Baby Sleep Fairy

a.    Answer: FALSE: you should wake a child to preserve the next sleep time or bedtime. Letting a child sleep too late into the morning can interfere with their morning nap or letting a child sleep to late into the afternoon can impact their bedtime.

a.    FALSE: Sleep begets sleep. A rested child sleep better and longer than an overtired or chronically sleep deprived child. Lack of sleep actually makes falling asleep more difficult and promotes more frequent night wakings

a.    FALSE: Sleep has to do with brain maturity and NOT food or calories. Actually over feeding a baby or frequent night feeds can cause more wakings and lead to poorer overall sleep for the child.

a.    FALSE: Brain maturity is what determines when a child sleeps through the night not food. Once a child is over 4 months of age (adjusted for premature babies) they will sleep longer and have more consolidated sleep at night. It’s actually not good to wake or disturb your sleeping baby to feed if they are older than 6 months.

a.    FALSE: Although some children do learn to self-sooth more easily and naturally than other babies, for most babies it is a skill that they need to learn.  If parents are taking steps to develop good sleep habits, they can avoid developing poor sleep habits.

a.    FALSE: Some children seem to be naturally better sleepers than others and start sleep through the night on their own at about 12 weeks of age. This can be a result of the child's personality and parent's interaction with the child at bedtime.

For other children, they need more structure to learn how to fall asleep. 

The ability to learn how to fall asleep is a learn skill and is not something we are born knowing how to do.

False. You cannot nor should you want your 0-4 month old child sleeping through the night. It is natural and normal to have the child waking and feeding frequently, especially during the first three months.  Newborn babies will feed frequently and often during the night. Babies can have 0-2 feed per night from 4 months of age to 9 months of age.

a.    FALSE: Co-sleeping is a successful sleep choice many parents choose. Co-Sleeping or having a family bed is usually a 5-year plan. For some families co-sleeping doesn't workout or they decide they no longer want to continue it.

If you decide to co-sleep and then realize it doesn’t work for you and your family you may have difficulty transition your child from your bed to their bed. Your child has come to learn how to sleep with you and removing that association will cause disruption for your child. So you need to plan how to transition out of co-sleeping if you want to end it before 5 years of age.

a.    FALSE: Naps like all other important aspects of your child’s life need to be managed by the parents. Sleep begets sleep and a well-rested child will sleep better overall. 

 a.    FALSE As parents we need to manage our children’s sleep routine just as you manage when they eat, how much activity and stimulation they get and other vital areas of your child’s life. This doesn’t mean following a ridge schedule but rather making sure your child is getting enough sleep overall  and using bio times to help your child sleep more easily.

A well rested children is ready to learn and absorb information about their new world. Sleep is also important to ensure they stay healthy and keep their immune system strong.

Popular in SE Asia and Australia are methods that follow extremely strict and militant sleep schedules. Often these schedule or so regimented that as the child gets older they become to difficult to follow and stop working.

Sleep has natural bio patterns and by understanding how these processes work in your child, you can leverage these bio-times to encourage sleep.

Routine is important and does help sleep, but you do not need a ridge strict schedule to achieve good sleep.

You can continue to breast feed or bottle feed your child before bed. The important point to remember is to not breast feed your child to sleep or nurse them to sleep.