How To Teach A Baby To Sleep Alone All Night Long
The arrival of a baby is often a difficult ordeal for parents, especially if it is the first child. Sleeping alone every night and through the night can become a challenge when the solution is often easier than you might think.
The best way to teach a baby to sleep on his own all night long is to co-sleep. The question is not without controversy because many people are not in favor of this method. However, more and more families are co-sleeping with their babies.
However, there are parents who prefer to sleep with their babies, while for others it is taboo. In countries such as the UK, Sweden, China, and Japan, co-sleeping is a relatively common practice.
But thanks to other recommended ways of teaching a baby to sleep on their own, more and more parents want to know how to get there. As if sleeping isn’t a natural process for every human being.
According to some methods, all external elements that involve parental intervention should be avoided. For this, it should not be rocked, neither in the arms nor in the cradle. You should also not take his hand, sing, stroke, feed him or put him in your bed. However, you can give him a soft toy, pacifier or blanket that he will keep next to him all night.
But can you teach a baby to sleep alone all night? Isn’t sleeping with your baby a more natural option? What are the benefits of sleeping with your baby? Is this practice dangerous for babies? What do specialists think of all this?
Today in this article we invite you to answer all these questions.
Can a baby be taught to sleep alone all night?
To teach a baby to sleep through the night, there are several methods like those of Ferber and Estivill. These methods fulfill the original promise of teaching little ones to sleep on their own. They will do this without the proximity of the mother, to avoid what the baby is naturally looking for.
The main purpose of these methods is to teach a baby to sleep alone, in a different room from the mother’s, silent, in an environment that does not resemble the cramped and noisy space in which he slept while sleeping. he was in his mother’s womb.
Many pediatricians advise new parents, especially beginners, that they should teach the baby to sleep with methods such as these. However, these methods expose the baby to stressful nights, while co-sleep is certainly the most respectful option with the baby’s sleep cycles and needs.
The methods of teaching sleep cause stress in the baby. He cries because he wants to be near his mother, but she refuses to hug him. The baby continues to cry and eventually falls asleep due to fatigue.
Why is sleeping with your baby more natural?
The baby spent a good part of the 40 weeks gestation sleeping in the mother’s womb. So he can sleep, there is not much to explain to him. He learned to sleep in a noisy and constantly moving environment.
The mother was walking, exercising, going up and down stairs or in a car and the baby was sleeping. The baby listened to his mother’s voice or the sounds of blood circulation, digestion or breathing and was able to sleep without problems.
At birth, the baby needs to hear his mother’s heart, smell her skin, and cry if he is not in contact with her. While shared or co-sleeping is the best option for keeping the baby safe, many mothers still choose to let them sleep alone in a separate room.
The point is, like all mammals, babies also need to sleep next to their mothers. However, the most rational human species is the only one that separates its offspring before they become independent. This habit is still a strange paradox, don’t you think?
Is sleeping with a baby dangerous for his health?
There are a lot of myths about sleeping with your baby or letting him cry so that he learns to fall asleep. It is said that if parents run every time the baby cries, he will not learn to sleep on his own. In addition, it is also believed that the baby can die “crushed” by its parents while sleeping near them.
In countries like Japan or China, babies sleep with their parents until they are 5 or 6 years old. These parents don’t think they should teach their baby to sleep or leave him alone in a room other than their own. In the UK, Sweden and many Western countries, co-sleeping or co-sleeping is an increasingly common practice.
Interestingly, in countries that co-sleep, deaths from sudden death syndrome are very rare. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden death of a young child, aged between one month and one year old and apparently healthy, while sleeping. On the other hand, these cases of sudden death are very common in babies who sleep apart from their parents.
What do specialists think about sleeping near your baby?
Margot Sunderland says in her book “The Science of Parenting ” that co-sleep promotes children and helps them grow into healthy and peaceful adults. This child psychologist is on the governing body of the Childhood Mental Health Center in London and has published over 20 books.
According to Sunderland, training babies to sleep on their own in the first few weeks of birth triggers stress hormones. For this reason, sleeping with your baby until the age of 5 is the best option according to this specialist. This is justified because until this age, children can suffer from anxiety caused by separation, and this until a later age.
Likewise, Nils Bergman, pediatrician and neonatologist, creator of the Kangaroo method for the monitoring and care of premature babies, agrees with this thesis. His theory also argues that the baby should sleep skin to skin with his mother. This method contributes to the well-being and health of the newborn by helping them regulate their temperature and establish an emotional bond.
When separated from his mother, the baby returns to a state of anguish and despair. In addition, the hormones released by this action are harmful to the baby’s brain. According to Bergman, co-sleep should be practiced at least until the first three years of the baby’s life.
What are the benefits of sleeping with your baby?
The advantages of sleeping with or near your baby are numerous, for the child as well as the parents. Babies feel more secure and protected when they sleep near their mothers. When the child cries in the middle of the night, his mother is by his side to give him the comfort he needs and help him get back to sleep.
So, thanks to co-sleep, both mother and baby are resting better. It is normal for the baby to wake up several times during the night. If the child sleeps in your room, in a cradle near you, the awakenings will be sweeter. But, if the baby sleeps in the same bed as his parents, he will fall back to sleep even faster because he will feel a presence that will comfort him and promote sleep.
In addition, there is virtually no risk that the baby will be run over by its parents. On the contrary, thanks to co-sleep, parents are much more attentive to all their baby’s needs. Also, if you have to breastfeed her, you can do it faster because you won’t have to travel far to pick up the baby in another room.
Thanks to this habit, nighttime crying almost always goes away. In addition, the stress levels are lower and the general well-being of the baby is much greater. Also, when there is less crying during the night, everyone at home sleeps much better.
If you are a working mother, when you come home after several hours without being near your baby, it is normal that he asks to be near you. If you are breastfeeding, you will see it attached to your chest. Co-sleep makes it possible to recover the time that the baby and the mother do not spend together. In addition, this practice also helps to strengthen the emotional bonds between mother and child.
Latest recommendations
Sleeping with your baby is a great experience, it is worth trying to draw your own conclusions. . Evaluate this method before subjecting your child to the stress of teaching him to sleep alone in another bedroom.
You can be sure that all of the baby’s protective instincts will be on alert by sleeping close to him. This does not apply in cases where the parents are addicted to alcohol or drugs. In these situations, parents may lose consciousness and harm the child.
If you practice co-sleep, you will be better able to provide the security and love that the baby needs. In this way he will be able to grow up healthy and happy. In addition, it is the best alternative for the baby’s brain to develop to its full potential.
It is normal and natural for babies to fall asleep when their mother is near them. This not only happens to some babies, but it is practically the case for all newborns. However, parents often insist on “teaching them to sleep on their own”. Find out in this article why some babies fall asleep only when they are close to their mother.
