Good son, mother relaxed thanks to the method of raising children EASY

The EASY method of parenting is a way of training a child's routine - eating and sleeping in a repetitive cycle.

Building a scientific and reasonable life cycle for babies not only helps children sleep well, eat well and happily, but also helps reduce fatigue in caring for the baby for the mother.

In this article, we invite you to learn about the EASY method and how to apply it effectively.

What is EASY?

EASY (Eat - Activity - Sleep - Your time) is a series of activities including: Eat - Activity (play) - Sleep - Mother's time. This is a life cycle concept for a newborn, passed by many mothers with breastmilk. This cycle starts from the morning when the baby just wakes up until the evening when he goes to bed. Activities include:

E (eat): If your baby wakes up, he will eat

A (Activity): Children are active, play

S (Sleep): Mom put the baby to sleep

Y (Your time): While the baby sleeps, the mother has time to relax, rest, and time for herself.

However, many mothers mistakenly think EASY is a method of sleeping practice for babies. Therefore, we need to understand correctly EASY is a method of practicing routine for children from a very young age. Therefore, sleeping is only one part of the EASY parenting approach.

The benefits that the EASY method brings to mothers and babies

1. Benefits for babies

The EASY method of raising babies helps babies gradually develop a circadian rhythm after getting used to the sequence of activities that will occur during the day. This often helps children feel proactive and confident because they know they will be fed by their mother after waking up. After eating, babies can play and when tired, they can go to sleep. Many pediatric experts believe that this is the most basic foundation for babies to build trust with their mothers / caregivers.

Because if the baby's life cycle is maintained regularly and sequentially, the baby will gradually understand and can wait for the upcoming happenings.

2. EASY parenting: The benefits for mothers

If your baby's routine is as regular and consistent as EASY, you should feel no pressure to take care of your baby. To do this, you need to properly understand your baby's needs such as hearing his or her crying and knowing what he or she is trying to signal. For example, a baby is hungry, needs a diaper change , a sign of sleep or just needs someone to comfort it.

The fact that the mother "catches the right" signals of the baby will help minimize the situation of the baby suckling when the mother sees the baby crying immediately, assuming that the baby is hungry and then feeding the baby, but it is not actually. Babies crying can be due to their boredom, fatigue, and sleeplessness ... In addition, snacking can cause babies to often only suck colostrum, leading to an imbalance between colostrum and final milk, which prevents the baby from getting enough. essential nutrients.

"Catching the right waves" and responding to the baby's needs help mothers have time to rest, relax, take care of themselves or do other jobs. This helps to reduce the stress of parenting.

The cycles of the EASY parenting method

You must have seen that the EASY method of raising a baby brings a lot of benefits for both mother and baby. However, you still wonder how to apply this method to achieve the expected effect?

According to pediatric experts, at different stages and ages, applying the EASY cycles will be different.

1. EASY cycle 3

Age of application

Mom can apply EASY 3 cycle for babies from about 0 - 6 weeks old. Many mothers shared that they applied EASY 3 until their baby was 3 months old . In order to apply this cycle to your child's routine, you need to pay attention to one of the following:

Children weighing about 2.9 kg or more

2 weeks old

Note that for premature babies under 28 weeks if the mother wants to raise her baby according to the EASY method, it is necessary to consider the baby's weight (reaching the average weight as mentioned above), the age of application (the correct age is based on the due date of the baby).

Feeding time

According to pediatric experts, babies born full term, weighing over 2.7 kg can maintain the energy reserve within 3 hours. Therefore, the time interval between each baby's feed can be from 2.5 to 3 hours, the time for each breastfeed lasts about 20-45 minutes. I need to eat right after waking up.

During the day, the baby will suckle about 5 meals at times like: 7:00 - 7:45, 10:00 - 10:45, 13:00 - 13:45, 16:00 - 16:45, 19:00 - 19:45.

During nighttime sleep, your baby can wake up to take 2-3 meals depending on needs.

Operation time

After a full suckle, the baby is burping , changing diapers, cleaning the body and playing. Then, the mother observed the baby's signal to perform the sleeping sequence for the baby.

The time for your baby to be active (between naps) including implementing a sleep sequence is quite short, only about 20-30 minutes. During this stage, the baby's total time awake during the day, including feeding time is only about 6 to 8 hours.

Sleep time

At this age, babies usually sleep 4 days including: 3 naps of 1.5-2 hours and 1 nap from 30-40 minutes. Babies' sleep time at night usually lasts from 11 to 13 hours and the time to wake up before sleep is 45 - 60 minutes.

2. EASY cycle 4

Age of application

At about 8-19 weeks of age, babies usually have a marked change in routine. Therefore, if the baby at this stage is still forging the EASY 3 cycle, but the distance between the baby's breast milk is stretched, the sleeping time is shorter, the mother should switch to the EASY 4 cycle. One sign of moms switching to EASY 4 is that your baby wakes up several times at night and has trouble falling back to sleep .

You can apply the EASY 4 cycle until your baby is 8 - 9 months or even 1 year old .

Time to eat

Your baby's feeds will be about 4 hours apart.

At this age, some children can sleep through the night but many babies will wake up feeding night 1-2 confinement.

Operation time

Total time for your baby to be active (between sleep) including sleeping sequence is about 80-100 minutes.

Sleep time

Babies sleep 3 days a day, including 2 sleeps of 1.5-2 hours (about 9-11 hours, 13-15 hours) and a day-end nap lasting about 30-40 minutes (17-17 hours 40). Baby sleep time at night is about 11-12 hours.

At this stage, the first thing you need to do is increase the amount of time your baby is awake before the baby sleeps. If in the previous stage, your baby could only stay awake for 45-60 minutes, sleep for 2 hours, now you can let your baby stay awake 1.5 - 2 hours before going to bed, then continue with the baby's feeding interval. .

3. EASY cycle 2–3–4

Age of application

EASY 2–3–4 applies to children about 19 - 46 weeks of age when there is a significant change in their routine. Therefore, the baby will only sleep 2 naps during the day, each meal every 4 hours but the baby does not appear hungry. Besides, my child's daytime sleep was shorter, I slept only about 30 minutes, I found it difficult to sleep when I went to sleep at night and tend to sleep later than before. Sometimes, during the night, babies wake up to play.

These are signs that mothers should shift their baby's routine through the EASY 2–3–4 cycle.

Time to eat

Meals of babies at this age are about 4 - 4.5 hours apart.

I have a snack at 11-14 o'clock. For babies over 6 months old, they will eat additional snacks around 18 - 18:30.

Operation time

Your child's daytime sleep time is shorter, so the active time will increase more than in the previous period. So, take some time to play with your baby.

Sleep time

Because mothers increase the amount of time the baby is awake by spacing meals, the baby's routine is now quite similar to that of adults.

Therefore, the time to wake up before sleep is: 2 hours before the first sleep, 3 hours before the second sleep, 4 hours before the night (2–3–4).

During the day, the baby sleeps 2 sleeps, each sleep about 1.5-2 hours. Sleep time at night is about 11-12 hours.

4. EASY cycle 5-6

Age of application

From about 46 weeks of age onwards, the child's lifestyle has a marked change: During the day, the baby only sleeps 1 sleep at noon. This is when you should move on to applying the EASY 5–6 cycle (similar to EASY 2–3–4) with your baby.

Time to eat

The life of the baby is almost adult when the child 4 meals / day with both milk and porridge or broken rice.

Operation time

The adoption of EASY 5–6 is similar to EASY 2–3–4 and now you need to spend more time with your baby than before. Because at this stage, through the experience of play activities, communication with people, the child's ability to learn increases.

Sleep time

Your baby's waking time will be: after waking up in the morning, your baby will wake up about 5 o'clock and then go to nap, wake up at 6 o'clock and go to sleep at night.

Babies sleep 1 nap lasting from 1.5 to 2 hours. The baby's sleep time is about 10-12 hours.

Applying the EASY cycles to your baby will depend on your child's cues. Therefore, do not be too impatient at the same age, but your baby is not ready to move on to the next EASY cycle. aFamilyToday Health hopes that with the sharing in this article, you can improve your child's activities so that your baby is good - mom relaxes.