Are you struggling with your baby's sleeping patterns? Camilla from Night Nannies has worked with families and their young babies and children for over 15 years, offering advice on normal feeding and sleeping patterns and how to solve bad sleep habits with gentle and realistic solutions.
In April, Camilla will be coming into our Bristol store to offer help and guidance to parents with any issues or questions they may have about their baby's sleep patterns.
Since 1999 Night Nannies has given over 5000 parents throughout the South of England a good night’s rest and expert solutions to sleep, feeding and routine problems.
On 27th April 2015, Camilla will be in our Bristol store, to help you with any questions or worries that you may have. To book a slot or to find out more, please contact our Customer Service team on 0117 9245080 or email customerservice@borndirect.com.
Here are Camilla's top tips for night time parenting
At Night Nannies we look as all cases as individuals - parents contact us for support and we feel that a sleep problem is only a 'problem' if it is causing upset within that particular family. We will then look at that issue and offer advice for the individual family, following gentle guidelines only.
1. Always try to put your baby down awake so he will recognise where he is if he wakes up in the middle of the night. "Leave a little time between your baby's feed and bedtime. If you feed your baby to sleep, feeding and going to sleep will become linked in your baby's mind. When they wake in the night, they'll want a feed to help them go back to sleep." http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/getting-baby-to-sleep.aspx#close
2. As your baby gets older (from about six weeks) and is beginning to stretch the time between feeds, ensure that the last feed of the day is a really filling one. Often your baby will be too tired to make the effort to feed properly, but persevere as this will enable you both to sleep for longer.
3. Don’t worry if your baby grizzles when you put him down to sleep. Babies often create their own wall of “white sound” in order to cut out other noises that are preventing them from going to sleep. If your baby’s grizzles increase or continue for more than 5 minutes you should, of course, establish what is wrong.
4. Use a dummy to settle your baby at the beginning of his sleep, whether a nap or an overnight sleep; however, do not let him become dummy-dependent by using it throughout the night – once it has fallen out, leave it. This way, he will not become used to having it returned to him and will learn to sleep without it. (However, if breastfeeding, wait until your baby is one month old to ensure breastfeeding is well-established). (http://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/dummies)
5. Once your baby is weaned (from 6 months), he is able to start sleeping through the night as he will be getting sufficient nutrition during the day. We are saying that only from 6mths it is developmentally possible (as long as the baby is eating well in the day and fully weaned onto solids), for a baby to sleep longer at nighttime, as he is getting sufficient nutrition throughout the day. This is only if that is what a parent should want to achieve. This is actually to avoid higher expectations; often we hear that parents want a younger baby to sleep through/ give up nighttime feeding - we are actually saying quite the opposite, that this is not developmentally possible.
6. Maximise the differences between daytime naps and overnight sleep (nursery and kitchen, dimmed light and bright daylight, calm one-on-one time and busy family chatter).
7. Help your baby to develop his internal bodyclock (or Circadian cycle) by keeping his feed times and nap times consistent during the day – it will help with his overnight sleep.
8. Put in place a regular evening routine so your baby picks up on sleep associations (for example, a bath, a massage, storytime with older siblings, feed and bed). Try to make this a transferable routine, so that it can remain the same when you go on holiday or to granny’s for the night.
9. Ensure your baby’s bedroom is a peaceful place, somewhere he can sleep well. Try to keep toys downstairs, have soft lighting and subtle colours. A black-out blind can be particularly useful to keep out early summer sunlight.
10. Make sure your baby’s room isn’t too hot (or, less likely, too cold). An ideal temperature is around 18°C.
Remember: if you are breastfeeding, you will not be able to begin guiding your baby into a good sleep routine until this has been well-established for your baby, ie: between 4-6 weeks. That is not to say that some of the above tips like a good bedtime routine and the difference between day and night can’t be started! But don’t expect too much, your baby is small and needs to be fed regularly to establish your milk supply.
Since 1999 Night Nannies has given over 5000 parents throughout the South of England a good night’s rest and expert solutions to sleep, feeding and routine problems.
On 27th April 2015, Camilla will be in our Bristol store, to help you with any questions or worries that you may have. To book a slot or to find out more, please contact our Customer Service team on 0117 9245080 or email customerservice@borndirect.com.
Watch Camilla talk to Eva when she came into the BCfm studios for the Health Hub show.
Here are Camilla's top tips for night time parenting
At Night Nannies we look as all cases as individuals - parents contact us for support and we feel that a sleep problem is only a 'problem' if it is causing upset within that particular family. We will then look at that issue and offer advice for the individual family, following gentle guidelines only.
1. Always try to put your baby down awake so he will recognise where he is if he wakes up in the middle of the night. "Leave a little time between your baby's feed and bedtime. If you feed your baby to sleep, feeding and going to sleep will become linked in your baby's mind. When they wake in the night, they'll want a feed to help them go back to sleep." http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/getting-baby-to-sleep.aspx#close
2. As your baby gets older (from about six weeks) and is beginning to stretch the time between feeds, ensure that the last feed of the day is a really filling one. Often your baby will be too tired to make the effort to feed properly, but persevere as this will enable you both to sleep for longer.
3. Don’t worry if your baby grizzles when you put him down to sleep. Babies often create their own wall of “white sound” in order to cut out other noises that are preventing them from going to sleep. If your baby’s grizzles increase or continue for more than 5 minutes you should, of course, establish what is wrong.
4. Use a dummy to settle your baby at the beginning of his sleep, whether a nap or an overnight sleep; however, do not let him become dummy-dependent by using it throughout the night – once it has fallen out, leave it. This way, he will not become used to having it returned to him and will learn to sleep without it. (However, if breastfeeding, wait until your baby is one month old to ensure breastfeeding is well-established). (http://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/dummies)
5. Once your baby is weaned (from 6 months), he is able to start sleeping through the night as he will be getting sufficient nutrition during the day. We are saying that only from 6mths it is developmentally possible (as long as the baby is eating well in the day and fully weaned onto solids), for a baby to sleep longer at nighttime, as he is getting sufficient nutrition throughout the day. This is only if that is what a parent should want to achieve. This is actually to avoid higher expectations; often we hear that parents want a younger baby to sleep through/ give up nighttime feeding - we are actually saying quite the opposite, that this is not developmentally possible.
6. Maximise the differences between daytime naps and overnight sleep (nursery and kitchen, dimmed light and bright daylight, calm one-on-one time and busy family chatter).
7. Help your baby to develop his internal bodyclock (or Circadian cycle) by keeping his feed times and nap times consistent during the day – it will help with his overnight sleep.
8. Put in place a regular evening routine so your baby picks up on sleep associations (for example, a bath, a massage, storytime with older siblings, feed and bed). Try to make this a transferable routine, so that it can remain the same when you go on holiday or to granny’s for the night.
9. Ensure your baby’s bedroom is a peaceful place, somewhere he can sleep well. Try to keep toys downstairs, have soft lighting and subtle colours. A black-out blind can be particularly useful to keep out early summer sunlight.
10. Make sure your baby’s room isn’t too hot (or, less likely, too cold). An ideal temperature is around 18°C.
Remember: if you are breastfeeding, you will not be able to begin guiding your baby into a good sleep routine until this has been well-established for your baby, ie: between 4-6 weeks. That is not to say that some of the above tips like a good bedtime routine and the difference between day and night can’t be started! But don’t expect too much, your baby is small and needs to be fed regularly to establish your milk supply.
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