By:Sarah S. MacLaughlin
Some parents say that their children “just slept well from the start.” Or that they learned to fall asleep fairly easily with parent support. And then there’s the rest of us.
Sleep is one of the first, and most challenging, issues that many parents face. A blog post can’t possibly address or solve all the complex challenges parents encounter around sleep.
Instead, here we focus on ways to establish healthy sleep habits from the start—to hopefully prevent situations like a baby who won’t fall asleep unless fed, held, or rocked; a toddler who comes into your room for a visit at 3:00 a.m,or a 2-year-old whose bedtime routine is now 75 minutes long and getting longer every night.
Ways to Nurture Healthy Sleep Habits from the Start
- Put yourself in your child’s shoes.
For babies and young children, bedtime can be a stressful experience, especially if it means separating from the people they love, and ending other fun activities (Baths! Stories! Songs!). It also means going to sleep, perhaps alone, in a darkened room, which can be scary. When you’re exhausted and frustrated, it can be hard to look at things from your child’s perspective. But learning to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night is a hard skill for many children to master. Despite all evidence to the contrary, your children are not trying to drive you crazy or manipulate you. Most of all, they need your patience and support to learn this new skill.
(My daughter) will be very obviously tired, but won’t let go and just go to sleep.
Kelly in Greensboro, North Carolina
- Take good care of yourself.
Don’t skimp on self-care keep your well-being at the top of your to-do list. This doesn’t mean weekend getaways and trips to the spa. It means making sleep a priority when you can, such as going to bed earlier and letting go of tasks that can wait. Your need for sleep is as important as your baby’s. You matter! You’ll have more patience if you take care of yourself too.
- Tune in to your unique child’s needs.
Every child is wired differently and has a different capacity for self-soothing, which means that there is a wide range of behavior in the sleep department. So avoid comparing what your child is doing to others. Don’t fall prey to the “shoulds.” Tune in to what your child is telling you through his behavior and let that be your guide. For example, you might find that your baby needs more time to transition from playtime to sleep, to help his body get into a more relaxed state, so the bedtime routine may need to be longer and more gradual.
