How to teach a child to sleep in his crib: tips

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

What could be sweeter than a baby's sleep? But children's sleep is fraught with its own questions and problems. For example, where is the best place for a newborn to sleep? Many parents put their newborn baby in bed next to them. But it can't last forever. Sooner or later, you have to think about how to teach a child to sleep in his own crib.

Do I need co-sleeping

Moms with babies often choose to sleep together. The child often wakes up at this time, the mother has to feed him several times a night. In the case of joint sleep, it is much more convenient to feed the child - you do not need to get out of bed, take the child out of the crib. True, sometimes it happens that a baby needs enough space for a comfortable sleep.

Although he is small, he is gradually pushing his father out of bed. It simply becomes uncomfortable for him to sleep, but he is not on maternity leave and he still has to go to work. Therefore, dad moves to another room, leaving mom with a child. A man can feel abandoned - not only duringDuring the day, all the attention goes to the baby, so at night you have to sleep alone.

Another disadvantage of such co-sleeping is the risk that the mother can crush the baby with her body. The probability of this is very small, because women who have recently given birth sleep sensitively. But constant fear for the safety of the child and her posture can further upset the mother's sleep. In the end, the question of how to teach a child to sleep in his own crib is brewing.

Better time to "move"

Anyway, co-sleeping with parents is a common way. Therefore, sooner or later, the question arises of when it is time for the baby to sleep separately in the crib. How to teach a child to such a change in life? It is best to do this before six months. At 6-7 months, the child, in theory, should already be relocated.

Visual memory at this age is not yet so developed, and the baby will easily get used to a new place. If the child is a year old, how to teach him to sleep in a crib is not yet such a difficult question, although it may be more difficult than with very young ones. Some doctors advise, on the contrary, not to do it too early - before 6-8 months. At this time, there is a transition to complementary foods and a regimen appears in the child's diet. Therefore, he wakes up less often and requires feeding at night.

When weaning from co-sleeping, one must not only adhere to general recommendations, but also navigate the real situation. There are times when no innovation should appear in a child's life. For example, the baby is sick or is being weaned. It's so stressful forchild, do not exacerbate it. It is better to wait for a more favorable moment.

For older children, such stressful periods can be the birth of a brother or sister, potty training, and even admission to kindergarten. But until then, it is desirable to still solve the problem.

Difficulties with older children

If the baby is one and a half or two years old, then such retraining can turn into a real war. At 2-3 years old, children have fears, for example, fear of the dark. The latter is a natural phenomenon. Once upon a time, ancient people had to take turns on duty at night so that the sleeping ones would not be attacked by predatory animals or snakes. The rapidly developing imagination of children can draw a lot of scary creatures waiting for them at night. In no case should you scare the child and tell him horror stories at night.

If moving to a separate bed occurs at 3-4 years old, then this will be an even more emotional moment. The child may feel jealous. The parents decide to be with each other, and he is sent to sleep separately. Especially if the bed is in another room. The kid might think he's being rejected.

Bed side

One of the modern solutions on how to create a smooth transition from co-sleeping to sleeping in a crib and protect the child from being crushed by a sleeping mother can be a side crib.

On the one hand, it does not have a side, it has a small height and is tightly attached to the bed of adults. Therefore, it turns out that the baby seems to be lying next to the mother,he can feel her soothing touch, but he already has his place.

The question of how to teach a child to sleep in his own crib becomes much simpler. He already sleeps in it! At some point, you can unfasten the crib and put the side in place. So the child will already be sleeping separately.

How to wean a baby from co-sleeping

How to teach a baby to sleep in a crib? It is necessary to develop a conditioned reflex to fall asleep in a crib without a mother. To do this, it is important to put the child to bed only when he is really tired and wants to sleep, even if this will sometimes break the routine. After all, when a child does not want to sleep, he tosses and turns, cries, asks to be held.

To make this habit even stronger, you need to create an expectation of sleep in the baby. There are sleep rituals for this. These actions should be soothing, relaxing. For example, it can be taking a bath and a light massage. You can sing a lullaby to your baby. Quiet, soothing music is also suitable for some children.

The room should be twilight, it is best to turn on the night light - it will not be too bright, but there will not be complete darkness in which it will be difficult to carefully put the baby in the crib. Feeding and games are best done in other places - then the child will get used to the fact that the crib is the place to sleep. How to teach a one year old baby to sleep in a crib? About the same.

Magic Pillow

There is one way that involves using a pillow. This pillow will create a transition betweenmother's presence and separation from her. You need to feed the baby on a pillow, wait until he falls asleep. Let him sleep for 15-20 minutes - during this time he will be able to fall into a deep sleep. Then you can proceed to a cunning maneuver: you need to carefully transfer the baby to the crib along with a pillow that has retained the warmth of the mother's body, the smell of her skin and milk. Maternal warmth can also be transferred with the help of a heated blanket or diaper.

Cozy cocoon

How to teach a month old baby to sleep in a crib? Some mothers report that children fall asleep perfectly when they are in a confined space. This is not surprising. The whole 9 months the fetus spent in the womb, which in the end became very cramped.

Space can be intimidating and intimidating for a child. Do you fall asleep with such a feeling? If you think about it, we adults also need comfort. We can love the expanses of nature or pompous halls with high ceilings. But when we go to bed, we love a small cozy room and a warm blanket.

Many people love to sleep curled up all their lives. So, for babies, there are special cribs and cradles that meet this need. For example, the Cocoonababy crib fits inside a normal crib.

It has a rounded shape, so it looks like a small white cloth bath. At the same time, its structure corresponds to the bends of the child's body. For example, the legs below the knees are slightly raised, and it is very convenient to keep them in a half-bent position, which is physiological fornewborns.

Teaching a child over 2 years old

How to teach a child to sleep in his crib if he is already out of infancy? Big kids need different advice. The kid is already more consciously approaching what is happening, so he will not be able to simply ignore the resettlement. But to understand why this is done, he can not do it. Therefore, the child may be offended by the parents, especially if his resettlement was aggressive.

At the same time, one should not indulge children's whims too much. What will it be like for parents if the child, taking advantage of their softness, sleeps with them until school? This is unlikely to have a good effect on the atmosphere in the family!

Children over two years old can be interested. For example, for one mother, this happened quite by accident. She ordered a crib, and they brought her, but they still didn’t bring a mattress. The bed was empty. Mom told her daughter that she had a wonderful bed, where she would sleep like a big one, only she would have to wait. The expectation fueled the girl's interest, and she gladly went to bed in a new place. But this situation is unplanned.

And if parents take the initiative in their own hands, they can try to use these methods. In order for the child to experience positive emotions for a new crib, you can go to the store with him and offer to choose for himself. There are many beds with original design - in the form of cars, ships, trains, fabulous houses.

You can do the same - buy a crib and pack it in paper, decorate it with a bow on top. The child will simply languish with curiosity what kind of gift is inside. You can add beautiful and cheerful bedding, pajamas, a night light and even a soft toy to the crib. This plush friend can be your baby's bedtime helper. The baby needs affection before going to bed, it is important for him to hug someone. He will cuddle his favorite and familiar toy.

If friends have cribs, you can go visit and have a look. Maybe a friend will show off their original crib.

Day and night

Accustoming to a new crib should start with daytime sleep. How to teach a child to sleep in the crib during the day? You can close the curtains, tell a story. By starting to put your baby to bed during the day, you can avoid children's fears associated with the dark.

When you decide it's time to put your baby there and at night, the crib will be a familiar and cozy place for him. How to teach a child to sleep in a crib at night? Switching to a night's sleep, you should turn on the night light, read good and not scary fairy tales at night.

What not to do

Some thoughtless actions of parents can slow down the process of weaning, and some can aggravate children's fears and resentments, even bring them to neurosis. What you should not do is scare the child. There is no need to even jokingly talk about Babayka or the monster under the bed. A child's vivid imagination cannot distinguish fiction from reality, and he may mistake shadows falling from a window or sounds rushing from a neighbor's apartment for signs of dangerous creatures.

Shaming the baby, accusing him of cowardice, and even more so disgrace in front of friends and relatives, is not worth it. A child cannot simply take and “turn off” his fear. He will simply drive him inside, making sure that adults cannot be trusted with their feelings, and he will consider himself really small, weak and cowardly. We need to act more delicately.

But also excessive softness can lead to the fact that the child will stay with his parents to listen to a fairy tale and fall asleep in their bed or ask to sleep with them for one night. As a result, "resettlement" will be postponed indefinitely.