Posts Tagged ‘baby sleep problems’
Helping babies sleep through the night and making sure they are getting enough sleep can be worries for new parents. Just as each baby is unique, so can be the individual needs and sleeping habits, and parents can do several things to help their babies develop healthy sleep patterns and encourage them to sleep soundly at night.
There are several ways for parents of infants to get their babies to sleep on their backs. Several years ago the American Academy of Pediatrics determined that infants who sleep on their backs have a reduced risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). While many parents find that their infants do not naturally prefer this sleep position, there are several techniques that can be used to make this ritual easier on everyone.
One of the most challenging aspects of parenting an infant is dealing with unpredictable, and often inadequate, sleep habits. Each infant is unique, and so are their sleeping and waking patterns. Parents can follow some general guidelines, however, to promote healthy sleeping habits.
Infants, especially newborns, need to nurse or have a bottle even during the middle of the night. This means that sleeping for long periods of time (more than 4 to 6 hours), generally will not allow for this necessary nourishment. Breastfed babies sometimes need to eat more often. Parents should discuss all nutritional needs and guidelines with their pediatricians to determine what is appropriate for their babies.
maryb asks:
My daughter is about 5 months old now and usually naps 2-3 times per day. She probably gets around 3-4 hours of sleep in total. If she sleeps more than she usually does throughout the day, then she has real trouble going to bed at night. I am curious about how many naps babies are supposed to take during the day and for how long. I do realize that all infants are different but would like some idea if this is normal or not.
Amy asks:
Many people that I have asked about how to get my baby to sleep throughout the day, is to make sure I make as much loud noise as possible while he is sleeping … so that I wouldn’t need to tip toe around in fear that he might wake up. Now that I have been doing this for awhile, he can now sleep through anything BUT he cannot fall asleep without a lot of background noise. Has anyone else had this problem? He can’t fall asleep unless I put loud music, the vacuum cleaner really loud next to home … any thing loud and noisy. Will this stop eventually?
mtulay asks:
I have a 3 month old baby boy that has short 45 minute naps during the day. Recently, he has been sleeping more than 2 hours for his afternoon naps. He breast-feeds regularly and usually wakes up 2-3 times at night to nurse. Do you think that his night time sleep is going to be affected by the longer naps?