An infant's typical sleeping patterns can be extraordinarily fatiguing for parents. A parent may fell frustrated if they hear that a friend's infant always sleep from 8:00pm to 8:00am or reads an article claiming that by 3, 4 or 6 months, your child should be sleeping through the night
Individual sleep patterns and requirements vary tremendously. The average infant sleeps around 16 hours a day, with some infants sleeping as little as 10 hours and others as much as 22 hours a day. As children get older, their sleep requirements gradually decline.
By 1 year of age, children sleep only about 14 hours. By 4 years of age, they sleep an average of 12 hours, and by age 8 an average of 9 hours, but as few as 6 and as many as 13 hours. Newborn infants have as many as 5 or 6 sleep cycles throughout the day
By 1 year of age, most children have just 2 sleep cycles-an afternoon and an evening sleep. Most children outgrow their need for an afternoon nap by the time they are 5 years of age, but even many adults choose to take an afternoon nap whenever possible.
The length of a child's sleep cycle will increase markedly in the 1st year, but a substantial number of children wake up in the middle of the night throughout the 1st 2 years. 1 study that recorder the sleep of 9 month olds revealed that although two thirds of them woke up during the night, only 22% of their parents reported the night waking.
Thus, in a sense, sleeping through the night is a phenomenon that involves both children's and parent's sleep.
Although night waking can exhaust parents, you may find some solace in knowing that this pattern is normal for infants. As the become older you should not encourage them to stay awake with food, holding or other forms of attention, but merely attending to their immediate comfort.
As infants enter their 2nd year, following a regular bedtime ritual can decrease their anxiety over separation and facilitate their going to sleep. Using a bottle to get children to sleep has some drawbacks.
It makes children subject to increased numbers of dental problems and earaches. You can give your child a bottle before putting them to bed, but the child should drink the milk sitting upright, and you should not let the milk remain in contact with the child's teed for a long period of time
Babies should not routinely go to sleep "teething" on a bottle. It's far better to give a child a "transitional object" like a teddy bear than to give a bottle to provide comfort when getting to sleep. Eventually, it's important for children to fall asleep on their own
Most children awake several times during the night. If they are used to falling asleep in a parent's arms, they will expect these arms at 3:00am. Develop a pleasant ritual and then place your child in the crib awake.
Do this at either nap time or evening bedtime. If your child protests, listen to the protests for about 3 minutes (use a watch), then return, comfort your child with your voice or touch, and leave shortly thereafter. You can now leave for up to 4 minutes.
Repeat this, gradually increasing the time away. This approach is preferable to deciding one night to let your baby "cry it out" most infants learn how to put themselves to sleep within a week using this technique. Relapse will occur, and you must alter the routines to accommodate illness and other events.
Alvaro Castillo has been writing health articles for five years. One of his specializations has been on parenting and pregnancy. If you would like to get the best out of parenting, then visit his website at http://www.myhomeparent.com or visit his blog at http://myhomeparent.blogspot.com to share your opinion.
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