For those who are parents of babies, it must be a headache when their children do not sleep even though they have spent a lot of time and effort to comfort them. Understanding these difficulties, many method of teaching children to sleep on their own scientifically have been born. They have solved the worries of families, helping parents have more time to rest and relax. Let's learn about these methods in the article below!
When should you start teaching your baby to sleep on his own?
According to the Vietnamese parenting philosophy, children are often protected and coaxed to sleep by their parents. Even when children are old enough to go to school, many families still maintain the habit of coaxing their children to sleep. This will make children dependent and reduce their ability to be independent when they grow up.
According to experts, the right time to start teaching your baby to sleep on his own is when he is 3-4 months old. At this time, your baby has started to sleep more steadily, he is less hungry, so he cries less at night. In addition, at this time, your baby has begun to form a sense of day and night, so it is easy to train him to sleep on his own. If your baby is older, you can still teach him to sleep on his own. However, at this time, training your baby will be more difficult because he is used to the old biological rhythm.
Apply the method of teaching children to sleep on their own will bring benefits such as:
- Mom is more relaxed, has more time to rest and do other things.
- Baby gets enough sleep, has health and energy for daily activities.
- Train children to be independent from an early age.
Method of teaching children to sleep on their own helps mothers relax
The common methods of teaching babies to sleep on their own among mothers today are breastfeeding (50.4%) and rocking (43.2%). Besides this method, mothers can refer to some of the following methods:
Teaching children the difference between day and night
Children still cannot distinguish the difference between day and night. Therefore, they sleep irregularly and often wake up at night. Mothers can train their children to recognize day and night by adjusting the lighting in the room. During the day, if the house is not bright enough, mothers should turn on the electric lights. At night, mothers can turn off the lights or leave a small yellow light for convenience. Getting children used to waking up when it is light and going to bed when it is dark will help them get used to their own bedtime.
In addition, you should reduce your baby's nap time during the day by letting him or her exercise more. At night, you should only do light activities and then soothe your baby to sleep. Reduce stimulating activities for your baby.
Set up a eating - playing - sleeping cycle for children
The daily routine of a child is very simple. What mothers need to do is to persistently maintain that cycle according to a clear process, so that the child gets used to the rhythm of life. Mothers save a lot of time and raise their children more easily. The process includes: Wake up - Eat - Play - Go to bed. This is also a famous cycle known to many mothers as the EASY method of raising children.
Every day, the mother repeats this cycle at a certain time. Do not do many things at the same time. This will break the cycle and affect the effectiveness of the method as well as the health of the child.
Train your baby to sleep on his own using the Fading method.
Fading method for children to sleep on their own, also known as Camping Out. This is a method of teaching children to sleep on their own by letting them cry for a certain period of time while their mother is nearby. This method can be implemented specifically as follows:
- Put your baby to bed when he/she is sleepy but still awake. Make sure your baby is bathed and full to help him/her sleep better.
- Mother sits close to the child so that the child feels that mother is next to him.
- When the baby is fussy, the mother should speak softly and comfort the baby from a distance to make the baby feel more secure. But absolutely do not pick the baby up. Otherwise, this method will fail.
- After each day, the mother gradually increases the distance between mother and child so that the child can gradually practice sleeping without mother.
Train your baby to sleep on his own using the CIO method
CIO (Cry It Out) is a method of training children to sleep on their own by Dr. Richard Ferber - Director of the Center for Sleep Disorders in Children, Boston Children's Hospital. This method is called "Let the baby cry" in Vietnamese. It is similar to the Fading method but at a more difficult level. This method trains children to sleep on their own by repeatedly letting them cry for a certain amount of time. Then the mother will come back to comfort, reassure and put the child to sleep.
With the CIO method, the goal is for the baby to fall into a deep sleep after 10-15 minutes. Note that the mother needs to be really persistent and ensure that the baby is healthy enough to withstand prolonged crying.
How to implement the CIO method:
- Put your baby to bed when he or she shows signs of sleepiness.
- Comfort your baby by kissing him on the forehead or saying goodnight. Then leave the room for 3-5 minutes, even if your baby is crying.
- The mother returned to the child's room, checked on the child, turned off the lights, and left again.
- After 5 minutes, the mother returned to comfort and reassure the child and left again.
- Continue repeating the above cycle every 5 minutes until the baby falls asleep without the mother.
- If the baby wakes up and cries in the middle of the night, the mother also continues to perform the above process.
- After each time the baby falls asleep on his own, the mother gradually increases the time she leaves and reduces the number of times she returns to help the baby fall asleep better on his own.
Time-check in method to teach your child to sleep on their own
The Time-check-in method of teaching children to sleep on their own is similar to the CIO method. However, this method has the difference that the time the mother leaves is always fixed and does not increase gradually like the CIO method. Thus, for children who are too young or have difficulty going to sleep, mothers can start training their children to sleep with this method.
The method is similar to the CIO method. However, each time the mother leaves, it only lasts 5 minutes and repeats continuously until the child falls asleep on his own.
4S, 5S method helps train children to sleep on their own
The 4S, 5S method was developed by American pediatrician Harvey Karp. This method helps children sleep on their own, reduces fussiness, calms them down and makes them fall asleep more easily. This is also a famous method used by many mothers around the world.
How to implement the 4S method:
- Sleep routine: Build a habit for your child to do something before going to bed. Repeat that activity every day, about 10-20 minutes each time. You can read books to your child, listen to music, talk to your child, etc.
- Swaddling: Use a cloth to wrap your baby to make him feel more secure and limit his movements while sleeping. Maintain this practice every day so that your baby recognizes this as a signal to start going to sleep.
- Sitting: Help your baby recognize the difference between day and night by holding him or her in a dark room. Limit noise.
- Shushing/sucking: Use white noise with a low, steady “shhhhh” sound to help your baby fall asleep.
How to implement the 5S method:
- Swaddling: Use a cloth to wrap around the baby, leaving the body and legs loose so that the baby can sleep comfortably.
- Side or stomach position: Place your baby on his or her stomach or side to make him or her more comfortable.
- Shushing: Using white noise with a low, steady “shhhhh” sound helps babies fall asleep.
- Swinging: Carry your baby back and forth and rock him or her continuously to a rhythm to help him or her fall asleep. You can increase the level of swinging if your baby is fussy.
- Sucking: Give your baby a pacifier to help him fall asleep easier.
Principles when applying methods to teach children to sleep on their own
As mentioned above, to the method of teaching children to sleep on their own To achieve the best results, mothers need to especially follow the following two principles:
Rigid: Certainly, when training children to sleep on their own, their crying will make mothers feel sad and anxious. However, if mothers come to hold and comfort their children, this will be a weakness that prevents mothers from training their children to sleep on their own.
Be persistent: Creating a habit for your child is not a matter of one or two days. Therefore, mothers should be persistent and try not to give up. If you notice that your child sleeps too long during the day, you can wake him up and play with him to help him sleep better at night. After 7 days, you will see your persistence reap results.
In addition, mothers should also pay attention to creating a comfortable, clean and hygienic bedroom space to help children sleep easier. Except for the 5S method, mothers should limit letting children suck on pacifiers when sleeping. This will cause children to form the habit of having to suckle before going to sleep.
Conclusion
So through this article, surely mom has known the method of teaching children to sleep on their own effective. Don't forget to follow the page to update more effective parenting methods. Wish you success!
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