It is lucky if your baby is born naturally a good sleeper, but it will be a struggle every night if your baby is fussy during sleep. There is no magic solution for this issue, but just means you should foster excellent sleep habits for your baby as soon as possible. In addition to that, there are several things that you need to pay attention to. For parents who are struggling with your baby’s night sleep, here are tips that you can do.
1. Limit His Daytime nap
When your baby gets multiple long naps during daytime, they often tend to stay awake at nights. This makes you struggle to let him to fall asleep when the bedtime comes. So, how many naps a baby need, and, how long should you’re a baby’s nap be? The answer will be different, depending on your baby’s age stage. The older he is, the less nap during daytime should be. To ensure your baby get sufficient sleep in daytime, but still fall asleep easily when bedtime comes, here are amounts of nap and the length of each should be, depending on your baby’s age.
- If you baby is at 3 – 4 months old, he should take 4 – 5 times of nap, every nap should be at least 3 – 4 hours
- If your baby is 5 – 6 months old, he should have 3 – 4 naps during the day, and every nap takes 2.5 – 3.5 hours
- When you baby is 7 – 12 months old, he should take shorter naps that just last 2 hours every time.
Apart from those mentioned things, you shouldn’t also let your baby’s last nap start too late in the afternoon. This can push your baby’s night sleep late.
2. Creating a Bedtime Routines
Many babies can fall asleep by himself at bedtime, but there are others need parents to help every night. This just means creating a consistent routine for bedtime will build a habit for your baby. The ways you do can be different from parent to parent. It can take your baby to his room 15 minutes before bedtime, drawing the curtains, giving a few cuddles, clapping him on the back, singing him a lullaby or saying your sleepy words. Regardless of what you do, it takes time for your baby to become firmly ingrained. Just don’t become frustrating so soon!
3. Changing Baby’s Diaper
There may be something that can make your baby uncomfortable, which disrupts your baby’s sleep. The diaper can also be your baby’s discomfort. So, before putting him in his bed at bedtime, you should check his diaper whether it is still clean and dry. If it is wet, full or dirty, it’s necessary to change a new diaper. In addition to those that are said, this also prevents your baby from experiencing diaper rash.
4. Getting Comfortable Mattress
It seems not relatable a bit to mention the role of mattress when it comes to helping your baby sleep soundly. But, it also plays an important role. If your baby is ready to sleep alone, you need to choose him a good mattress. So what a good mattress means here? It means that the mattress should be not too firm or too soft to cause any discomfort. Especially, it needs to be super cool, so your baby won’t sweat on summer days. To be stay cool all night long, we highly recommend mattresses like Purple mattress.
5. Cut Out the Light
Keeping the light on can also lead to struggle to fall asleep, there is no exception to your young baby. That means, it is better to dim the light. This will provide a calming and relaxing atmosphere for sleeping. Consequently, your baby can feel asleep easily.
6. Give your Baby a Full Feed
Unlike adults, young babies need to be fed more often day and night. So, keeping your baby’s tummy full is also important to help him less fussy during sleep. However, bear in mind that you shouldn’t feed him too close to the bedtime.
7. Using White Noise
According to a study, using white noise can be helpful in making babies fall asleep faster. So, what is white noise? As definition, white noise refers to noise that contains many frequencies with equal intensities. It can help to mask other annoying noises. Consequently, it provides a soothing, consistent background noise to help him stay asleep longer. Knowing the benefits of white noise, white noise machines are used to block distracting outside noises.
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