early risers; naps; night waking; SIDS; climbing out of cot; climbing out of crib; comforter; comfort toy; resettling at night; short naps; scared of the dark; sleep training; sleep clock; baby sleep;

In my previous blog post, I wrote about 3 types of sleep gadgets to avoid that could actually prevent your child from sleeping soundly. If you didn’t read it, follow the link here.

In this blog post I will share my top 4 sleep aides that can encourage your child to sleep a little better. With anything, I do like to keep things simple and I only introduce something if it is needed. Less is more when it comes to sleep.

1) Blackout blinds. A blackout blind or really thick curtains is a “must” in any child’s room. Darkness is needed for your body to produce melatonin. Melatonin is what makes you sleepy. With the summer months upon us, having a dark space to fall asleep at night BUT most importantly for morning, can help your child to sleep longer. Even the smallest peep of light in the wee hours can wake your child ready to start the day. Blinds can help with early risers.

2) Sleeping bags. I am a huge fan of sleeping bags for nights and naps, and they can be used from 3months of age right up to 3years. There are so many options available on the market allowing you to choose the perfect ‘tog’ (cloth weight) for your home environment. Every home will have a different room temperature so be guided by this. Sleeping bags help children to stay warm (not hot or cold) and snuggly though out the night. Sleeping bags are also recommended by SIDS and Kids. An added bonus is that sleeping bags can at times prevent children from climbing out of the cot.

3) A Sleeping Buddy. A small, soft, cuddly toy can help babies and children to wind down and fall to sleep. A sleeping buddy can help to resettle during the night or to extend a short nap. Children are tactile and need to feel, touch, smell and taste. Having a sleeping buddy can provide all of these. Many children do not bond with one because their sleeping buddy is a parent. Some children just do not want anything to sleep with and that is ok. Some children may not have a sleeping buddy until 3years or older. A sleeping buddy can help older children when they are feeling scared in the night. Introducing a soft toy into a cot or bed needs to be at the discretion of the parent as it can increase the risk of SIDS.

4) A Sleep Clock. If used consistently, a sleep clock can help children know when they need to stay in bed and when it is time to get out of bed in the morning. Children are governed by their internal clock and do not know when it is time to get up or not. A child doesn’t know the difference between 5am and 7am. A sleep clock is a visual clue and can take some pressure off you as it’s the sleep clock that says “stay in bed” and not you being the bad guy. A sleep clock will only work if you stick with the time. If you allow your child to get up even 5mins before the clock says it’s time to get up, you are opening the opportunity for an earlier and earlier start.

With any sort of sleep aide, they are only there to enhance the opportunity for sleep. Sleep aides may not make your child sleep longer and they cannot stop your child from waking up through the night. Sleep is a complex issue. If you would like more advice, then book in a time to chat here.

**If you wish to support an Australia online baby store visit Dream Child Emporium to purchase your sleep products.

Sleep well.

Janelle Jeffery Child Sleep Consultant for Sleepytime Child Educator and Behaviour Specialist. — Janelle Jeffery
Child Sleep Consultant for Sleepytime.

Almost all parents at some stage of their child’s life find naptime difficult. Some naptime issues include:

Your child needs your help to nap;
Your child finds it difficult to fall asleep at all; or
Your child only catnaps.

There are many more nap problems that I haven’t included here but these are definitely the most common. If you are experiencing difficult naps, here are my tips for better nap time success:

1. Sleeping independently

This is a big one. What I find is if you are helping your child to fall asleep (rocking, patting, feeding, dummy, bouncing etc) to sleep, often these sleep associations have an expiry date of usefulness. With a newborn the rules are different. Feeding to sleep was fine, but eventually that will stop working for you, so you move on to say, rocking to sleep. Now your child is too heavy so you change to patting. Suddenly you realise that your ‘bag of tricks’ is empty and your child still isn’t sleeping on their own. Now it is time to place your child into the cot completely awake without your help so they can begin to establish their own tools to fall asleep. Easier said than done right? If you need some help, contact me here.

2. Provide a ‘sleepy’ environment

Again, newborns can usually sleep anywhere. Once your baby passes this newborn phase, it is important that the majority of the time they are sleeping where it is dark and fairly quiet. If you have a noisy house during they day, white noise can help. Try to make the room as dark as you can. Why? Darkness helps the body to produce melatonin that makes us sleepy. The temperature of the room needs to be on the cooler side (not cold). If you cannot change the temperature, dress your child in lightweight clothing. If your child is too hot, it is harder to sleep.

3. Send the message it is “sleepytime”

Most parents have the bedtime routine down pat, but forget to send the same message at nap time. Your child needs the cue that it is “sleepytime”. It may seem obvious to us the cot is there, so it must be “sleepytime”, BUT babies need time to unwind and understand what is happening at that moment.

Here is an example of a nap routine:

Go into the bedroom
Change nappy
Sit and read a quick story
Kisses and cuddles
Say “it’s sleepytime”
Into the cot awake

4. Allow time to resettle

Some children’s cries will go from nothing to hysterical in less than a minute. When your child wakes up after the first sleep cycle (30-45mins), he will cry out and you will run in immediately. This is part of being a responsive parent right? Yes totally but the problem with rescuing your child so quickly is that they are still tired and not finished napping. This is the reason they are so upset. Your child really wants to sleep more but they are not sure how too. If your child isn’t falling asleep independently at the beginning of the nap, then clocking on to the next sleep cycle without your help is difficult. Don’t be afraid to wait a little to allow them the chance to fall back to sleep. Always listen to the cries and if there are breaks, then just wait a little. If you are needed, try for 10-20mins to extend the nap by offering some gentle touch. This won’t be easy at first, but the more you do it, the better the chance you will be successful.

Combating naptime struggles are often frustrating and exhausting for not only you, but also for your child. Naps do take a lot of time to perfect, and just when you think you have it all sorted, it is time for your baby to drop a nap. If you wonder if your child is ready to drop a nap, download the “Sleepytime Guide to Mastering Nap Transitions” here.

Sleep well,

Sleepytime

Tag Archives: early risers; naps; night waking; SIDS; climbing out of cot; climbing out of crib; comforter; comfort toy; resettling at night; short naps; scared of the dark; sleep training; sleep clock; baby sleep;

Top 4 Sleep Aides for Children

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