Baby bedtime
A 2018 US study carried out by researchers at Penn State University may have suggested that moms co-sleeping with their children after six months is a perfectly acceptable thing, but that doesn’t mean that at some point you won’t have to move your baby to his/her own bed.
The researchers suggested that popular advice telling mothers not to sleep with their babies may cause feelings of depression in the mothers, and co-sleeping, as long as it’s done safely, is fine as long as both parents are on board with it.
But what happens when the baby is older and has to move to a bed, and getting them to is difficult?
It is advisable to start sooner rather than later when trying to get your baby to sleep, whether in their own crib, or a bed. The dependency on sleeping with an adult is often hard to break, and sometimes requires some creative skills from the parents.
How do you establish a proper sleep routine, and get your child to sleep alone?
1. It’s not going to be easy to get your child to start sleeping alone. The child is going to resist sleeping alone and there will be a lot of crying late at night. There will be a lot of waking up and coming to mommy and daddy’s bed, so the parents will just have to be firm about it, but in a gentle and loving way.
2. Regardless of how old your child is, it is quite likely going to prove difficult to get them to sleep in their own beds once they have grown accustomed to sleeping in yours. Ideally, children should start sleeping in their own beds by age two.
3. Just locking them in their room at night and hoping that they will eventually go to sleep won’t necessarily work for children who are afraid. Try to find out the reasons behind their fears and address them accordingly. Putting a night light in a dark room, for example, can help to make their sleeping environment less scary.
4. Make your child’s room as comfortable as possible. Let them play a part in determining the décor of their room, since they will be the ones who have to sleep in it. If they are excited about the room, then chances are they may have no problem spending a lot of time there.
5. Be understanding, but be clear when children have to be moved to their own room. Be firm. Do not fall prey to their pleadings to sleep with you unless they have a justifiable cause.
6. From early on, institute a schedule and bedtime routine. This is possible even for little babies. Cut nap times during the day, feed the child just before bed, and make bedtime enjoyable for your child by reading their favourite stories or playing a game.
7. Don’t allow the child to watch violent shows before going to bed, as then they will wake you up with stories about monsters under their bed.
