Baby Sleep Training
Sleep training is without a doubt one of the first important milestones most parents will face.
Sleep training, that is, getting your baby to sleep the whole night and to get to sleep on his own can be an incredibly hard process, or quite easy. It really depends on your baby’s personality and each particular home and circumstances. This is because going to sleep voluntarily is a skill that often must be learned.
Another of the great obstacles in baby sleep training is the fact that it is usually very difficult for the sleep-deprived parents to be able to face their crying infant with any kind of objectivity. It can actually be psychologically difficult for many parents.
Baby sleep training can generally begin after the first three months, once the baby is able to last more than a few hours without a feeding. The most important thing about baby sleep training is to establish a bedtime routine. Try to follow the same sequence of events leading up to bedtime (telling your baby a story, feeding him, or giving him a bath.) It is also important to make sure that your baby wakes up at around the same time every day and takes his naps at his regular nap times.
Don’t lose your cool, baby sleep training at this stage of your baby’s life is a progressive, gradual effort. You will need to be watchful of how your baby develops and how much sleep time he can handle at a time.
It is also important to check with your doctor to make sure that your baby is ready for baby sleep training.
There are several techniques to choose from, with choosing the best one being the subject of heated debates and scientific scrutiny. There are two basic kinds of baby sleep training 1/ cry it out and 2/ no tears. Advocates of the cry it out method say that it is alright for your baby to cry, although not endlessly. Usually, the cry it out method consists of letting your baby go to sleep on his own and comforting him intermittently. This method is also known as the Ferber method, as it was developed by the pediatrician Richard Ferber. Meanwhile, the no tears method usually prescribes comforting your baby immediately when he starts crying, with a more gradual approach towards baby sleep training.
Remember, every baby is different. Every family is also different. While some families will be happy with a baby that wakes up for a single midnight feeding, other parents will simply be at their wit’s edge with a baby that refuses to sleep all through the night.
The main component of baby sleep training is common sense and parenting instinct. Instead of following instruction blindly, try to feel out your baby. In real life, most families will end up following their own method for baby sleep training that does nto fit neatly into one single category. It is a good idea to pick what you feel will be a good fit with your family and try it out until you find a method that works. Once you do, stick with it.
For more info on helping your baby to sleep through the night without letting them ‘cry it out’, Click Here.
