Baby Sleep Techniques

Different ways to make your baby sleep:

• Decide where baby sleeps best: Decide where you baby sleep comfortably. Some babies sleep best in their own crib in their own room, some sleep better in their crib in the parents’ bedroom, other babies sleep best right next to their mother in the parents’ bed. There is no right or wrong place for babies to sleep. Parents should use various sleeping arrangements at various stages during the infant’s first two years. Be open to altering styles as baby’s developmental needs and your family situation changes.
• Set consistent nap routines for baby sleep: choose out the times of the day that you are most exhausted, for example 12:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Lie down with your baby at these times every day for about a week to get your baby used to a daytime nap schedule. Babies who have constant nap routines during the day are more likely to sleep longer stretches at night. [Baby Sleep Problems]
• Soothing down: Give baby a warm bath followed by a soothing massage to relax tense muscles and busy minds. Be cautious, because this will stimulate some babies.
• Regular bedtimes and rituals for baby sleep: Parents should make the child go to sleep at the same time and they should make habituate with the rituals at the same time everyday. Babies who enjoy regular bedtimes and familiar going-to-sleep rituals habitually go to sleep easier and stay asleep longer.
• Darkness in the bedroom: Make the room dark by blocking the rays of sunlight, which may get an extra hour of sleep for your child.
• Bedroom should be quiet: Some babies frighten and awaken easily with sudden noises. For these babies, the bedroom should be quiet and see that nobody should make noise near the bedroom.
• Set the right bedroom temperature: A constant bedroom temperature of around 70 degrees F is preferable. Also, a relative humidity of around 50 percent is most favorable to sleep.
• A warm bed: Placing a warm baby onto cold sheets can cause problem. Particularly in cold weather, use flannel sheets or place a warm towel on the sheets to warm them, and remove it before placing baby on the warmed sheets.
• Dress for the occasion: In the early months, many babies like to sleep tight firmly wrapped in a cotton baby blanket. Older infants like to sleep free and may sleep longer stretches with loose coverings that allow them more freedom of movement. Dressing a baby freely during the day, but swaddling him at night, conditions the baby to associate sleep with swaddling.
• Music to baby sleep: Play soothing music to make you baby sleep. Music is the best sleep inducer.
• Clear the nose: Babies need clear nasal passages to breathe in the early months. Later they can instead breathe through their mouth if their nose is blocked. Bedroom inhalant allergies are a common cause of stuffy noses and consequent night waking. Make baby’s bedroom dust free as much as possible.
• Change the diapers: Some babies are upset by wet diapers at night, most are not. If your baby sleeps through wet diapers, there is no need to awaken for a change – unless you’re treating a persistent diaper rash. If Nighttime bowel movements are there, it is necessary to change. If possible, change the diapers just before a feeding, as baby is likely to fall asleep during or after feeding. But some breastfed babies, however, have a bowel movement during or immediately after a feeding and will need changing again.
• Take on hands: If your baby wakes up in the night, before your baby completely awakens, you may be able to resettle back to sleep by taking on hands. Pat your baby’s back or bottom rhythmically to match your heartbeat. Remove your hands slowly lessening the pressure slowly so as not to frighten baby awake.