Do you often wake up because your baby is crying in the middle of the night?Do you have trouble falling asleep because your baby doesn't sleep?I think this situation is common, especially those new mothers, because of this problem many mothers languish, even helpless, the baby does not sleep, the mother can not sleep, how to alleviate this embarrassing problem?
If your child is older than 4 months old, before that age they’re still sleeping short periods all day long, there are solutions to the problem of sleep deprivation of the whole family.
Experts opinion on “baby not sleeping” problem
Many parents who let their children to sleep with them, felt guilty. This is no doubt because the SIDS organizations include it in possible risk factors.
Leading child health experts such as William Sears, Penelope Leach, and James McKenna believe that having your baby in your bed is an excellent solution to the “baby not sleeping” problem. Baby settles easily and everyone sleeps more.
However, our culture teaches us that having the baby in its parents’ bed is wrong, that it could cause mental harm to the baby and that we might allow the baby to develop poor habits. Not to mention that it might damage the relationship between mom and dad.
All of which, says Professor James McKenna of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, are just cultural assumptions. Not a scientific fact. Ninety percent of mothers around the world sleep with their babies. Even McKenna believes we are, in fact, biologically designed to sleep together.
It’s only in the last century that we have been asking: ‘Where will my baby sleep?’, he says. Also ‘What will my baby eat?’ is another question we’ve only been able to ask recently. “The biology of the baby has not changed in 200,000 years. So why have these questions arisen?”
“All the models of what is ‘normal’ for babies were constructed in the 1950s and 60s when we thought that babies should sleep alone and be bottle-fed,” he explains. When a baby cries because he is separated from its source of nourishment and comfort, his mother, we think the baby is behaving badly. When in fact his reaction is quite natural.
Sharing bed may protect against SIDS
Many health professionals and SIDS activists advise against sharing a bed with your baby because in some cases it can be a contributing factor to sudden infant death. This is particularly true when a parent smokes; when a parent is affected by alcohol or other drugs, especially sedatives; or when the baby becomes overheated or covered with soft bedding. However, James McKenna believes that in other cases sharing a bed may even defend against SIDS.
Researchers now link SIDS to failure to ‘wake up’ during sleep. McKenna showed that not only do mothers and babies ‘wake up’ each other constantly throughout the night (without fully waking each other up). But babies who normally sleep with their mothers spend less time in deep sleep, which is harder to wake up. Babies sleeping with their mothers also breastfeed longer and more frequently than babies who sleep separately. McKenna and his research colleagues conclude that ‘by increasing breastfeeding, bedsharing might be protective against SIDS, at least in some contexts’.
What this all boils down to is that sleeping with your baby is fine. As long as you exclude the known risks of SIDS, such as smoking, alcohol and other drugs and overheating/suffocation, having your baby in your bed, in a crib next to your bed or even in a hammock that hangs over your bed is safe and beneficial.
Many parents find that sharing their bed with their baby or toddler means everyone sleeps better at night.
Mothers, says William Sears, are designed to respond to their child’s cries and ignoring them is hard and stressful. Babies whose cries go unanswered lose a sense of trust in their caregivers. He says, ‘the more you trust your infant’s signals, the more he trusts himself’.
Sears believes the best sleeping arrangement is one in which the baby doesn’t have to cry to meet his needs: “When mothers and babies sleep close to each other, their sleep cycles are synchronized.”
Sleeping with your baby is a process
He can't nod off without you. Whether you rock him or pat his back until he drifts off, your baby has become dependent on your presence to fall asleep.
"This takes a while, so make the break gradually," says Dr. Mindell. First, have her nap by herself; once she's used to sleeping alone, do her bedtime routine in her room. Then move her crib into your room or put her down in her own room but continue to bring her into your bed if she wakes up during the night. If she doesn't seem able to make the final transition to spending the whole night alone, you'll have to let her fuss in her room for a while. But once she realizes you're not coming to get her, she'll learn to soothe herself.
Make a good environment for your baby
You spent your pregnancy in search of the perfect lullaby CD and cozy bedding for your baby's nursery. But despite your hard work, she may not be comfortable. "Some babies are very sensitive to their external and internal environment," says Harvey Karp, MD, creator of the DVD and book, The Happiest Baby on the Block. "They may be bothered by the phone ringing, the feeling of a clothing label, or even sensations in their body, like food digesting." Babies can ignore these sensations during the day when there's a lot of noise, but it's much harder at night.
Make her environment as soothing as possible. If you're not sure what's bothering her, start by removing pajama tags, using softer pack n play mattress pad and darkening her room. And while parents assume babies need lots of bundling, your little one may be overheated. "Feel her neck and ears," says Dr. Karp. "If they're hot, remove one or two layers of clothing."
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