Pediatric specialists and mothers share how to calm babies to sleep through the night

Newborn babies stay up at night and sleep during the day is an obsession of many families. The situation of babies crying and staying up at night for a long time makes parents constantly sleep deprived, exhausted, significantly affecting the next day's work as well as disturbing the family's life. How to let your baby sleep all night? Find the answer right in the following aFamilyToday Health article.

Want to help your baby sleep all night, you should first find out about your baby's sleep needs . This also helps you to reduce stress and better prepare to arrange a reasonable sleeping time for your baby.

During the first 2 months, the infant's nutritional requirements exceed that of sleep. Babies need to be breastfed every 2 hours if they are breastfed, if they are bottle-fed they may be able to breastfeed a little less often. Children may need 10-18 hours of sleep a day and usually 3-4 hours each time. However, as a child, children are unable to distinguish between day and night. Therefore, children usually sleep at any time, regardless of the time. That also means babies can wake up between 1 - 5 a.m. while an adult is asleep.

When babies are 3 - 6 months old,  many babies can sleep for 6 hours. This is a good sleep routine for your baby.

By about 6 - 9 months,  when babies can be aware of sleeping at night and do not want to be alone at night, they can cry at night so that their parents care for the baby and always be there while the baby sleeps.

Organize a reasonable sleep time for babies so that they can sleep well all night

In a study involving 405 mothers with children between 7 and 36 months old. Results showed that infants who slept in a nightly routine were able to fall asleep faster, sleep better and cry less at night.

Some parents have forged the habit of sleeping at night for children from 6-8 weeks old. The key to successfully cultivating sleeping habits for your baby is:

Have your baby play active games during the day and games that are not active at night. This helps the baby to be more active during the day and not be stimulated right before going to bed so it will be easier to sleep at night.

Try to keep your baby active at night and repeat every day.

You should memorize activities that your baby loves before going to bed and do it with your baby. With this approach, your baby will look forward to bedtime to do what he likes.

Prepare a clean and comfortable place to sleep. Check that the temperature in the room is not too hot or too cold because it is hot, the baby easily wakes up, while the baby is cold and easily gets sick. Keep your baby's bedroom space quiet, turn off the lights and try not to change this because when your baby wakes up in the middle of the night, he or she will sleep again.

How to put the baby to bed?

From 6 to 12 weeks old, comfort your baby until she is sleepy. When your baby is about to sleep, put him down and let him fall asleep on his own. You should not wait until your baby is sound asleep in your arms. When your child has this habit of holding and sleeping, it will be more difficult to change it.

When they can fall asleep on their own, they will be able to adjust themselves. You do not need to hold, hug, or comfort your baby every time your baby wakes up in the middle of the night. For babies who have difficulty sleeping, when you put them down, they wake up and cry, do not be discouraged, but patiently calm the baby from the beginning.

Pay attention to sleep safety for your baby all night long

Before thinking about tips to help babies sleep well, when you put your baby in bed, day or night, pediatric experts advise you to adhere to the following principles:

Always put the baby down in the supine position

Always let your baby sleep in a flat and stable place. Do not place your baby in a car seat or stroller

If your baby sleeps in a chair or stroller, take him to bed, crib

Babies should share a room with parents, but not sleep in the same bed with parents

Get soft objects, pillows, stuffed animals, plastic animals ... out of the crib. Please see the article  When to give your baby a pillow?

Let your baby latch on to a pacifier when he is napping and going to bed at night

Avoid wearing woolen hats or cloths for babies to keep their heads warm, as they can make them warm

No smoking

If you are tired, when you feed your baby before bed, you should not sit in a chair because if you overslept, you can endanger your baby.

Using the method of observing children's progress while sleeping (Ferber)

A well-known method of training for babies' sleep is the Ferber method. The goal of this method is to train the child to fall asleep on his own and the ability to return to sleep when he wakes up during the night. This method was developed by Dr. Richard Ferber, Director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital Boston, USA. He advised parents not to start building sleeping habits for children until the baby is 5-6 months old. Here's a guide to using the Ferber method to help your baby sleep better:

Put your baby in the crib when he is sleepy. After placing your baby, you can leave the room.

If the baby cries, linger for a few minutes. This timeout depends on you or from 1 - 5 minutes.

When returning to the baby's room, try to comfort the baby but do not pick up and stay for more than 2-3 minutes, even if the baby is still crying. Seeing the parents, the baby will feel secure that they are still close to them so they can continue to sleep.

If your baby continues to cry, gradually increase the amount of time you wait before going back to the check-up room the next time. Example: If you wait 3 minutes for the first time, wait 5 minutes for the second time and then 10 minutes the next time.

The next day, wait 5 minutes for the first time, 10 minutes for the second time, and 12 minutes for the next time.

Applying this method can be difficult during the first few nights. You can see improvement in your baby's sleep habits on day 3 or 4. Most parents see a noticeable improvement within a week.

Tip: If you want to try the Ferber method, get adequate rest as you will have to spend a lot of time listening to your baby's cries, checking the clock when entering and leaving the room many times. You also have to be very tough when training baby sleeping habits. After just a few days to a week, you will see significant improvement from your baby.

Invite you to see more ways to help your baby sleep in 2 articles Baby sleep better with two methods of sleeping practice of aFamilyToday Health and  method of teaching to practice sleeping up and down .

Change the habit of making babies sleep day and night

To practice the habit of your baby sleeping all night, you should pay attention to change the things that make your baby stay up at night and sleep during the day, for example:

Many babies stay at home during the day very well, sleep a lot and sleep deeply, but babies often wake up to play in the middle of the night, sometimes even crying, demanding to carry them around the room. The reason may be that you turn on the night light to facilitate taking care of your baby at night. This light makes the baby lose the ability to distinguish day - night and also easily wake up.

Some parents cannot help seeing their baby alone or crying. If you see the baby move and cry, hastily pick the baby up and comfort, soothe, this also creates a habit of making the baby dependent on parents and unable to sleep alone. Therefore, you should try to hold back to practice good sleeping habits for your baby.

As a child, babies often wake up in the middle of the night for many reasons. One of the most common causes is the habit of breastfeeding. In some cases, a baby may wake up due to hunger but may also feel insecure due to noise or startles. However, many mothers have a habit when their babies stay up at night to breastfeed or drink milk. This forms a habit of breastfeeding at night and the baby always wakes up at midnight.

Putting your baby too much sleep during the day and spending too much time playing with him with lots of active activity also irritates him and makes it difficult to sleep at night.

Tips to help babies sleep soundly at night by mothers

Many mothers who fall into difficult, pale, sleepless situations because their children are always up at night and sleeping during the day have found the following secrets and shared with each other:

Lulling babies to sleep with gentle, emotional melodies is the way many mothers choose. When the baby hears the lullaby, it feels like their parents are very close to them, so they feel safe and easily fall asleep.

Using the rubbing method is also a way to not pick up the baby, the baby can sleep by itself in the crib or bed. You can gently massage the baby's eyebrows, forehead, spine and limbs. Many babies love this massage method and quickly fall asleep.

Wipe your baby's body with warm water and dress him in cool, comfortable clothes, creating a quiet, airy sleeping space in the summer, and warm in winter, also helping the baby to relax and sleep better. Avoid making noise and light when your baby sleeps is also very helpful for babies to sleep deeply, wake up less at night.

In addition, you can also apply  massage to help your baby sleep better.