Babies do not know much. Everyone knows that small children do not know how to talk and walk, but few people can know (until the parent itself), that many babies have to even sit down to sleep, because for them it is also a difficult science.
We figured out the main methods of teaching children to sleep and in the fact that they are generally needed.
To begin with, let's clarify: not all children need to go to bed. There are babies who are perfectly sleeping without any assistance, and there are parents who are absolutely not bothering a joint sleep and falling apart.
However, there are such situations where the child sleeps too restlessly and intermittently, which negatively affects its condition, development and quality of life of parents. Or parents need to go to work, and the baby is important to learn to fall asleep with grandmother or nanny. The reasons for start learning a child to fall asleep may be many, and here every family itself chooses for itself the best way.
We do not speak in support of certain methods of stacking a child, and we do not encourage anyone to use - we just want you to know what options you have, if a bad dream of your child darkens your parental experience.
When can I start learning a baby to sleep?Most specialists in SNU note that the optimal age for learning is determined individually and depends on the development of the child, but most often the right moment occurs between the four and six months of the life of the baby.
4-6 monthsAt this time, the "Fourth Trimester" ends, and the child does not have time to get used to the chosen method of laying too much - for example, to fall asleep with the breast or to the brand.
At the age of about four months, many children pass through the regression of sleep - they have many new skills, and sleep becomes more intermittent and shallow. According to a certified consultant for Snah Alanna McGinn, "This is a great period in order to work on the skills of self-sleep." Some parents prefer to wait for this difficult period to start learning a little later - and this is also normal.
From six monthsIf your child is already more than six months, it's not worth worrying too: "It's never too late to get a healthy sleep habits," says McHinn. So, for example, the pediatrician Michael Dickinson considers nine months with the best age when the child can be learned to sleep all night: "This is a good age to develop new habits, and no longer need to eat at night."
The age of the child in which you decide to start learning will help you choose the optimal way of laying - some of them are better suited to babies, and others - children of older age. It is not worth teaching a baby to sleep (and hard to worry because of the regime) to four months.
How to prepare for learning to sleep?Before trying to teach a child to fall asleep without the help of pens, chest and dummy, check that you have all captured in other matters that relate to the organization of sleep.
Here they are:You have settled sleep mode, in which you start to lay a child for night sleep at the same time (the better, the better).
Before starting to fit, your child is awake no less and not more than the age of time (for example, children aged 4-6 months should not be awake for longer than 2 hours at a time).
You have a daily ritual before placing, to which the child is already used to. For example: bathing, relaxing massage, dressing up in pajamas, turning off the light, lullaby.
For the day of the day, your child has enough activity and cognitive activity (for example, he has the opportunity to work out new skills on the floor, and he does not have to spend the whole day in a chaise lounge or a children's chair).
If all these factors are taken into account, then you are ready to move to the next stage. Here you have six main ways to teach a child with a strong healthy SNA, which are most popular among parents and experts.
Method of controlled crying (he is the method of Ferbra)There are many different variations of this method, but the main principle is here one: the parent puts the child in the crib and departs for a certain period of time, periodically approaching him to calm down.
During the periods of "calm" the child can not be taken in the hands, feed or swing - enough to talk to him a calm and affectionate voice, stroke it or lightly pat on the back.
Parental absence intervals should gradually increase - from one minute to 10-15 minutes - and must continue until the child falls. According to experts, this method begins to work a week later, but the first changes can be noticed in a few days.
To track progress, you can conduct a special diary, which will help notice your progress, as well as determine how the selected method is suitable for your child.
This method described by a children's expert Richard Ferber, in the book "Dream of a child. The solution of all problems, "retains its popularity (especially in countries with a short decree), and is also constantly criticized by adherents of the theory of affection - it is believed that the child ceases to cry and falls asleep because it gets the skill of complication and falling asleep, but because it is overwhelmed And hesitates that no one will come.
At the moment there are no research that helped objectively assess all the consequences of using such a method. Yes, there are studies that confirm that children who have successfully learned to sleep on the method of Ferbera, less often wake up at night, fall asleep faster and arrange less scandals before bedtime, but the influence of the method for children's attachment and emotional health has not yet been studied.
I cry the exclusion method (it is the Weissblut method)An even more stringent method compared to the Ferbra method is the method proposed by Mark Weisbllian pediatrician in 1959 in the book "Healthy Sleep - Happy Child".
The essence of the exclusion method is to "exclude" a certain child behavior (in this case - crying) by ignoring.
In other words, this is a way in which parents do not even fit their child, and behave like any parents in films and cartoons - put a baby in bed, kiss for the night and go to the morning (if the child still needs night feedings, Weissbluta method Does not forbid them to approach the child at a certain time to feed it).
The exclusion method shows high efficiency - experts argue that it is enough to suffer only 2-3 nights so that the child becomes less crying and stronger to sleep, but this method is also tight criticized for its inhumanity.
In the process of learning, not only the child, but also his parents, as well as the parental attachment, which in the future determines all our relations with other people in the future, suffers.
This way of teaching a baby falling asleep looks a little less rigid than two previous ones. He is that the parent is in the same room with a child - for example, sitting on a chair near his bed (hence the method of the method), while the child falls asleep. At the same time, take a child in hand, download or apply to the breast can still be possible.
With each new laying, the chair should be moved farther and farther from the bed, until you "come down" to the door to the nursery. It is believed that after that the child will not have problems with independent calm and falling asleep.
The main advantage of this method is the presence of a parent. The child sees that he is not alone, and knows that he was not thrown. However, the main disadvantage of the method lies there - the parent can be very difficult to observe how his child cries, and this situation has been producing a very disturbing impression (and as a result, the attachment suffers again).
The method "hug-put"Another method that implies a little more parental inclusion, was described in the book of a medical sister and expert on Sile Tracy Khogg "What does your baby want?".
The essence of the "hug-put" method lies in his name: During the laying, the parent does not go out of the room, and is located next to the child, giving him the opportunity to calm down on his own. When the parent sees that the tension increases, he can take a child in his arms, calm him and put back in the crib before the child falls.
An even more "included" variation of this method implies that the parent is at the baby's bed, soothing it with the help of strokes, pats and hissing.
Modern experts on SNU note that such a method can be effective for children under the age of six to six months, and more older children's presence, the presence of parents can be further excited and upset.
Faddy method (it is the Pentley method)Stop fastifying, let's go to more humane ways to lay a child. One of these was proposed by the Coach Elizabeth Pentley and described in her book "How to put a child to sleep without tears."
The essence of Fading (from English Fading - Flowing, Weakening) is to gradually weaken the associative relationship between falling asleep and the action that your child uses now (for example, feeding or damp).
This method is far less stressful for the child and parents, but it takes quite a long time and requires a consistent and persistent approach. So parents are invited to continue adhere to the same method of falling asleep, which chose their child (for example, sucking the chest), very gradually reducing its duration.
This means that if now your child is "hanging" on the chest until a full population, according to the Pentley method, the chest must be taken shortly before the child falls. Then - even a little earlier, and so on, as long as feeding and falling asleep will disappear at all.
Punning time transfer methodThis method is not entirely related to the emphasis skill, but it helps build a suitable mode and teach it to fall asleep earlier. Here, as in the previous method, everything solves gradualness and perseverance.
To begin, it is necessary to determine what time your child usually falls asleep overnight (does not lie down in the crib, namely falls asleep) - Here you will use the baby's sleep diary. The next day, start stacking a child 10-15 minutes earlier, a few days later, after it becomes accustomed to this mode - another 15 minutes earlier, and so until you adjust the mode to the state you need.
In fact, there are much more methods for learning a child to sleep and fall asleep - often they repeat each other or slightly differ.
SUN consultants recommend using an individual approach to each child, based on his personal features, the needs and needs of the parents.
That is why, if all "books" methods seem to you inappropriate or non-working, perhaps it makes sense to seek advice from a proven specialist.