Jiggle her gently while she’s feeding or perform some other light stimulation to keep her interest up. Blow gently on her forehead, tap the bottom of her feet, or get her partially undressed. The cooler temperature should help wake her.

“Back to Sleep”

The “Back to Sleep” campaign began in about 1992. It encouraged pediatricians to get parents to put their babies to sleep face up, following evidence that countries where babies primarily slept on their backs had a far lower incidence of SIDS.

Before the start of the campaign, about 25 percent of babies were put to sleep on their back; since then, this has risen to about 76 percent.

With a simultaneous decrease in SIDS deaths in the United States from five thousand each year to fewer than three thousand each year. A pretty tremendous difference that costs absolutely nothing.

The reasons why sleeping face down makes such a difference are still unclear. It probably has to do with breathing patterns during sleep, since SIDS occurs only during sleep.

How to Put a Sleeping Baby in a Crib (Without Waking Him Up)

Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles!” This lyric from Fiddler on the Roof referred originally not to the wonder of a man finding a girl to be his bride, but to getting a baby to stay asleep when they actually put him down in his bed.

If you’ve let baby fall asleep while you’re lying down or in a semi reclining position, forget it.

Game’s over. You have to be at least in a sitting position that you can get out of easily.

Then, a well-placed mattress, that is, on the uppermost notch, will minimize the descent (and spare your lower back muscles).

Keep a hot water bottle under the blanket if the room (and bed) is cool. Cradle him as you’re going down so that he doesn’t feel a cool breeze across his face.

Allow a little light in the room since the dark can be scary to a baby. Don’t shut the door right away—leave it open a crack.

Sleep: Basics

Getting your baby to sleep is one of the parental milestones.

For some babies it comes easily; others may need to be coaxed into a routine.

Sometimes if s all-out war. Some ways to improve your odds:

1.Develop a strict bedtime.

2. Lead up to it with a predictable series of quiet activities such as a feeding, bath time, reading a book.

3. Keep the noise level down.

4. Don’t roughhouse before bedtime.

5. Don’t provide nightlights or other artificial aids to sleep. She can do it on her own if you give her a chance.

The almost abandoned custom of giving a baby plenty of daily fresh air may have had a hidden benefit in helping the baby to sleep better at night, according to new research.

A study has found that babies sleep longer when exposed to plenty of light in the afternoon, a time when many mothers used to put babies in the garden in their prams or take them to a park.

Dr Yvonne Harrison, who led the study, said many mothers felt that it would be unsafe to leave a baby outside today, but putting the infant in front of a large window rather than in the darkened nursery was an alternative.

“Sleep deprivation is a big problem for many new parents. This research puts forward one theory that may help babies and parents get a good night’s sleep, which is good news for everyone,” Dr Harrison said. “This is an original finding and there are still many questions to answer. It may be that the babies are more active in the light,” she said.

Past six weeks of age, biologically driven bedtimes tend to become earlier.

If you are unable or unwilling to allow these early bedtimes, your child will become overtired. Common problems occur

(1) In the post colic child who is dependent on the family bed and breast-feeding to sleep but now wants to sleep much earlier than the parents do,

(2) Parents who have to use day care so extra time at night is required to bring the child home, or

(3) Dual-career families with long commute times from work. Solutions involve using others to help prepare the baby or child for bed (bathing, dressing for sleep, and feeding) and, as early as possible, the parents begin a brief bedtime routine. Although you will see |four child less at night, you will have lovely morning time. To really enjoy the mornings, some parents will have to go to sleep earlier themselves! Other parents may be able to alter their work schedule to come home early on some days or do some of their work at home in the evenings after their child has gone to sleep. Obviously, not all parents can come up with a solution.

If circumstances cause your baby to go to bed too late, do the best you can but try for the earliest bedtime possible.

Holidays, trips, illnesses, or other changes in routine might cause your two- to three-year-old child to give up napping and be very tired during the day.

Another common cause of no napping occurs when the child drops the morning nap but the parents do not make the bedtime a little earlier.

Over many weeks or months, your child develops “cumulative sleepiness” until he hits a wall and becomes way overtired.

In this state, it is difficult for him to nap because his body is geared up to fight the fatigue. When you try to reestablish the nap, he either just plays in his crib, or cries, or a combination of both.

If your child is substantially under three years old, try a temporarily super-early bedtime to help him wake up better rested.

In other words, for four or five nights, put him to sleep when he is drowsy at 5:00 or 5:30 p.m.

This might backfire and cause him to wake up too early. If this happens, for those four or five mornings,

The bedtime might be too late and/or the wake-up time too early, causing your child to be very tired in the morning.

This morning fatigue causes him to take a mega nap in the morning that interferes with his ability to take an afternoon nap.

As a result, he is not well rested in the late afternoon or early evening.

Or, scheduled morning activities might conflict with a nap around 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., resulting in a very late morning nap around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m.

Even if this is a brief nap, it may recharge your child’s battery and interfere with a long afternoon nap.

During the transition between two naps and one nap, roughly twelve to twenty-one months,

there may be some days when one nap works well and other days when your child takes two naps.

This transition time, however, might be associated with an inability to get in two naps when he clearly needs them.

The third nap, around 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., is variable:

It may be short, long, o&absent.

It usually disappears by nine months of age.

If it is a long nap, your child might be able to go to bed later at night.

But if it is too long, the very late bedtime might become associated with bedtime battles because your child is way past his biological time for evening sleep.

So either shorten (if your child is way under nine months) or eliminate (if your child is nine months or older) the third nap.

Even a brief, baby power nap lasting twenty to forty minutes late in the afternoon or early in the evening might interfere with an early bedtime.

So if you are struggling with bedtimes, consider eliminating this third mini nap and try for an earlier bedtime.

Sometimes, around nine to twelve months of age, a child falls asleep around 5:30 p.m.

and is up around 7:30 or 8:00 p.m., then is up playing with parents for a few hours until 10:00 p.m., and finally goes back to sleep but does not sleep well at night.

The parents think the child is taking a third nap at 5:30 p.m.

Before the morning or afternoon nap,

go outside to, briefly but intensely, stimulate your child with physical activity at the park or in the sandbox;

expose your child to light, wind, clouds, voices, music, traffic sounds; go for rides in the jogger or stroller.

Then tone it down as you get near nap time.

Now spend an extra long time soothing; include a bath if it is soothing in the nap time routine.

Make the room dark and quiet.

IMPORTANT POINT

If the morning or afternoon nap is sometimes way too short or skipped,

try to keep the child up and go to the next scheduled sleep time,

but move it a little earlier. Protect the sleep schedule.

REAL LIFE