Does your child sleep through the night?
from falling asleep and staying asleep, resulting in a
Are you one of the lucky parents whose
plethora of related problems. We do not simply fall
TUR ED
baby just “got it” at a few weeks old, or
asleep and stay deeply asleep throughout the night.
FEA
We move through different levels from deep sleep
do you go to bed at night dreading the
(when it takes a loud noise or catastrophic event to
wakeful cry of a child who will need your wake us), to periods when we are more aware of
attention not just once but maybe several
goings on in our surroundings.
times a night, every night?
To use a more technical explanation, this undulation
It is a commonly held belief that babies will learn to
is caused by our transition between REM and
sleep through the night at their own pace, and
non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep is when the
enough babies do manage this to ensure that for
information-processing takes place, but a baby who
the rest of us, it can seem like an unachievable goal.
is waking every couple of hours is not getting the
And the longer it continues, the harder it seems to
opportunity to get down to that level before being
be to overcome.
dragged awake again.
BABIES AND TODDLERS WHO ARE NOT GETTING ADEQUATE
SLEEP MAY NOT MANIFEST ANY OBVIOUS SYMPTOMS
IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE, LIKE THEIR EXHAUSTED PARENTS,
THEY CAN OPERATE AT A REDUCED CAPACITY FOR MONTHS,
EVEN YEARS
The one thing we seem to have lost
Babies and toddlers who are not getting adequate
sight of is the importance of sleep for
sleep may not manifest any obvious symptoms
immediately because, like their exhausted parents,
babies and toddlers
they can operate at a reduced capacity for months,
even years.
In today’s child-friendly society it seems that the
importance of sleep has taken a back seat. When
you talk to new parents about their approach to
Some babies need to be taught
parenting they will tell you how important it is to
how to sleep properly
breastfeed and for how long, they will explain their
toddler’s social diary, they will discuss the pros and
However, a sleep-deprived baby or child will not
cons of disposable versus re-usable, and they will go
have the attention span of which he is capable and
into great detail about the pains of labour - literally,
in the worst cases will be labelled as Attention
too much information. However, the one thing we
Deficit; he will not be able to interact socially
seem to have lost sight of is the importance of sleep
because he will not have the patience to state his
for babies and toddlers.
case and will resort to hitting; he will not be able to
develop relationships because he won’t have the
Babies up to the age of three months
tolerance to deal with other toddlers; he will become
a loner simply because it is easier than the
need 15 hours sleep in every 24 alternative; he will not eat properly because he can’t
and at 2 years of age they still need
be bothered; he won’t develop mentally because he
around 13 -14 hours
won’t be learning through play; and he won’t
develop physically because he won’t be spending
sufficient time asleep. This is a very worst case
And yet, according to Dr Richard Ferber, babies up
scenario, but it behoves us to take steps to ensure
to the age of three months need 15 hours sleep in
that it doesn’t happen in our own family.
every 24 and at 2 years of age they still need around
13-14 hours. A newborn spends most of his life
asleep, waking only to feed. This is because the
Strategies for sleep
brain assimilates all the information gained during the
It helps to be aware of the pitfalls from the very
course of the day whilst the body is at rest. Just
beginning and to implement a routine that can be
pause to think for a moment how many new
built upon as your baby gets older. From the very
experiences a baby will undergo during the course of
first day, try to emphasise the natural Circadian cycle
a day, a month, a year. All this needs to be evaluated
of the body - the internal body clock which enables
against what has already been learnt in order to us to tell night from day. Make sure the night feeds
create a developing picture of the world and the take place in the darkened nursery with a minimum
baby’s place in it. And the fact is that some babies of noise and interaction between you and your baby,
need to be taught how to sleep properly. If allowed, and that daytime feeds take place downstairs with
they will develop bad habits that can prevent them the normal busyness of the household around.
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